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BFD Expert Voices - Media Deals

BFD Expert Voices

Enhancements in artificial intelligence have helped companies advertise on social media while maintaining brand safety, marketing executives told Kerry at Advertising Week New York yesterday.

Why it matters: AI-powered brand safety tools have increased in importance as short-form video grows in popularity, spurring more complex user-generated content that can also be AI-generated. 

Of note: "Brand safety [is] of the utmost importance," said Deva Bronson, executive vice president, global head of brand assurance at Dentsu.

Details: Ad tech firm Integral Ad Science has partnered with platforms like X and TikTok to help them ensure ads are delivered around brand-safe context, chief commercial officer Yannis Dosios said.

"It's about at scale, breaking down content frame by frame and doing semantics analysis using AI and [machine learning] to really understand automatically, not just with a human making a judgment ... what is the risk level of this content?" Dosios said.

"We're testing right now," Dosios said of the new partnership with X. "But we're seeing encouraging results. We hope to be able to launch it before the end of the year." 

When speaking about its TikTok partnership, Dosios noted AI and ML have supported IAS in expanding its tools to more than 90 languages. AI also helps the platform understand objects, logos, people and scene analysis, such as whether an image is of a car crash or a car parade, he said. 

What we're watching: Mastercard is interested in using generative AI to help customers create content around the experiences booked with the company "through the lens of our Priceless campaign," says Jay Altschuler, senior vice president, global media and agency relations. 

Marketers say AI helps with brand safety at scale

1 big thing: Brand safety at scale

Kerry Flynn, Yannis Dosios, Deva Bronson and Jay Altschuler all seated in white chairs in front of a red background

(L to R) Kerry Flynn, IAS' Yannis Dosios, Dentsu's Deva Bronson and Mastercard's Jay Altschuler. Photo: IAS

News Corp should separate its digital real estate group, a move that will significantly boost the rest of the company's value, Starboard Value's CEO said today.

Why it's the BFD: Starboard is publicly calling out News Corp's leadership and what it sees as leadership's failure to generate value from the Murdoch family's flagship media company, Michael Flaherty writes.

Details: Starboard is recommending that News Corp separate its digital real estate business, which includes a stake in Australian online property firm REA Group, plus Realtor.com parent Move Inc.

News Corp's overall market value is more than $12 billion. Starboard CEO Jeff Smith pointed out that News Corp's stake in REA alone is worth $8 billion.

"We don't believe that News Corp is receiving full credit for this value, or, is not receiving credit for the rest of News Corp," Smith said at the annual 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York.

Smith estimates that taking out the real estate business, the rest of News Corp's business portfolio is worth around $4 billion.

Catch up quick: News Corp has already made moves aligned with Starboard's campaign. It was in talks to sell Realtor.com parent company Move Inc. to CoStar Group. for more than $3 billion earlier this year.

That effort coincided with Rupert Murdoch's plan to combine News Corp and Fox Corp last year. Activist investor Irenic Capital, which had acquired around 2% of News Corp shares, publicly opposed the merger and, like Starboard is doing now, demanded the company spin off its real estate business instead.

Irenic's campaign fizzled out after News Corp abandoned both the merger plan and the Move Inc. sale process.

Zoom in: Smith did not detail the size of his fund's stake in News Corp.

In a presentation to a room full of investors and corporate advisers, Smith said that Dow Jones' valuation compared to the New York Times was completely out of whack.

"Dow Jones is a highly valuable business," he said.

Of note: "We have always maintained an active and engaged dialogue with our investors and are committed to driving shareholder value," a News Corp spokesman tells Axios. "We remain focused on executing our strategic plan, which has helped us set records in profitability over the past three years."

What we're watching: Whether Starboard is pushing on an open door or the two sides are squaring up for a fight.

2. The BFD: Jeff Smith's News Corp recs

Starboard Value CEO Jeff Smith. Photo: Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Patreon, which connects creators with paying fans, has acquired Moment, a livestream platform for events and ticketed experiences, Patreon CEO Jack Conte tells Sara Fischer.

Why it matters: The deal is part of a broader push by Patreon to provide services that strengthen creators' connections with their communities, in addition to facilitating payments between them.

Details: Patreon plans to fully integrate Moment's products and capabilities into its suite of services and tools for creators, Conte says.

The deal, which closed yesterday, will bring all of Moment's employees to Patreon.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Conte says the acquisition did not require regulatory approval, which is typically required for any U.S. deal above roughly $100 million.

The startup, formerly called Moment House, has raised $13.5 million, according to Crunchbase. Investors in its $12 million Series A round included Halsey, UTA Ventures, Zaiko and Forerunner Ventures.

Be smart: Moment is the fourth product acquisition Patreon has made in the past few years, but it's unique in that it doesn't focus on memberships.

Patreon acquired Subbable, a subscription-based funding site for artists, in 2015. It bought Kit, a platform that helps creators bundle merchandise with their subscriptions and Memberful, a subscription membership platform, in 2018.

What to watch: Asked whether the firm is eyeing an IPO soon, Conte says he thinks it makes sense for Patreon to become a public company one day, but "we have no plans to do that right now."

3. Patreon acquires livestream platform Moment

Illustration of a hand holding a cell phone displaying a $100 bill on the screen surrounded by social media icons.

Looking for more deal insights? Search the Axios Pro Deals Tracker beta.

• Last Country, Inc., the holding company for Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel's new media company, raised a $15m seed round led by 1789 Capital. https://axios.link/45zdzLy

• Creative Force, a San Diego-based provider of content ops workflow software for online retailers and brands, raised $8.9m in Series A funding from Hearst Ventures and Export and Investment Fund of Denmark. https://axios.link/3M2pXNi

• Zeedz, a Berlin-based gaming company, raised a $1m seed round. The round was led by the panelists of Germany's Shark Tank, Die Hohle der Lowen. https://axios.link/3FjwQWF

• Alpine Racing Ltd, the Formula 1 team backed by the Renault Group, received a €200m investment from Otro Capital with the support of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Rory McIlroy, Anthony Joshua, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Juan Mata and Roger Ehrenberg. https://axios.link/3Qn2Boh

• Catalyst Capital Group is seeking to sell Canadian gaming company Gateway Casinos & Entertainment for around $2b, per Bloomberg. https://axios.link/3S2zoQB

• Sky Network Television, the New Zealand-based pay TV provider not related to the other Sky, received a non-binding expression of interest to be bought last week from a PE firm. https://axios.link/48YVtFC

4. Deal flow

• Meg Runeari was promoted to chief experience officer and COO, North America at Teads. Mike Dupree was named CRO. He was previously managing director, client solutions at X (Twitter). https://axios.link/3Fm4Xx6

• Janina Lundy, formerly of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, joined Hartbeat as EVP, head of marketing and brand strategy. Adam Puchalsky, formerly of Wavemaker, joined as EVP, global head of Pulse. https://axios.link/3LZbmSU

• Caroline Stone, former BBC Studios executive, joined the U.K.-branch of French film company Pathé, Pathé Productions, as commercial director. https://axios.link/3rSIAfF

• Michelle Knudsen, formerly partner at MXN Entertainment in its LA office, joined management and production outfit 42. https://axios.link/3PVEtYl

• Paula Reid was promoted to chief legal affairs correspondent at CNN. https://axios.link/45yF5bZ

• Pete Hines, head of publishing at Microsoft's Bethesda Softworks, is retiring after 24 years at the company. https://axios.link/45yZihV

• Songtradr laid off 60 staffers, out of 118, at Bandcamp after acquiring the music discovery platform from Epic Games. https://axios.link/46ProGT

5. Movin' on up (or out)

😞 At least 15 journalists killed in Hamas-Israel war (Axios)

"Most of the 11 Palestinians killed during the Hamas-Israeli war died during Israeli bombardments, per CPJ. Three Israeli journalists were killed in Hamas attacks and one Lebanese journalist has also been killed in an attack Lebanon's government blamed on an Israeli missile strike," Sara writes.

👶 Exclusive: Daily Wire launches kids entertainment app called Bentkey (Axios)

"The new platform, launching on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Walt Disney Company, was built in response to Disney's positioning on Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill, known as the 'Don't Say Gay' bill," Sara writes.

🧑‍⚖️ The Google antitrust trial has been frustratingly locked down — the NYT just filed a motion to open it up (The Verge)

"The motion is supported by Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, MLex, and Law360 and argues that Judge Mehta hold hearings before closing the courtroom and provide timely access to exhibits and testimony," Nilay Patel writes.

6. Channel surfing

Situational awareness: Activist hedge fund Legion Partners is going after Clear Channel Outdoors, pushing the company to speed up asset sales, become a pure play U.S. company and, if that doesn't add value, pursue a strategic review. 

Legion delivered its comments today at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in NYC.

@tim_bays: "Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul" on Netflix. What started as a good-faith effort to get people to stop smoking just made things worse. 

@kerrymflynn: Philadelphia Phillies vs. Arizona Diamondbacks on Max. Rooting for the Phanatic. 

✏️ Thanks to Michael Flaherty for editing and Katie Lewis for copy editing this newsletter.

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October 17, 2023

1 big thing: Brand safety at scale