Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Disney’s Streaming Win
In yet another sign that streaming is where it’s at, advertising at Disney’s online channels are on pace to overtake the company’s ABC broadcast network as marketers shift spending to more targeted audiences. Per Ad Age, ad sales at Disney’s direct-to-consumer businesses rose 47% to $882 million last quarter, closing in on the $984 million at ABC, which registered a 5% gain. At that pace, online outlets such as Hulu, ESPN+ and ABC.com will soon pass the network. In particular, Hulu’s secret weapon is its “rapid growing, robust advertising business,” according to CEO Bob Chapek. As streaming TV viewership continues to surge, Disney has been consolidating its ad-sales teams over the past few years to create one-stop shopping for marketers across its various networks and platforms which has given a lift to traditional and online outlets. “Advertisers want to follow audiences,” said Rita Ferro, president of advertising sales at Disney. [Related in AdExchanger: Inside Disney’s Plan To Automate Half Its Ad Business Within Five Years]
GDPR Upgrade?
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation needs some work, apparently. Axel Voss, one of the architects of the legislation, which has been in effect for less than three years, told the Financial Times that GDPR needed “surgery” in order to keep up with tech advances and a rise in remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Per Business Insider, Voss’s comments came ahead of a parliamentary session that will vote on defining the laws as a “gold standard for the world.” Voss noted that the tech industry had moved on since 2018, meaning that laws had to change in accordance. “We have to be aware that GDPR is not made for blockchain, facial or voice recognition, text and data mining … artificial intelligence,” he said. “The digital world is about innovation. We cannot stick with principles established in the 80s that do not reflect the new situation we are living in.”
Travel CDP Deal
Sitecore has acquired customer data platform Boxever as well as Four51, provider of a B2B ecommerce marketplace. Boxever has been historically strong in the travel vertical, counting Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Emirates, Flybe and Jetstar among its clients. Did the pandemic force its hand? The company reported a €4.8 million ($5.8 million) loss in 2019, according to The Irish Times. Financial data wasn’t available for 2020. More.
But Wait, There’s More!
Microsoft Advertising is rolling out new performance insights along with a slew of other updates. [blog post]
Updated and corrected: MediaLink, whose parent company Ascential is an investor in Hudson MX, has named Lucas Cridland to lead a new advisory practice focused on the portfolio company. The unit is called Hudson Bridge. [news release]
Fubo TV’s revenue passed $100 million for the first time in Q4, with subscribers approaching 550,000. [Deadline]
Ad buyers want to fix the TV ad market in this year’s upfront. [Digiday]
DISQO and Research Results have partnered to help clients maximize DISQO’s first-party consumer panel.[release]
Brave acquires search engine Tailcat to offer the first private alternative to Google Search and Google Chrome on both mobile and desktop. [release]
TronTV taps Kubient as its first programmatic partner to detect ad fraud. [release]
Parler claims it was valued at $1 billion before its web host Amazon brought it offline. [Business Insider]
McClatchy is partnering with native ad platform MGID to supply content commendations across all McClatchy assets, serving over 65 million readers per month. [MediaPost]
Consumer goods mar tech provider Adimo closed a $3.6 million seed round to fuel its go-to-market operations in the US and scale globally. [Bdaily News]
You’re Hired!
OpenX Vet Brian Chisholm Promoted To SVP Of Strategic Partnerships [release]
Blast Public Relations has appointed advertising pioneer Warren Pickett as vice president of brand strategy. [release]
Native ad platform Dianomi has appointed Jo Bury as its first head of publisher commercial development. [release]
