The world's most influential media, entertainment & technology show
11 - 15 September 2020
RAI Amsterdam
REGISTER YOUR INTEREST FOR IBC2020
IBC2020 PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
5 Days
56,000+ Attendees
300+ Speakers
100+ Sessions
Comcast has unveiled plans to launch a new international news channel combining its Sky and NBC brands.
NBC Sky World News will aim to compete with US rival CNN and the BBC’s pre-eminence in the international TV news space.
The English-speaking news channel is set to launch in the summer and will bring together Comcast-owned NBCUniversal and Sky, which it acquired 18 months ago for £40 billion.
According to Variety, the newsroom will operate out of Sky’s Osterley campus in west London, but Comcast will add ten new international locations in “under-reported” countries.
NBC News chairman Andy Lack told the Financial Times that their service would use the existing 3,500-strong combined workforce from Sky and NBC while adding between 100-200 dedicated staff to work on the service over time.
The new channel will be added to existing platforms, reaching around 130 million households at launch. It will bring to fruition a long-term ambition of Comcast’s to have an international news service.
Lack told the FT: “Going back to the Gulf war when CNN essentially came on to the scene, we knew then at NBC that if you weren’t in the 24-hour news business globally, you weren’t really in the news business.”
The operation will be led by former NBC News boss Deborah Turness. Turness has headed up NBC’s international news arm since 2017 when she stepped up from her role as president as NBC News. Prior to this, she was editor of ITV News for almost a decade – the first female editor of a UK news network.
The service is also set to be made available online, including through NBCUniversal’s upcoming OTT platform Peacock.
This week’s Farmers Insurance Open will be the first package distributed exclusively on Facebook Watch after the PGA Tour announced an expansive agreement with the social media giant.
The agreement covers more than 30 events throughout the year including the Players Championship and FedExCup Playoffs and will offer daily highlight packages, round recaps and player-specific profiles on the Watch platform.
PGA Tour vice president media business development Chris Wandell said: “We’re excited to expand our partnership with Facebook by delivering additional content for our fans.
“This is in response to our fans’ appetite for additional coverage packaged in a way that is convenient for them to consume.”
The expanded highlights on Watch will feature content from the Tour’s primary telecasts, along with content from PGA Tour Live, as well as the Tour’s OTT service featuring more than 1,200 hours of exclusive featured groups coverage in 2020.
Additionally, the PGA Tour will also look at engaging fans in its Facebook Group, the Gallery with interactive features using Facebook Live and Watch Parties.
In a statement to the press, PGA said the partnership will create a “robust and timely highlights experience” for fans around the world on Facebook Watch with content posted daily at the completion of each tournament round.
Facebook sports league partnerships lead Sidhant Rao said: “We’re thrilled to add PGA Tour recaps to our growing portfolio of sports highlights on Facebook Watch.
“Through this content, as well as products such as Facebook Groups and Watch Party, the TOUR will be able to engage its fans in exciting new ways this year.”
In 2018, the PGA Tour and Facebook teamed up to stream live coverage from The Players Championship and several other PGA Tour events leading into the 2018 FedExCup Playoffs.
Verizon Media VP EMEA and Latam Stuart Flint is set to join growing social media platform TikTok in an unspecified role.
Flint, who announced the career switch on LinkedIn, said he will join TikTok in April to oversee the fledgling video platform’s European business.
Flint joined Verizon when it bought web services company AOL in 2015, serving as commercial director and then managing director at the AOL brand. before it was merged into new company Oath when Verizon bought Yahoo. Oath was rebranded as Verizon Media last year.
Flint’s CV includes a stint as a sales director in Microsoft’s UK arm and later for UK and Ireland at Yahoo.
Flint wrote: “Today I leave Verizon Media for pastures new. For the past seven years, I have thoroughly enjoyed the incredible journey this business has been on. I’d like to thank Verizon and Verizon Media and rose Tsou, who has been supportive of me personally, as well as my leadership team in our ambition to grow both our consumers and deliver on our differentiated path to revenue. Together with the amazing people at Verizon Media, we have achieved some incredible things.
“I am pleased I leave the company in a really positive place under the strong new EMEA leadership of Kristiana Carlet, and Head of Latam Armando Rodriguez, both colleagues and friends, who will do amazing things for the business in 2020 and beyond.
“I am looking forward to my new and exciting challenge running the European business for TikTok beginning in April.”
According to Campaign, which first covered the news of Flint’s appointment, TikTok confirmed the appointment, with VP of global business solutions Blake Chandlee calling Flint a “hugely experienced leader” in the sector who will “bring a wealth of experience” to TikTok.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is growing rapidly, especially among younger users. It was the most downloaded app in the US in 2018 and hit over one billion downloads in 2019.
Earlier this month, TikTok set up a new EMEA Trust and Safety Hub, headquartered in Dublin, which will focus on strengthening policies, technologies and moderation strategies and ensuring that they complement both local culture and context.
The Hub will be headed up by former Google and Facebook leader Cormac Kennan, who will join TikTok next month.
It also named Richard Waterworth as its first UK general manager at the end of 2019, bringing over 20 years’ experience from across the wider media and content services space. Waterworth’s CV includes the likes of YouTube and ITV.
No content here.
