Spotify Tops Q1 Subscriber Targets to Hit 210 Million Paying Users, Revenue Misses

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor As streaming video continues its ascendancy, cable, satellite and internet TV providers in the U.S. turned in their worst subscriber losses to date in the first quarter of 2023 — collectively shedding 2.3 million customers in the period, according to analyst estimates. “We are watching the sun beginning to set” on the pay-TV business, SVB MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a report Friday. With the Q1 decline, total pay-TV penetration of occupied U.S. households (including for internet services like YouTube TV and Hulu) dropped to 58.5% — its lowest point since 1992, two years before DirecTV launched as a new rival to cable TV, according to Moffett’s calculations. As of the end of Q1, U.S. pay-TV services had 75.5 million customers, down nearly 7% on an annual basis.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Listen up! While podcast advertising revenue remains relatively small, it’s growing quickly — and the sector is poised for a strong double-digit gain this year, despite economic headwinds. In 2023, U.S. podcast ad revenue is expected to total $2.28 billion, up 43% year over year, according to new research conducted by PwC for the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). Last year, the segment increased 26%, to hit $1.8 billion, per the study. By 2025, podcast advertising revenue in the U.S. is projected to reach about $4 billion. Overall, podcasting continues to be one of the fastest-growing digital channels, growing two times faster than digital advertising overall — although for 2022 it remained less than 1% of the total pie (which PwC pegged at $209.7 billion).

took home $39.3 million last year, after receiving a pay package in 2021 that soared to $246 million in 2021 thanks to a hefty $203 million stock options that was tacked on to his pay. Shareholders appear to be unhappy with the pricey package he’s receiving.The debt-laden company said in an SEC filing that just over half of the shareholder votes cast on the question of the 2022 executive compensation plan — commonly known as a “say on pay” vote — were in favor, while 49.2% voted against the proposal.The vote is an advisory one, and is non-binding, but the SEC requires such votes at least once every three years.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor BuzzFeed’s revenue was down substantially in the first three months of 2023, dropping 27% in the period — and the company projected sales would be off as much as 29% for Q2. Given the decline, last month BuzzFeed announced it was shuttering its unprofitable BuzzFeed News division and laying off about 180 people across the organization, about 15% of its employee base. “We have reached an inflection point in digital media. Over the last few months, we have made significant strategic and organizational changes to position the business for long-term growth. Peretti continued, “By leaning into Creators and AI, I believe we can unlock new opportunities across our portfolio of trusted brands — including Tasty, First we Feast, Complex, HuffPost and BuzzFeed,” Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed founder and CEO, said in announcing the Q1 results.

Greatest Hits Radio has revealed the Top 300 most-streamed songs by UK artists from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. 

READ MORE: Banned driver hit dad and little boy in stolen Audi and fled [REVEAL]Despite having an initial goal of €500, the GoFundMe fundraiser has reached nearly €60,000 in donations. One fundraiser Colleen Wilson wrote in an emotional Facebook post flagging up the GoFundMe fundraising appeal: "Our hearts will forever be broken. Sending love and strength to Betty and Nick.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Apple’s revenue declined again in the March 2023 quarter, marking its second consecutive quarterly drop in sales. But the tech giant topped Wall Street forecasts, with its services business hitting a new record for revenue and iPhone sales up 1.5%. The company reported revenue of $94.8 billion, down 3%, and net income of $24.2 billion (or $1.52 per share) for the quarter ended April 1, which is Apple’s Q2 of fiscal 2023. Financial analysts expected revenue of $92.96 billion and earnings of $1.43 per share for the quarter, per Refinitiv data. Apple’s Services revenue rose 5.5%, to $20.9 billion, just a hair above $20.8 billion for the year-end 2022 quarter. The segment includes the App Store, Apple Pay, and subscription services such as Apple TV+, Apple Music and iCloud.

The Night Agent dropped out of the top three on Netflix’s list of most popular English-language TV shows for the week of April 24 to April 30. Meanwhile, The Diplomat held onto its crown.

unable to reach a deal in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.The guild has shared an infographic that outlines the $773 million in combined salary that eight major Hollywood studio CEOs made in 2021. They include Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel ($308.2 million), Warner Bros.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Thanks to a towering debut by “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions,” Taylor Swift now has three albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, as the vinyl-only Record Store Day exclusive sold through all 75,000 of the available copies to land at No. 3 for the week. The double-LP release joins two other albums Swift already had in the top 10 as of last week: “Midnights,” at No. 4, and “Folklore,” at No. 10. Swift becomes the first artist to pull off that feat since 2016, when three of Prince’s landed in the top 10 following his death, according to Billboard. It’s also a rare feat for a female artist; Whitney Houston became the first woman to score three albums in the top 10 in 2012.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor It’s not just you: Thousands of Twitter users on Monday reported problems with the web version of Elon Musk’s social media service — as it was spontaneously logging people out. The source of the error was unknown as press time. According to uptime-monitoring service Downdetector, user problem reports began to spike at around 3:30 p.m. ET. About 96% of the error reports were related to Twitter’s website or not being able to log in. In some cases, even after a Twitter user was able to successfully log back in, the website was kicking them out shortly afterward. It appeared that the Twitter app for iOS and Android was not affected by the technical problem. In addition, users of Twitter’s TweetDeck application reported that they were also not experiencing issues in accessing the service.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Sound Ventures, the venture-capital firm co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and music manager Guy Oseary, is looking to back “category-defining” artificial intelligence businesses. The VC firm announced that it has closed Sound Ventures AI Fund, oversubscribed at nearly $240 million. The fund seeks to invest in AI businesses at the foundation model layer. Currently, the fund’s portfolio of companies includes OpenAI, Anthropic and StabilityAI. Kutcher, Oseary and Effie Epstein lead Sound Ventures as general partners. According to the partners, AI technology has “reached a stage of usability across enterprises and consumers that is driving significant growth,” and that the Sound Ventures team has experience in two industries at the heart of generative AI: technology and entertainment.

AMC Entertainment chief executive Adam Aron saw compensation last year totaling $23.7 million, up 25% from $18.9 million in 2021, according to an SEC filing Friday. That included a base salary of $1.5 million, a $6 million cash bonus, and stock awards valued at $16.2 million.

Endeavor Group Holdings CEO Ari Emanuel, whose bonus-laden $308 million pay package turned heads in 2021, made $19.1 million in 2022, according to the company’s latest proxy filing.

new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Emanuel’s 2022 package included a $4 million base salary, an $8.2 million bonus, $6 million in non-equity incentive compensation and $868,011 in “other compensation,” which represents $225,000 in business and management and tax advisory services provided to Emanuel, personal aircraft use, personal security-related services, reserved parking, personal cell phone expenses, a club membership fee and 401(k) matching contributions.Meanwhile, executive chairman Patrick Whitesell saw his pay fall to $12.2 million from $123.1 million in 2021, chief financial officer Jason Lublin saw his pay slightly increase to $18.5 million from $18.03 million in 2021, president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro saw his pay slip to $18.5 million from $41.99 million in 2021 and chief legal officer Seth Krauss saw his 2022 pay drop to $6.5 million from 10.6 million in 2021. For full-year 2022, Endeavor reported net income of 321.7 million, revenue of $5.268 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $1.164 billion, significant improvements from 2021.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jeff Shell, the former chief executive of NBCUniversal, forfeited stock grants and options worth $43.3 million after he was fired for cause earlier this week, according to a Comcast regulatory filing. Shell was terminated as CEO of NBCU over the past weekend after an internal investigation into his relationship with Hadley Gamble, an international correspondent for CNBC. “As previously disclosed, Mr. Shell’s employment was terminated with cause on April 23, 2023. As a result, he did not receive any supplemental payments or benefits in connection with his termination,” Comcast said in its 2023 proxy statement. “He will receive only his accrued but unpaid base salary and vacation time, vested employee benefits and reimbursement for any unreimbursed business expenses in accordance with his employment agreement.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Triller reached an agreement with Sony Music Entertainment to pay $4.57 million to settle the music label’s breach of agreement lawsuit against the TikTok-style video sharing app, according to a court fling. Triller has admitted liability in the dispute, according to the filing, submitted by Sony Music’s lawyers April 26 to the federal district court judge in the case. Reps for Triller did not respond to a request for comment Friday. A Sony Music spokesman declined to comment. “Prompt entry of judgment is needed to protect against any further dissipation of Triller’s assets or, worse still, a bankruptcy filing,” Sony Music said in the request for the court to rule on the consent agreement. “Triller is more than a year late on some of those contract payments and Sony Music should not have to wait longer to enforce a judgment to collect.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Charlie Collier, who joined Roku last fall as president of its newly created media division, had a compensation package worth $53.3 million last year — more than twice as much as his boss, CEO Anthony Wood, took home. Collier left his post as CEO of Fox Entertainment to head up Roku Media, where he now oversees content and ad sales for the Roku Channel. Roku’s recruitment of the high-profile TV exec — who brought such hits as “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead” to AMC — signaled that the company plans to spend more on original content. That said, Roku has been taking steps to cut costs, including laying off about 400 employees, after its revenue growth slowed dramatically in the last two quarters.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon, in the midst of paring back its workforce, topped Wall Street forecasts with better-than-expected revenue growth for the first quarter of 2023. The company reported Q1 revenue of $127.4 billion, up 9% year over year, improving over a 7% rise in the year-earlier quarter but still off its historical pace of top-line growth. Net income was $3.2 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $3.8 billion in Q1 2022 (which included a $7.8 billion loss on its stake in electric-vehicle maker Rivian). The results come as the ecommerce colossus is in the middle of laying off 9,000 workers, on top of the 18,000 job cuts announced in January. On Thursday, the company laid off about 100 employees at Amazon Studios and Prime Video.

Comcast reported a 4% year-over-year dip in revenue in the first quarter, to $29.7 billion, but still exceeded Wall Street forecasts.