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What you need to know in advertising today
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What you need to know in advertising today

issa rae insecure

Randy Shropshire/Getty

Actress and executive producer, Issa Rae from HBO's "Insecure."

After a brutal quarter for traditional pay TV, which saw historic subscriber losses, TV networks are looking around nervously for which distributors can pick up the slack.

But the word from AT&T isn't encouraging.

In a note distributed on Monday, analysts at UBS took a close look at what AT&T management's recent comments indicate about the future of its TV business.

"AT&T has indicated it is shifting focus from subscriber growth to profitability and is reevaluating its programming lineups to offer skinnier bundles," according to the UBS note. AT&T launched its digital TV package, DirecTV Now, in late 2016, and has tolerated bad margins in favor of growth. The service now has almost 2 million subscribers.

Click here to read more about a possible shake-up of AT&T's DirecTV business.

In other news:

Facebook says its new Portal device is not a 'data-gathering operation' despite previously acknowledging it might use your call info to target ads. Facebook previously acknowledged that it would collect information on calls to better target advertising.

$132 million later, Ev Williams says he is raising even more money for Medium. The site currently has 90 million unique users each month, and publishes 20,000 articles per day.

Disney revealed new details about its Netflix competitor, Disney+, including 'Star Wars' and Marvel TV shows. Disney CEO Bob Iger said a prequel TV series to "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is being developed, starring Diego Luna as Cassian Andor.

The parent company of IHOP and Applebee's wants to buy another chain. Here are 4 things the CEO says he's looking for in an acquisition target. Dine Brands CEO Steve Joyce is looking for a chain with mass appeal that the company can expand to 1,000 units and that fits with rising trends across the United States.

The Trade Desk reported third-quarter revenue of $118.8 million, a 50% year-over-year increase, reports AdExchanger. The company has maintained growth of 50% or more in the past two quarters.