ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro says the sports network is “all hands on deck” to attract more women and younger viewers, a crusade that includes a new streaming service launched last year. The Walt Disney Co.-owned cable giant introduced its ESPN+ online service a year ago, and it has drawn over 2 million subscribers who pay $5 a month. But its ambitions are much greater, part of a broader streaming push at Disney that includes a new family-oriented platform and the Hulu TV service. To bolster ESPN+, the company has signed new sports rights deals with college conferences, boxing promoters and the UFC mixed martial arts league, Pitaro said. The idea is to draw an audience that doesn’t watch much traditional TV. “When you’re on traditional television, everyone is seeing the same thing,” Pitaro said in an interview Thursday on Bloomberg Television. “The promise of the internet is the right content to the right user at the right time—you and I can get different things. My 15-year-old son and I can experience different things within the ESPN app or on ESPN+.” There was a time when Disney stock rose and fell on the results of its traditional ESPN network, long the company’s single most profitable channel. But with Disney’s new focus on streaming services, the pressure is off Pitaro somewhat. Network Challenges The ESPN network has continued to lose subscribers, though its operating income grew last quarter. “I wouldn’t characterize it as a turnaround,” Pitaro said. “I would... Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-23 22:01:09 UTC ]
Salesforce.com Inc., which makes America’s dominant sales-tracking software, agreed to buy Tableau Software Inc. in an all-stock deal valued at $15.3 billion that it said will help give customers more ways to analyze data. The takeover will mark Salesforce’s largest deal to date, according to... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-06-10 16:51:13 UTC ]
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Beleaguered bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. has a buyer. Elliott Management Corp. agreed to purchase the chain for $6.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued about $476 million, plus the assumption of debt, the company said in a statement Friday. Barnes & Noble shares rose as... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-06-07 16:16:58 UTC ]
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Amazon.com Inc. is interested in acquiring prepaid wireless phone service Boost Mobile from T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp., Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Amazon is considering buying Boost for an attached wholesale deal that would allow the buyer to use T-Mobile’s... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-31 17:33:29 UTC ]
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Gap Inc. tumbled as much as 16 percent—the most since 2016—after the clothing retailer reported a slump in sales at both its namesake line and Old Navy, threatening the potential appeal for a spinoff of the discount chain. Same-store sales, a key measure of a retailer’s performance, fell 4... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-31 15:50:27 UTC ]
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Walt Disney Co. is following Netflix’s lead in threatening to leave Georgia if a controversial anti-abortion law takes effect. Disney CEO Bob Iger told Reuters on Wednesday that it would be “very difficult” to keep film production in the state if the legislation becomes law next year. A... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-30 14:39:17 UTC ]
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Amazon.com Inc. is developing a voice-activated wearable device that can recognize human emotions. The wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg. It’s a collaboration between Lab126, the hardware development group behind Amazon’s... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-23 22:06:23 UTC ]
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ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro says the sports network is “all hands on deck” to attract more women and younger viewers, a crusade that includes a new streaming service launched last year. The Walt Disney Co.-owned cable giant introduced its ESPN+ online service a year ago, and it has drawn over 2... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-23 22:01:09 UTC ]
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Twitter co-founder Ev Williams said Wednesday that the social network might have been quicker to recognize and address the potential for abuse and harassment on its platform if the company’s leadership had been more diverse. When Twitter went public in 2013, it came under fire for having only... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-23 19:28:23 UTC ]
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Rihanna revealed her first Fenty collection in Paris on Wednesday evening. She arrived wearing a blazer as a dress—the white canvas number had exaggerated shoulders and was cinched in at the middle with a built-in corset—paired with strappy going-out heels in gold leather, all from her new... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-23 16:56:09 UTC ]
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Every 36 hours on average, American local news outlets deliver a new report on violence at a McDonald’s. A group of employees in Chicago say workers bear the brunt of such incidents—enough to constitute a pattern of regular on-the-job violence they want the company to address across the U.S. In... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-22 14:33:16 UTC ]
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McDonald’s Corp., in the face of criticism for its handling of harassment complaints, said it’s training workers to deal with the issue and is starting a hotline for victims. In a letter responding to an inquiry from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook said... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-21 15:09:47 UTC ]
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ESPN The Magazine is now the latest publication to abandon print. Regular editions of the monthly will cease after the September release of “The Body Issue” and the publication will go online-only, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN said in a statement. “Consumer habits are evolving rapidly, and this... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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American Media Inc. is selling the National Enquirer to Hudson News Deputy Chairman James Cohen, according to The Washington Post, letting the embattled publisher jettison the tabloid after being accused of trying to blackmail the world’s richest man. Cohen will pay $100 million for the... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Netflix is planning its first magazine, but you won’t find it on a newsstand. The world’s largest online TV network plans to publish a journal—with the working title Wide—to promote its programs and stars ahead of this year’s Emmys, the biggest awards gala in TV. The 100-plus page inaugural... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The National Enquirer, the tabloid that billionaire Jeff Bezos accused of extortion earlier this year, is on the block to be sold by parent company American Media Inc. American Media’s board conducted a review of its tabloid business, including the Globe and National Examiner brands, and... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2019-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bug bounty programs are a popular way for tech companies to track down problems with their products without having to spend large sums of money on dedicated research teams. Microsoft is one of the big names with such a program, and it has just announced that it is increasing the payouts it... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2019-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rupert Murdoch has stepped up his attack on tech companies such as Google and Facebook over their increasingly dominant market position, which is eating into the revenues of traditional publishers such as News Corp. and undermining their business model. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Transparency reports about government data requests have become very common from tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google. But while these firms publish reports, their hands are tied when it comes to what they can reveal. Twitter wants to change that. A federal judge in California... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2017-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to channel populist anger to stem immigration, but tech companies want him to know that hiring immigrants is necessary for the country's economy and boosts overall employment.Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are said to be writing Trump a... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2017-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Let publishers take the polite or guilt-trip approach to ad blockers. Facebook is coming down hard, saying it's going to force ad blockers to see ad messages, like it or not. It could be a rallying cry for publishers but will also likely escalate the arms race with tech companies, observers... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2016-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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