YOUTUBE SURGE: Facebook and Netflix recently said their users watch 100 million and 116 million hours of video daily. Pretty huge numbers, right? Well, YouTube remains the 800-pound gorilla: its worldwide viewership has surpassed 1 billion hours a day, according to The Wall Street Journal. To give a little perspective: that’s not far off the 1.25 billion hours people spend watching live and recorded TV in the U.S. Of course, TV still generates far more in ad revenue than YouTube and online video as a whole. And it isn’t clear if YouTube is making money -- growth is the priority. But the new usage milestone might get the attention of some big advertisers that haven’t treated YouTube as a must-buy thus far. Meanwhile, YouTube is making itself more accessible to TV viewers. As WSJ reports, Google reached a deal with Comcast that will enable the cable giant’s customers to search for YouTube videos through their X1 cable boxes, alongside live and on-demand programming. Comcast said that nearly half of its subscribers currently use X1 boxes, which makes the integration possible. The deal, which follows a similar partnership between Netflix and Comcast, might help the cable operator attract more consumers to its broadband products. For YouTube, the deal could allow the web-video company to attract new subscribers to its YouTube Red service, which has struggled to gain traction.
HIGH DRAMA, LOW RATINGS: The Oscars had off-the-charts buzz thanks to the Great Envelope Malfunction of 2017 but its ratings didn’t sizzle. ABC’s awards show telecast recorded about 33 million viewers, making it the least-watched edition since 2008, CMO Today reports. What was PwC’s envelope-guarding executive, Brian Cullinan, doing backstage right before the flub that resulted in “La La Land” mistakenly being announced as best picture? He was tweeting a photo of Best Actress winner Emma Stone, apparently, WSJ reports. Mr. Cullinan later deleted the tweet. PwC claimed responsibility and apologized for handing presenters the wrong envelope. But it could take a lot more than an apology for the company, whose role as ballot-counter for the Academy is meant to promote its reputation for accuracy, to bounce back from this kind of error, Ad Age reports. “It is a potentially a significant dent to their brand,” one branding expert said. If anyone is enjoying the drama it’s President Donald Trump, who told the conservative news site Breitbart that the Oscars were so focused on politics that “they didn’t get the act together at the end.”
NOTHING TO SEE HERE: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday that he doesn’t expect the agency to review AT&T Inc.’s $85 billion takeover of Time Warner Inc., since the deal was designed to keep airwave licenses from being transferred, reports WSJ. Shares of Time Warner had been trading at a discount to AT&T’s original offer of $107.50 per share, but the gap has narrowed in recent weeks and the chairman’s remarks certainly won’t hurt the trend. Mr. Pai said that any decision would depend on the specifics of a deal. His predecessor Tom Wheeler, who pushed against Sprint Corp.’s attempted merger with rival T-Mobile US Inc., wanted to maintain four major national wireless providers. Mr. Pai doesn’t share that view. “There is no specific number I can throw out there as definitive,” he said. “I’ve long said that I can’t opine on the optimal market structure.” In the interview with Breitbart on Monday, President Trump, who was critical of the deal in the final stretch of the campaign, said he wouldn’t comment on a specific transaction but noted: “You have to have competition in the marketplace and you have to have competition among the media.”
TRANSPARENCY ABROAD: A French law that bans media agencies and buyers from collecting rebates and serving as both the buyer and seller of media was recently revised to more explicitly encompass digital media buying, reports Business Insider. A new version of the law, dubbed Loi Sapin, will cover, “any medium connected to the internet, such as computers, tablets, mobile phones, televisions, and digital panels.” As part of the update, media owners will need to send invoices and information about their work with the agency directly to the advertiser. The update comes amid a raging debate over transparency in the U.S. ad business, and reminds ad buyers and sellers that client concerns surrounding conflicts of interest and agencies’ bad behavior also exist overseas. A report from the Association of National Advertisers last year shed light on the ways in which agencies had been collecting rebates from media vendors without their clients’ knowledge. A number of clients have since launched audits of their media agencies.
Elsewhere
Paul Rittenberg, head of advertising sales for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, is leaving the company at the end of April. The Fox veteran’s departure follows a year in which the company raked in a record $1.2 billion in gross advertising revenue. [CMO Today]
Former President George W. Bush on Monday told “Today” host Matt Lauer that he considers “the media to be indispensable to democracy,” and “we need the media to hold people like me to account.” [Politico]
Comedy shows like “Saturday Night Live” and HBO’s Bill Maher are seeing a surge in viewers, thanks in part to Donald Trump’s election, and all the material it creates. [Bloomberg]
Despite his disdain for certain news networks, President Trump will meet with people from the “big five networks” before Tuesday’s primetime congressional address. [Huffington Post]
Firefox browser owner Mozilla is acquiring Pocket, a company that makes it easy for users to save articles and digital content for later viewing and touts over 10 million monthly active users. [Recode]
Gawker founder Nick Denton asked a judge to dismiss his Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, because proceeds from Gawker’s liquidation will be more than enough to pay his remaining creditors. Gawker and Mr. Denton separately filed for chapter 11 protection last year to shield themselves from the $140 million judgment awarded to Terry Bollea, a.k.a. Hulk Hogan. [WSJ]
German football (soccer) club FC Bayern Munich is launching its own linear TV channel on Deutsche Telekom’s IPTV platform Entertain TV, as well as the team’s website and app. Subscriptions will cost €5.95 per month. [The Drum]
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