All Access

Media Deals

Media Deals Alerts

Alert

Standard

Media Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Media Deals

BFD Expert Voices

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

jobs

transportation

business

stock-market-news

retail-news

crypto

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

pittsburgh

atlanta

san-diego

charlotte

boulder

washington-dc

kansas-city

dallas

denver

detroit

des-moines

austin

boston

chicago

cleveland

columbus

houston

indianapolis

miami

nashville

new-orleans

nw-arkansas

philadelphia

phoenix

portland

richmond

salt-lake-city

san-antonio

san-francisco

seattle

tampa-bay

twin-cities

raleigh

huntsville

colorado-springs

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

The stronger-than-expected TV upfront market is crashing into a stronger-than-expected slowdown in ad spending, Tim writes.

Why it matters: The hefty ad commitments — where no money is actually changing hands yet — may have obscured the fact that the current situation is much more dire. 

Driving the news: Roku was hammered on its earnings yesterday after it badly missed expectations and forecasted weaker growth. Roku blamed "a significant slowdown" in TV ad spending for its poor performance. 

At the same time, Roku said it surpassed $1 billion in upfront ad commitments for the 2022-2023 TV season.

Roku's stock plummeted more than 20% in after-hours trading. It opened today at $66.15, whereas yesterday's opening was $85.79.

Catch up quick: It was only a few weeks ago that media giants were happily telling the press about how well they did in the upfronts.

Disney said it secured a record $9 billion in advertising commitments, and 40% of that went to streaming and digital. NBCUniversal and Paramount also reported strong numbers. 

What's next: Roku CEO Anthony Wood still sees more dollars out there as the space gets more competitive (Disney+, Netflix).  

Roku pointed out that only 22% of TV ad budgets go toward streaming. Meanwhile, more than 50% of all TV viewing happens on streaming.

"It makes streaming ads even more mainstream," Wood said during the company's earnings call. "It will grow the industry.”

What they're saying: "While the company was clear that a consumer slowdown in player sales were to blame, we think the scale of this deceleration and downgrade of 3Q 2022 expectations speaks to the relative uneasiness of Roku's core advertising clients," MoffettNathanson's Michael Nathanson wrote in an analyst note today. 

1 big thing: 🤔 Something doesn't Ad up

Animated illustration of a plus sign formed by two one hundred dollar bills turning into an asterisk

Sue Bird and Eli Manning are joining the parade of athletes and business titans investing in the sports biz with a stake in women's soccer franchise NJ/NY Gotham FC, Michael Flaherty writes. 

Why it matters: Gobs of money have gone to sports franchises in the last few years, and that's especially the case for the National Women's Soccer League. Buying into sports teams was forever seen as a trophy asset move that didn't make much money but offered tax and other benefits.

Yes, but: The ROI on some of these top-level teams across global sports leagues is growing and attracting sports stars, Wall Street types and private equity buyers. 

Details: Sportico had the scoop yesterday, saying Manning and Bird are investing in the pro soccer club that now sports a $40 million valuation.  Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures and soccer legend Carli Lloyd (a former Gotham FC player) are also investors in the NWSL franchise.

What they're saying: "It wasn't a conversation," Bird told Forbes in an interview. "It was, 'Yeah, that sounds amazing.'"

From Reuters: NWSL teams have become popular investments among celebrities. Actors Natalie Portman, Jennifer Garner and Eva Longoria are part of the ownership group of Angel City FC, which also includes Serena Williams.

Naomi Osaka is an investor in the North Carolina Courage, and former first daughters Jenna Bush Hager and Chelsea Clinton own stakes in the Washington Spirit.

2. The BFD: Bird, Manning score Gotham FC stake

Sue Bird. Photo: Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images

Data:  IAB "2H 2022 Flash Bulletin." Chart: Axios Visuals

For ad buyers reducing their projected U.S. media spend for H2, the most common factor was a "slowing economy," according to an IAB study released yesterday, Kerry writes.

Why it matters: Per recent earnings reports, many businesses reliant on advertising have missed their revenue expectations, lowered guidance and instituted cuts that could mean fewer acquisitions or investments. 

Details: IAB reported that 74 of the 250 ad buyers they surveyed earlier this month said they were reducing their projected total U.S. media spend for July to December this year. 

Along with the slowing economy, the other top factors were supply chain bottleneck and consumer inflation. 

The other category at 22% includes COVID, budget shifts and restructuring and other business challenges, per IAB.

Yes, but: Despite these reductions, which several global ad agencies have similarly predicted, IAB said buyers on average projected H2 2022 ad spend to be up more than 7% compared to their original plans. 

But when asked if the U.S. is currently experiencing or likely to experience a slowing economy that will decrease total U.S. ad spend within the next year, about 71% of the 250 surveyed ad buyers said yes. 

The majority expected that impact to occur in the first half of 2023. 

Still, buyers said they expect ad spend for H2 2023 to be up 10%, on average, compared to H2 2022. 

3. Charted: Ad spend reductions

Players' Lounge, a New York-based prize-based gaming startup, raised $10.5m in Series A funding led by Griffin Gaming Partners, with Comcast Ventures, Samsung Next, Vice Ventures, WndrCo, Sharp Alpha Partners, True Capital, Myles Garrett, Josh Norman and Breanna Stewart also participating. Read more.

Mobile Global Esports, a San Clemente, Calif.-based developer of an esports platform for university competitions in India and South Asia, raised $6m by offering 1.5m shares at $4. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol MGAM. WestPark Capital acted as sole bookrunner on the deal. Read more.

Panopto, backed by K1 Investment Management, made an offer to acquire Kaltura, a New York-based cloud video software company. It raised its bid to $3 per share at a valuation of $383m — a 27% premium over Kaltura's closing stock price yesterday. Read more.

SiriusXM's Earwolf will produce Leslie Jones' first podcast. Read more.

Todd Boehly's Eldridge Industries will take over The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Golden Globes and manage them as a for-profit entity. Read more. 

4. Deal flow

Warner Bros. Discovery hired former Disney CCO Alan Horn as a senior adviser. Read more.

Warner Bros. Discovery promoted Asif Sadiq to chief global diversity, equity and inclusion officer. Read more.

Faraway Road Productions hired Salome Peillon as COO and Adi Ezroni as EVP of content. Read more. 

RadicalMedia, "Summer of Soul" producer, hired New York attorney Candice Cook Simmons as chief strategy officer. Read more.

Excel Sports Management hired Ryan Holcomb as head of content. Read more.

Snap promoted Jacob Andreou to SVP of growth and Jack Brody to oversee product innovation, and hired Biswanath Panda as VP of ads engineering and Lars Hirsch as VP of ads product, Sara Fischer scoops. Read more.

YouTube EMEA regional boss Ben McOwen Wilson is stepping down after more than a decade but is staying with Google. Read more.

5. Movin' on up (or out)

Inside the multi-billion dollar battle royale over music-streaming royalties (Variety)

"The music companies argue that even though Spotify definitely is not on the same level as an Apple or Amazon, its showy spending on offices, salaries, advertising, events and other endeavors — particularly a recent $300 million investment in the Barcelona Football Club that hardly seems business-critical — make their pleas of poverty, at least when it comes to royalties, deeply unconvincing," Jem Aswad writes.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO keeps hiring white men for top jobs (Bloomberg)

"Given six seats on the new company's board, Zaslav and Discovery appointed a roster of all White male directors. The majority of the chief executive officer's 13 direct reports, many of whom were recent hires, are White men," Lucas Shaw writes.

Instagram walks back its changes (Platformer)

"I don't think we've done nearly as well helping new talent break. And I think that's super important. If we want to be a place where people push culture forward, to help realize the promise of the internet, which was to push power into the hands of more people, I think that we need to get better at that," Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said. 

6. Channel surfing

Illustration of a television with a tie dye pattern on the screen.

🗓 Mark your calendar: The Elon-Twitter trial begins Oct. 17. 

🗣️ Quote of the day: "We never buy just to buy or buy just for revenue purposes, but we would buy something that is strategic for us. To date, we have concentrated on smaller IP and people acquisitions, but I wouldn't rule anything out for the future," Apple CEO Tim Cook said yesterday. 

@tim_bays: NFL Network. With training camp in full swing, this channel gets added back to the favorites list. 

@kerrymflynn: "Renaissance" by Beyoncé. The Guardian called it a "joyous soundtrack to a hot girl summer." 

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

July 29, 2022

1 big thing: 🤔 Something doesn't Ad up