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BFD Expert Voices - Media Deals

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Meta held its first in-person NewFront last night at Fotografiska, the museum housed in the swanky building notorious scammer Anna Delvey tried to buy. The media behemoth focused its pitch on storytelling and creators. 

Why it matters: Meta had never before presented in-person at the 14-year-old marketplace for digital platforms and advertisers held annually in New York.  

Details: Whereas NewFronts are typically opportunities to announce new content slates and ad products, Meta's presentation focused on its continued strength.

Actress Keke Palmer hosted the 45-minute presentation and shared her experience using Meta's apps. 

Three other creators — cookbook author Samah Dada, stand-up comedian Daphnique Springs and trumpet player Spencer Ludwig — also spoke of how Meta has opened doors for them. 

"Meta is where stories are told, where creators thrive and where brands are built," Meta's VP of Americas Nada Stirratt said. 

Meta's ad formats are already well known and embraced by advertisers. Indeed, other ad platforms strive to match Meta's tools. 

Meanwhile, Stirratt did pitch augmented reality (AR) and the metaverse: "All of us have an important role in building the next era of digital connection."

Executives from Wendy's spoke onstage about "Wendyverse," a virtual restaurant built in Meta's Horizon Worlds platform. Though Wendy's is known for its willingness to experiment, execs emphasized the campaign's reach and effectiveness.

COO Sheryl Sandberg wasn't in-person but appeared in a virtual presentation at the same time: "With more than 3 billion users across our platform, Meta is uniquely placed to help your brand discover, reach and engage with the audience and the communities, creators and topics they care about."

Yes, and: Snapchat parent company Snap also pushed AR ads — and itself as a leader in them. 

In a highly produced presentation in Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman gave a subtle jab to Meta, saying, "This isn't some far-off, distant, future-verse."

Snap also featured its own creators, along with CEO Evan Spiegel interviewing Olympian Simone Biles. 

Of note: Meta's event invite promised heavy appetizers, but that proved a virtual reality. The only items of substance were tiny (albeit delicious) slices of Dada's Chocolate Chip Tahini Cake. Attendees were gifted a piece of plastic shaped like a Wendy's Frosty that's valid for free Frosties for the rest of 2022.

1 big thing: Inside Meta's NewFront

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Roku is teaming with Apollo Global Management on a bid for a minority stake in Lionsgate's Starz, a source confirms to Tim.

Why it matters: Lionsgate has been looking to offload Starz either through a spinoff or outright sale since last November. It's widely viewed as a way for Lionsgate to slim down before seeking its own buyer. 

It would also give Roku its first ownership stake in a content company. 

Details: Roku and Apollo could acquire as much as a 20% stake, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news yesterday.

The Roku/Apollo bid is one of multiple bids Lionsgate is considering, The Hollywood Reporter reported. 

The big picture: Roku has been ramping up its content investments, beginning with its acquisition of Quibi's library last year. 

Just last week, Roku signed an output deal with Lionsgate — the streaming company's first — that will make the studio's upcoming theatrical films available exclusively on The Roku Channel for a short time.

Roku's eventual push into studio ownership has been a popular prediction from many in the entertainment industry.

Catch up quick: Lionsgate acquired Starz for $4.4 billion in 2016, but the pay cable network/streaming service has been a drag on the studio's balance sheet.

The combined company is currently valued at around $3 billion, more than $1 billion less than what it paid for Starz. 

The debt from the acquisition has weighed down the company's stock. Executives think the two would be better valued as separate entities.

By the numbers: Starz has just shy of 20 million global subscribers for its StarzPlay streaming service as of the end of 2021. 

Lionsgate will report its first-quarter earnings later this month.  

2. The BFD: Roku and Apollo team up on Starz bid

The annual Milken Institute Global Conference was filled with a solid mix of talk yesterday about the future of news media, suggestions about Netflix's business model and some streaming vs linear TV discussion. But it also featured Jamie Lee Curtis giving us a new life motto: "Get sh-t done before you die." 

On the horror genre: "Studios often look at it and say, 'Let's hire someone who does not have much experience and not have to pay him so much, so we can keep more of the money.' I always think that's a big mistake. It's much better to share more of what the movie may make, in hopes that the pot will be much bigger if you're working with more experienced people."

On calling for Netflix to offer back-end deals: "Netflix changed the business by essentially paying people — producers, writers, directors, actors — upfront. ... What that does is make the process of actually making things very expensive. And I also think it makes the things less good. So I opened my mouth; I've been saying this for a long time, but now people might listen because of the stock price."

The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg:

On the future of news consumption: "We haven't seen it yet, but the rebundling is coming. ... We're all subscribed out. I can't subscribe to any more Substacks. It's just enough already."

On streaming vs linear TV: "I don't think it's necessarily a black or white thing — either you're in traditional television or you're in these other places. ... There's a way to balance it in a way where you're not compromising what you're doing in all these other areas. The success of the cable channel allows us to be more experimentative and exploratory."  

3. Overheard: Milken Institute Global Conference

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Providence Equity is looking to sell its Tempo song catalog for as much as $600m, per FT. http://axios.link/Dq91

Publicis (Paris: PUBP) will pay €200m ($211m) to buy Profitero, a Boston-based e-commerce intelligence software firm that raised around $30m from firms like Polaris Partners. http://axios.link/YHa1

SoundCloud, a Berlin-based music streamer, acquired Musiio, a Singapore-based music curation AI that's raised around $10m from backers like SGInnovate, Aletra Capital Partners and Wavemaker Partners. http://axios.link/Sr1j

InfiniGods, an Austin, Texas-based developer of blockchain-based games, raised $9m in seed funding. Pantera Capital led, and was joined by Framework Ventures, Jefferson Capital, Animoca Brands, and Double Peak. http://axios.link/AA6X

4. Deal flow

BuzzFeed named Squarespace CFO Marcela Martin as its president. http://axios.link/1BBu

USA Today hired McClatchy's Francesca Chambers as a White House correspondent. http://axios.link/6udU

Disney hired Netflix's Devika Chawla and Meta's Arun Chandra for SVP roles overseeing lifecycle engineering and viewer experience, respectively. http://axios.link/OBDu

BBC Films promoted Eva Yates to director after Rose Garnett moves to A24. http://axios.link/LbxA

ITN named ITV News Editor Rachel Corp as CEO, to replace Deborah Turness, who is moving to the BBC. http://axios.link/VBxH

The Russo brothers' production company AGBO hired a trio of executives: Scott Nemes has been tapped as president of television, Marian Koltai-Levine as president of marketing and communications, and Rik Toulon as general counsel. http://axios.link/JwB5

5. Movin' on up (or out)

Pennsylvania film industry seeks statehouse boost (Axios)

"Industry groups and some state legislators are calling on Pennsylvania to extend its film tax credit by nearly 80%, pushing the capped limit from $70 million to $125 million," Axios' Taylor Allen reports. 

"The news organization is now at the center of a debate about who leaked the document and why, including rampant speculation about the motives of Politico's sources. It is extremely rare for an important draft opinion inside the Supreme Court to leak to the press," Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson write.

YouTube plans live shopping bet as ad revenue growth slows (THR)

"YouTube partnered with Netflix for a live shopping stream featuring the YouTube creator Jackie Aina interviewing the makeup artist Pat McGrath about her new 'Bridgerton'-inspired collection," J. Clara Chan writes.

6. Channel surfing

May the Fourth be with you, Media Deals readers!

🗓️ Situational awareness: We're hosting our first Pro Live event tomorrow with NBCUniversal's Linda Yaccarino. Register for the live discussion.

 📰 New York Times reported its second-best first quarter subscription growth since introducing a digital subscription in 2017, thanks in part to its recent acquisitions of The Athletic and Wordle, Axios' Sara Fischer writes.

@tim_bays: "Made for Love" on HBO Max. Even though the fiancée and I enjoyed the first season, we completely forgot about it until we saw that season two dropped last weekend.

@kerrymflynn: "Generation Hustle" on HBO Max. While we're discussing Anna Delvey, a friend recommended this docuseries about scammers. 

Thank you for reading Axios Pro Media Deals! Please ask your friends, colleagues and Jamie Lee Curtis to sign up.

May 04, 2022

1 big thing: Inside Meta's NewFront