AABA Altaba Inc

By Steven Perlberg 

UPFRONT DOWNLOAD: The 2016 upfronts are finally over, and now advertisers will get a chance to rest their livers before they open their wallets and buy ad time for the fall season. As always, networks traded barbs with each other and their digital rivals this year, and CMO Today rounded up some of the best moments, like when half of Kenny Mayne emerged from a trap door at the ESPN upfront in a joke meant to mock online ad viewability. Fox called CBS's aging audience a group of "walking zombies." TruTV's Billy Eichner said that TV would be dead in three years, so "enjoy it while you still can." And three networks tried their hand at "Hamilton" spoofs, while NBCU's Telemundo stole attendees away from the Fox party thanks to a Jennifer Lopez concert.

BUNDLED UP: The number of companies trying to put together an online "skinny bundle" of TV channels is getting a bit out of hand. Dish's Sling TV and Sony already have products in the market, Hulu is planning one, Amazon and Google have poked around the idea for years, and Apple gave it the old Eddy Cue try. Now Bloomberg reports that Samsung is in early talks with entertainment companies to ask how much they would charge for Samsung to carry their channels. The product, which may never come to fruition, would be aimed at a global audience, not just U.S. viewers. So far, offering the channels and features consumers want in the $30 to $40-a-month range has been problematic. And at this point, it would be easier if all the tech and media companies not doing skinny bundles put out announcements instead.

BUYER'S MARKET: When it became clear Yahoo was selling its core Web business, people close to the process were predicting it would go for somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 billion to $8 billion. That seems unlikely now. Verizon Communications and others are expected to bid around $2 billion to $3 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. Others in contention include buyout firm TPG; an investor group that includes Bain Capital, Vista Equity Partners and former Yahoo CEO Ross Levinsohn; and Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans, who may be backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Of course, it's always in the interest of bidders to play down their enthusiasm. But potential buyers certainly haven't been impressed by Yahoo's recent performance: the company gave a reminder of its troubles when it reported that first-quarter revenue dropped 18%.

BELTWAY TECH: Publishers have a handful of strategies for dealing with people using ad blockers (posting messages asking them to please stop is one tactic). Now the Washington Post is rolling out a new ad product called Fuse that aims to speed up mobile ads and make them less annoying, CMO Today reports. The Fuse ads, when tapped, expand across a person's screen instead of sending people to another site. The ads are also "pre-cached" by the Post, so they theoretically load faster. The long-term goal for the Post is about more than just combating ad blocking: the Jeff Bezos-owned paper wants to become something of an ad tech provider and license Fuse out to other publishers.

Elsewhere

"60 Minutes" correspondent Morley Safer, who retired from CBS last week, has died at 84. [ WSJ]

Tribune Publishing's chairman told employees he isn't just fighting Gannett's hostile takeover bid; he claimed to be working on a bid for Gannett, according to a Politico report. Gannett said it remains committed to its bid. [ Politico]

During the TV upfronts, executives made a point to diss digital advertising and call out the problems in the online ad ecosystem. Meanwhile, TV companies continue to push into digital themselves. [ Variety]

Google, which banned payday loan ads from its service, has invested in online lender LendUp. The lender says the ban could make it harder to market its loans. [ WSJ]

YouTube prank videos are very popular -- but some are also very illegal. This week a court gave jail sentences to four men who staged a fake heist through London's National Portrait Gallery. [ NYT]

The activewear, CPG and consumer electronics sectors have accounted for 57% of all advertising in Snapchat Discover, according to researcher L2. Activewear led the pack with 21%. [ Adweek]

IMAX will later this year launch virtual reality experiences in multiplexes and malls, with content tied to film franchises. The company is collaborating with Google on a camera that will shoot 360-degree images for VR. [ WSJ]

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Write to Steven Perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 20, 2016 07:31 ET (11:31 GMT)

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