Morning Update: behind the AT&T Time Warner buy-out; NYT reviews series in wrong order; Facebook’s shared content loophole
Vox: AT&T buying Time Warner looks like an ego-driven mistake
Unless regulators are asleep at the wheel, this is bad for businesses.
When word leaked on Friday that AT&T, the wireless carrier that also owns Direct TV and the smallish U-Verse wireline fibre-optic service, was preparing to purchase Time Warner, shares of the telecom utility immediately plummeted and those of the media conglomerate soared. In subsequent days, analysts have put forward various versions of the story from insiders in both companies as to why this is a good idea.
The Guardian: New York Times review pans series – but then admits critic saw it in wrong order
The New York Times has issued a correction after its television writer panned a show for being confusing when he watched the first two episodes in the wrong order.
Mike Hale, the Times’ television critic, had criticised the “split personality” and “needlessly complicated structure” of the initial episodes of Amazon’s new legal drama Goliath. The noirish series is co-created by David E Kelley – the producer behind Boston Legal and Ally McBeal – and stars Billy Bob Thornton as Billy McBride, a down-and-out lawyer.
Gizmodo: Desperate Publishers Are Paying Celebrities to Post Their Articles on Facebook
It seems that some publishers have found a nice little loophole to avoid violating Facebook’s terms of service for sponsored content. An entire industry has popped up around paying celebrities to share articles without indicating that the content is essentially sponsored.
It’s well known that online publishers have faced a tough battle with Facebook’s ever-changing news feed algorithm. The interactions that occur on the company’s platform have been credited with driving up to 75% of traffic to popular websites.
https://youtu.be/C8k2ZtzpMns
Campaign Live: Campaign Big Awards 2016: the winners’ showcase
This year’s awards are dominated by one campaign that ticks all the boxes for the judging panel. See the full list of winners here…
Mumbrella Asia: China’s mobile advertising market grew by nine times in a year
China is by some margin the world’s fastest growing mobile advertising market, according to data from mobile ad platform Smaato.
Spend on mobile ads in China was up by nine times (931%) the level seen a year ago, while Japan more than tripled. East Asia’s key markets, with the exception of Taiwan, are growing faster than Southeast Asia, with Vietnam the fastest growing market in that sub-region.
