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Can you stream me now? Wireless company Verizon is hoping the popularity of streaming can boost sales of their unlimited wireless service plans. The telcom is planning to offer a bundle of ad-supported Netflix and Max for $10 per month to their “Unlimited” plan customers.
Parapple Plus? With industry leaders beginning to suspect the number of standalone streaming services has outpaced what consumers are willing to support, bundling is a becoming a hot topic. The latest bundle-ship being discussed is between Paramount + and Apple +.
Was it one of those novelty oversize checks? Comcast’s president said The Walt Disney Co.’s $8.61 billion check to buy out Hulu arrived on Friday. There may be more to come as the final valuation of the platform takes place, but Comcast says at least the first “check cleared, it’s in the account.”
Hear! Hear!
Wrapped or it didn’t happen. It’s that time of year again: Spotify Wrapped season. Listeners for the past 9 years have come to enjoy diving into the personalized year-in-review, learning what came out on top. Based on real data from its 574 million listeners, Spotify deployed a Wrapped campaign through a series of billboards, social posts, in-app executions to “invite the world to learn more about themselves and moments in culture that defined the year.”
Top 2023 podcasts. There’s a podcast out there for everyone. This year the podcast analytics platform Podtrac, named the top 25 new podcasts of 2023 based on the average downloads per episode. Number 1 on the list is Scamanda by Lionsgate Sound, followed by The Retrievals from Serial Productions. To qualify as “new”, a show must have published its first episode between December 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023.
Watch Your Language
There’s a word for that. Oxford University Press has announced its annual word of the year. The word is “rizz,” the online abbreviation of “charisma.” Other words considered for the honor include “Swiftie,” “beige flag,” and “situationship.” Meaning, respectively, “a Taylor Swift fan,” “a boring personality warning sign,” and “a complicated, uncommitted romantic relationship.”
Such a lonely word. Honesty, or at least the perception of it, seems to be in short supply among news organizations these days. According to this year’s Gallup Media Confidence poll, Americans’ confidence in the mass media to report the news fully, fairly and accurately is at its lowest point since 2016. 39% report having “no confidence” at all compared with 27% in 2016.
A different way to say “cheese.” In a new, non-dairy brand extension, Kraft will introduce Kraft NotMac&Cheese. The new product replaces dairy with fava bean protein and coconut oil powder. It will be rolled out to U.S. retailers over the next several months.
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