Fremantle Revenues Slide 5% In Q1 2023

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Those who frequent the launch of ALDI's Snow Gear Special Buys would be familiar with the competitive nature the cold-weather clothing unleashes. They're the most eagerly anticipated Special Buys range of the year, which makes them quite hard to come across. Some even go so far as to arrive a few hours before stores open.

SPOILER ALERT – Do not read ahead if you haven’t watched the season finale of The Masked Singer!

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube’s biggest ad innovation for 2023? It might be borrowing a well-worn page from old-fashioned linear TV. At the YouTube Brandcast upfront event Wednesday in New York, execs announced the introduction of 30-second unskippable ads in top-performing YouTube content on TVs — you know, just like the commercials that have run on broadcast and cable networks for decades. YouTube also will start testing new “Pause Experiences” for YouTube on TV screens, showing an ad when viewers pause a video akin to the pause ads Hulu first bowed four years ago. In their pitch to Madison Avenue types, YouTube execs also boasted of the streaming service’s massive reach: More than 150 million unique viewers in the U.S. watched YouTube and YouTube TV on televisions for the month of December 2022, according to Nielsen estimates. YouTube remains the No. 1 most-watched service on TV screens in America (across both streaming platforms and traditional TV networks), and in April was one of the only streamers to see month-to-month growth, per Nielsen.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The upfront presentation that looks most like traditional TV came from a company that likes to tell investors, advertisers and consumers how it’s leapfrogging that entire business. Netflix on Wednesday showed dozens of scripted series and movies that could support advertising — if only Madison Avenue would take a chance and bet on its nascent efforts to sell commercials. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Chris Hemsworth and Julia Roberts were only some of the actors whose efforts could be tied to advertising. Counterparts like NBCUniversal and Fox Corp. were hard-pressed to do the same earlier this week. “We are just getting started,” said Peter Naylor, vice president of global advertising sales at Netflix.

Shirley Ju May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and this year’s theme has been dubbed “Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity” by the Federal Asian Pacific American Council. While this organization works to support AAPI leaders in Federal and DC governments, the message is universal: to empower AAPI individuals to find success and growth in their careers — no matter what industry.

We’re heading into the season finale of The Masked Singer!

Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval aren’t the only Bravo couple to have broken up this year!

AppleTV+ has been steadily growing their content of original television programs over the past few years.

The National in their hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, has announced the line-up for its 2023 edition.The two-day event returns to Smale Park on September 15 and 16 and will, as ever, be headlined by the band themselves, who will play two unique headline sets. It will also play host to the likes of Patti Smith, Pavement and The Walkmen.Weyes Blood, Snail Mail, Bartees Strange, Arooj Aftab, Julia Jacklin, The Drin, Leo Pastel, Carriers, and Ballard all complete the line-up.“When we launched Homecoming in 2018, we were overwhelmed by the response from the community and by our renewed sense of connection to our hometown,” The National said in a statement [via Consequence of Sound].

Once again, the world’s media, sales agents, acquisition execs, cinephiles hoping for a free ticket, and wanna-be celebrities crashing the famed red carpet have descended upon Cannes. And unlike 2022 where the festival was about 90% back to pre-pandemic norms, the 76th edition is expected to be a time jump back to better days when the Cannes Film Market was hopping and there were conflicting parties to jump to on la Croisette.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Listen up! While podcast advertising revenue remains relatively small, it’s growing quickly — and the sector is poised for a strong double-digit gain this year, despite economic headwinds. In 2023, U.S. podcast ad revenue is expected to total $2.28 billion, up 43% year over year, according to new research conducted by PwC for the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). Last year, the segment increased 26%, to hit $1.8 billion, per the study. By 2025, podcast advertising revenue in the U.S. is projected to reach about $4 billion. Overall, podcasting continues to be one of the fastest-growing digital channels, growing two times faster than digital advertising overall — although for 2022 it remained less than 1% of the total pie (which PwC pegged at $209.7 billion).

Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcasting giant ITV’s revenues dipped in the first quarter of 2023, but streamer ITVX has seen a growth uptick, according to figures released on Thursday. The financial and operating performance for the three months to March 31 was “as expected,” ITV said, with total external revenue down 7% at £776 million ($979 million), compared to £834 million ($1.05 billion) over the same period in 2022. Revenue at production unit ITV Studios was flat at £457 million (2022: £458 million). Deliveries in the U.K. and internationally included “Nolly” for ITVX, “Django for Sky,” Big Beasts for AppleTV+ and “Queer Eye” for Netflix.

Naman Ramachandran Revenues at Bertelsmann’s Luxembourg-based RTL Group, a media giant which owns Fremantle, slid 9% to €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) for the first quarter of 2023, financial results released on Thursday have revealed. The group attributes this to “significantly lower TV advertising revenue,” particularly in Germany, and the disposals of RTL Belgium and RTL Croatia. Fremantle’s revenues were down 5.6% to €435 million (Q1/2022: €461 million), mainly due to timing effects of production deliveries, the group said. The group’s total advertising revenue fell to €700 million (Q1/2022: €829 million), of which €545 million represented TV advertising revenue (Q1/2022: €653 million), €76 million digital advertising revenue (Q1/2022: €83 million) and €39 million radio advertising revenue (Q1/2022: €46 million). Distribution revenue was down by 1.8% to €107 million (Q1/2022: €109 million).

The 76th Festival de Cannes already had a jury president in two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Ostlünd. It now has eight more members to fill out its jury.

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As the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival looms, a cavalcade of previews for films in competition for the coveted Palme d’Or arrives. Here’s one from the first wave of titles: Karim Aïnouz‘s “Firebrand,” which stars Alicia Vikander as Katherine Parr, the sixth and last wife of England’s King Henry VIII.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Fremantle has promoted its long-time distribution boss Jens Richter to CEO of Commercial and International. Under his expanded remit, alongside leading Fremantle’s distribution business, Richter will oversee all commercial activity, including Fremantle’s digital and social business and FAST channels. As CEO International — a role he has held since joining Fremantle in 2014 — Richter oversees the global distribution of Fremantle’s finished programs, international content and acquisitions, and co-production strategy models. As CEO Commercial and International, he now also takes responsibility for Fremantle’s digital business.

Jens Richter has added commercial duties to his Fremantle International CEO role.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Vivendi, the parent company of French pay TV banner Canal+ Group,has sees revenues rise by 3.3% to €2.29 billion ($2.52 billion) during the first quarter of 2023. Vivendi attributes the growth to all its subsidiaries, in particular Studiocanal, the film and TV production and distribution company of Canal+, whose revenues went up by 13.6% compared with the first quarter of 2022 driven by the success of several films, including the comedy “Alibi.com 2” and “John Wick 4.” Among the several high profile deals signed by the company during the first quarter, Canal+ inked an agreement with French telco Orange to acquire all shares of its pay TV package OCS, as well as Orange Studio, the film and series co-production subsidiary.