CBS, Showtime Bundle With Apple; IDFA Opt-In Rates Might Not Be Too Bad

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If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em

Those that want to survive the streaming wars are making friends with the competition. Apple is bundling TV Plus content with CBS All Access and Showtime at a discounted price of $9.99 per month, Bloomberg reports. CBS All Access and Showtime cost $9.99 per month and $10.99 per month respectively, so the deal lends significant savings to subscribers. This is Apple’s first content bundle, but ViacomCBS has offered discounts across CBS All Access and Showtime in the past. The bundle could juice subscriptions for Apple TV Channels, which allows viewers to sign up for premium channels and apps through Apple TV Plus. Apple is still lagging behind Netflix and Amazon Prime, and is relying on partnerships to fill out its scant catalogue of originals. Related: Bloomberg also reported last week that Apple is launching a subscription package across all of its services, such as music and TV, called “Apple One.”

Glass Half Full

Most mobile experts expect abysmal opt-in rates for IDFA when iOS 14 rolls out in September, somewhere between 10% and 20%. Some are even forecasting an opt-in rate as low as 5%. But Adikteev, a French mobile DSP and app retargeting company, has a contrarian POV and some potentially good news. Adikteev ran a live test with several thousand random, mostly United States-based, users, and served them with a mock Apple pop-up notice right when they opened an app. Users were asked to choose between “OK” and “Don’t allow” ad tracking – and 73% of people actually opted in. Oddly, users who were presented with more explanatory or customized text in their pop-ups only opted in less than 50% of the time. Although Adikteev warns that these results should be taken with a grain of salt – the sample size is small and the test focused only on the gaming vertical – they paint a far less-dire picture of the pending IDFA situation.

When It Rains, It Pours

Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and John Thune, R-SD, asked the FTC to investigate TikTok’s data collection practices after the company was caught collecting millions of user IDs in violation of Google’s policies. “While we understand and appreciate the various national security concerns raised against TikTok to date, the purpose of this inquiry is to raise specific attention to the practice highlighted in the mentioned reports,” the senators wrote in a letter to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons. TikTok bypassed Android security measures by collecting unique IDs, called MAC addresses, from millions of mobile devices, allowing the app to track online behavior without consent. TikTok was collecting the IDs for at least 15 months, The Wall Street Journal reports. A spokesperson said the most updated version of TikTok does not collect MAC addresses.

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