Wayne Friedman

California

West Coast Editor at MediaPost

writing, riding, running, and ranting

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Articles

Sports TV Is A 'Rental Business - Remedy? Buy The House

3 days ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

Sports on television is a big deal for media companies -- the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, and Nascar. Should networks and streamers move deeper into sports? Perhaps. The problem is that higher sports TV rights fees -- as the recent NBA deals have highlighted, and the NFL before that -- can be crazy long time-cost issues for media owners. Warner Bros. Discovery, on its departure from the NBA after this season, now has a different -- and perhaps more negative -- view of those acquisitions.
Fox Brands Its New Premium Streamer Fox One

3 days ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

On the eve of its upfront advertising presentation in New York to advertisers, Fox Corp. released the details and name of its long anticipated premium streaming service: Fox One. The service will pool all news, sports, and entertainment content into one streaming platform including Fox News Channel, Fox Business, Fox Weather, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, BTN, Fox Deportes, Fox-owned TV stations and the Fox Television Network.
Versant Key Brand Focus: Sports... Pickleball, Anyone?

4 days ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

Versant is thinking balls and strikes -- especially as it looks to add more programming. The newly announced Comcast Corp. spinoff group for most of its cable networks will look to sports programming, more “live” content as a goal. Right now, 65% of Versant’s programming is live -- coming from sports and news content.
Brands Can Buy Live Sports On Google's DV360 - And YouTube

6 days ago | videonuze.com | Wayne Friedman

While other MediaPost newsletters and articles remain free to all ... our new Research Intelligencer service is reserved for paid subscribers ... Subscribe today to gain access to every Research Intelligencer article we publish as well as the exclusive daily newsletter, full access to The MediaPost Cases, first-look research and daily insights from Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief. Become a subscriber today!If you're already a paid subscriber, please sign-in. Username Password Forgot?
Trade Desk Q1 Climbs 25%, Shares Up Sharply

6 days ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

Reversing its revenue miss in the fourth quarter, The Trade Desk had higher-than-expected Q1 2025 results, rising 25% to $616 million. The big demand-side ad platform witnessed its stock go up 6% on Thursday and 11% in aftermarket trading to $66.42. This would be a sharp reversal of the previous quarterly earning results where Trade Desk underperformed analyst/company estimates -- witnessed core-advertising revenue (san political advertising) rising just 17%.
WBD Adds 5.4M Global Subscribers In Q2: Spinoff News Coming?

6 days ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

Although linear TV advertising keeps declining, Warner Bros. Discovery is again seeing improved and steady results from streaming -- including 5.4 million global subscribers in the second quarter (vs. the first quarter of 2025) to 122.3 million. Streaming platform revenue was up 8%, while adjusted cash flow/EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is now at $339 million -- up nearly four times compared to a year ago ($86 million).
WBD Adds 5.4M Global Q2 Subscribers In Q2: Spinoff News Coming?

1 week ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

Although linear TV advertising keeps declining, Warner Bros. Discovery is again seeing improved and steady results from streaming -- including 5.4 million global subscribers in the second quarter (vs. the first quarter of 2025) to 122.3 million. Streaming platform revenue was up 8%, while adjusted cash flow/EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is now at $339 million -- up nearly four times compared to a year ago ($86 million).
Google/Apple Search News: Are We At A 'Cord Cutting' TV Moment'?

1 week ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

Google could be seeing some massive disruption to its search business. This has parallels to the transformative industry-shaking moves when TV cord-cutting reared its ugly head. Apple is considering dropping Google as the default search option because search usage has dropped in April -- for the first time ever, according to testimony of Eddie Cue, senior vice president of services of Apple, in court on Wednesday. Why?
NBCU Strikes 2-Year Deal To Sell Versant Ads Just Ahead Of Upfront

1 week ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

Just in time for the TV upfront ad market to commence, new cable TV network group Versant has struck a two-year agreement with NBCUniversal under its One Platform advertising unit. This means advertising on Versant cable networks -- CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, Oxygen, Syfy, USA, and digital platforms -- will be sold by NBCUniversal.
Disney Sees Strong Q2 Streaming Subscriber Growth Of 2.5M

1 week ago | mediapost.com | Wayne Friedman

Walt Disney posted some surprising streaming subscriber gains for the second quarter of this year -- as well as overdelivering on company-wide revenues and profits in the second quarter. Disney+ and Hulu streaming subscribers grew 2.5 million from the first quarter to 180.7 million, while Disney+ was up 1.4 million to 126 million.