More From Peter Kafka
Apple’s TV plans, explained. (Spoiler: Apple isn’t taking on Netflix yet.)
A lot of money has changed hands, over rights for a very short short time period
Ahead of its IPO, the streaming service is offering its first-ever guidance: Revenue, subs and margins will be up, operating losses will go down
You don’t want them. Facebook didn’t want them. But here we are.
BuzzFeed News pushes further than its competitors. Can it handle the consequences?
Apple is bringing in help to boost its News app. Apple is going to hand over ad sales for the app to Comcast’s NBCUniversal in an exclusive deal that starts in January.Publishers who put content on the app can still sell their own ads and will keep 100 percent of the revenue from any ads they sell. The new deal means that NBCUniversal, instead of Apple, will sell any remaining ad inventory.As before, publishers will keep 70 percent of those sales. In a note to her staff, NBCUniversal sales boss Linda Yaccarino said her organization would create a dedicated sales group for the app.
Spotify doesn’t like it when big-name acts take their music to Apple or Tidal first.But it’s not punishing them when they do, by making their stuff harder to find in the music service’s search results, the company says.That accusation, sourced to anonymous sources in a Bloomberg report out today, is “unequivocally false,” says a Spotify rep.
Spotify says Apple is making it harder for the streaming music company to compete, by blocking a new version of its iPhone app.In a letter sent this week to Apple’s top lawyer, Spotify says Apple is “causing grave harm to Spotify and its customers,” by rejecting an update to Spotify’s iOS app.The letter says Apple turned down a new version of the app while citing “business model rules,” and demanding that Spotify use Apple’s billing system if “Spotify wants to use the app to acquire new customers and sell subscriptions.”
Last month we told you that Disney would like to invest in BAM Tech, the video tech business that pro baseball’s MLB Advanced Media unit would like to spin off.It still does. Here’s a brief update: Disney is willing to write a very big check to buy into BAM Tech.Industry sources believe Disney is looking to acquire as much as one-third of BAM Tech, at a valuation approaching $3 billion, with “path to control” that would eventually allow it to acquire a controlling interest in the business.