YouTube Ad Revenue Drops 2.6% in Q1, Alphabet Takes $2 Billion Charge for Layoffs

Kim Kardashian is taking her casting in Season 12 of “American Horror Story” seriously. The reality star may be known for her family’s TV series as well as her other business ventures such as her shapewear company, Skims. However, Kardashian has now landed a role in the horror series and she’s reportedly looking to knock it out of the park by taking acting lessons in preparation.During an interview with Variety, Kardashian revealed that she’s gearing up to film her scenes for the anthology show.

St Mirren's hopes of sealing a European spot suffered a serious setback with a damaging defeat to Hibs.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Coulda, woulda, shoulda? Ten years ago, Yahoo was looking for a “transformative” acquisition, former CEO Marissa Mayer said in a recent interview with Tech Brew. Among the targets the internet company was looking at: Netflix and Hulu. Yahoo ended up buying blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013 — which, to put it mildly, did not pan out as expected. “We looked at a transformative acquisition, and we bought Tumblr,” Mayer said. “At the same time, we were also considering whether it was possible to buy Hulu or, ironically, Netflix. And I think Netflix was $4 billion and Hulu was at $1.3 billion at the time. And either of those, with hindsight being 20/20, would have been a better acquisition.” (Netflix’s market capitalization in May 2013 was $12.7 billion; as of Friday, it was about $143.5 billion.)

After the delights of Cheltenham and the Grand National, we feel the Flat season spring into full effect with the first Classic of the season at Newmarket.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Grogu, better known to his legion of fans as Baby Yoda from Disney+’s “The Mandalorian,” has infiltrated the Googleplex. Type “Grogu” or “Baby Yoda” into the Google Search bar — and the diminutive creature appears in the lower right-hand section of the screen. When you click or tap on Grogu, he commences to use The Force… and knocks out the top section of the search results. If you keep clicking on him, he continues to dismantle the Google Search page. Grogu stars alongside Pedro Pascal in Disney+ original series “The Mandalorian,” which just finished its Season 3 run on the streamer, and the toddler also appears in “The Book of Boba Fett.” (Before he was identified by name, Grogu was simply called “The Child.”)

“The King,” told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the 41-year-old estranged royal is all-systems go on becoming a “power player” in Tinseltown after signing with esteemed entertainment agency WME.“If Meghan doesn’t end up hosting a daytime syndicated talk show, I’ll be surprised,” Andersen told the outlet. “She certainly seems well-suited to that role in particular, and I can easily see her pursuing a career path similar to Oprah’s in the media: a show, a magazine, producing, directing — the works.“She still has a sizeable chunk of the viewing public in her corner,” he added.The news of Markle’s signing comes after Page Six reported that she and her husband, Prince Harry, 38, have been spotted more often in Hollywood in recent months.

Kim Kardashian revealed that she is taking acting lesson in order to prepare for her upcoming role in American Horror Story: Delicate.

On last night's episode of The Chase, one lucky Scot took home the jackpot after beating The Sinnerman.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon, in the midst of paring back its workforce, topped Wall Street forecasts with better-than-expected revenue growth for the first quarter of 2023. The company reported Q1 revenue of $127.4 billion, up 9% year over year, improving over a 7% rise in the year-earlier quarter but still off its historical pace of top-line growth. Net income was $3.2 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $3.8 billion in Q1 2022 (which included a $7.8 billion loss on its stake in electric-vehicle maker Rivian). The results come as the ecommerce colossus is in the middle of laying off 9,000 workers, on top of the 18,000 job cuts announced in January. On Thursday, the company laid off about 100 employees at Amazon Studios and Prime Video.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Former President Barack Obama narrates and is featured in “Working: What We Do All Day,” a new docuseries from Higher Ground Productions coming to Netflix. In the four-part series, Obama visits everyday people in their homes and places of work as part of exploring questions like, What brings you joy in work — and what gives you purpose? The series follows individuals at all levels of the workforce, from service jobs all the way up to the C-suite, in home care, tech and hospitality industries. “Working: What We Do All Day” premieres May 17 on Netflix globally. Obama posted the trailer for the show on social media (watch below).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku came in above analyst estimates on the top line for the first quarter of 2023, as it gained 1.6 million active streaming accounts in the period. But the company told investors that the macroeconomic environment was still “challenged” in the quarter. The company posted Q1 sales of $741 million, up 1%, and a net loss of $193.6 million, or $1.38 per share. On average, Wall Street analysts were expecting Roku to post Q1 of $708.49 million and a net loss of $1.37 per share. Click here to sign up for Variety’s free Strictly Business newsletter covering earnings, financial news and more.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jerrell Jimerson, Disney Streaming’s chief product officer and one of the architects of Disney+, has been let go as part of the media conglomerate’s latest round of layoffs, Variety has learned. Jimerson on Wednesday sent a note to his team at Disney Streaming telling them that “after five incredible years at Disney, I will be leaving the company at the end of June.” Disney is laying off some 4,000 employees across the company this week, part of its previously announced target of cutting 7,000 jobs to reduce costs. As chief product officer and EVP of product and design for Disney Streaming, Jimerson has overseen all aspects of product, user experience and design for Disney’s direct-to-consumer video streaming businesses, including Disney+, Hulu and Star+.

Joel Kinnaman (For All Mankind) is attached to star in They Found Us, an alien abduction thriller to be directed for AGC Studios and Temple Hill by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Neill Blomkamp (District 9), which will head into production in Australia later this year.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube, as part of promoting subscriptions to the newly secured NFL Sunday Ticket games package, is flying more than a dozen top creators to Kansas City, Mo., for the 2023 NFL Draft – including popular trick-shot specialists Dude Perfect. Dude Perfect, the five-member comedy and sports group with more than 59 million YouTube subscribers, and Ryan Trahan (12.3 million subscribers) are slated to appear on stage at the NFL Draft to announce some of the picks in this year’s draft. The 2023 NFL Draft, to be held April 27-29 at Union Station Kansas City, will be broadcast on ESPN, ABC and NFL Network. All told, the YouTube creators tapped to attend the NFL Draft have a combined reach of more 145 million subscribers, according to the video platform. In addition to the Dude Perfect crew and Trahan, YouTube creators scheduled to be on-site in KC this week at the 2023 NFL Draft include: NichLmao (23.6 million subscribers), Topper Guild (17 million), Jesser (12.8 million), Adam W (12 million), Deestroying (5.1 million), Lisa Nguyen (4.35 million), Pierson (3.7 million), Katie Feeney (3.2 million), Haley Kalil (1.8 million), Ashley Yi (1.1 million) and The Pivot (686,000).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify packed on more users than it expected in Q1 but revenue fell short of its guidance, which the company blamed on headwinds in its advertising business. For the first quarter of 2023, the company, total monthly active users (free and paid) grew by 22% year-over-year to 515 million “driven by strength in both developed and developing markets, and nearly all age groups,” the company said. Spotify Premium subscribers grew to 210 million, a net gain of 5 million in the quarter, which beat its expectations with “outperformance across all regions, led by Europe and Latin America.” Total revenue grew 14% year-over-year to €3.0 billion, below Spotify’s expectation of €3.1 billion “due to macro-related variability in our advertising business.” The company reported a Q1 operating loss of €156 million, which was better than projected, helped by lower marketing spend.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk’s Twitter has stirred up a new wave of confusion. After the multibillionaire tech baron made good on his threat to yank Twitter blue check-marks from celebrities who weren’t paying him $8 per month last week, the social network has reinstated the badge for many — including on accounts of people who have died. The Musk-owned social network on April 20 revoked verified blue check-mark status from thousands of accounts belonging to celebrities, athletes, politicians and other “notable” figures granted under the company’s previous ownership. The hope was that taking away the “free” Twitter blue check-mark would boost revenue from subscriptions to Twitter Blue, while Musk has also framed it as democratizing the user-verification process.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Twitter is no longer labeling any accounts as “state-affiliated media” or “government-funded media,” a change that comes after organizations including NPR and PBS objected to the descriptions from the Elon Musk-owned social network and have suspended their activity on Twitter in protest. According to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn, when he emailed Musk to inquire about the decision to drop media labels, the CEO replied, “This was Walter Isaacson’s suggestion.” Isaacson, who has penned biographies of Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin, is working on a book about Musk. As of this writing, NPR (8.8 million followers) and PBS (2.2 million) have not resumed posting to their Twitter accounts since suspending activity earlier this month.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Chloe Sims, star of British reality show “The Only Way Is Essex,” last year moved to L.A. with her three siblings to try to break into Hollywood — an experience they’ve documented in an original show for OnlyFans’ free streaming service. OnlyFans generates billions of dollars in revenue, much of it from sexually explicit content. But the social platform also is working to build out the non-porn side of its business, including through OFTV, its free-to-view, safe-for-work streaming platform and app. The company inked a multiyear deal with Chloe, Frankie, Demi and Charlie Sims, starting with the five-episode first season of “House of Sims,” billed as reality series in the vein of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” OFTV this week unveiled the trailer for “House of Sims” (watch below) whose premiere episode will debut May 3. The remaining episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays on OFTV.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor If you want to run ads on Elon Musk’s Twitter from here on out, you apparently will need to pay for verified status — or buy at least $1,000 worth of advertising each month. Twitter said advertisers must subscribe to either Twitter Blue ($8/month and up) or Verified Organizations ($1,000/month) to be eligible to buy ads on the service, according to a notice titled “Building a better Twitter through verification,” shared by social media consultant Matt Navarra early Friday. A request for comment sent Friday to Twitter’s press email account received no response. According to the notice, businesses that spend at least $1,000 monthly in advertising will be automatically verified and receive a gold check-mark badge.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The squeaky wheel gets the Twitter blue check-mark, it seems. After Twitter’s mass revocation Thursday of thousands of “legacy” verified blue check-marks, carrying out owner Elon Musk’s long-promised purge of the “corrupt” system, several high-profile accounts still had the iconic blue badges… even though they evidently aren’t paying for Twitter Blue (the subscription service whose perks now include a blue check-mark). Those included NBA superstar LeBron James, actor William Shatner and author Stephen King — each of whom had tweeted that they wouldn’t pay for Twitter Blue or had complained about Musk’s switch in the verification program.