Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 07/01 – YouTube TV Has Recreated The TV Bundle At Essentially The Same Price Point

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

The reckoning for social media ad spend might be hitting critical mass. Spotify gets more affordable for couples. YouTube TV gets more expensive for everyone. Apple IS struggling with iPhone 5G delays, but it SHOULDN’T delay things into 2021. And when will Silicon Valley offices reopen? Not anytime soon, it sounds like. Sponsors: Metalab.co ApolloNeuro.com/ride Links: Facebook frustrates advertisers as boycott over hate speech kicks off (Reuters) Third of top brands likely to suspend social media spending, survey finds (Financial Times) Spotify brings its Premium Duo plan to the US, UK and dozens more countries (updated) (Engadget) YouTube TV hikes price to $64.99 per month following new channel additions (TechCrunch) Apple races to push ahead with 5G iPhone mass production (Nikkei Asian Review) Apple Cancels Some Arcade Games in Strategy Shift To Keep Subscribers (Bloomberg) Google Pushes Back U.S. Office Reopening Plan After Virus Surge (Bloomberg) Twitch breaks records again in Q2, topping 5B total hours watched (TechCrunch) Subscribe to the ad-free feed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme ride home for Wednesday, July 1st, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, the reckoning for social media ad spend might be hitting critical mass. Spotify gets more affordable for couples, while YouTube TV gets more expensive for everyone. Apple is apparently struggling with iPhone 5G production delays, but that shouldn't delay things into 2021.

And when will Silicon Valley offices reopen? Not anytime soon, it seems like. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. This is one of those stories where I waited all day to see if it would officially happen, but at the time of this recording, it hasn't happened yet, so I'm just going to go with what I know right now. Apparently, over 400 advertisers are due to suspend their Facebook ad buys starting today and will boycott Facebook lasting the entire month of July. Apparently, Facebook knew that this was coming and was in talks to attempt to appease the advertisers, but the talks apparently broke down. quoting Reuters. Facebook executives including Carolyn Everson, Vice President of Global Business Solutions, and Neil Potts, public policy director, held at least two meetings with advertisers on Tuesday,

the eve of the planned one-month boycott, three sources who participated in the calls, told Reuters. But the executives offered no new details on how they would tackle hate speech, the sources said. Instead, they pointed back to recent press releases, frustrating advertisers on the calls who believe those plans do not go far enough. It's simply not moving, said one executive at a major ad agency of the conversations. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to meet with the organizers of the boycott, a spokeswoman said late Tuesday. U.S. civil rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, and Color of Change, started the stop hate-for-profit campaign after

the death of Floyd, a black man who died under the knee of a white police officer last month. The groups outlined 10 demands for Facebook, including allowing people who experience severe harassment to speak with a Facebook employee and giving refunds to brands whose ads show up next to offensive content that is later removed. Facebook said earlier this week it would submit to an audit of its hate speech controls, adding to plans to label newsworthy content that would otherwise violate its policies, following similar practices at other social media platforms such as Twitter. One digital ad agency representative who participated in a call on Tuesday said Facebook executives referred repeatedly to the audit without offering additional concessions, end quote.

So by the time you hear this, either this boycott has officially begun or it hasn't, sort of a Schrodinger's podcast segment for me, at least, I guess. But remember, while this stop hate for profit campaign is targeting Facebook specifically, brands are also pulling back from social media advertising across the board. A survey from the World Federation of Advertisers, which is a trade body that covers 90% of the world's advertising spending, found that one-third of brands are likely to suspend their spending on social media for at least a period of time this year. And an additional 41% are on the fence about the whole thing. This is from the Financial Times. The findings of the previously

undisclosed survey suggests the boycott against Facebook and other platforms has the potential to extend to the majority of blue chip advertisers. The poll covered 58 WFA members responsible for more than $90 billion of ad spending worldwide. In all candor, it feels like a turning point, said Stephen Larkry, Chief Executive of the WFA. He expects the movement to have more lasting impact across social media than the one-month Facebook boycott first launched by the Stop Hate for Profit campaign. What's striking is the number of brands who are saying they are reassessing their longer-term media allocation strategies and demanding structural changes in the way platforms address racial intolerance, hate speech,

and harmful content, he added, end quote. If social media advertising becomes seen as a risky, downmarket, seedy sort of ad buy, that could have huge repercussions. The promise of social media all along was always scale. No one can deliver the amount of impressions that social media can, but it also promised a young, hip, and upmarket market. If the brands no longer feel that is true, or if they feel they risk their brands being associated with things that young, hip, and upmarket people tend to be against, like, I don't know, hate speech, that could definitely put a huge chunk of advertising spending on social media in jeopardy. Spotify is expanding its premium duo plan, which allows ad-free streaming for two people

for $12.99 a month. They're expanding to 55 markets, including for the first time the U.S., quoting and gadget. Spotify has offered its ad-free premium streaming to families for a while now, but not every household needs six accounts or even four log-ins. The company created its premium duo for two people in the same house, but it has been limited to Latin America and a few countries in Europe. Today, the Duo plan makes its U.S. debut as part of another round of expansion that includes the UK, Germany, Italy, India, Spain, and dozens more new markets. Like Premium Family does for up to six accounts, Premium Duo gives you access to ad-free streaming for two people for less than the cost of two separate subscriptions. It isn't as good of a deal as the Family Plan, but it will still save you some money.

The $12.99 monthly rate is sure to be more attractive than paying $9.99 each for two accounts. The catch, of course, is that you have to live at the same home address as the person you're sharing with. While couples might be the obvious scenario, roommates can also take advantage of the offer. In addition to the cost-saving Spotify offers Duo Plan users a regularly updated playlist of music that you both listen to regularly, and each person gets their own account, so you don't have to worry about annoying the other person with your guilty pleasures. unquote. And YouTube TV is raising its monthly rate to $65 a month, up from the previous $50 a month, due to, YouTube says, the rising cost of content. The change goes into effect today after the billing cycle ending June 30th, quoting TechCrunch. The bump in pricing is now one of several

price increases YouTube TV has seen since its debut, starting with a modest $5 per month bump in 2018, followed by a much more substantial price hike last year to $50 per month. The increases are due to the rising costs of programming for the streaming TV service as the pay TV industry collapses amid a rise in cord cutting, a trend now accelerating at even a faster pace due to the pandemic. YouTube TV had announced in May it would soon gain 14 more Viacom CBS channels as part of an expanded distribution deal. This included the addition of new channels like BET, CMT, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon,

Paramount Network TV Landon VH1, which are today being made available. This brings YouTube TV's base plan to over 85 channels. Other channels that were a part of that same deal, including BETT Her, MTV2, MTV Classic, Nick Jr., Nick Toons, and Teen Nick are due to arrive at a later date, the company noted. While YouTube TV didn't announce its plans to raise prices back in May, at this point, it's to be expected whenever a service says it's adding channels to its core offering, end quote. Even though there are only 2 million YouTube TV subscribers, I thought I should make note of this story because it's kind of what we're going to see going forward. Remember how we've joked for years that we're blowing up the cable bundle just to put it back together again and probably end up

paying the same monthly cost we were paying before? Yeah, this is that. Content costs money. Content owners are going to get paid. But also, didn't you cut the cord so that you wouldn't have to pay for channels you didn't want to watch? Well, if you're a YouTube TV subscriber and you didn't want Nick Jr. or Nickelodeon, tough cookies. You've got them now, and you're paying for them now. As Michael Bodner tweeted, exactly as I predicted, cutting the cord costs the same as the cord. The problem isn't the cord. The problem is bundles, including channels we don't want. What we all really want is a la carte channel selection. Wake me up when somebody offers that, and I actually save money, end quote.

The Niki Asian Review is reporting that Apple is indeed facing production delays of up to one to two months in production of its 5G iPhone range. But that will likely not necessitate that Apple postpone the launch of the iPhone 5G into 2021, which would essentially be the absolute nightmare scenario. Quote, Apple is facing delays of between four weeks and two months for mass production of the four models in its 5G lineup after postponements caused by factory lockdowns and workplace absences during the pandemic. Sources told the Nika Asian review. Apple has been betting heavily on the 5G range to help it against rivals including Samsung and Huawei, which introduced 5G capable smartphones last year. But sources said Apple has aggressively tried to cut delays and was now less likely to face

a worst-case scenario of postponing the launch until 2021, the situation it was in three months ago. The estimated delays are based on the stage that development would normally be at for a release in September. The tech giant and its suppliers are working overtime to make up for lost time, people with knowledge of the matter said. What the progress looks like now is months of delay in terms of mass production, but Apple is doing everything it can to shorten the postponement. There's a chance that the schedule could still be moved ahead, one of the sources told Niki, end quote. And sources are telling Bloomberg that Apple is shifting the strategy behind its arcade gaming service,

canceling contracts for some titles in development and seeking games with more engagement from players, thus suggesting that Apple Arcade is not exactly a Grand Slam hit yet. This reporting is from Mark German, naturally, but also from Jason Schreier, friend of the show, and the gaming industry news guru who recently moved to Bloomberg. So two superheroes teaming up on the Apple beat for the first time, quote, On calls in mid-April, an Apple Arcade creative producer told some of developers that their upcoming games didn't have the level of, quote, engagement that Apple is seeking, the people said. Apple is increasingly interested in titles that will keep users hooked,

so subscribers stay beyond the free trial of the service, according to the people. They asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. Apple releases new games on arcade every month, but none of the 120 titles has become a huge hit. Developers say the recent strategy change suggests subscriber growth has been weaker than expected so far. The company hasn't said how Apple Arcade is performing, but it recently started offering a second free trial month, indicating that some users likely aren't remaining subscribers for very long. The company has earmarked tens of millions of dollars to support the creation of games for the arcade service and has spent $1 million to $5 million on several titles so far, according to the people familiar with Apple's

efforts. Apple pays outside studios to build games, bundles them into the service and sells subscriptions via the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. For these large investments to pay off, the company needs gamers hooked on arcade titles. On the calls with developers in April, the Apple Arcade representative cited a specific example of the type of game the company wants. Grindstone, an engaging puzzle action game by Capibari Games that has many levels, end quote. It's been a while since we checked in on the whole Silicon Valley going back to the office thing. Bloomberg has a leaked memo internal from Google that suggests that Google will not reopen its U.S. U.S. offices until at least September 7th, pushing back its earlier plan to bring some workers

back into the office starting as early as next week, July 6. While conditions do vary from state to state, we need to see that the U.S. outlook as a whole is stable before we move forward. Chris Rackow, Vice President of Global Security wrote in the memo. As the recent resurgence of cases demonstrates, COVID-19 is still very much alive in our communities. Bloomberg News obtained a copy of the memo. Alphabet's Google was among the first major U.S. companies to send employees home back in March, and as already told workers, no one will be forced to return to the office for the remainder of the year. Quote, for all of you that are working from home, please continue to do so unless you are told otherwise

by your manager, Rakow wrote in the latest memo. We don't expect this guidance to change until Monday, September 7, Labor Day, at the earliest, end quote. And it's been a while since we checked in on how gaming streaming has exploded in the COVID moment. So let's end with that. According to a new report from Stream Labs and Stream Hatchet, Twitch, which had already set several viewership records in recent months, saw a massive 62.7% increase in hours watched on the platform in Q2 of this year. That's 62.7% quarter over quarter, reaching 5 billion hours watched for the first time, quoting TechCrunch. This figure was also up by 83.1% year over year. and helps to cement Twitch's place as the leader among game streaming services with a 67.6% market share.

Twitch also broke records for hours streamed, unique channels, and average concurrent viewership in Q2, the report found, end quote. To show you how far ahead Twitch is in this market, remember Mixer, which Microsoft just recently shunted over to Facebook, Mixer saw 106 million hours watched last quarter. Thus why Microsoft is walking away from Mixer, they basically weren't having an impact in the market at all. YouTube Gaming Live is number two in the market

with one and a half billion hours watched last quarter, up 39.6% quarter over quarter, which is indeed good growth. But again, Twitch had 5 billion hours watched. Quite the lead. Facebook Gaming is also significantly, behind with 822 million hours watched last quarter. We had a typical summer thunderstorm roll through the city as I was recording and I had the

windows open, so I decided why not leave the windows open? I don't know if you could hear it, but I thought a little summer rainstorm might give you a little additional flavor to today's show. That is all for today. As always, you can follow me on Twitter at Brian MCC, our longtime subreddit where you can tip me stories and long reads to use on the show. is our slash ride home. The show is available on YouTube at TechMeme podcast. And there's an ad-free version of the show in case you feel like supporting my work every day directly. It's the very

bottom link in today's show notes. Talk to you tomorrow.