AABA Altaba Inc

By Mike Shields 

SHARING THE FOOTBALL: The NFL announced its new Thursday Night Football deal with TV networks, and it isn't as complicated as some executives feared. The package will be split between CBS and NBC pretty cleanly -- five games apiece -- and there aren't any exotic scheduling requirements or production requests, as The Wall Street Journal reports. But the one wrinkle is that the league will separately announce -- perhaps within a few weeks -- a digital partner that can stream games to cord-cutters. There's always the threat that this could eat into the audience CBS and NBC enjoy, though they will have the right to offer streams to pay TV subscribers. If you believe sports like the NFL are holding the cable industry together, serving up that content to cord-cutters has to be a bit scary for the TV establishment.

GOOGLE EARNINGS: No, Google-parent Alphabet didn't break out in detail what it earns on YouTube during its fourth quarter earnings announcement Monday, as many have long been hoping. But it did call out YouTube and programmatic advertising as key revenue drivers, alongside mobile search ads--a strong endorsement considering how stellar the quarter was overall. YouTube's ad business grew at a "very significant rate," said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet. Google's core businesses, including search, YouTube and Android, posted 14% revenue growth, WSJ reports. And while cost-per-click (what advertisers pay for each time a person clicks on an ad) was down once again, the number of ads clicked on jumped 31% year-over-year. Meanwhile, this was the first time that Alphabet broke out "other bets," i.e. those projects like self-driving cars. They posted a $3.1 billion operating loss during the quarter, nearly double the losses in 2014.

YAHOO HAIRCUT: Today's the day that Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer is expected to unveil her new plan to save Yahoo. That plan is expected to include layoffs--a reduction of up to 15% in its workforce--and some business segments getting shut down, WSJ reports. The idea is that such maneuvers could buy Ms. Mayer time to deal with her various investor battles. But that might not be enough when she's facing such an impatient crowd that's losing faith in her leadership, as appears to be the case, reports Bloomberg. "She's almost out of time," said Ryan Jacob, who manages Yahoo shares as part of his Jacob Internet Fund.

TELEMUNDO'S HANDYMAN: Who's going to watch random clips of telenovelas on YouTube unless they are super fans of these shows, which sometimes produce hundreds of hours during their runs? Turns out, lots of people, if the right actors, actresses or racy love scenes are highlighted. Over the past year, Telemundo started digging into its YouTube analytics and found that certain clips from telenovelas had started taking on a life of their own, including a popular snippet from the show Marido en alquiler, i.e. "My Dear Handyman," reports CMO Today. The NBCUniversal-owned network started highlighting such clips on its YouTube channel and saw their viewership accelerate--so much so that the company has been able to generate newfound ad revenue.

Elsewhere

21st Century Fox is looking to save $250 million through employee buyouts in its film studio and TV networks [ WSJ]

AOL says it is testing ways to have consumers rate digital ads [ Variety]

Vanity Fair takes a deep look at whether YouTube and Vine stars will ever make it big in Hollywood [ Vanity Fair]

Over 12 million people tuned in on Sunday Night to watch "Grease: Live" on Fox [ CMO Today]

A handful of GOP Super PACs are buying Super Bowl TV ads in New Hampshire and South Carolina just before those states host presidential primaries [ Ad Age]

Fox News anchors Bill O'Reilly and Megyn Kelly are feuding over ratings and guest bookings [ CNN]

Samsung enabled ad blockers in its default mobile browser [ Ad Age]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2016 07:57 ET (12:57 GMT)

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