Business

Corporate America is closely watching to see whether one of the country’s most powerful companies can face down a threat to its self-governance and free speech.

The sides announced the deal in a joint statement Friday, roughly a month after they reached an agreement in principle on the sale for a record $6.05 billion.

Wall Street slipped Friday as households get more nervous. Despite the seemingly placid moves for the overall market, big swings have swirled underneath the surface amid worries about a possible recession, high inflation and the U.S. government inching toward what could be a catastrophic default on its debt.

“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk wrote in a Friday tweet. He added that Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.” Luring advertisers is critical for Musk and Twitter after many fled in the early months after his takeover of the social media platform, fearing harm to their brands in the ensuing chaos. Musk said in late April that advertisers had returned, but provided no details. Pictured: Musk with Yaccarino, chairman of global advertising and partnerships for NBC, at a marketing conference in Miami Beach on April 18.

The veteran TV executive Sarata (l) will succeed Patrick Schooley (r) as head of sales at Gray’s NBC Michigan affiliate.

NBCUniversal shook up its ad-sales executive suite with just days to go before the company is slated to present its next slate of programing to advertisers. Linda Yaccarino, the company’s longtime chairman of advertising and partnerships, is leaving the company. She has entered talks to become CEO of Twitter, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mark Marshall, a veteran executive who leads advertising sales for all of NBCU’s national media properties, has been named interim chairman of ad sales for the company. He will report to Mark Lazarus who oversees NBCU’s TV and streaming businesses.

NBCUniversal’s global ad chair Linda Yaccarino has resigned, the company said Friday. The announcement comes a day after Elon Musk said via Twitter there would be a new CEO of the social media website, although he didn’t name the new person. Musk said in his tweet the person would start in about six weeks. Yaccarino yesterday was said to be in advanced talks for the role. (JohnStaleyPhoto.com)

The impact included promising shows that lost their audiences, films rushed into production with flimsy scripts and turbocharging reality programming. Pictured: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles saw its ratings plunge after an extended break during the 2007 writers’ strike.

Emily Barr, TVNewsCheck columnist and former CEO-president of Graham Media, weighs in on the troubling implications of Sinclair’s closure of five newsrooms across its markets and what shoes may drop next for an industry up against serious headwinds. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Some unexpected early political spending was a bright spot in an otherwise rough quarter for both broadcast companies and their major tech competitors.

NBCUniversal’s head of advertising Linda Yaccarino is in talks to become the new CEO of Twitter, according to people familiar with the situation. Yaccarino, chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCU, has been with NBCU for more than a decade, where she has been an industry advocate for finding better ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising. As head of NBCU’s advertising sales, she was key in the launch of the company’s ad-supported Peacock streaming service. The news comes just days before one of the biggest events of the year for NBCU, the company’s annual upfront pitch event for advertisers , which is scheduled for Monday in New York.

Wall Street edged lower Thursday following inflation data and drops for Disney, banks.

“Precise measurement and accurate counting are the foundation of a healthy and high-functioning TV advertising ecosystem. When marketers have the right data, they can make the right decisions. That’s why we’re unifying our audiences and ushering in a modern-day approach to measurement for local advertisers. To better reflect today’s sophisticated consumer, we are vastly increasing the number of households we measure: We used to measure 1 in every 1,600-2,000 homes in a Local DMA. Now we’re going to measure 1 in every 2-5 homes—giving advertisers an unprecedented understanding of the true size and value of their audience, while also allowing them to pinpoint the exact audience they want to reach. And there’s more: With 48-hour TV measurement reporting at this scale, we’ll be able to help our clients optimize and improve the precision of their media buys in near real time.”

With an upfront presentation and the upfront market a week away, Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Ad Sales has added new measurement partners. The list includes 605, ABCS Insights, DISQO, EDO, LoopMe and Pilotly —  to add “greater attribution and efficacy of advertising campaigns” to work on cross-platform and advanced audience deals.

Shares of Disney slipped as much as 9% in trading Thursday after the media conglomerate reported earnings for the first three months of 2023. Disney’s earnings report showed progress on the cost-cutting front — with streaming losses narrowing for the quarter — but analysts cited a weak advertising outlook and uncertainty over when its streaming business can contribute to the bottom line.

CEO Bob Iger: “We see that there’s going to be a substantial growth in digital advertising in this upfront — I mean quite substantial.” Regarding the linear networks, he said: “We’re seeing both sub declines and advertising weakness — and that’s forcing us to look at the cost structure of those channels, which also really comes down more than anything to spending on programming.”

Wall Street closed slightly higher after a report showed inflation is making strides toward easing, even if it remains too high. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Wednesday after swinging between gains and losses through the day. The Dow ended just barely lower, while the Nasdaq composite gained ground.

Disney reported that its streaming losses narrowed as price increases helped offset the loss of 4 million subscribers at Disney+. The company, which posted revenue and profit in line with Wall Street’s projections, also reported significant growth at its theme parks during its second fiscal quarter. Its linear TV unit struggled, however.

Ad sales president Mark Marshall (pictured) touts scale and precision.

Marianne Gambelli, president of ad sales for Fox Corp., says in an interview that she believes the company will stand apart in the TV industry’s looming “upfront” sales session by not pressing potential sponsors to snap up commercial inventory in multiple venues.

The increase to $917 million is tagged to the absence of political revenue and Winter Olympics on NBC, the company’s largest Big 4 affiliate portfolio, as well as the Super Bowl airing on NBC last year compared to Fox stations this year.

Globally, consumer spending on media — both content and technology — decelerated to 6.3% (rising to $2.186 trillion) in 2022, following 2021’s 6.9% surge, which was the strongest growth in a decade.

The ongoing writers’ strike has interrupted quite a few industry shindigs since it began on May 2, and the latest is one that hadn’t even been formally announced. On Tuesday night, the Critics Choice Association told members that a planned Celebration of LGBTQ+ movies and TV has been postponed indefinitely.

The creator of the Disney+ series, singled out on social media for performing non-writing duties, tells The Hollywood Reporter that he has stopped all such functions.