MediaBizBuzz: AMC, CBS, NBC, GroupM and More

AMC Networks CEO Blows Off &#8220;Too Much TV&#8221; Theory: It&#8217;s &#8220;A Damn Rich Opportunity&#8221;&#8220;There&#8217;s as much upside as there is challenge in the current environment,&#8221; says CEO Josh Sapan (via The Wrap).AMC Networks Quarterly Earnings Beat Estimates as &#8220;Fear the Walking Dead&#8221; Boosts Ad Revenue (via Hollywood Reporter).Random Reflections on the Fall TV Season to Date &#8211; Cable EditionCBS Weighs a Bigger Streaming Push&#8220;There is no question, there is going to be a change from the 180-channel universe,&#8221; says Les Moonves (via New York Times).CBS Quarterly Earnings a Mixed Bag (via Hollywood Reporter)Has the 2015-16 Television Season Begun? You Could Fool MeDisney Joins Sony&#8217;s Vue Streaming ServiceThe Walt Disney Co. said it signed a deal with&#160;Sony&#160;Corp.&#8217;s PlayStation Vue streaming video service to carry all of the media powerhouse&#8217;s channels, including ESPN and ABC (via WSJ).Disney call: Excited for &#8220;Star Wars,&#8221; no panic over ESPN (via Seeking Alpha)21st Century Fox Registers Strong Cable Growth, But Flat BroadcastCable TV networks/programming revenues were up 7.2% to $3.46 billion, broadcast business flat at $1.05 billion, and filmed entertainment down 27.9% to $1.79 billion (via MediaPost).Fox experiments with shorter, interactive ads on Hulu (via Digital Trends).Networks are Watching You Watching ThemComcast Corp&#8217;s NBCUniversal and Viacom are each opening labs where they will study TV viewers in mock living rooms filled with infrared cameras tracking their biometrics (via Irish Examiner).Five Future Looking Trends in Media and Marketing &#8211; Trend 4WPP wins race for &#8216;programmatic buying&#8217; agency Essence DigitalRob Norman, chief digital officer at GroupM, said the deal represents a &#8220;significant expansion of our digital expertise&#8221; (via Financial Times).Mindshare Goes Global With Its Shop+ Division (via MediaPost).Super Bowl 50 Complete Ad Chart: Who's Buying Commercials in the Big GameCBS prices a 30-second sliver of time at $5 million, and ad buyers who have placed clients in the game say units are fetching between $4.6 million and just over $5 million (via Advertising Age).Facebook Adds Song Clips from Spotify and Apple Music to Your News FeedA new post format called Music Stories will let users preview 30 second clips of songs and albums shared to Facebook from Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes (via The Verge).Facebook Just Surpassed General Electric in Market Value (via Fortune).Hearst in Talks to Develop Airbnb MagazineThe deal with Hearst would likely be something akin to an O, The Oprah Magazine (via WWD).Wertlieb Sees Opportunity Ahead For Hearst Television (via TVNewsCheck).US Deal Sees Rubicon Project Further its OOH interestsRubicon Project&#8217;s partnership with two leading digital outdoor companies, AdSpace Network and Captivate, seeks to capitalize on the fast-growing out-of-home video market (via The Drum).CPG Increasing Digital and Out of Home Spend &#8211; Part 2IBM Watson is Going to Change How You Think About the WeatherWith IBM acquiring the digital assets of The Weather Company for a reported $2.5 billion, it's only a matter of time before the world's most famous supercomputer starts coming up with new insights (via Chicago Tribune).Q&amp;A: The Weather Company on Using Automation to Capture AdspendThe Economist&#8217;s Anti-Ad Blocker was Hacked, Exposing Users to MalwareThe service -- called PageFair, which allows publishers to measure the extent of ad blocking on their sites -- was hacked on Oct. 31 (via Quartz).Ad Blocking? More Like Ad BlockheadsAlibaba Acquires Chinese Video Streaming Site Youku TudouChinese e-retail giant Alibaba Group has finalized its purchase of video streaming service Youku Tudou, which delivers YouTube-esque content to Internet users in China (via The Stack).People on the MoveComcast Corporation named Francis M. Buono as Senior Vice President of Legal Regulatory Affairs and Senior Deputy General Counsel, and Morgan Stanley&#8217;s former Head of Mergers and Acquisitions, Robert L. Eatroff, as Executive Vice President, Global Corporate Development and Strategy.Corbis this week revealed that it had named Brian Cohee as Chief Technology Officer in June of this year and Greg Isaacs as Senior Vice President of Native and Entertainment in August of this year.GroupM has promoted Brian Lesser to CEO of its North American operations. Lesser had served as chief executive of GroupM's Xaxis division. Rob Norman, GroupM's chief digital officer, adds the title of North American chairman.Bloomberg Media has appointed Scott Havens, former senior vice president of digital at Time Inc., as its new global head of digital.Accounts on the MoveMindshare to defend Abbott Laboratories in global reviewGlobal review reportedly driven by the desire to cut costs, Abbot spends nearly $150 million annually on U.S. advertising alone (via AdWeek).Video PicksBroadway Debuts in Your Living RoomBroadwayHD&#160; is&#160; a new streaming service that lets you watch Broadway theater from the comfort of your own home.Advertisers&#8217; Three Tech Challenges, According To Videology&#8217;s GaskampThe upcoming US TV Upfront season will be a test for how far along programmatic video ad sales have come (via BeetTV).The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage/MyersBizNet management or associated bloggers.

MediaBizBuzz: AMC, CBS, NBC, GroupM and More

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Philip Goldsmith

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