Stanlei Bellan

A smart way to advertise your products...

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For advertisers, the high-earning senior executive audience is a crucial one and a new report from our pals over at Podchaser today proves that podcasts are the best way to reach them. According to the report, advanced targeting solutions in podcast advertising allow brands to reach the highly valuable senior executive audience. Most exciting for advertisers is that the content these audiences listen to is 91% brand safe, according to Podchaser research. Be sure to check out the full report from the Podchaser team at the link below to learn more about the findings and about how Podchaser’s insights can help connect your brand with the right podcast audiences. https://lnkd.in/eWDQTxvR

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Is Leadership in Media in Crisis today? The media industry is facing huge challenges. Old business models are broken, conventional management philosophy is outdated, layoffs are massive, and CEO compensation packages remain bloated despite shocking losses in shareholder value and human capital. The media business is in disarray and confidence in media leadership is at an all time low. On May 22nd, I will be moderating a panel at #StreamingNYC called “No Company for Old Fashioned Leadership Now” with Jennie Baird Mark Garner Francesca Barber Wes Gould to examine the challenges confronting leadership in media today; explore the changing roles and responsibilities for media leaders; identify the skills and attributes required for success; and discuss how to prepare the next generation of visionary leaders for tomorrow. Come join us for a “no holds barred” conversation you won’t want to miss with some of the smartest leaders in news, entertainment and tech. Register today to join: https://bit.ly/4dlewq4

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Do not miss my latest article in OTTVerse on the the global growth of sports viewing on FAST/AVOD and how the consumption of sports content has undergone significant transformation!

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Selling "Hot Ones" is The End of BuzzFeed as We Know It As the reported unloading of "Hot Ones" by BuzzFeed appears to be in the works, the implications for the digital media giant are profound, signaling a potential endgame for its public company status. Here's why selling this asset is emblematic of a deeper crisis: #1. A Reversal of Fortune: BuzzFeed's initial public offering was predicated on the vision of building a large-scale digital media conglomerate. This vision included acquisitions like HuffPost and Complex. However, the strategic about-face—shutting down BuzzFeed News, divesting Complex, and now potentially selling Hot Ones—suggests a retreat to a more niche operation. Such a drastic pivot questions the necessity of remaining a public company, especially with a valuation now hovering around just $78 million. #2. Strategic Disarray: Jonah Peretti's leadership has seen a dizzying array of strategic shifts—from championing individual creators to demanding better deals from platforms, pivoting to commerce, and most recently betting on AI. This lack of a consistent north star has left market observers and potential investors bewildered about BuzzFeed's core mission and value proposition. The company's public venture via a SPAC—once a trendy pandemic-era financial maneuver—now seems another misstep in a series of strategic miscalculations. Buzzfeed was hoping to raise $288m from that SPAC. They raised just $16m. #3. Financial Precipice: With $100 million in debt maturing in December, and only $45 million on hand after losing $60 million last year, BuzzFeed's financial sustainability is in jeopardy. The stock has plummeted 95% since its IPO, underscoring investor skepticism about its future. Selling "Hot Ones" might seem necessary to alleviate financial pressure, but with a $70m asking price in a $78m company, the logic seems flawed. If no sale occurs, bankruptcy appears inevitable, making any current valuations moot. The #HotOnes Conundrum According to the Bloomberg piece, despite its popularity and success, the internal resources allocated to Hot Ones have reportedly been insufficient. The production team's desire to expand into branded merchandise and live events suggests untapped potential that BuzzFeed is struggling to harness due to its lack of financial stability. In essence, BuzzFeed has to sell its most popular asset to stay afloat, but if it does, what in the world is left? They've got no news. No sneaker audience. No famous food TV show. "No nothing!" Thus, the broader question remains: is there a viable path forward for a digital media firm that expanded rapidly through acquisitions but failed to sustain a cohesive strategic direction, or should we just be counting the days until Buzzfeed is bankrupt, sold for parts, bought out, or flat-out shutdown? And given Buzzfeed has sold many of the assets it has most recently been known for, if it goes away, will anybody miss it?

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Ever feel like you need a decoder ring just to understand the streaming industry? With all the acronyms flying around like SVOD, AVOD, OTT, FAST, and TVOD, it can feel like you're drowning in alphabet soup! 🍜🤔 #AcronymOverload

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Billion-dollar PE buyouts are ramping, just see today's Squarespace news. Investors in media x agency deals should pay attention... Global deal activity is up 24% for 2024 YTD, with a total deal volume of $726B. Could be the beginning of a cyclical M&A rally, since deal volume was super depressed over the past couple years... ...and investors need to put money to work! Below are some recent public-to-private highlights, including a large media co deal where I did a deep analysis 👇 May 13 • Permira buying website builder Squarespace • Went public in 2021, closed 1st trading day at $5.9B valuation • $6.6 billion May 6 • EQT Group buying US digital consultancy Perficient • EQT also backs UTA, which has grown through M&A • $3 billion April 2 • Silver Lake buying diversified media co Endeavor • WME / UFC parent co TKO Global will stay public • $13 billion April 1 • Advent International buying payments processor Nuvei • Nuvie backed by celeb Ryan Reynolds • $6.3 billion Similarities across these recent deals include... - founder / CEOs staying on post deal - belief that targets are undervalued in public mkts - desire for more flexibility to grow, do M&A, and drive ent value for new owners That last point is key, as I think there's a strong desire to grow through M&A in a market where there are many sellers who can get picked up at good/fair prices VS the crazyness of 2020/2021. This is timely because... Last month I wrote about public-to-private deal dynamics in my Silver Lake / Endeavor analysis, check it out here --> https://lnkd.in/gtprBx7U I'm also working on an active client deal with similar characteristics, and it's important to know where capital is flowing, and why. Are you all seeing a similar trend?? -- I'm the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My DMs are open. #media #agency #creatoreconomy

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#whatmakesthedifference Role of AI in SWEET.TV GROUP's content recommendations. Today AI plays a pivotal role in our user experience through personalized content recommendations. At SWEET.TV, our AI-powered recommendation engine is designed to deliver synergy with our content editorial team, so we can address diverse target audiences, ensuring that every user finds the content he or she loves. Here are 5 specific ways how you also can implement AI in your content recommendation system based on our experience: #1 Behavioural analysis: Our AI algorithms analyse user behaviour, including viewing history, interaction patterns and preferences - 50+ user metrics are being cross-analised. This data helps the system understand when and what types of content each user enjoys, allowing for highly accurate and personalized recommendations. #2 Real-time adjustments: AI allows us to make real-time adjustments to content suggestions based on current trends and user interactions - processing simultaneously hundreds of thousands units. This ensures that our recommendations are always relevant, timely, and engaging, keeping users hooked to our platform. #3 Content categorization: By using AI to categorize and tag content accurately, we can match users with specific genres, actors, directors, and even niche topics they are interested in. This precise categorization enhances the discovery of new content that aligns with user interests. #4 Sentiment analysis: Our AI system performs sentiment analysis on user reviews and feedback to gauge the emotional response to different content. This information helps refine our recommendation engine, ensuring that the suggested content resonates positively with users. #5 Demographic and psychographic profiling: AI-driven profiling considers demographic factors (age, gender, location) and psychographic factors (lifestyle, values, personality based on time/type/conditions of content consumptions) to tailor recommendations that appeal to different segments of our audience. This multi-dimensional approach ensures inclusivity and relevance for all users. #AI #ContentRecommendations #Streaming #Personalization #SWEETTV #OTT #Streaming #CTV #whitelabel #franchise #FAST #VOD #TV

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#monetization is a key tenet in today's #FAST channel universe. Samsung TV Plus Takashi Nakano provides some invaluable insight into what a solid audience and #ad strategy means to them. Solid read. #CTV #D2C #TV #streaming

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Range Media Partners just raised big $$ from Liberty Global, Wildcat Capital Management. It's an M&A warchest so they don’t fall behind their peers.  Let’s break it down… BACKGROUND ON RANGE • Mgmt and prod co founded in 2020 by Peter Micelli and other top agents from CAA / WME / UTA • Goal = extend beyond trad film / TV representation • Has expanded into music, sports, gaming, digital, music pub M&A + CAP MARKETS HISTORY • Merged with film / TV prod co Automatik in Jan 2023 • Bought upstart athlete mgmt co Stoked Management Group in Sep 2023 • Existing investors incl Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures and A+E Networks (also has prod deal) NEW INVESTMENT • Last week closed significant minority investment by John Malone’s Liberty Global, TPG founder’s Wildcat Capital, and family entertainment co Playground Productions • Former CAA film finance exec Rick Hess, and The Forest Road Company were also involved (either as investors or advisors, can’t tell exactly from press release) • Use of Funds: M&A, scale in US, int’l growth, add more talent rep and prod services What you need to know about this deal 👇... It's not surprising when you consider all the other fundraising and M&A amongst Range’s peers in talent representation.  The influx of capital and high dealmaking volume is driven by a belief that outsized returns will go to rep firms who are fastest to scale, in a winner-take-most market. Because scale makes it easier to sign more talent clients, work with the largest brand marketers, hire the best talent agents and managers, package up the largest Hollywood projects, and launch the most exciting new talent-led ventures. Particularly in a world where scaled access to audience (which talent and influencers bring in a post ATT world) is the top driver in capturing share of high-growth IM spend, which is est at $7B in 2024, up 15% YoY. So it’s a race to the top. And that race is being fueled by large M&A war chests from big investor backers… Companies to watch here are: - Crestview-backed Gersh (just bought A3’s digital team) - Coral Tree-backed Loaded (just bought GG Talent) - Providence-backed Wasserman (13 deals in 2 years) - TCG-backed Night (just bought LFM and Roost Podcast Network) - The big 3: CAA, UTA, Endeavor And after last week, I expect Range Media to ramp up its acquisition activity. Particularly in athlete and digital-native representation. Curious to see what they do next with the $$. Will definitely add them to our buyers list as we bring more deals to market. —- I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My DMs are open. #media #agency #creatoreconomy

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UTA just promoted 24 new partners. What's driving this? Promotions can be part of a retention strategy as competition for talent, and their reps, heats up. Particularly when new firms like Range Media Partners, which was the result top agent defections from the Big 3 Hollywood agencies in 2020, are growing fast and raising growth capital (see my analysis 👇). Some questions worth asking... - How is the agency's employee retention rate trending? - How does the % of promotions compare to prior years? - What agency depts are seeing more promotions? e.g. fast-growing areas like digital? - What are the benefits of being a partner? - What type of commitment is required from partners, if any? - How does all this compare to peer agencies? Many talent reps are thinking through decisions about staying VS leaving at bigger co's, starting their own firms, staying independent, and more. This is important info to track. For both those starting out their agency careers, and more seasoned agency execs thinking about their next career step. #media #agency #creatoreconomy

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Is streaming TV on the verge of becoming cable 2.0?  Or is it an inherently superior medium? Based on the tech infrastructure alone, connected TV (CTV) is fundamentally better than legacy media — but only if those of us in the industry commit to rolling up our sleeves and activating the full suite of capabilities offered by programmatic advertising.  Ultimately, this requires connecting all the data sources to drive relevant ad placements and a thoughtful UX. 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝘄𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼: → Keep ad loads low without impacting revenue (yes, this can actually be accomplished when programmatic activation is leveraged properly)   → Prioritize ad relevance and thoughtful performance measurement through advanced uses of data integrations  → Ensure the right ad frequency with multi-publisher control 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲:   → A higher yield per ad impression for publishers → A higher ROAS for advertisers → A better UX for viewers It’s a true and rare win-win-win proposition. But to get audience-centric CTV right, we need to eliminate assumption and anecdote by replacing walled garden fragmentation with an open internet approach. Which is why at Strategus, we’re leading by example. Our vendor-agnostic services provide marketers with access to data-driven, thoroughly curated, and expertly measured CTV campaigns that put the viewer at the center of everything we do. #streamingmedia #connectedtv #programmatic

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Podnews, known for its timely updates in the audio news sphere, revealed today (April 22, 2024) that Spotify and Podbean, two major players in the podcasting industry, have terminated their memberships with the IAB. This move hints at a potential trend, with more platforms likely to follow suit. The primary catalyst for this exodus appears to be the substantial cost associated with IAB certification, which starts at a hefty USD 10,000 per annum. Instead of facilitating the integration of podcasts into the broader media landscape, this expense seems to be hindering the medium's rightful ascent. By impeding the inclusion of podcasts, including branded ones, in the general media mix, it inadvertently prolongs the existing vacuum in brand communication through audio channels. This shift underscores the need for a reevaluation of certification structures within the podcasting industry. It's essential to find a balance that encourages growth and innovation while ensuring accessibility for platforms and creators alike, ultimately fostering the medium's evolution and broader integration into mainstream media channels, as no medium generates a closer relationship with target audiences than a podcast does. PodNews on this subject: https://lnkd.in/dry5pzXG #podcast #audio #impact

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FAST Strategies prioritize business basics over fundraising, focusing on the bottom line and P&L rather than funding rounds. As the DotCom era concludes, Broadcasters are embracing the streaming revolution, where spreadsheets reveal the true future of FAST for Broadcasters. For more insights, drop me a DM.

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