NBCUniversal is giving its advertising strategy a makeover. The network vowing to reduce its ad load and planning to roll out new ad formats in the third and fourth quarters. Jason Lynch, Senior Editor of Television at AdWeek, was with us to explain why the move is the first of its kind.
NBCUniversal announced the length of ad time will be slashed 10% across the board. This is a response to the environment built by disruptors such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Viewers are becoming accustom to these models that have no ad breaks at all, said Lynch. He added that we've seen experimentation with cutting back on commercials, but this is the first time we've seen something on this level from a traditional network.
NBCUniversal, along with several others in the industry, are committing to audience-based targeting, said Lynch. He said advertising used to be bought on age and gender demographics, but now data will be leveraged to target viewers based on deeper information such as whether they are searching for a home.
Meta wants creators to make money from the metaverse, but it's going to take a large chunk of the cut. The tech giant is planning to keep nearly 50% of all digital asset sales within Horizon Worlds, the virtual reality platform that's considered an integral part of the company's unfolding metaverse. Rolf Illenberger, Co-founder and Managing Director of VRdirect, joined Cheddar to discuss why Meta is taking heat for this move, and what it could be doing as an alternative to help support creators, small businesses, and consumers.
Grayscale recently launched its Future of Finance ETF ($GFOF) for investors to benefit from innovative businesses that it sees as critical to building the digital economy. CEO Michael Sonnenshein joined Cheddar to discuss the fund, companies making the most impact, and ways in which investors can expand holdings in the digital economy. “When we think about how investors should be building out their portfolios, we felt that there was a really important opportunity to also provide investors with access to the broadly defined digital economy, really, that confluence between technology and finance," he said.
Al Root, Senior Writer at Barron's, discusses possible scenarios if a Twitter buyout deal goes through and what a takeover means for the future of the social media platform.
Gas prices took up a big share of consumer spending in March. Retail sales climbed 0.5% from the previous month as Americans are forced to spend more money on food, gasoline, and other necessities. Kayla Bruun, Economic Analyst at Morning Consult, breaks down her outlook on consumer spending as prices continue to rise.
Kristina Hooper, Chief Global Market Strategist at Invesco, discusses the biggest takeaways from Bank of America's earnings and highlights what investors should watch as BigTech reports this week.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 18, 2022, with Russian missile attacks on the Ukrainian city of Lviv killing seven, mass shootings in South Carolina and Pittsburgh, Lucky Charms cereal under official investigation by the FDA, and more.