While 59% of U.S. adults subscribe to cable TV right now, a new survey found that percentage will drop to 25% within the next few years, reports Media Player News.
The study, “How We Watch Now: U.S. Consumer Streaming Habits on YouTube and Other Connected TV Platforms,” comes from Pixability (www.pixability.com), a provider of software and insights for video advertising on YouTube and other leading connected TV (CTV) platforms. The study is based on a survey of more than 700 U.S. adults over 18.
Among those who will be cutting the cord, more than half (63%) will do so within the year. Among the 25% of adults who say they will still have cable in a few years, the highest concentration is adults over the age of 65.
According to the survey, YouTube viewers are now almost as likely to be watching YouTube on their TV as they are on their mobile device, and 83% of U.S. adults who watch YouTube do so on their TV, making it the 2nd most popular device behind mobile (93%).
“While we’re all aware of the shift from traditional TV to connected TV, this study revealed that the shift is accelerating faster than many people suspected,” said David George, CEO of Pixability, in a statement. “As this shift continues, YouTube’s viewership on TV screens is growing exponentially and it has become the top ad-supported platform for CTV reach — and a new mainstream option for TV advertisers.”
Other major findings of the study:
In addition to YouTube, four other AVOD services (Hulu, Roku, Peacock, Amazon Fire) comprise almost all ad-supported CTV viewing;
YouTube has a greater reach than any other streaming platform, reaching 87% of U.S. adults and 97% of those 25-34;
Consumers spend roughly an hour a day on YouTube and consume multiple categories of content — over 15 on average; and
90% of Gen Z and Millennials in the U.S. now watch YouTube on TV screens.
The internet will have 4.55 billion users worldwide this year, up 2.6% over 2021. This amounts to 57.4% of the general population (including all ages), according to eMarketer.
Growth in internet penetration is slowing overall after hitting a 7.7% growth rate in 2020, the highest since 2015. This massive growth was largely due to the pandemic shifting in-person settings to remote—and as internet use has saturated, growth has slowed.
Internet use will grow the fastest in the Middle East and Africa, at 4.0% this year, where there is the most room for growth. In 2022, just 29.8% of the region's population will be online, compared with 89.2% in North America.
Mobile phone use is higher worldwide than internet use, hitting 64.8% of the general population this year. That said, smartphone penetration is significantly lower, at 44.8% in 2022. Smartphones will reach just 14.2% of the general population in the Middle East and Africa, while mobile phones will reach 36.6% of the population there.
While digital provides all the tools to prevent over frequency, OTT buying methods across dozens of aggregators can lead to double spotting. At Tubi, our AI based approach transcodes every creative to identify same assets and manage frequency, no matter what the demand source.
Looking ahead: Overall, growth rates show a lot of variety across regions, with the most room for growth in the Middle East and Africa. Worldwide, there will be 4.88 billion internet users in 2026, for a total of 59.4% of the general population.
SoundStack, an innovative audio-as-a-service (AaaS) company, has launched to deliver and simplify audio creation, monetization and distribution at scale to better serve creators, publishers and advertisers.
SoundStack was created through the combination of companies Media Creek, EmpireStreaming, Live365, Abovecast and Audio Catapult which have serviced 12,000+ global publishers and represent the highest quality in audio delivery. In addition, SoundStack today announces its flagship product, SoundStack Engine, a solution that seamlessly integrates and automates streaming, podcasting, and monetization for audio in one platform.
"We're obsessed with making digital audio intuitive for our customers and have decades of experience to connect the dots that others may not see. As a perfectly independent platform-agnostic technology company, we have the responsibility to innovate and accelerate audio for all of our partners, regardless of size, and to support the audio industry as a whole. SoundStack was built in response to fragmented proprietary solutions created over the last few years by major audio companies. It's time to give audio publishers and platforms a service that can work across boundaries, letting publishers truly optimize their technical and operational setup and maximize their ad revenue," said SoundStack's CEO and founder, Jon Stephenson.
SoundStack Engine is the audio industry's first platform that fully automates and supports streaming, podcasting, and monetization with an intuitive UI or developer-friendly RESTful API that enables platforms and publishers with the ability to create live streams, podcast delivery, and more within minutes across a global network built to scale. In addition, SoundStack Engine adds the benefit of enabling reporting, analytics, measurement and a speed to market that leads to measurable ROI. This added focus on monetization gives publishers the necessary tools and information to propel their business model and profit. In 2021 alone, SoundStack paid publishers 50% more compared to 2020.
"Our partnership with SoundStack has been incredibly valuable in helping us with automatic ad insertion for our podcasts. The platform has increased revenue opportunities for us and provides a better and seamless listening experience to our digital audience across the Northwest," said Sage Van Wing, executive editor, Talk & Podcasts, Oregon Public Broadcasting.
As part of the creation of SoundStack, Rockie Thomas, a publisher-side digital audio expert who launched AdsWizz in the US, remains as CRO, and Mike Reznick, a programmatic audio pioneer and former EVP at Triton Digital, continues as COO.
Jim Hartz, the low-key, folksy newsman who hosted the “Today” show with Barbara Walters in the mid-1970s, less than halfway through his three-decade television career, died on April 17 in Fairfax County, Va.
The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Alexandra Dickson Hartz, said, adding that he had chosen to be removed from the ventilator that was keeping him alive.
Mr. Hartz may have looked boyish when he started the “Today” show job, at 34, succeeding Frank McGee, who had died a few months before at 52, but he was no beginner. He had already spent a decade in New York at WNBC, covering local stories, from John V. Lindsay’s mayoralty through Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral and well into the Watergate scandal.
The news stories he covered while on “Today” included President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation, the end of the Vietnam War and the American Bicentennial. But his “Today” career wound up lasting only two years.
Both on “Today” and in other broadcast jobs, Mr. Hartz covered numerous space missions. He and the broadcast-news pioneer John Chancellor were co-announcers in 1971 during the Apollo 15 launch, which led to a three-day lunar visit by astronauts. He was co-author of “Worlds Apart: How the Distance Between Science and Journalism Threatens America’s Future” (1997), with Rick Chappell, a former astronaut.
In a 1974 interview with The Christian Science Monitor, Mr. Hartz admitted that a NASA event was so overwhelming for him that afterward he would have no memory of what he had said on the air.
Recalling the first time he saw a Saturn rocket lifting off at Cape Kennedy on an Apollo mission, he said, “I was just not prepared for that 36-story building walking right off the platform into the air.”
➦In 1874...Guglielmo Marconi born (Died – 20 July 1937). He was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission, development of Marconi's law, and a radio telegraph system. He is credited as the inventor of radio, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".
Marconi was also founder of The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in the United Kingdom in 1897 (which became the Marconi Company). He succeeded in making an engineering and commercial success of radio by innovating and building on the work of previous experimenters and physicists
His father was a wealthy landowner and his mother was a member of Ireland’s Jameson family of distillers. Marconi was educated by tutors and at the Livorno Technical Institute and the University of Bologna.
Marconi 1901
In 1894 Marconi became fascinated with the discovery by German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz of “invisible waves” generated by electromagnetic interactions. Marconi built his own wave-generating equipment at his family’s estate and was soon sending signals to locations a mile away. After failing to interest the Italian government in his work, Marconi decided to try his luck in London.
The 22-year-old Marconi and his mother arrived in England in 1896 and quickly found interested backers, including the British Post Office. Within a year Marconi was broadcasting up to 12 miles and had applied for his first patents. A year later, he set up a wireless station on the Isle of Wight that allowed Queen Victoria to send messages to her son Prince Edward aboard the royal yacht.
By 1899 Marconi’s signals had crossed the English Channel. The same year, Marconi traveled to the United States, where he gained publicity offering wireless coverage of the America’s Cup yacht race from off the coast of New Jersey.
Marconi joined the Italian Fascist party in 1923. In 1930, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini appointed him President of the Royal Academy of Italy, which made Marconi a member of the Fascist Grand Council.
Marconi died in Rome on 20 July 1937 at age 63, following a series of heart attacks, and Italy held a state funeral for him. As a tribute, all radio stations throughout the world observed two minutes of silence on the next day. His remains are housed in the Villa Griffone at Sasso Marconi, Emilia-Romagna, which assumed that name in his honor in 1938.
In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision on Marconi's radio patents restoring some of the prior patents of Oliver Lodge, John Stone Stone, and Nikola Tesla. The decision was not about Marconi's original radio patents and the court declared that their decision had no bearing on Marconi's claim as the first to achieve radio transmission, just that since Marconi's claim to certain patents were questionable, he could not claim infringement on those same patents.
➦In 1908...Edward Roscoe Murrow born at Polecat Creek, near Greensboro, NC (Died from lung cancer at age 57 – April 27, 1965), He was a broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe for the news division of CBS. His live, shortwave broadcasts relayed on CBS electrified radio audiences as news programming never had: previous war coverage had mostly been provided by newspaper reports, along with newsreels seen in movie theaters; earlier radio news programs had simply featured an announcer in a studio reading wire service reports.
During the war he recruited and worked closely with a team of war correspondents who came to be known as the Murrow Boys.
A pioneer of radio and television news broadcasting, Murrow produced a series of reports on his television program See It Now which helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
➦In 1949…An article in LOOK magazine predicted that radio was doomed because if the growing popularity of television. However, radio reinvented itself as a local service and became bigger than ever, while LOOK disappeared in 1971.
By 1948 it sold 2.9 million copies per issue. Circulation reached 3.7 million in 1954, and peaked at 7.75 million in 1969. Its advertising revenue peaked in 1966 at $80 million. Of the leading general interest large-format magazines, Look had a circulation second only to Life and ahead of The Saturday Evening Post, which closed in 1969, and Collier's, which folded in 1956.
Look ceased publication with its issue of October 19, 1971, the victim of a $5 million loss in revenues in 1970 (with television cutting deeply into its advertising revenues), a slack economy and rising postal rates. Circulation was at 6.5 million when it closed.
Don Wilson
➦In 1982...Announcer/personality Don Wilson died of a stroke at age 81. (Born September 1, 1900). He was an announcer and actor in radio and television best remembered best as the rotund announcer and comic foil to the star of The Jack Benny Program.
Wilson began his radio career as a singer over Denver radio station KFEL in 1923. By 1929, he was working at KFI, and shortly afterwards for Don Lee at KHJ, in Los Angeles. In a 1978 appearance on Tomorrow with Tom Snyder, Wilson claimed he was fired from KHJ because he had bought a Packard from Earle C. Anthony, the business arch-rival of Cadillac dealer Don Lee and owner of KFI and KECA.
Though best known for his comedy work with Benny, Wilson had a background as a sportscaster, covering the opening of the 1932 Summer Olympics.
➦In 1995…Arthur Fleming Fazzin died from pancreatic cancer at age 70 (Born - May 1, 1924). He was an actor and television host. He is most notable for being the original host of the television game show Jeopardy!, which aired on NBC from 1964 until 1975.
Art Flemming on 'Jeopardy' Set
After leaving the Navy, Fleming became an announcer at a radio station in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Here, he first shortened his name to "Art Fleming". His radio career later took him to Akron, Ohio, and back home to New York. He was the first announcer to deliver the slogan "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should" for Winston cigarettes.
His first television role was as a stunt double for Ralph Bellamy in the detective series Man Against Crime. Fleming also appeared in many television commercials. He was first spotted by Merv Griffin on a commercial for Trans World Airlines. Griffin thought Fleming was "authoritative, yet warm and interesting", and Fleming was invited to audition for the role of host for a quiz show Griffin was developing. Fleming (an actor with no prior TV quiz show experience) was initially skeptical, but his agent encouraged him to "act like a game show host" at his audition, and Fleming ultimately won the job. The show was Jeopardy!, which Fleming hosted from March 30, 1964, to January 3, 1975, and again from October 2, 1978, to March 2, 1979. Although often described as the "host" of the program, announcer Don Pardo's introduction of him announced, "and here's the star of Jeopardy!, Art Fleming." As "the world's greatest quiz show's" first host, Fleming earned two Emmy Award nominations. While he was host of Jeopardy!, Fleming never missed a taping.
Throughout his career, Fleming starred in about 5,000 episodes of television programs and 48 motion pictures. He also hosted a radio version of College Bowl for CBS Radio from 1979 to 1982. He hosted the NBC radio weekend magazine Monitor during 1972.
It was reported that Fleming was asked to reprise his role as Jeopardy! host when Merv Griffin began developing a revival of the show in 1983. He declined, later stating in 1989 that he did not like the direction the show had gone in moving the show to Hollywood (being partial to his native New York, he felt that the Hollywood setting made the show dumber and less realistic). As a result, Alex Trebek took the position instead and has hosted the program ever since.
From 1980 to 1992, Fleming hosted a daily radio talk show on KMOX in St. Louis, which continued until his retirement.
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Len Goodman is 78
Actor Al Pacino is 82.
“Dancing With The Stars” judge Len Goodman is 78.
Bassist Stu Cook of Creedence Clearwater Revisited is 77.
Singer Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA is 77.
Actor Talia Shire is 77.
Actor Jeffrey DeMunn (“The Green Mile”) is 75.
Country singer-songwriter Rob Crosby is 68.
Actor Hank Azaria (“The Simpsons”) is 58.
Singer Andy Bell of Erasure is 58.
Bassist Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction) is 57.
Guitarist Rory Feek of Joey and Rory is 57.
Renee Zellweger is 53
Former “Early Show” host Jane Clayson is 55.
Actor Gina Torres (“I Think I Love My Wife”) is 53.
Actor Renee Zellweger is 53.
Actor Jason Lee (“My Name Is Earl,” ″Almost Famous”) is 52.
Actor Jason Wiles (“Third Watch”) is 52.
Actor Emily Bergl (“Southland”) is 47.
Actor Marguerite Moreau (“The O.C.,” ″Life As We Know It”) is 45.
Singer Jacob Underwood (O-Town) is 42.
Actor Allisyn Snyder (“A.P. Bio,” “Sonny With a Chance”) is 26.
➦In 1947...One of Jack Webb's short-lived pre-Dragnet detective-adventure radio show Johnny Madero: Pier 23 debuted on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
➦In 1949…Dick Powell began a four-year run as "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" on NBC Radio. The radio series centered on a wisecracking, former police officer turned private detective. Episodes typically opened with a client visiting or calling cash-strapped Diamond's office and agreeing to his fee of $100 a day plus expenses, or Diamond taking on a case at the behest of his friend and former partner, Lt. Walter Levinson
In the late 1950s, Powell's company, Four Star Television, produced a TV version of the series starring David Janssen. His secretary, Sam, was shown only from the waist down to display her beautiful legs. Initially, those were the legs of budding actress Mary Tyler Moore, but later, the legs of other actresses were shown.
➦In 1953...Eric Bogosian was born in Woburn, Massachusetts. Bogosian is best known for his starring role in the movie, "Talk Radio", a 1988 American drama film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Bogosian, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Greene, and Leslie Hope.
Portions of the film and play were based on the assassination of radio host Alan Berg in 1984 and the book Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg. Berg was murdered while working for Denver's KOA 850 AM.
In the movie Barry Champlain, a Jewish radio personality in Dallas, Texas, is a host with a caustic sense of humor and a knack for condescending to his audience with his controversial political views.bio.
➦In 1954...Billboard magazine, the music industry trade publication, headlined a tsunami to come in the music biz. The headline read, “Teenagers Demand Music with a Beat — Spur Rhythm and Blues” … a sign of the entertainment revolution that was underway.
➦In 1959…After 24 years of Saturday nights on radio and nine years on television, the final installment of the musical countdown show "Your Hit Parade" was televised on NBC-TV.
The final Top Five: Elvis Presley, "I Need Your Love Tonight" (#5), Brook Benton, "It's Just A Matter Of Time" (#4), Ricky Nelson, "Never Be Anyone Else But You" (#3), Dodie Stevens, "Pink Shoe Laces" (#2), and the Fleetwoods at #1 with "Come Softly To Me."
➦In 1972…John Lennon's controversial single, "Woman Is the N#gger of the World" was released in the U.S. The song televised on 11 May, on The Dick Cavett Show. Many radio stations refused to broadcast the song. The song reached #57 on the Billboard Hot 100, even though only two major radio stations – KDAY in Los Angeles and WCFL in Chicago – aired it.
Yoko Ono originally uttered the phrase during a magazine interview in 1967 and John explained that he was making a point that women deserved higher status in society.
Abbott & Costello
➦In 1974...William Alexander "Bud" Abbott died at age 78 from prostate cancer (Born - October 2, 1897). He was best known for his comedy double act, as straight man to Lou Costello.
Born into a show business family, Abbott worked in the box office of several theatres, before becoming a comedian/producer of burlesque shows on Broadway, where he allowed Costello to appear with him when his own partner was off ill. They formally teamed up in 1935. Their signature routine, "Who's on First?", was carried through to radio and then to their film debut One Night in the Tropics (1940) and Buck Privates (1941). The duo would go on to make 36 films. During World War II, they were among the most popular entertainers in the world, and sold $85 million in war bonds.
Abbott and Costello launched their own long-running radio show in 1942, and then a live TV show. But by 1955, they were felt to be over-exposed, their film contract was terminated, and the partnership split soon afterwards. Costello died in 1959.
Groucho Marx declared Abbott to be the best straight man in the comedy business.
Kelly Clarkson is 40
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Actor Shirley MacLaine is 88.
Actor-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 80.
Country singer Richard Sterban of the Oak Ridge Boys is 79.
Drummer Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 77.
Singer Ann Peebles is 75.
Actor Eric Bogosian is 69.
Singer-bassist Jack Blades of Night Ranger is 68.
Actor Michael O’Keefe (“Roseanne”) is 67.
Bassist David J (Love and Rockets, Bauhaus) is 65.
Actor Glenn Morshower (“24”) is 63.
Bassist Billy Gould (Faith No More) is 59.
Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 58.
Actor Djimon Hounsou (“Blood Diamond,” ″Amistad”) is 58.
Drummer Patty Schemel (Hole) is 55.
Drummer Aaron Comess of the Spin Doctors is 54.
Actor Aidan Gillen (“Game of Thrones”) is 54.
Actor Melinda Clarke (“The O.C.”) is 53.
Actor Rory McCann (“Game of Thrones”) is 53.
Singer Alejandro Fernandez is 51.
Bassist Brian Marshall of Creed and of Alter Bridge is 49.
Actor Derek Luke (“Madea Goes to Jail,” ″Friday Night Lights”) is 48.
Carly Pearce is 32
Actor Thad Luckinbill (“12 Strong,” ″The Young and the Restless”) is 47.
Actor Eric Balfour (“24”) is 45.
Actor Rebecca Mader (“No Ordinary Family,” ″Lost”) is 45.
Actor Reagan Gomez (“Queen Sugar,” ″The Parent ’Hood”) is 42.
Actor Austin Nichols (“One Tree Hill”) is 42.
Actor Sasha Barrese (“The Hangover”) is 41.
Singer-TV personality Kelly Clarkson (“American Idol”) is 40.
Singer-bassist Tyson Ritter of All-American Rejects is 38.
Country singer Carly Pearce is 32.
Actor Joe Keery (“Stranger Things”) is 30.
Actor Jack Quaid (“The Hunger Games”) is 30.
Actor Doc Shaw (“House of Payne,” “The Suite Life on Deck”) is 30.
Actor Jordan Fisher (“Liv and Maddie,” ″Rent: Live”) is 28.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s move against Walt Disney Corp. this week shows he’s willing to take the Republican Party’s culture war to new heights -- with a frontal assault on one of his state’s biggest and most iconic employers -- as he jockeys for position in a potentially crowded 2024 presidential field, according to Bloomberg.
Republican governors like Texas’s Greg Abbott have laid down starkly conservative positions on abortion and transgender students that show their bona fides. Corporations have at times banded together in protest, often saying those policies discriminate against their workers, but Abbott’s moves generally haven’t been aimed at a single employer.
DeSantis took it further. A month-long feud between the governor and Disney escalated this week when the state legislature capitulated to DeSantis’s call to strip Burbank, California-based Disney of its special governing rights, a move that could challenge the company’s ability to operate its iconic theme park, which employs 70,000 people and brings in $780 million in tax revenue to the state DeSantis governs.
DeSantis criticized Disney after the company spoke out against a Florida law the governor signed last month that limits school instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation, a law critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Republican strategists and analysts said the fight with Disney allows DeSantis to gain influence outside of Florida by standing up to what conservatives call a “woke” corporation, at a time when Republicans increasingly emphasize culture-war issues and opposition to big businesses taking stands on political issues. But observers expressed surprise he was willing to take it this far.
DeSantis’s spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said Thursday the motivation wasn’t politics but DeSantis’s long-held support for “a more level playing field” for all businesses in the state -- and that it was Disney that inserted itself in the process.
“It is not ‘retaliatory’ to pass legislation that gets rid of carve-outs and promotes a fairer environment for all companies to do business,” Pushaw said in a statement. “It was unfortunate that Disney decided to wade into a political debate and attempt to strong-arm Florida into overturning a common-sense law.”
In March, Florida lawmakers passed a law supported by DeSantis that bans instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools for kindergarten through third grade classes and may allow restrictions for older students as well. After its adoption, Disney issued a statement saying that the legislation “should never have been passed and should never have been signed into law.” The company said it would work to get the law repealed or struck down in court. That angered DeSantis, who said Florida is “governed by the interests of the people of the state” and not by California corporate executives.
“If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy,” DeSantis said in a campaign e-mail earlier this week.
On April 19, DeSantis asked the legislature to consider terminating the special privileges Disney enjoys through the existence of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special district in Central Florida. Within hours, bills were filed in the Florida House and Senate to terminate all special districts enacted in Florida prior to 1968 without additional legislative action, which includes five other districts and Reedy Creek. The legislation moved quickly through both chambers, and was formally approved on Thursday. The measure would take effect as of June 1, 2023, barring any further legislative action.
Thanks to Netflix and CNN, the entertainment industry has just received a masterclass into what works and what doesn’t when it comes to streaming, reports USA Today.
Lesson One: Just creating a streaming channel, even one with a well-known name, is no guarantee of success. Viewers are showing their limits when it comes to paying for multiple services.
Lesson Two: The streaming market will continue to grow, but with so many players at this point, some will struggle to find a place with viewers.
Lesson Three: Content is still king. To succeed, a content channel needs to retain subscribers with original talked-about, exclusive shows, movies or specials, backed by a deep reserve of older, popular content that can be aired again and again to tide viewers over between hits.
“While consumers have been willing to add ‘just one more’ streaming service in the past, they are less willing to do so today,” said Brett Sappington, vice president with media insights firm Interpret. “There are so many competitors available, each with strong content libraries.”
Like many of life’s teachings, these lessons came the hard way in two big developments this week.
Netflix reported its first drop in global subscribers in a decade. The streaming service lost 200,000 subscribers for the first quarter instead of gaining the 2.5 million predicted. The company blamed rampant password sharing, but investors sent the stock plummeting more than 35% on fears that the giant's days of unlimited growth are running headlong into the reality of pressure from streaming competitors.
CNN Worldwide, meanwhile, pulled the plug on its CNN+ streaming services only three weeks into its start, apparently unenthusiastic about the initial response. Though it has invested heavily in the startup, CNN has new corporate ownership. Discovery acquired it as part of WarnerMedia and it is expected to move back toward stronger news programming and away from pundit-driven content.
In the case of Netflix, former Hollywood Reporter editor Alex Ben Block said its disclosure shows that rivals are finally able to apply pressure to what had been a juggernaut.
Though streaming competitors Disney, CBS and Paramount are formidable, he cautions of making too much of Netflix’s troubles. Netflix has more than 220 million subscribers worldwide, he said. Plus, streaming remains the future of entertainment — a “fundamental change in the way content is distributed.”
While Netflix has massive reserves of that content, CNN was launching CNN+ with little to distinguish it from its regular basic cable programming. Think Anderson Cooper and Fareed Zaharia with a mix of some of its special films and recent series involving food and travel.
Greg Gutfeld doesn’t miss his former Fox News colleague Chris Wallace, nor is he shedding tears over the collapse of CNN+, where Wallace went to work after nearly two decades at Fox.
The NY Daily News reports Gutfeld, who had a late-night talk show on the channel and also appears on popular afternoon show “The Five,” took several shots at Wallace on the latter program Thursday. One of his wisecracks compared Wallace to alternative energy resources, which he called unreliable.
“Look at CNN+, how much money they invested in wind power by hiring Chris Wallace,” Gutfeld joked.
Wallace said in late March that he made the move from Fox News to CNN+ after 18 years of service at the right-wing cable channel because working there became “unsustainable” after the 2020 election.
“I just no longer felt comfortable with the programming at Fox,” Wallace said.
Wallace conceded that he moved to CNN+ early this year under circumstances that were “not ideal,” but he seemed to have high hopes for his streaming series “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” His future with CNN is unclear.
Gutfeld did more talking about Wallace Thursday. After joking he hadn’t talked about celebrity sightings in a while, Gutfeld joked he just saw Wallace wandering outside of a Midtown tavern Thursday afternoon.
“I’m going to do this every segment, so get used to it!” Gutfeld warned his “The Five” colleagues.
Fox News boasted Tuesday that “The Five” was its most-watched show last week when the network once more dominated cable news ratings.
CNN is believed to have invested $100 million in CNN+, NBC News reports. It will be put to rest April 30.
An Federal Communications Commission official slammed Apple CEO Tim Cook for hypocrisy on human rights issues – arguing the iPhone maker’s dealings with the Chinese Communist Party were at odds with its claimed commitment to protecting consumer rights.
The NY Post reports FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr detailed his concerns about the tech giant’s activities in China policies in a letter that referenced Cook’s recent keynote address at the IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2022 where Apple’s top boss spoke at length against the exploitation of technology to infringe on users’ rights.
Carr, the FCC’s senior Republican member, said that Cook’s “words founder upon the harsh reality of Apple’s conduct in China.”
“Indeed, at the very same time that you were speaking in D.C. about your App Store policies promoting privacy and human rights, your company was continuing its well documented campaign in Beijing of aggressively censoring apps at the best of the Communist Party of China,” Carr wrote in the letter.
Brendan Carr
Apple is one of several major US companies that have faced criticism for expanding business operations in China despite mounting concerns that Beijing is committing human rights abuses against its population.
Many of the allegations are tied to the Chinese government’s crackdown on ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang region – where human rights activists have accused Beijing of various abuses – including mass surveillance, forced labor and the establishment of internment camps. The US government has labeled China’s actions a genocide.
In May 2021, The Information (paywall) reported that seven of Apple’s suppliers were linked to alleged forced labor operations in the Xinjiang region.
Apple has repeatedly stated that it has “zero tolerance” for forced labor within its supply chain.
Carr said he decided to contact Cook after learning that Apple had removed the Congressionally-funded “Voice of America” app from its App Store in China – a decision the commissioner said occurred at the behest of the Chinese government.
The FCC official noted Apple had previously removed Quran and Bible apps from its App Store. He pressed Cook to inform the FCC by April 29 whether Apple planned to restore access to the Voice of America app.
In a statement, Apple said the “Voice of America” app was removed from China’s App Store due to local legal requirements.
“Back in 2017, we were notified by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) that the Voice of America app did not comply with local laws because it lacked a license to operate in the country,” the statement said. “We are required to comply with local laws where we do business, even though we may sometimes disagree. The app remains available for download in other countries.”
Families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre called for InfoWars' bankruptcy to be thrown out of court on Friday, accusing the far-right wing website of seeking Chapter 11 protection for "sinister" purposes.
The U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog has raised similar concerns.
Reuters reports lawyers for the families, who have won defamation lawsuits against InfoWars and its founder, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, raised questions about the legitimacy of the bankruptcy at a hearing in Victoria, Texas.
They alleged the case was not filed for a valid purpose under bankruptcy law, but to force the families into settlements instead of proceeding with trials that will determine the amount of the damages they are owed for the defamation judgments relating to Jones' false claims that the school mass shooting was a hoax.
A lawyer for a group of Connecticut families, Randy Williams, said he plans to ask the court to dismiss the case soon.
InfoWars holding company, InfoW LLC, and two other media assets owned by Jones filed for Chapter 11 on April 17 after Jones and his media companies were found liable in multiple defamation lawsuits brought in Texas and Connecticut by families of the shooting victims. read more
Jones, who has not filed for bankruptcy himself, has falsely claimed that the shooting, during which 20 children and six school employees were killed in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax fabricated by gun-control advocates and mainstream media.
The families have previously rebuffed Jones' efforts to settle the cases. A trial to determine damages was scheduled to begin Monday in Texas but was halted as a result of the bankruptcy.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, who is overseeing the bankruptcy, raised questions on Friday about the decision to file InfoW's case under a bankruptcy provision that is designed for small businesses. InfoW lawyer Kyung Lee said he would explain at an April 29 hearing.
Lee also rejected the attacks on the bankruptcy, saying the case was filed “to preserve the means to pay” the families’ claims.
Marc Schwartz of the Houston-based firm Schwartz & Associates, who is expected to serve as InfoW’s chief restructuring officer, said on Friday that people involved with the case did not want Jones to personally file for bankruptcy because they didn’t want to harm the value associated with his name or “his ability to generate funds, to sell merchandise.”
Twenty five years after the princess's tragic, unexpected death, the formidable Tina Brown, author of the explosive Diana Chronicles, which was an early Naughties sensation, has returned to the fray. Her new book, The Palace Papers: Inside The House Of Windsor - The Truth And The Turmoil, examines how that quest to ensure the monarchy is not simply a platform for family members to seek public acclaim has turned out.
Even a cursory look at the royal landscape would suggest things have not gone entirely to plan, reports The Daily Mail.
While no conventional royal historian, Brown tackles her subjects with the same brio she brought to her years as a highly regarded magazine editor, first with Tatler, then with Vanity Fair and the New Yorker.
Her access to those who flit around the royals gives her writing an edgy authenticity. The book, she says, is the result of two years' work - and impeccable sources.
'I talked to more than 120 people, many of whom have been intimately involved with the senior royals and their households during the turbulent years since Diana died,' she explained.
The result is a tour d'horizon of the recent travails of the Royal Family, which is both critical of and surprisingly sympathetic to the figure at the heart of the story: the 96-year-old Queen, whose head-in-the-sand approach or 'ostriching' she often mocks.
The Yankees’ Amazon Prime debut left many fans missing the action.
The Yankees' 4-1 series opening win over the Guardians on Friday night at Yankees Stadium was the first of 21 scheduled Yankees games that will be exclusively broadcast on the streaming service, as The Post’s Andrew Marchand has reported.
Not only is the broadcast exclusive to Prime, it’s limited to only the Yankees’ local region. The only option for out of market fans, including Guardians fans, to access the game is through an MLB.TV out-out-market subscription, which starts at $139.99 a year.
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That left fans outside the New York metro area unable to realistically watch the game, regardless of whether they subscribe to Amazon Prime or not.
➦In 1936...singer Roy Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas. His biggest hit was “Oh, Pretty Woman,” which stayed at No. 1 for three weeks in 1964. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and died of a heart attack on Dec. 6, 1988, in Madison, Tenn., at age 52.
➦In 1976...Flashback...
➦In 1995...Radio, TV sportscaster and personality Howard Cosell died of a heart embolism at age 77 (Born Howard William Cohen March 25, 1918). He was most prominent and influential on radio, television and print media from the early 1960s into the mid 1980s.
Cosell was an union attorney in NYC and some of his clients were actors, and some were athletes, including Willie Mays. Cosell's own hero in athletics was Jackie Robinson, who served as a personal and professional inspiration to him in his career. Cosell also represented the Little League of New York, when in 1953 an ABC Radio manager asked him to host a show on New York flagship WABC featuring Little League participants. The show marked the beginning of a relationship with WABC and ABC Radio that would last his entire broadcasting career.
Cosell hosted the Little League show for three years without pay, and then decided to leave the law field to become a full-time broadcaster. He approached Robert Pauley, President of ABC Radio, with a proposal for a weekly show. Pauley told him the network could not afford to develop untried talent, but he would be put on the air if he would get a sponsor. To Pauley's surprise, Cosell came back with a relative's shirt company as a sponsor, and "Speaking of Sports" was born.
Cosell took his "tell it like it is" approach when he teamed with the ex-Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher "Big Numba Thirteen" Ralph Branca on WABC's pre- and post-game radio shows of the New York Mets in their nascent years beginning in 1962. He pulled no punches in taking members of the hapless expansion team to task.
Otherwise on radio, Cosell did his show, Speaking of Sports, as well as sports reports and updates for affiliated radio stations around the country; he continued his radio duties even after he became prominent on television. Cosell then became a sports anchor at WABC-TV in New York, where he served in that role from 1961 to 1974. He expanded his commentary beyond sports to a radio show entitled "Speaking of Everything".
Cosell's style of reporting very much transformed sports broadcasting. Whereas previous sportscasters had mostly been known for color commentary and lively play-by-play, Cosell had an intellectual approach. His use of analysis and context arguably brought television sports reporting very close to the kind of in-depth reporting one expected from "hard" news reporters. At the same time, however, his distinctive staccato voice, accent, syntax, and cadence were a form of color commentary all their own.
➦In 2004…Bill Brundige, a member of the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame and a fixture on Southland radio and television stations for three decades, died at age 89.
Bill Brundige
Brundige served as play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels baseball team, of the Pacific Coast League. He also worked with Bob Kelly on Los Angeles Ram broadcasts and Chick Hearn on Laker broadcasts. Twice he was awarded the Golden Mike as the top sports broadcaster in Southern California.
Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., Brundige served as West Coast sports director for the Armed Forces Radio Network during World War II and received the Helms Athletic Foundation award for his entertainment contributions to the men and women serving in the Pacific.
Later, Brundige was an announcer for baseball's Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Senators, and football's Detroit Lions. It was Phil Wrigley, owner of the Cubs, who brought Brundige to Southern California to broadcast games for the Angels, a minor league team that had the name long before Gene Autry purchased an American League expansion team that began play in 1961.
He retired after ending a broadcasting career of more than 40 years with a talk show on Anaheim's KEZY.
Lee Majors is 83
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Actor David Birney is 83.
Actor Lee Majors (“Six Million Dollar Man”) is 83.
Actor Blair Brown is 75.
Actor Joyce DeWitt (“Three’s Company”) is 73.
Actor James Russo is 69.
Director Michael Moore is 68.
Actor Judy Davis is 67.
Actor Valerie Bertinelli is 62.
Actor Craig Sheffer (“One Tree Hill,” ″Into the West”) is 62.
Gigi Hadid is 27
Comedian George Lopez is 61.
Actor Melina Kanakaredes (“The Resident,” “Providence”) is 55.
Drummer Stan Frazier of Sugar Ray is 54.
Guitarist Tim Womack of Sons of the Desert is 54.
Actor Scott Bairstow (“Party of Five”) is 52.
Actor John Lutz (“30 Rock”) is 49.
Musicians Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National are 46.
Wrestler-turned-actor John Cena (“The Marine”) is 45.
Actor-comedian John Oliver is 45.
Actor Kal Penn (“House M.D.,” “Harold and Kumar”) is 45.
Singer Taio Cruz is 39.
Actor Jesse Lee Soffer (“Chicago P.D.,” “Chicago Fire”) is 38.
Guitarist Anthony LaMarca of The War on Drugs is 35.
Actor Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”) is 32.
Actor Matthew Underwood (“Zoey 101”) is 32.
Model Gigi Hadid is 27.
Musicians Jake and Josh Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet are 26.
After reviews of recent audits of Nielsen’s Audio PPM service, the Media Rating Council (MRC) and its Radio Committee have noted ongoing performance declines in a substantial number of currently accredited PPM Audio markets.
As a result, MRC and Nielsen have agreed upon a panel performance monitoring process to be applied to eight of the 30 currently accredited Nielsen Audio PPM markets.
The eight markets included at this time in this performance monitoring program are Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, and Nassau-Suffolk.
This enhanced monitoring program is now underway, and will be continued into the foreseeable future. It involves detailed and frequent monitoring and verification of key PPM panel performance metrics in the eight markets. In addition, these metrics will be compared against commitments Nielsen has made to MRC as part of a PPM panel improvement program that is designed to improve panel performances in these and other PPM markets. Nielsen Audio management also will meet regularly with the MRC’s Radio Committee to review the results for these markets, and the Committee will consider their ongoing accreditation statuses with this information in hand.
It is both MRC’s and Nielsen’s goal to ensure these markets perform in a manner that warrants continued accreditation into the future, and the monitoring process has been established to ensure ongoing progress is being made toward that goal. Additionally, MRC will continue to review PPM panel performance in all markets, beyond the eight included in the formal monitoring process and in all contexts in which this data is used in MRC-audited services. MRC will provide additional updates on this monitoring initiative as events warrant.
