Weekly Roundup – May 20th, 2025

"Netflix, onetime avatar of post-advertising TV, now does upfronts; on top of that, its ad-supported subscription tier (which is cheaper, but not free) is by far the fastest-growing part of its business, more than doubling in a year. While a lot of these ad-tier subscriptions will be downgrades from more expensive plans, rather than new subscribers, that’s fine for Netflix: The $10 price gap between its ad-supported tier, which was just raised in January, and its premium tier is proving relatively easy to close with sponsorship. The company once opposed to “chopping up” its content, whose founder insisted should be a “safe respite” and not “tied up with all that controversy around advertising,” and which used to argue that ad-free TV development led to better programming, is doing everything it can to become an advertising heavyweight."

"Back in 2018 it looked like Apple Inc.’s artificial intelligence efforts were finally getting on track. Early that year, Craig Federighi, Apple’s software chief, gathered his senior staff and announced a blockbuster hire: The company had just poached John Giannandrea from Google to be its head of AI. JG, as he’s known in the industry, had been running Google’s search and AI groups. Under his leadership, teams were deploying cutting-edge AI technology in Photos, Translate and Gmail—work that, along with the 2014 acquisition of the pioneering British company DeepMind, had given Google a reputation as a leader in AI.
To Apple’s leadership, the Giannandrea hire wasn’t just a coup at the expense of their fiercest rival. It was also, they hoped, the start of the company’s transformation into an AI powerhouse. Just before the death of co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, Apple had unveiled its voice assistant, Siri. At first, Siri felt like something out of science fiction—once again, Apple had taken a futuristic computing concept and turned it into a mainstream product. But within a few years, Google, Amazon.com Inc. and other competitors had introduced voice assistants that felt far more advanced, while Apple’s struggled with basic comprehension and commands."

"Key stat: 85% of US brand and agency decision-makers consider Nielsen alternatives to be more or just as effective than the legacy currency provider, per a July 2024 Advertiser Perceptions study."

"Before the rise of digital and social media, researchers had long approached the question of what news is from the journalist perspective. Ideas of news were often tied to the institution of journalism, and journalists defined news and determined what was newsworthy. “News” was considered information produced and packaged within news organizations for a passive audience, with emphasis (particularly in the United States) placed on a particular tone, a set of values and the idea of journalism playing a civic role in promoting an informed public.
In the digital age, researchers – including Pew Research Center – increasingly study news from the audience perspective, what some have deemed an “audience turn.” Using this approach, the concept of news is not necessarily tied to professional journalism, and audiences, rather than journalists, determine what is news."

"As the bulk of entertainment programming consumption has shifted to streaming, live viewing for the fare local stations carry in the Prime Access 7-8 PM hour leading to networks’ primetime — a mix of syndicated game shows, newsmagazines, comedy and drama repeats as well as local news — has remained surprisingly resilient, generating lead-ins stronger than the ones most current primetime series can provide. Suddenly, 8 PM is the cushiest time slot on television for the major broadcast networks except Fox."