US Advertisers Appeal To FCC; CNBC Launching An Agency

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

Please Mr. Regulator

US advertisers are asking the FCC to ease up on the privacy gas pedal. Their key trade org, the ANA, wants more time to evaluate a rule from the agency requiring ISPs to get the OK from customers before sharing personal info such as search and app data with an outside company. More in Ad Age. And, read AdExchanger’s coverage of the FCC’s expanding privacy remit.

Open For Business

CNBC launched a full-service in-house agency called Catalyst, which will join its content studio to offer brand solutions across TV and digital. The agency is “also working digitally and programmatically using our DMPs and other clever ways of targeting our clients throughout the business day,” SVP Max Raven tells The Drum. CNBC faces some new competition in its niche from the likes of Cheddar TV, a social native broadcaster focused on younger finance audiences.

App World’s Natural Forces

According to a recent survey, Snapchat has surpassed Instagram as the go-to social app for teens (Facebook rose slightly and Twitter continued its steady decline). In response, “Facebook has introduced a slew of Snapchat-like features to its own apps.” With personal sharing reportedly on the decline among Facebook users, the company will do everything it can to shore up the human connections that made it great.

“Rumors Of My Death…”

A Financial Times report on Tuesday alleged BuzzFeed was slashing revenue forecasts after missing expectations in 2015. Zack Kaplan, VP at the investment firm General Atlantic, which placed early bets on both BuzzFeed and Vox, took to Medium to dispute the FT’s reporting and an avalanche of “Death Of New Media” hot takes. “Reach and engagement will always be valuable to advertisers. Our view is that there always has been, and always will be, a balance of leverage between distributors and content owners.” Here’s hoping.

Caught On Video

Facebook debuted a tool to quash video “freebooting” on its platform. Facebook gets billions of video views per day, but many content creators who make their money on YouTube see their videos poached and distributed on Facebook. The new “Rights Manager” tool allows creators to either permit or report videos across the platform. Creators had previously complained takedown requests went unnoticed for hours or days (which is significant when you consider the velocity of digital video sharing). Facebook says turnaround will soon be quick enough to shut down live videos in midstream if content is being pirated. More at The Wall Street Journal.