Tag: Media

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GirlGaze Network looks to connect brands with female creatives

It started with a hashtag. Amande de Cadenet, photographer, author, and TV host, was spending time with her sister, a director and photographer in her own right, when an ACLU study on the lack of diversity among directors was published in the NYT Magazine, with de Cadenet’s sister an interviewee in the cover story.

“It’s about damn time,” she said to her sister, launching a conversation that would re-route de Cadenet’s path forward. Her experience as a photographer herself, able to book editorial jobs but rarely getting paid gigs, cemented what she had just read in the magazine article.

“The glass ceiling was so low that I couldn’t get off my knees,” she explained of that time.

Over the next 48 hours she would design a logo and a font and contact everyone in her creative network, brands and artists alike, to answer the call when she tweeted a call to action. She simply asked for female photographers and videographers to share their photos alongside the hashtag #girlgaze.

“The majority of pictures taken of females are taken by men,” said De Cadenet. “If the goal is for us to be accepted and embrace who we are, our flaws and all, we’re never going to see those pieces of ourselves depicted in media when taken from the perspective that doesn’t have an experience of those things.”

Thousands of photos flooded in in the fist 72 hours and were re-shared on the GirlGaze Instagram. It was de Cadenet’s way of highlighting the amazing work being done by creative women, and showing the different story that is told in content created from the perspective of a female. But more importantly, it’s how she built an army of 200,000+ female-identifying photographers and directors to eventually launch the GirlGaze Network.

Today, at Cannes Lion festival, nearly three years later, de Cadenet did just that.

The GirlGaze Network allows brands to sign up and find diverse, female-identifying and non-binary creatives to generate amazing content. The network has been in beta for the past few months, and was integral in a global campaign from Dove, which employed 400 photographers and directors across 62 countries.

In essence, the GirlGaze Network acts as representation for a group of people who have not gotten equal pay or equal respect within their field. It also gives brands the opportunity to right the ship and hire diverse creative talent to generate their troves of content, whether it’s for social media, a campaign, or otherwise.

Here’s how it works:

Creatives pay nothing to be on the platform and share their portfolio.

Brands join the platform through a paid subscription, where they can see the portfolios of thousands of photographers, directors and creatives. These brands have access to an à la carte menu to establish what kind of jobs they’d like to post, putting the compensation quote up at the very beginning so that whomever receives the job is paid a fair amount for the gig.

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Big brands looking to hire a large amount of people, as Dove did with the #showus campaign, join the Enterprise tier to customize their exact offer, including per-project talent as well as full-time positions.

Brands can search for talent by title, skills, location, and availability. But perhaps even more interesting, the GirlGaze Network has an ‘Unbiased Browsing’ feature, allowing brands who genuinely want to rid themselves of unconscious bias to browse portfolios only, without access to any details about the creative herself.

GirlGaze also handles all of the back-end nitty gritty, including casting and NDAs and all the other paperwork involved.

“The biggest challenge for GirlGaze is to let brands and companies know that they’re not doing this underserved community a favor by hiring them,” said De Cadenet. “This community creates work that is incredibly impactful, really powerful, smart, beautiful. Ultimately, it’s going to add to the bottom line of their business because we’re in a time where the world is very attuned to what is BS and what isn’t. This community tells stories. They have a perspective.”

Thus far, GirlGaze has worked with brands such as Levi’s, Nike, Google, and Warby Parker, and has brought in more than $1 million in pay to their network of female-identifying and non-binary creatives.

One such creative is photographer Nolwen Cifuentes, who has been following GirlGaze from the start and also worked on the Dove campaign.

“This is for really cool brands that want female photographers so they can focus on a story they didn’t have before,” said Cifuentes. “I’ve heard criticism against brands from people who believe they might be queer baiting or using inclusion as a trend. But the thing about GirlGaze is that they are genuinely passionate about female photographers and the stories being told by female photographers, so the brands that come to them are going to be genuine, as well.”

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fuboTV inks Discovery deal, adds 13 more networks to its live TV streaming service

Live sports streaming service fuboTV is expanding further into non-sports content with today’s news that it’s inked a new multi-year deal with Discovery, Inc. that will bring 13 Discovery television networks to its service over the weeks ahead. The new additions will include Discovery Channel, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and MotorTrend — all of which will be available on fuboTV’s $54.99 per month base package.

Here, they’ll join the other Discovery-owned networks which are already live, including HGTV, Food Network, and Travel Channel. These had joined fuboTV earlier by way of its deal with Scripps Network Interactive.

Scripps, now owned by Discovery, had invested in fuboTV’s $75 million Series C last year.

The new and expanded deal with Discovery also includes an agreement to renew the five Scripps networks, fuboTV says.

In addition to the base package expansion, the $5.99 per month add-on package called fubo Extra will get several more Discovery stations as a result of the new agreement, including Science Channel, Destination America, Discovery Family, American Heroes Channel, and Discovery Life. In total, fubo Extra will now include over 30 channels.

Meanwhile, Discovery en Español and Discovery Familia will be added to fuboTV’s Spanish-language package, fubo Latino which is $24.99 per month for 20 channels, and to the Latino Plus add-on that’s $7.99 per month for 15 channels.

The deal also includes a library of on-demand Discovery content, bumping up fuboTV’s VOD collection to over 60,000 movies and TV episodes per month, the company notes.

“Today’s content agreement broadens the strategic relationship between Discovery and fuboTV that began almost two years ago with the former Scripps Networks,” said fuboTV CFO Joel Armijo, in a statement about the new agreement. “We are excited to be adding more Discovery brands alongside their lifestyle networks, which we already carry. These brands, including HGTV and Food Network, are among our top performing entertainment networks, and this agreement allows us to extend our partnership for years to come. We expect to be similarly successful with our new Discovery networks.”

While fuboTV’s core focus is still on live streaming sports content, the service has been steadily expanding its lineup to include more non-sports content over the past couple of years. In addition to the Scripps channels and the soon-to-come Discovery networks, fuboTV has also forged deals with Cheddar, CBSN, CBS Sports Network, The CW, Pop, Viacom, and others in the past couple of years.

Thanks to an investor lineup that includes 21st Century Fox, AMC Networks, Luminari Capital, Northzone, Sky and Scripps, fuboTV today carries a lot of the cable TV channels you find on other TV streaming service. It also offers a good number of local stations thanks to agreements with over 200 broadcast affiliates.

That puts it on better footing to compete with other live TV streaming services like Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, Hulu with Live TV, Philo, YouTube TV, and others. Though it’s still smaller, it has the appeal of the live sports content to draw in viewers.

As for Discovery, the fuboTV deal gives it another means of making its programming available to cord cutters. The company touts agreements with a number of the major TV streaming services, including as of April, YouTube TV. 

“Our partners at fuboTV are building a unique programming service, and we are pleased to bring more of our portfolio of real-life passion brands and programs to their subscribers,” said Eric Phillips, President of Affiliate Distribution at Discovery, in a statement. “This agreement further exemplifies the viewer affinity for our beloved brands and talent, and fuboTV’s commitment to offering high-quality, world-class content to customers,” he added. 

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Netflix signs landmark deal with writer-director Janet Mock

Netflix has signed a development deal with “Pose” writer-producer-director Janet Mock. In its announcement, the streamer notes that Mock is the first black transgender woman to sign an overall deal with a major studio.

Before joining “Pose” — an FX series about New York’s LGBTQ ballroom scene in the 1980s and ’90s — Mock began her career as an editor and journalist, then wrote the bestselling memoir “Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More.”

According to Variety, this is a three-year, multimillion dollar deal. Mock will continue to write and direct for “Pose,” while also serving as an executive producer and director on “Hollywood,” an upcoming Netflix series from “Pose” co-creator Ryan Murphy. (Murphy signed a deal with Netflix last year that was reportedly worth $300 million.)

Netflix will also get exclusive rights on any TV shows that Mock develops, and first-look rights on any feature film projects.

There’s a relatively short list of streaming shows from trans creators, including “Transparent” from Jill Soloway — who identifies as gender non-binary — and “Sense8” from Lilly and Lana Wachowski. (In addition, Laverne Cox of Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black” has been a trailblazer for transgender actors and actresses, and she was the first to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy.)

It sounds like Mock will be adding a number of titles to that list.

“This deal is so bonkers,” she said in the announcement, adding, “You know, 84% percent of Americans say that they don’t know and/or work with a trans person. And so, there’s potential now with Netflix’s worldwide audience to introduce millions, hundreds of millions of people to trans people and showing people who may not understand us that we can tell our own story.”

‘Glee’ and ‘American Horror Story’ co-creator Ryan Murphy signs exclusive deal with Netflix

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Jeffrey Katzenberg’s streaming service Quibi books $100M in ad sales ahead of launch

Quibi, the short-form video platform founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, hasn’t even launched but has already booked $100 million in advertising sales, according to a report from The WSJ this morning. The company, which aims to cater to younger viewers with premium content chopped up into “quick bites,” says it has already booked advertisers including Protector & Gamble, Pepsi Co., Anheuser-Busch InBev, Walmart, Progressive, and Google.

It still has around $50 million in unsold ad inventory ahead of launch.

It’s hard to imagine how a service like Quibi will compete in a market dominated by paid streamers like Netflix and free services like YouTube — both preferred by a younger demographic. But Quibi has been raising massive amounts of money to take them on. In May, it was reported that Quibi was going after another billion in funding, on top of the billion it had already raised.

Beyond the industry’s big bet on Katzenberg himself, Quibi has booked big-name talent including Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro, and is filming a show about Snapchat’s founding which may draw in millennial viewers.

But it sounds like Quibi may also be relying on gimmicks — like Spielberg’s horror series that you can only watch at night time (when it’s dark outside). Not to mention the very idea that Quibi thinks it’s invented a new kind of media that falls in between today’s short-form and traditional TV-length or movie-length content found elsewhere.

On Quibi, shows are meant to be watched on the go, through segments that are around 7 to 10 minutes long. Some of the content will be bigger, more premium productions, while others will be more akin to what you’d find on cable TV or lower-cost daily news programming.

The service will launch April 6, 2020 with two tiers: a $4.99 per month plan that includes a pre-roll ad before each video segment. The ad is 10 seconds if the video is under 5 minutes, and it’s 15 seconds for any videos between 5 and 10 minutes. Some ad themselves will tell “brand stories” throughout the program breaks.

A $7.99 per month tier offers an ad-free experience. The company expects 75% of viewers will opt for the ad-supported version, Quibi CEO Meg Whitman told The WSJ.

 

 

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Netflix reveals the top TVs it thinks you should use to binge watch in 2019

Netflix has a tradition, in practice since 2015, of annually proclaiming which TVs, of all the TVs in the land, are best suited to serving you its content. The streaming company’s criteria for determining ‘best’ is different from what you’d expect from The Wirecutter or Consumer reports – but if you’re a Netflix ride-or-die level fan, they might be the only criteria you really care about.

Without further ado, here’s the list of 2019’s Netflix Recommended TVs:

  • Samsung Q60R/Q70R/Q80R/Q90R/Q900R series, RU8000, The Serif and The Frame devices
  • Sony BRAVIA X85G/X90G series and A9G series
  • Panasonic VIERA GX700/GX800/GX900 series

That list may seem short, and it is, relative to the number of TVs on the market that offer Netflix directly on device. But Netflix points out that the list can grow throughout the year depending on device and software update availability.

If, like me, you are an informed consumer who does a lot of research before making a large purchase like, say, a big-screen TV, you might be curious at the omission of LG’s OLED series, the 2019 iteration of which came to market just a couple of months ago. For a possible answer, let’s take a look at the criteria Netflix uses to make their list. (Note: I asked Netflix directly about LG and they provided a generic answer about brands dropping from the list year-to-year on occasion based on criteria and performance requirements).

Essentially, landing an official Netflix nod means that a TV can provide its user access to Netflix “within just a few seconds,” that it allows you to “quickly and easily” navigate between different apps, that it provides access to the most up-to-date version of Netflix, and that it gives you access to all Netflix’s laters features “for a better browsing experience.” In total there are 7 criteria, and a TV must meet 5 to be eligible for a Netflix recommendation.

Demo of how much faster Netflix loads on TVs that use the company’s ‘Always Fresh’ background activation feature. Bottom screen is with ‘Always Fresh’ active.

One criteria that’s new this year might be the one that’s put the ‘Recommendation’ out of reach for LG and webOS – it’s called ‘Always Fresh,” and it requires that a TV keep Netflix awake for an occasional background refresh, meaning it’s always primed and ready to go, with more or less instant playback regardless of network connection speed.

It’d be easy to knock Netflix for making this one of the conditions of receiving its recommendations (which are based solely on testing and meeting its standards – the company told me no money changes hands in this program), but it’s not barring companies that don’t meet these criteria from offering its service. And it’s using its market weight to help motivate TV makers to provide an experience that will genuinely be better for consumers.

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Roli’s newest instrument, the Lumi, helps you learn to play piano with lights

There has been a longstanding gulf between the consumption music and the creation of it: not everyone has the time or money to spend on lessons and instruments, and for those in school, many music education programs have been cut back over the years, making the option of learning to play instruments for free less common. Still others have had moments of interest but haven’t found the process of learning that easy.

Now we’re seeing a new wave of startups emerge that are attempting to tackle those issues with technology, creating tools and even new instruments that leverage smartphones and tablets, new hardware computing innovations and new software to make learning music more than just a pastime for a select few.

In the latest development, London startup Roli is launching a new interactive keyboard called the Lumi. Part colourful, sound sensitive lightboard and part piano, the Lumi’s keys light up in a colorful array to help guide and teach you to play music. The 11-inch keyboard — which can  be linked up with one or two more of the same to add more octaves — comes with an iPad app that contains hundreds of pieces, and the two are now selling for $249 alongside a new Kickstarter to help drum up interest and offer early-bird discounts. The Kickstarter campaign blew through its modest £100,000 goal within a short while, and some of the smaller tiers of pledges now sold out. The product will start shipping in October 2019, the company says.

As you might already know, or have guessed by the reaction to the kickstarter, this is not Roli’s first rodeo: the company has made two other major products (and variations on those two) before this also aimed at music making. First came the Seaboard, which Roli described as a new instrument when it first launched. Taking the form factor of a keyboard, it contained squishy keys that let the player bend notes and create other effects alongside electronic-based percussive tapping, as you would do with a normal keyboard.

Its next product was Blocks: small, modular light boards that also used colored light to guide your playing and help you create new and interesting sounds and beats with taps (and using a similarly squidgy surface to the Seaboard), and then mix them together.

Both of these were interesting, but somewhat aimed at those who were already familiar with playing pianos or other instruments, or with creating and playing electronic music with synthesizers, FX processors and mixers. (Case in point: the people I know who were most interested in these were my DJ friends and my kids, who both play the piano and are a little nerdy about these things.)

The Lumi is in a way a step back for Roli fom trying to break new ground by conceiving of completely new instruments, with new form factors built with the benefits of technology and electronics in mind. But it’s also a step ahead: using a keyboard as the basis of the instrument, the Lumi is more familiar and therefore more accessible — with an accessible price of $249 to go along with that.

Lumi’s emergence comes after an interesting few years of growth for Roli. The company is one of the select few (and I think the only one making music instruments) to be retailed in Apple stores, and it’s had endorsements from some very high profile people, but that’s about as mainstream as it has been up to now.

The startup’s founder and CEO, American-born Roland Lamb, is probably best described as a polymath, someone who comes across less as a geeky and nervous or (at the other end) ultra smooth-talking startup founder, and more like a calm-voiced thinker who has come out to talk to you in a break between reading and writing about the nature of music and teaching a small philosophy seminar.

His background also speaks to this unconventional manner. Before coming to found Roli, he had lived in a Zen monastery, made his way around the world playing jazz piano, and studied Chinese and Sanskrit at Harvard and design at the Royal College of Art.

Roli has always been a little cagey about how much it has raised and from whom, but the list includes consumer electronics giants like Sony, specialist audio makers like Onkyo, the music giant Univeral Music Group, and VCs that include Founders Fund, Index and LocalGlobe, Kreos Capital, Horizons Ventures and more. It’s also partnered with a number of big names like Pharrell Williams (who is also an investor) in the effort to get its name out.

And while it has most definitely made a mark with a certain echelon of the music world — producers and those creating electronic music — it has not parlayed that into a wider global reputation or wider accessibility. After bringing out instruments more for a high end audience, the Lumi seems like an attempt to do just that.

That seems to be coming at the right time. Services like Spotify and YouTube — and the rise of phones and internet usage in general — have transformed how we listen to music. We now have a much wider array of things to listen to whenever we want. On top of that, services like YouTube and Soundcloud furthermore are giving us a taste of creating our own music: using electronic devices, we can go beyond what might have been limitations up to now (for example, having never learned to play an instrument in the traditional sense) to get stuck into the craft itself.

The Lumi is also tapping into another important theme, and that is of music being “good for you”. There a line of thought that says learning an instrument is good for your mind, both if you’re a younger person who is still in school or indeed out of school and looking to stay sharp. Others believe it has health benefits.

But realistically, these beliefs don’t get applied very often. Roli cites stats that say that only 10% of adults aged 18-29 have played an instrument in the past year, and of those that played as children, some 80% say they quit by age 14.

Putting this together with the Lumi, it seems that the aim is to hit a wider swathe of the market and bring in people who might want to learn something like playing an instrument but had thought previously that it would be too much of a challenge.

Roli isn’t the first — nor likely the last — company to reconsider how to learn playing the piano through technology. The Chinese company ONE Music Group makes both smart pianos with keyboards that light up, as well as a strip that you overlay on any keyboard, that also corresponds to an iPad app to learn to play piano.

An American startup called McCarthy Music also makes illuminated-key pianos, also subscribing to the principle that providing this kind of guidance to teach muscle memory is an important step in getting a student acquainted with playing on a keyboard.

The Lumi is notable not just because of its cost, but its size — the single, lightweight keyboards have a battery life of six hours and can fit in a backback.

That said, Roli is hoping that there will be a double audience to these in the longer term, bridging the divide between music maker and listener, but also amateur and pro.

“Many people would love to play an instrument but worry that they don’t have the talent. Through our research, design, and innovation at ROLI, we’ve come to believe that the problem is not a lack of talent. Rather, instruments themselves are not smart enough,” said Lamb in a statement. “What excites me most is that the intelligence of LUMI means that there’s something in it for everyone. On one hand my own kids now prefer LUMI time to movie time. On the other hand, several of the world’s leading keyboard players can’t wait to use LUMI in the studio and on the stage.”

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Advertisers and digital media companies form a new Global Alliance for Responsible Media

Many of the major players in online advertising have come together to create an organization called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, which is supposed to focus on “digital safety.”

In this context, that means safety for brand marketers, who want to ensure that their ads aren’t running alongside hateful, misleading or otherwise controversial content.

For example, a number of advertisers reportedly suspended their work with YouTube earlier this year over concerns that the platform’s algorithm was directing viewers to exploitative clips of children. This also comes amidst broader concern over whether social media companies are doing enough to police the content on their platforms.

What the Global Alliance for Responsible Media will actually do remains vague, at least judging from today’s announcement, which was made at this week’s Cannes Lions event for advertisers. The organization says its first steps will be to “form and empower an inclusive working group charged with developing a set of initial ideas and prioritizing next steps.”

Google removed 2.3B bad ads, banned ads on 1.5M apps + 28M pages, plans new Policy Manager this year

For now, then, the alliance is more notable for who’s involved. The advertisers include brands like Adidas, Bayer, General Mills, Mondelēz International, NBCUniversal, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, as well as the big agencies like Dentsu, GroupM, IPG, Publicis Media and Omnicom Media Group. Facebook, Google/YouTube, Teads, TRUSTX, Twitter, Unruly and Verizon Media (which owns TechCrunch) have signed on as well, as have trade groups like the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

While the plans sound vague for now, Facebook’s vice president for global account partnerships Will Platt-Higgins told Ad Age that that won’t be true for long: “They want to get runs on the board, not be a committee. They and we believe that building an alliance of leading advertisers, leading agencies, media companies and the industry bodies is the best way of doing that versus just the clients or just the agencies.”

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Verified Expert Growth Marketing Agency: NoGood

NoGood CEO Mostafa Elbermawy describes how they evaluate a client’s growth challenges by quoting Zen teacher Hunryu Suzuki: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are only a few.” Rather than deferring to in-house playbooks, NoGood adopts an open mind combined with a methodical, data-driven approach to find untapped growth opportunities for its clients. Learn more about how NoGood came to be and why they’re willing to say no to potential clients.

On NoGood’s approach to growth:

“Our work is methodical. It’s intentional. We have to talk about it. We are very transparent about what we do and it’s completely process oriented. Hacking is a misnomer. Growth is not about clever shortcuts. It has to be sustainable and repeatable, and if it’s not, we won’t do it.”

On NoGood’s proudest accomplishment:

“They helped us launch our business. They are our CMO and our CTO. Would recommend to anyone.” Erica Tsypin, Washington D.C., Co-Founder & COO, Steer

“Our success in jumpstarting Steer’s business is one of our proudest accomplishments this year. Steer is an electric car subscription startup that asked us to increase their activations. Basically, our job was to generate new active members, which not only meant encouraging more users to download the app, upload a license, and get approved, but it also meant delivering a car to a member’s door, having them drive that car and leaving a review. We were able to demonstrate signup traction for Steer and help them launch in under three months.”

 

Below, you’ll find the rest of the founder reviews, the full interview, and more details like pricing and fee structures. This profile is part of our ongoing series covering startup growth marketing agencies with whom founders love to work, based on this survey and our own research. The survey is open indefinitely, so please fill it out if you haven’t already.

Interview with NoGood CEO and Growth Lead Mostafa Elbermawy

Yvonne Leow: To kick things off, how did you get into growth?

Mostafa Elbermawy: Well, I went to school for archaeology, but hieroglyphics weren’t paying the bills, so I taught myself how to code and started a web design studio after college. I started building websites for clients, and they started asking me how to drive more users to their sites to help grow their business.

I started tinkering with growth out of curiosity, and eventually joined the digital experience team at American Express. That job helped me gain some marketing and growth experience, and I ended up falling in love with that part of the job.

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Apple TV is getting a Picture-in-Picture mode so you can watch two shows at once

Apple TV is getting a Picture-in-Picture mode that will allow users to stream two shows at the same time, TechCrunch has confirmed. The feature’s forthcoming launch was first reported by Apple news site 9to5Mac earlier today, following today’s release of new beta software for all of Apple’s operating systems, including tvOS.

After installing tvOS beta 2, Twitter user Nikolaj Hansen-Turton noticed a new option — the ability to play content in a smaller window in the bottom-right of the screen, overlaid on top of the main Apple TV interface. Or, simply put, it’s a Picture-in-Picture mode. (See tweets below).

Several publications soon ran the news.

But what wasn’t clear at the time was whether this was just a minimized video player window or a true Picture-in-Picture experience. The tweeted photo and video, after all, seemed to show a static background on the main screen — not two programs playing simultaneously. However, we understand that Apple TV will support the ability to stream two shows at once.

There are some caveats, though.

Picture-in-Picture support will only be available for content provided by Apple. That includes content purchased through iTunes, TV shows and movies streamed the Apple TV+ subscription service launching later this year, and videos streamed through Apple TV Channels.

Channels, which arrived with the updated TV app in May, lets users subscribe to premium add-ons including HBO, Starz, Showtime, EPIX, Tastemade, Smithsonian Channel and others. The idea is similar to the premium subscriptions available through Amazon’s Prime Video Channels or the more recently added subscriptions offered through Roku’s streaming hub, The Roku Channel.

To be clear, that means if you subscribe to HBO through Apple’s Channels, you will be able to watch HBO in Picture-in-Picture mode when the new version of tvOS ships to the public later this fall. But if you subscribe to HBO through the HBONOW.com website and then watch via the third-party HBO NOW app, you won’t be able to use Picture-in-Picture mode.

Apple intends to expand its catalog of premium subscriptions in time, which will make it possible to view more programming in the Picture-in-Picture mode in the future.

Apple hasn’t yet announced plans for third-party developer tools that would allow them to customize their own apps to support Picture-in-Picture mode. If those aren’t immediately available, it gives Apple TV owners a compelling reason to subscribe to premium programming through Apple TV Channels, instead of through a third-party website or app. (Which would be a nice perk for Apple’s TV platform revenue, as well.)

Support for Picture-in-Picture mode wasn’t announced earlier this month at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference where the company previews its upcoming software releases, which made today’s reveal a pleasant surprise for Apple TV fans.

Picture-in-Picture mode will be supported on both Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD, we understand.

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Spotify advertisers can now target listeners by what podcasts they stream

Spotify is taking the next big step in terms of building out its podcast business: it’s now offering the ability for advertisers to target listeners based on what types of podcasts they’re streaming. The company says brands will be able to reach Spotify Free listeners who stream from specific podcast categories, including Comedy, Lifestyle & Health, and Business & Technology.

This option is being launched across 10 global markets, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia.

Spotify shared the news on Friday with a handful of ad trade publications, but didn’t make a broad announcement, we understand.

Currently, the new ad targeting option is being tested by several brands such as Samsung, which is marketing its Galaxy Buds, and 3M — the official sponsors of the Spotify Original podcast Dope Labs. 

The ad targeting launch is the latest in a series of investments Spotify has made into its podcast business in recent months which have included deals for exclusive content, acquisitions, and new features.

The company picked up podcast businesses Gimlet, Parcast, and Anchor for a combined $400 million, and has been steadily expanding its lineup of exclusive content which now includes shows like The Joe Budden Podcast, Stay Free: The Story of the Clash, Jemele Hill Is Unbothered, and Amy Schumer Presents, among others. It also recently landed a deal with Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground, and on Friday announced the third season of the of Rob Riggle and Sarah Tiana’s sports podcast Riggle’s Picks will now stream exclusively on Spotify.

The company also sells its own podcast ads.

Meanwhile, in an effort to gain more podcasts listeners across its service, Spotify just launched its first playlist that combines music with podcast programming, and redesigned its app to place podcasts only a swipe away from music.

Spotify believes in the potential for podcasts — and the ad dollars they could bring in — based on the trends it sees in its own data as well as those across the broader industry.

According to Edison Research, 51 percent of U.S. consumers have listened to podcasts at some point, and 62 million listen weekly. On Spotify itself, podcast consumption hours grew by 250% year-over-year in 2018, with 49% of millennial listeners tuning in each week. Spotify also cited WARC’s Global Ad Trends report, which estimated that podcasts could account for 4.5% of global audio ad spend by 2022, or $1.6 billion.

“Over time, we aspire to develop a more robust advertising solution for podcasts that will allow us to layer in the kind of targeting, measurement, and reporting capabilities we have for ads that run alongside other content experiences like music and video,” a spokesperson said.