Social Media Story of the Week
Meta picked up speed in the second quarter as revenue increased 11% up to $32 billion, with profit jumping 16% to $7.8 billion, results which have exceeded expectations and sent the company’s shares up 7% in after-hours trading. Like its rival Google, the tech giant appears to be over the tumult of 2022 which saw three successive quarters of decline. Meta once again attributed growth to investments made in artificial intelligence, with products like Advantage+ automated ad placements luring in more advertisers.
VOD Story of the Week
Sky Media’s broadcast and advertising Sales arm has joined ITV’s Planet V for a trial period. Agencies and advertisers will now be able to plan and buy campaigns on Sky’s portfolio of on-demand channels via ITV’s advertising buying platform. Kelly Williams, managing director of ITV Commercial, said ‘As the media landscape becomes increasingly fragmented and complicated, working together will become more and more important, and this new collaboration is the next step in deepening our partnership as we build on C-Flight’s success.’ C -Flight is a cross-media measurement service launched by Sky Media, ITV Media and 4 Sales in the UK in 2020.
Press Story of the Week
News is the second most popular type of social media video among UK audiences aged over 15, according to an annual Ofcom report in the country’s media consumption habits. The Media Nations UK report found that 63% of adults who watched short videos at least once a month watched news, second only to ‘how-to’ videos (64%), and ahead of videos from friends and family (54%), music videos (54%) and videos by influencers (48%). Last year, news was the third most popular type of content viewed, behind how-to videos and videos from general public. Although news is up by 4 percentage points in the 2023 list, the category also came out on top in 2021.
Radio Story of the Week
The latest RAJAR figures for the second quarter of 2023 reveal the biggest ever audience for commercial radio, with 39.2 million listeners, a record breaking 8% increase on the same period last year. Commercial radio’s share of listening has also shot up to an all-time high, from 49% to 54.5%. These new figures show listening for all radio on smart speakers remain strong. Commercial radio now has 7.5 million listeners more than the BBC.
