After more than a decade apart, Viacom and CBS have gotten back together.
In many ways, though, this is a marriage of necessity. The new ViacomCBS entity must find its foothold in a world that’s been disrupted by Netflix and Amazon, faces further disruption from Google, Facebook and Apple – and where peers such as NBCU, Time Warner and Disney are transforming into mega-giants as a matter of survival.
This week on The Big Story, the team looks at the latest contender to enter the ring.
Although ViacomCBS is still small compared to the other conglomerates, we look at where it stands in its quest to own as much unique content as possible, thereby making it more attractive to audiences and advertisers. We also dig into how ViacomCBS might approach streaming, and the extent to which advanced advertising – an area where CBS hasn’t been particularly aggressive to date – factors into the combined entity’s future.
Also on The Big Story, we talk politics. Specifically, we look at the state of the Democratic candidates, each of whom needs to attract a certain number of donors in order to qualify for the next debate in September.
This requirement is creating a direct response frenzy on Facebook – a truly bizarre situation in which some campaign managers are willing to pay $200 to secure a $1 donation. AdExchanger’s James Hercher discusses this phenomenon.
