Facebook Is Gunning For TV Dollars; Snapchat Is Pitching Advertisers On App-Install Ads

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

OTT Tales

Watch out TV, Facebook is coming for your ad dollars. Next week, the platform will begin delivering ads via over-the-top (OTT) TV providers Apple and Roku. The ads will run on A+E and Tubi TV networks, Recode reports. The project will be powered by Audience Network, giving OTT providers much more precise targeting and cross-device matching than they’ve previously had. “The Facebook project is the type of progressive thinking to which A+E Networks is incredibly committed,” an A+E spokesperson said in a statement. It remains to be seen how set-top box makers will warm to the big blue app controlling ads on their hardware. More.

App Install Wars

Snapchat is pitching direct-response advertisers on app-install ads, Ad Age reports. Micro-investing app Acorns is already seeing 40% higher install rates with Snapchat than it does with Facebook. It could be that Snapchat’s swipe-to-download functionality is more engaging for consumers, said Manning Field, Acorns’ chief commercial officer. “Within the first two weeks we were really close to Facebook-like efficiency,” he said. But to be successful at driving app-install ads, Snapchat will have to beef up its retargeting tactics, which CEO Evan Spiegel has spoken out against as creepy in the past. More.

Troubled Waters

It’s been a tough year for MDC Partners. The holding company missed estimates on revenue and profits again this quarter, sparking leadership to hire adviser LionTree to “evaluate options,” reports Alex Bruell for The Wall Street Journal. Revenues increased by 6.3% in the third quarter, but net loss widened to $33.5 million from $8.6 million. MDC is also still grappling with an SEC investigation into former CEO Miles Nadal’s expenses, which led to his resignation in July 2015. “This performance just isn’t good enough,” CEO Scott Kauffman told investors on an earnings call. More. Related in AdExchanger: Senior execs exit Varick Media amid MDC transition.

New Hollywood

China’s appetite for Western companies goes far beyond ad tech. Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group just plunked down $1 billion to buy iconic American entertainment company Dick Clark Productions, which produces the Golden Globes and the Miss America pageant. The firm’s founder, Wang Jianlin, is China’s richest man at $32.6 billion, beating out Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s net worth by about $6 billion. This is just the latest example of Chinese companies looking to make their mark in Hollywood. Alibaba’s Ma struck a movie distribution deal with Steven Spielberg last month, and earlier this year Wanda paid $3.5 billion to buy Legendary Entertainment. That’s a lot of renminbi. CNN has more.

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