VZ Verizon Communications Inc

By Mike Shields 

NO DATA CHARGES: When Verizon Communications acquired AOL, the latter's CEO, Tim Armstrong, boasted that Verizon could be a credible competitor to Google and Facebook , the two giants of online advertising -- and that the quest would be fueled by data. Verizon's fuel may have just become more plentiful and the playing field more level, as lawmakers Tuesday rolled back regulations on telecom and broadband companies that limited their ability to sell consumer data to third parties, The Wall Street Journal reports. Previously, internet service providers had to get consumer permission to use their web-browsing history ( data that can be very useful for advertisers, the Washington Post reports) as part of rules put in place by the Federal Communications Commission late in former President Barack Obama's final term. Since Facebook and Google are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, they weren't subject to such rules and thus seemingly had it easier when it came to using web and mobile data. It's not entirely clear how wide open this makes things for the Verizons of the world, since Republican lawmakers are saying consumer rights are still a top concern. Regardless, it sure seems as if the rules of online ad targeting are getting looser, and the days of the Interactive Advertising Bureau lobbying in D.C. to push "self regulation" seem rather quaint.

STREAMING HURDLE: Last summer, there was panic in the TV landscape over slipping Olympic broadcast ratings and an overarching fear millennials didn't like track and field or live sports in general. That led to some serious pining by NBCUniversal, which assured advertisers that while millennials still love the Olympics, they just like watching the games on digital platforms on their own time. But now, the TV giant seems to be giving into the screaming hordes on Twitter (why won't they show curling live?!?!) and to media-consumption and time-zone realities. Next year, NBCU will air its prime-time coverage of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, live from coast to coast, the Los Angeles Times reports. It's not the "every single sport live on TV with no tape delays or prepackaged features" approach some of the angry sports purist police have been clamoring for, but it is a big step toward acknowledging traditional TV can't put the genie back in the bottle when it comes to consumers' modern media consumption habits. Remember, NBCU has shelled out $12 billion for the Olympics through 2032 -- an outlay contingent on the company making sure it can deliver a huge prime-time audience for advertisers.

FUMBLE: Last summer, the startup OneUp Sports was pitching what sounded like a solid game plan: to crank out lots of mobile friendly short-form videos about fans' favorite local teams and distribute them on social media and to thousands of local sites. The plan was being put in motion just as Facebook was pushing its Live platform, and there seemed to be an opening for a next-generation SportsCenter. The company also was getting a boost from the acquisition of web publisher Insider Sports. But somewhere along the way, things unraveled for OneUp, which recently closed its New York office, fired some staffers and backed out of the Insider Sports deal, CMO Today reports. OneUp also is dealing with unpaid business partners and is entangled in lawsuits, including one accusing the company of not paying for an acquisition in full (an accusation OneUp denies). The company's founder and CEO says OneUp is just another a bootstrapped startup that bit off more than it could chew and couldn't get the economics to work. While attempting to start a digital media business is no sure thing, the OneUp tale is one of a company that appears to have gotten out way over its skis.

FACESNAPGRAM: Instagram has been copying Snapchat's features one by one of late. Most famously, the image-centric social app blatantly emulated Snapchat's Stories feature, which lets people string together videos throughout the course of a day until they expire after 24 hours, with a Stories feature of its own. Now, Instagram parent Facebook is copying the copying with its own version of Stories, The Wall Street Journal reports. Besides the new Stories option, Facebook is making it easier to access people's cameras via their mobile devices with a single swipe and is adding a camera-centric direct-messaging option. While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, do these tools fit the way people use Facebook? Snapchat always has been about creating video first and foremost: When a person opens the app, it starts in camera mode, and parent company Snap calls itself a camera company. Creating video stories feels pretty natural for Instagram. But Facebook is all about its feed and sharing pictures and articles and political rants. Will this be yet another easily ignored feature, like Facebook's old "poke" option? Or does Facebook even care -- is this mostly about stifling Snapchat?

Elsewhere

BuzzFeed plans to go public next year, according to Axios columnist Mike Allen, and digital rival Vice Media is looking for a sale. [ Axios]

Media columnist Michael Wolff examines the state of the planned merger between AT&T and Time Warner and asks, "What do you do when you need the government's good will and the volatile new president doesn't like you?" [ Hollywood Reporter]

Former Fox News Chief Financial Officer Mark Kranz has been offered immunity by prosecutors in exchange for cooperating with government investigators examining allegations that the network's former chairman, Roger Ailes, had a long history or harassing female employees. [ Financial Times]

Meanwhile, two black women filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging they were subject to racial harassment while working at Fox News. [ New York Times]

Discovery Communications is planning to roll out sports-related content for Snapchat's Discover platform via its Eurosport subsidiary, as well as wedding-focused content for Amazon. [ CMO Today]

The annual TV upfront ad sales period is only a few weeks away, but Fox still hasn't filled its top ad sales role, a job that's been open since September. [ Ad Age]

Hulu is cranking up its library of Spanish-language programming, signing deals with Telemundo and Sony Pictures Television to add hundreds of hours of telenovelas and popular Spanish-language movies. [ Variety]

Digiday takes a look at the recent struggles at the Guardian as the U.K. publisher tried to make a big splash in the U.S. over the past few years and found a challenging digital ad market. [ Digiday]

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Write to Mike Shields at mike.shields@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 29, 2017 08:10 ET (12:10 GMT)

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