MM Tech, Media & Publishing Roundup #5

Social Media:

1. Instagram tests a feature making all video posts 'Reels'

With short-form videos continuously dominating the social media landscape, Instagram moves toward simplifying and improving the video experience on the app by making every video post a Reel. 

During the company’s first-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted that Reels make up more than 20% of the time people spend on Instagram. 

“It's like when we started doing Stories, they had ads that were designed for News Feed,” he said. “And it just took some time for them to create effective content for Stories. And I think we're going to see the same thing for Reels.”
Via Fierce Video 

2. YouTube Disables Hidden Subscriber Counts

Previously, YouTube allowed channels to hide their subscriber count. However, due to impersonation concerns, YouTube no longer offers this option. If the subscriber count is displayed, it will be much easier to detect an account impersonating another channel. 

Along with this new update, YouTube is also rolling out several other updates across the platform, including strengthening auto-moderation capabilities and limiting the use of special characters in channel names.
Via Search Engine Journal 

3. Snapchat+ Subscription Service Launches for $4/Month, Will Still Include Ads

The latest to join the “plus” category is Snapchat+, offering a paid subscription at $4 a month, providing a collection of exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features. 

“This subscription will allow us to deliver new Snapchat features to some of the most passionate members of our community and allow us to provide prioritized support,” the company said in announcing Snapchat+.

Some new features will include changing the app icon, viewing who re-watched a user’s Snapchat Story, and pinning one other Snapchat user to the top of the chat window as a “BFF.”
Via Variety

4. Pinterest is doubling down on Shopping by adding 4 new features

Pinterest has introduced four new merchant features to help retailers promote their stores. These features include product tagging on pins, a catalog of videos, a shop tab on business profiles, and an API for shopping. 

“At Pinterest, our goal is to turn inspiration into action, and our vision for shopping is to make it possible to buy anything Pinners are inspired by on the platform. Jeremy King, SVP of Engineering at Pinterest, stated. “The new shopping features such as the API for Shopping allows brands and retailers to reach high-intent Pinners during the earliest stage of their shopping journey with the most updated catalog data.”
Via Search Engine Land

TikTok updates:

5. U.S. FCC Commissioner Requests Google & Apple To Ban TikTok

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FTC) commissioner, Brendan Carr, called on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing national security concerns surrounding TikTok's Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance.

Leaked audio from TikTok internal meetings indicated that China could access all user data from September 2021 to January 2022.

“TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or meme. That’s the sheep’s clothing,” Carr stated in the letter. “At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data.”
Via Search Engine Journal and CNBC 

6. TikTok Advertisers Can Now Set Custom Attribution Windows

TikTok now helps marketers optimize their ad campaigns with flexible attribution windows ranging from 1-28 days, referring to the time it takes for a customer to take action after an ad is clicked or viewed. 

With TikTok Attribution Manager, you can select a specific period to measure success for both click-through attribution (CTA) and view-through attribution (VTA). 

Read more about how the TikTok Attribution Manager tool works via the article below. 
Via Search Engine Journal

Twitter Updates:

7. Twitter Updates:

Months after the Twitter takeover began, Elon Musk has terminated his $44 billion agreement to acquire Twitter Inc., stating the company has “misleading representations” in under-reporting the number of bots included in its user base. 

Legal experts are debating whether the conflict over bots is enough for Musk to walk away from the deal, potentially costing him a termination fee of $1 billion due to the agreed-upon provision in the deal. 

Bret Taylor, the board's chairman, took to Twitter on Friday about the transaction.
Via Ad Age

8. Twitter tests CoTweets, co-authored tweets

Twitter is testing a new feature, CoTweets, that lets any two users collaborate and expand their reach beyond their own followers. This can give brands a unique opportunity to increase engagement, visibility, brand awareness, and new followers.  

CoTweets can only be in the first tweet in a thread and can include polls, GIFs, images, videos, and links.
Via Search Engine Land

Streaming:

9. Amazon Prime Video Expands Live Sports Portfolio: Secures UEFA Champions League Soccer Rights in the U.K.

Amazon Prime continues to invest in live sports streaming by announcing it has secured select U.K. rights for three years to UEFA Champions League soccer, beginning 2024. 

In contrast to competitors in the streaming field, Amazon Prime is steadily expanding its live sports content, including NFL Thursday Night Football in the U.S., a smattering of New York Yankees games, and sponsorship of Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders.

Amazon Prime will not have exclusive rights to the Champions League Tournament, with BT Sport securing most of the rights. 
Via Media Play News 

10. BT Sport retains most UEFA football rights

BT Sport has secured the rights to the majority of the UEFA Champions League games, plus all the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League exclusively live, for a further three seasons, including highlights and in-match clips. 

Even though BT Sport will no longer have exclusive UCL rights, Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight, commented, “While BT Sport loses exclusivity, it provides long-term certainty going into the JV with Discovery, providing fans with more games and for less money.”
Via Advanced Television 

11. Xfinity Stream App Launches on Apple TV

Xfinity Stream app has now launched on Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD, giving Xfinity TV subscribers another option to access their plan, including all live, on-demand, and DVR programming.

The Xfinity Stream app offers live broadcast channels, linear cable channels, cloud recordings, and VOD content without renting an Xfinity set-top device.
Via Media Play News 

12. ESPN Stays In Driver’s Seat Retaining F1 Rights: Report

Disney’s ESPN has retained rights to Formula One auto races for a further three-year deal despite aggressive offers from Amazon and Comcast. 

The new contract will cost ESPN up to $90 million per year, a big leap from its current contract standing at $5 million per year. 

Most F1 races will be carried on Disney linear networks–ABC or ESPN–but some will be streamed exclusively on ESPN Plus.
Via Next TV

13. Samsung Video Game Hub Now Available on 2022 Smart TVs

The Samsung Gaming Hub is an all-in-one game streaming platform rolling out to all 2022 Samsung Smart TVs. Players can discover and play games from partners, including Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce Now, Google Stadia, Utomik, and coming soon to Amazon Luna.

The Samsung Gaming Hub also integrates music and streaming services such as Twitch, YouTube, and Spotify. Players can get the latest gaming news, watch tutorials, play music and podcasts, and view video game trailers.
Via Media Play News