There is no better indicator that the Christmas season is underway than the opening of Christmas markets across Scotland.
01.11.2023 - 20:49 / variety.com
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku shares rose after the streaming-platform company beat Wall Street expectations for the third quarter of 2023 on the top line. But in providing forward-looking guidance, Roku told investors that the macroeconomic environment remains “uncertain.” The company reported Q3 revenue of $912 million, up 20%, and a net loss of $330 million (or $2.33 per share) — more than double the net loss of $122 million in the year-ago period.
Wall Street analysts on average expected revenue of $853.2 million and a net loss of $2.08 per share, per Refinitiv data. Shares of Roku were up more than 10% in after-hours trading on the earnings report.
“We had a solid rebound in video ads in Q3 and we expect the YoY growth rate of video ads in Q4 to be similar,” the company said in its shareholder letter. “However, we remain cautious amid an uncertain macro environment and an uneven ad market recovery.” In addition, Roku said, it will face difficult year-over-year growth rate comparisons in content distribution and media and entertainment marketing spending “which will challenge the YoY growth rate of platform revenue in Q4.” For Q4, Roku provided guidance of revenue of $955 million (which would be up 10% versus the year-earlier quarter) and a net loss of $85 million.
The company took a $62 million write-down on content in Q3, cutting into its bottom line, after it removed content from the Roku Channel to reduce costs. In September, the company pulled more than three dozen shows from the service, most of which had been produced for Quibi, the defunct mobile streamer whose assets it bought in early 2021.
There is no better indicator that the Christmas season is underway than the opening of Christmas markets across Scotland.
With Strictly Come Dancing heading to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom this weekend, it appears that dancing fever has well and truly taken over the seaside town.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube has updated its monetization policy for adult content in two areas: Creators are now eligible to receive ad revenue from videos that feature “non-sexually graphic dance, such as twerking,” as well as content related to breastfeeding. In a notice posted Thursday, the video platform said certain content showcasing “sensual dancing” is now allowable under its advertiser-friendly content guidelines.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kelly Rizzo, TV personality and entrepreneur who is the wife of the late Bob Saget, is launching “Comfort Food,” a new weekly podcast in which she hosts intimate conversations with guests about life, love and loss — while tucking into emotionally comforting food. In January 2022, Saget died at a Florida hotel at the age of 65. The comedian, known for his starring role on “Full House,” had just kicked off a new comedy tour.
appeared on the “Today” show Monday where she was interviewed about a potential return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and she helped Al Roker do the weather forecast.After her chat, Roker, 69, joked that when the “Marriage Story” star often stops by the NBC morning show, she tries to take on his job.Once the interview concluded, the meteorologist led Johansson to a screen that showed off the temperature map.“This weather you guys is cray-cray,” she joked as she pointed to cities on the map such as Scarlet, Georgia, and Hollywood, California. She then tapped the screen to show the heavy amount of rainfall in Texas and the large quantities of snow by Washington state.“Guys, it looks like there is a bunch of stuff happening here,” she said as she pointed to a red line on the map by Maine.
It’s that time of the year when Manchester city centre transforms into a Christmas wonderland. The Christmas Markets are finally up and running, welcoming hordes of shoppers to buy food, drink and presents from the picture perfect wooden huts.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Rise and Shine World Sales has acquired In-Soo Radstake’s “Selling a Colonial War,” which world premieres in the International Competition section of documentary festival IDFA in Amsterdam. “Selling a Colonial War” looks to encourage the Dutch government and society to accept responsibility for their actions as a colonial power in Indonesia – and especially their actions when fighting a war in Indonesia after the country declared independence in 1945. The Dutch government still refrains from using the term “war crimes” to describe their actions as this would have great impact on calls for reparation.
Brent Lang Executive Editor John Wick continues to be the straw that stirs the drink at Lionsgate. The home entertainment debut of the fourth film of the hit man hit man series and the premiere of its streaming spin-off “The Continental” lifted revenues at Lionsgate to just over $1 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimates.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In the two years since Netflix launched its first games, the company has assembled a collection of 80-plus titles — but only a handful of those have been based on the streamer’s TV shows or movies, like a “Stranger Things” puzzle game and a “Queen’s Gambit” chess app. Now Netflix is bringing out four new exclusive games, each based on popular originals on the service, betting that the titles will play big among fans of those entertainment franchises.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify has launched its audiobook perk for Premium subscribers in the U.S., offering access to more than 200,000 audiobooks — available for no extra charge, but limited to only about two titles per month. The rollout comes after the audio streamer launched the audiobooks catalog for paying members in Australia and the U.K.
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nexstar reported its third-quarter 2023 earnings Wednesday, revealing TV ad revenue was down overall 23% for the July-September quarter. Meanwhile, the CW network made quarter-over-quarter progress on its path to profitability by narrowing its losses to $60 million. For the CW, which was formally acquired by Nexstar in October 2022 from Paramount Global and Warner Bros.
Ellise Shafer RTL Group, the European broadcasting company that owns Fremantle, reported a 6.9% drop in revenue from January to September, due in part to the “persistent weakness” of TV advertising markets. In Q3 alone, group revenue was down 10.3% to €1.6 billion, with the company saying 9.2% of this happened organically due to “timing effects at Fremantle and lower TV advertising revenue.” Due to the current advertising landscape, particularly in Germany, RTL expects that TV ad revenue will decline by a “mid-single-digit percentage” in the second half of the year, with Fremantle’s yearly revenue also tracking lower than expected because of a decrease in buyer activity.
European broadcasting heavyweight RTL has warned of “persistent weakness” in the TV advertising market, as it posted Q3 revenue down more than 10% year-on-year.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Crunchyroll, the Sony-owned anime streamer, is getting its game on — adopting a strategy similar to Netflix’s foray into the video-game space. On Tuesday (Nov. 7), Crunchyroll launched Game Vault, which provides unlimited access to a collection of mobile games selected with anime fans in mind.
Real Housewives Of Cheshire star Nermina Pieters-Mekic was diagnosed with aggressive early stage breast cancer and said her "heart broke" over her worry for her daughter. After being told the news in the summer, the 33-year-old model said she feared she wouldn't see daughter Alaya-Rose, two, grow up.
Aramide Tinubu For centuries, shame has been used to keep women in subservient roles. The threat of embarrassment and ostracization has kept women from all cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds silent and complacent. Of course, even within their roles navigating “polite society” or as laborers and caregivers in the working class, women have always found ways to rebel against the rules that have suffocated them and compressed their humanity.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Remember Twitter? That was Elon Musk‘s favorite social-networking service. He was such a fan that he made a $44 billion bid for the company, then tried to renege on the deal when tech stocks swooned in 2022 before he was forced to consummate the pact after Twitter sued him. The tech mogul closed the debt-burdened Twitter deal on Oct.
Pete Bennett first rose to fame after winning Big Brother in 2006 and was praised by many for raising awareness of his Tourette's syndrome on the reality TV show.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon kept the cash register ringing in the third quarter, including a strong 26% uptick in advertising revenue, turning in results that came in above Wall Street forecasts. Overall, Amazon reported Q3 revenue of $143.1 billion, up 13%, and net income up more than threefold to $9.88 billion (94 cents per share).
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TelevisaUnivision powered to its highest third-quarter revenue total in the U.S. to date, up 5% year-over-year, as overall global revenue increased 11% to $1.28 billion. The Spanish-language media company also touted growth of streaming service ViX to more than 40 million monthly active users and said the direct-to-consumer segment was on track to become profitable in mid-2024.