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Mar 05

Morning Media Newsfeed: Lack Inches Toward NBC | ‘HBO Now’ May Launch in April on Apple TV

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Andrew Lack Steps Down From Government Agency, Signaling NBC News Return (THR / The Live Feed)
Andrew Lack on Wednesday announced that he will step down as director and CEO of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the government agency he has headed only since January. Deadline NBCUniversal was wrapping up talks Tuesday to bring back Lack as news chief in hopes of restoring the division’s stature. Variety He is expected to take the reins of a unit that comprises NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC, according to people familiar with the matter. Pat Fili-Krushel, a veteran media-industry executive who has held top roles at Time Warner and Walt Disney and is currently chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, is expected to take another role within the company. NBC News president Deborah Turness is widely expected to stay in her current role, according to one of these people. Politico / Dylan Byers on Media In addition to signaling a Brian Williams comeback, some sources said, a Lack chairmanship would shore up support for Matt Lauer at NBC’s Today show and could even lead to Katie Couric’s return to NBC News. (Couric, now at Yahoo! News, was at NBC from 1989 to 2006.) Poynter / MediaWire Lack joined the Broadcasting Board of Governors from his position as chairman of Bloomberg Media Group. Before joining Bloomberg, Lack was chief executive officer of Sony Music Entertainment, Inc. and chief operating officer and president of NBC Universal, Inc., according to his Bloomberg executive profile.

HBO in Talks With Apple to Be Launch Partner for Coming Web Service ‘HBO Now’ (IBTimes)
HBO is in talks with Apple to make Apple TV one of the launch partners for its highly anticipated streaming service when it debuts next month. HBO and streaming partner Major League Baseball Advanced Media are working to have the standalone service, called “HBO Now,” ready to launch in April in conjunction with the premiere of the fifth season of Game of Thrones, according to sources familiar with their plans. Mashable The HBO Now moniker would differ from HBO Go, the company’s current online streaming service that requires users have a cable and HBO subscription. THR HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler announced plans for an online streaming service in October last year and said the company was planning a 2015 launch. HBO has tested a similar service in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark with initial success, he said at the time. HBO declined to address the details in the report. “We know there’s great anticipation around our standalone streaming service. And when we have details to share, we will do so,” a statement from the company read. Variety The pricing of the service is widely expected to be $15 per month.

Tribune Publishing Company Sees Q4 Profit Fall Short (HuffPost / AP)
Tribune Publishing Co. on Wednesday reported net income of $15.5 million in its fourth quarter. On a per-share basis, the Chicago-based company said it had net income of 60 cents. The newspaper publisher posted revenue of $457.5 million in the period. Capital New York Tribune faces an uphill battle to turn around advertising revenues, which were down 10.4 percent, to $266 million out of $457 million in total revenues, during the fourth quarter of 2014, Tribune’s second as a standalone publishing company. The fourth quarter results, released Wednesday, also showed net income fall to $15 million from $33 million during the same three-month period a year earlier. Digital advertising revenue increased a modest 4 percent during the full year. Chief executive Jack Griffin on Wednesday cited “accretive acquisitions” as one of several key pillars in Tribune’s efforts to become what he called a “fully diversified media and marketing company.” Poynter / MediaWire Scripps, in its next-to-last quarter before the spin was buoyed by strong political advertising and retransmission revenues at its TV stations. But revenues in the newspaper division were down 7.9 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2013. Advertising and marketing service revenue was down 9.7 percent and national advertising by nearly half for the quarter.

Instagram Launches Carousel Ads (SocialTimes)
Similar to Facebook’s multi-product ads, advertisers can now showcase multiple photos at once in a sponsored Instagram post. Adweek At the end of the carousel, users have options to click on additional content or visit a website to learn more. Until now, brands have mostly used the app as billboard space to flash ads as users scroll by. The carousel allows for sequential storytelling, developing a narrative over the course of multiple images. The carousel will only be offered on sponsored posts, not to everyday users or non-paying brands. Mashable Instagram is introducing the new format on a limited basis. The ads will show up in users’ feeds “in coming weeks,” the company said. A rep declined to say which advertisers are using the new format.

ITV 2014 Earnings Rise, Production Arm Continues to Grow (THR)
U.K. TV giant ITV on Wednesday reported improved financials for the full year 2014. The company, which airs hit drama Downton Abbey and such shows as The X Factor on its flagship network, reported higher results for its TV production business and its strongest full-year advertising growth in years, as it had predicted it would. Deadline Pre-tax profit was up 23 percent to £712 million ($1.09 billion), beating analyst estimates. There was a 6 percent hike in net advertising revenue to £1.63 billion and expectation is that the trend will continue with an 11 percent jump in the first quarter of 2015. The production division, ITV Studios, saw 9 percent revenue growth to £933 million and a 22 percent increase in profits to £162 million. Variety ITV’s five-year “transformation plan,” which was put in place in August 2010 and renewed in July 2014, established several strategic priorities. These were to maximize audience and revenue share from its free-to-air broadcast and VOD business; to grow its international content business and to build a global pay and distribution business.

BBC Rape Documentary Causes Uproar in India (Deadline)
India’s Daughter, a hard-hitting BBC documentary about the brutal gang rape of a young woman in India that generated global headlines in 2012, is causing a storm of controversy in India. THR The film has been banned from Indian screens by local authorities. The documentary — due for airing on Sunday, International Women’s Day, on Britain’s BBC Four and channels in seven other countries, including India’s NDTV — is about the fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012. NYT India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, told Parliament on Wednesday that the Indian government would “not allow any organization to leverage such an incident and use it for commercial purpose.” The documentary features an interview with Mukesh Singh, now on death row for his role in the crime, who tried to justify the brutal attack by saying “a decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night.” Excerpts from the interview were released on Tuesday as part of an advance publicity campaign.

Former White House Staffer Michael D. Gottlieb Joins National Journal (FishbowlDC)
Michael D. Gottlieb is joining National Journal, a division of Atlantic media, as executive director of the Policy Brands Roundtable, announced NJ Group CEO Tim Hartman Wednesday morning. Politico / Dylan Byers on Media Gottlieb, who has worked for every branch of federal government and is a captain in the U.S. Air Force, is married to former NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro, now the network’s international correspondent. He starts with National Journal in April.

AMC, IFC, EPIX Go Live on Sling TV (GigaOM)
Don Draper, meet Sling TV: The recently launched $20-per-month online TV subscription service started to carry AMC and IFC Wednesday with no change in price, which means that Sling TV subscribers can now tune in live for episodes of shows like The Walking Dead and Mad Men. Deadline Meanwhile, subscribers willing to pay an additional $5 a month can watch programming from Sling’s new “Hollywood Extra” add-on pack which consists of EPIX, EPIX 2, EPIX 3, EPIX Drive-In and Sundance TV.

Robots Are About to Write Your Sports Coverage (HuffPost)
The Associated Press is once again teaming up with technology company Automated Insights to bring its “robot” journalism to NCAA college sports, AI announced Wednesday. IBTimes Division I baseball games will be first, followed by recaps of Division I women’s basketball, Division II and III football, and Division II and III men’s basketball over the course of the next 20 months.

CNN Digital Team Announces Promotions (TVNewser)
CNN Digital editorial director Manuel Perez has announced eight promotions among his staff on the news desk and enterprise teams. This comes after Carl Lavin was promoted to editorial director, news and homepage programming just last week.

People en Español Names Online Exec Editor (FishbowlNY)
People en Español has tapped Charo Henriquez as executive editor of peopleenespanol.com. Henriquez comes to the magazine from GFR Media, a media company in Puerto Rico.

Fuse Network Expands Beyond Music in 2015 (THR / The Live Feed)
Music cable network Fuse is rebranding this fall. The network will expand beyond music in an effort to draw in a more diverse audience, it was announced Wednesday by parent company Fuse Media, Inc.

Providence Journal Denies Accusations of Plagiarism (Poynter / MediaWire)
The Providence Journal has denied allegations made by a local news site that it cribbed language from area TV station WPRI, saying the paper has a news partnership that allows it to share content with the station.

AP Considering Legal Action for Clinton Docs (Politico / Dylan Byers on Media)
The Associated Press is considering legal action for extremely long delays on its Freedom of Information Act requests for records related to Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the Department of State.

Jeff Lucas Promoted to Run Viacom Ad Sales Amid Company Shake-up (WSJ / CMO Today)
The executive shake-up at Viacom continues: the media company has tapped advertising executive Jeff Lucas to lead a consolidated ad sales unit, people familiar with the matter say.