Exec summary: Netflix just had another home run quarter, "The Conners" revealed Roseanne's fate, NPR named a new head of news, and much more...
A prime-time YouTube outage
Just when you think streaming is almost as reliable as good old fashioned broadcast or cable, something like this happens...
For about an hour on Tuesday, most of YouTube's global audience was unable to stream shows or songs. It happened during prime time in much of the United States -- from about 9:45 p.m. until 10:45 p.m. ET. The site is functioning normally for me now, but here's one of the error messages I saw around 10: | | Visits to individual video pages started to load, but then showed a message that read "An error occurred. Please try again later." The rough animation behind the text mimicked the static of a TV screen.
The blackout was especially frustrating for YouTube TV subscribers who were trying to stream the NBA or MLB. YouTube Music was also affected. No word on a root cause, yet... Here's CNN's full story...
Netflix's home run
Think back three months -- Netflix added five million subscribers, but the total was about 1 million lower than it had forecast. Investors hammered the stock.
Now look at what happened on Tuesday. "Netflix added nearly 7 million new subscribers in its most recent quarter, about 2 million more than the streaming company expected," Jill Disis reports. Investors are giddy again. The stock is up 14% after hours.
The big picture is the same as it's been for years: $NFLX keeps growing and growing and growing. "Netflix expects to add another 9.4 million subscribers in the last part of this year," per Disis's story. Most of the gains are coming from outside the United States. "Analysts have widely expected that would be the case, but Netflix said its international gains were even greater than it had initially forecast..."
>> The bottom line via Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw: "Netflix has already posted its second-biggest year ever in the first 9 months."
About the cash 🔥
"Netflix is spending so heavily that it is burning a ton of cash — the company said it is expecting negative free cash flow of $3 billion this year, and has similar expectations next year," Disis notes. Tuesday's letter to shareholders said "we recognize we are making huge cash investments in content, and we want to assure our investors that we have the same high confidence in the underlying economics as our cash investments in the past..."
Netflix's view of Disney, WarnerMedia, etc
Last week John Stankey said WarnerMedia will launch a Netflix rival in Q4 2019. Disney has a big streaming service launching around the same time. And Apple, Amazon, etc are bulking up on programming. "Amid these massive competitors on both sides, plus traditional media firms, our job is to make Netflix stand out so that when consumers have free time, they choose to spend it with our service," the company's letter to shareholders said. Here's the PDF...
>> Notably, the letter gives a shoutout to the new FOX's strategy around live sports and news and says "other linear networks are likely to follow this model over time..."
Netflix flaunts big numbers that mean nothing
Frank Pallotta emails: Well, here's a new hill I'm willing to die on. In its IR letter, Netflix said "80 million accounts have watched one or more of the Summer of Love films globally." Wow, 80 million! Ok, here's the problem. I have no earthly idea what those numbers actually mean because the company gives zero context. Listen, obviously Netflix is successful (it's Netflix!), but do these numbers mean 80 million people watched one or more movie all the way through? Or is it 30 minutes? Or did they fall asleep and it just so happened to play the next film? We don't know -- and Netflix likes it that way.
Other distributors live and die by ratings and box office #'s. Netflix just goes, "Hey, X million people watched" and most reporters write it up. Netflix, I love ya, but if you want to compare yourself to others, then use the same stats...
Warner Bros. shutting down Dramafever
"DramaFever, the streaming-video service specializing in Korean dramas and other Asian programming, is shutting down immediately," Variety's Todd Spangler reports. Warner Bros., which acquired the service in 2016, cited "business reasons" and the "rapidly changing marketplace for K-drama content."
Licensing costs for the dramas "have rapidly increased in recent years," making the service unsustainable, per Spangler. And Warner Bros.' parent is prioritizing the aforementioned WarnerMedia streaming service that's coming in 2019...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Civil Media's token sale failed. And a "new, much simpler" sale is in the works... (CNN)
-- "We are treating this as if it were a presidential election:" Brian Steinberg has an early look at TV news planning for midterm election night... (Variety)
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest: "Have the media learned the lessons of their epic failure in 2016? Nate Silver wouldn't bet on it..." (WaPo)
-- Slate's entrance into the daily news podcast space: "What Next," hosted by Mary Harris, aims to come out "in time for the evening commute each day." The pod will run until the midterms, get feedback, take a break, then come back in January... (Slate)
| | Trump's indefensible insult
It was a "gratuitous insult," NBC said. A tweet that "mocked the physical appearance of Stormy Daniels," PBS said. Part of a "long list of women he has attacked by demeaning their looks, mocking their bodily functions or comparing them to animals," the NYT said.
Trump's tweet was unpresidential and indefensible -- but on Fox, it was barely newsworthy at all. Jesse Watters said "the left is upset." Laura Ingraham looked down on other cable news channels for "devoting hours of coverage" to the tweet. Don't worry, she said, "Americans outside the leftist activist bubble are focusing on issues that actually affect their daily lives." What would Trump do without his Fox defenders?
>> CNN's David Gergen: "How about just trying to Make America Proud Again?"
>> Jonathan Allen's take for NBC: Through insults, accusations, and evidence-free claims, "Trump commands the news cycle without appearing in public..."
Trump's newest interview
Per Mark Knoller's count, Trish Regan's sit-down with POTUS on Tuesday was his 36th interview on a Fox News outlet (counting TV, radio and the Fox Business Network, where Regan's show airs). Here's Mediaite's recap...
🔌: I'm on "CNN Tonight" with Don Lemon in the 11 p.m. hour talking about all this...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Ben Sasse's book tour took him to Fox's "Outnumbered" on Tuesday. But don't expect to see him on Sean Hannity's show. In the book, Sasse cites Hannity as a prime example of how "media personalities willfully drive a wedge..." (Beast)
-- Remember the ad boycott against Laura Ingraham's show earlier this year? Her show is still running fewer ads than the cable news norm. Fox says this is a strategic move to support her ratings, but others are skeptical... (Politico)
-- Does Tucker Carlson lie, or not? He's not sure. Read Erik Wemple's latest... (WaPo)
New news chief at NPR
Nancy Barnes, exec editor of the Houston Chronicle, is NPR's new head of news. Barnes is essentially taking over for Michael Oreskes, who resigned amid allegations of harassment late last year. Interim news chief Chris Turpin is staying at NPR in a new VP role. David Folkenflik has the details here...
Cutbacks at HLN
> CNN is "shutting down three live news programs on its sister channel HLN, which is increasing its dependence on true crime series and other taped shows," the LAT's Stephen Battaglio reports.
Hosts Michaela Pereira, Carol Costello and Ashleigh Banfield will be leaving, as their shows will be ending on October 26. A source tells me that about 15 jobs will be lost, all in NYC and L.A., as HLN consolidates live news production in Atlanta. Most of the Atlanta-based staffers who worked on Pereira and Costello's shows will shift to other shows.
// ROB: ALEX HAS APPROVED THE SOURCING //
WHY: Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin, who broke the news, said it simply: HLN "has struggled to achieve growth in the current Trump-dominated climate." Politics has sucked most of the oxygen out of the cable news room. The exception: Taped crime and mystery shows like "Forensic Files" and "Something's Killing Me" are reliable ratings draws for HLN.
WHAT NOW: "Morning Express with Robin Meade" stays in place, and "On the Story" will air from 12 til 3 p.m. ET. The taped shows will run the rest of the day. "Weekend Express with Lynn Smith" will stay in place on weekend mornings.
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- ICYMI: Jake Tapper tweeted on Monday: "From now through Election Day, I'll be anchoring #TheLead at 4 pm ET and then Erin Burnett's show 'OutFront' at 7 pm ET (she's on maternity leave.)" (Twitter)
-- "Ann Curry is taking her talents from broadcast to cable, and will anchor and executive produce a new, 10-part unscripted series for TNT, named M.D. Live..." (TVNewser)
-- Oliver Darcy emails: John Ziegler identifies the various camps that anti-Trump conservatives have fallen into in the last year... (Mediaite)
| | WHERE IS JAMAL KHASHOGGI?
All smiles in Riyadh
"I want you to look at the smiles here," John Berman said on CNN as video fed in of Mike Pompeo's meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "Look at the body language. Look at the demeanors. They're talking about the apparent murder and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist."
That's how the day began. It ended with President Trump telling the AP that people are rushing to judgment about Saudi Arabia's guilt. "Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent," he said, comparing it to sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh...
WaPo's Wednesday editorial
"Until the full truth about Mr. Khashoggi is disclosed, U.S. businesses should shun the Saudi regime and Congress should block all military sales," the editorial board says in Wednesday's print edition. Key lawmakers ARE speaking up to some degree...
In a statement earlier on Tuesday, WaPo publisher and CEO Fred Ryan urged "our own government and others push harder for the truth. Until we have a full account and full accountability, it cannot be business as usual with the Saudi Government."
The pictures of Pompeo's meeting looked like business as usual to me...
Pompeo's latest
In a Tuesday evening statement, Pompeo relayed Saudi Arabia's commitment to a "serious and credible investigation." He said, "My assessment from these meetings is that there is serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability, including accountability for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials." And he said he's heading to Turkey next.
What % of the public is going to buy this line about a "serious" investigation, two weeks after the fact, after repeated Saudi denials?
Trump agitated by the news coverage
CNN's Jeff Zeleny, citing a White House official, said Tuesday that "the president has told people in conversations this morning that he is aggravated at the coverage of [the] Saudi Arabia crisis and senior White House officials have tried to impress upon him how serious this matter is..."
BOTTOM LINE: Nicole Gaouette's CNN.com story says it all: "Trump sides with Saudis as clamor grows over Khashoggi disappearance."
Kushner's silence
Jared Kushner is said to be "deeply, deeply involved" in the US response to the Saudi crisis. His ties to the House of Saud are under intense scrutiny. CBS DC correspondent Errol Barnett was on the same plane as Kushner and Ivanka Trump on Tuesday evening, so when Kushner deboarded, he tried to ask Kushner for comment.
"Jared Kushner did not answer my question," Barnett tweeted, "and the secret service informs me, while obscuring my phone, that despite identifying as WH press, there is a 'time and a place' for questions. It is unclear when and where that is." Here's the video of his phone being covered up...
The Secret Service says "the circumstances surrounding the incident are under review" and "appropriate action will be taken if necessary..."
REMINDER: In a past life, Kushner was a newspaper publisher... And this case involves a newspaper columnist's disappearance...
Sessions: Targeting of journalists is "unacceptable"
At a presser on Tuesday, Jeff Sessions was asked about Khashoggi's apparent killing "and what that says about freedom of the press internationally."
Per CNN's story, Sessions said it is a "big deal" and an unacceptable trend. "The world will be diminished if journalists aren't able to go and travel and to report honestly conditions in differing countries. Or people in their own country can't report on corruption or crime or misconduct in their countries. So I think it can even separate countries from a civilized community. So, I think it's a big deal. I feel strongly about it. The President feels strongly about it..."
| | | FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- It keeps getting worse: A complaint filed by advertisers on Tuesday alleges that "Facebook failed to disclose" a key metric error "for more than a year..." (WSJ)
-- Even "digital natives," college students, don't know who or what to believe on the web, according to this new study... (Northeastern)
-- ICYMI: This report by Penelope Abernathy finds an "expanding news desert" in the United States... Read it here...
Lindsey Graham should regret saying this
Oliver Darcy emails: Lindsey Graham appeared on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning and raised the eyebrows of many viewers when he quipped that it would be "like, terrible" if a DNA test revealed he had Iranian heritage. The comment was made at the end of a discussion about Sen. Elizabeth Warren's DNA test. Graham said he would take a DNA test to determine his ancestry to which co-host Brian Kilmeade said, "We'll find out who you really are." Graham responded, "I'll probably be Iranian. That would be, like, terrible." Kilmeade tried to correct the situation, saying, "Well, they have great people, just bad leaders."
>> Darcy's take: Both my parents immigrated to the US from Iran, along with most of my family. I'm proud of my Persian ancestry. Graham's comment -- and the casual way he delivered it while laughing -- was really off-putting, to say the least...
The Daily Beast celebrates ten years
Spotted at the Beast's tenth anniversary bash at the Jane Hotel on Tuesday night: Barry Diller, Tina Brown, Noah Shachtman, John Avlon, Margaret Hoover, Sam Stein, Heather Dietrick, Chris Licht, Ari Melber, Will Sommers, Molly Jong-Fast, Dan Abrams, Oliver Darcy, Steven Perlberg, Max Tani, Touré, Ann Coulter, Aidan McLaughlin, Lindsey Green, Asawin Suebsaeng, Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Olivia Messer, Jackie Kucinich, Ben Collins, Jessica Tarlov, Lachlan Markay, Maya Kosoff, Dave Mosheh, Betsy Woodruff, Erin Lee Carr, Jeremy Barr, and many more...
| | Spoiler: Here's what happened to Roseanne
Well, Roseanne Barr was right and I was wrong. Back in September she spoiled Tuesday's premiere of "The Conners" by saying her character died as a result of opioid abuse. I didn't believe her, partly because several sources waved me off this explanation. But Barr either had an insider source on the show... or she made a lucky guess.
On Tuesday's episode, the family realizes that her sudden death -- thought to be a heart attack -- was really rooted in a pain pill overdose. Sandra Gonzalez has a full story here...
A wink at the audience...
John Goodman's character Dan, grieving his wife's death, says on the premiere episode, "She was going to do what she was going to do. She never listened to a damn person in her life."
A tip of the hat to the "Conners" writers for that one, given the circumstances of Barr's real-life firing from the the show...
Following "The Conners"
Brian Lowry emails: "The Conners" was the most-anticipated premiere Tuesday, but it's also the linchpin of ABC's entire lineup for the night, which includes arguably the fall's best new sitcom, "The Kids Are Alright;" and "Castle" star Nathan Fillion's return in a by-the-book cop drama, "The Rookie."
Here are Lowry's reviews of both...
TV has more work to do for the working class
Sandra Gonzalez emails: Using "The Conners" as an example, my latest story takes a look at how scripted television portrays the working class. On one hand, you have a group of shows that handle the responsibility with great care -- "One Day at a Time" and "The Kids Are Alright," for example. But there's a lot about the working class that Hollywood doesn't understand, according to George Goehl, a community organizer and executive director at nonprofit group People's Action. "I think we heard after the election that Trump supporters...felt unseen and forgotten. And I think poor, working-class people of all races feel unseen and forgotten right now," he says.
Sandra's full story is excellent -- check it out here...
| | A bride is born?
Lisa Respers France emails: It's been a good few weeks for Lady Gaga with her hit movie and soundtrack "A Star Is Born" -- and she apparently has even more to celebrate. She thanked her "fiancé" during a speech at Elle's 25th Annual Women in Hollywood Celebration...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Nicole Kidman says in a new essay that she married Tom Cruise for love, but also ended up being protected from sexual harassment in Hollywood because of it...
-- Reality star Jazz Jennings has opened up about her gender confirmation surgery and its complications. The transgender teen says she is now happy being in the body she has dreamed of...
-- Ariel Winter has teased which character is set to die on her hit ABC series "Modern Family," and says it's not who fans might be thinking... | | | |
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