To shoulder its way into an industry overwhelmingly dominated by Facebook and Google, Amazon is making bold new moves into self-serve programmatic advertising.
— Read on adage.com/article/digital/amazon-primes-ad-business/313300/

Disney and Twitter announced a new advertising and content deal head of NewFront presentations later today and Wednesday in New York City.
— Read on deadline.com/2018/04/disney-espn-twitter-strike-new-live-content-advertising-deal-1202379471/

Comcast also disclosed the annual compensation for its chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.
— Read on www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nbcuniversal-ceo-steve-burkes-2017-pay-rises-465-million-1093739

Already dealing with skittish investors worried about the ability of MSOs to compete with the mounting 5G forces of Verizon—among several other things—cable operators got a brand-new thing to worry about over the weekend when T-Mobile and Sprint announced their $26 billion merger.
— Read on www.fiercecable.com/cable/cable-faces-powerful-new-5g-competitor-combined-sprint-and-t-mobile

MoviePass, the monthly subscription service to seeing films in theaters, keeps complicating things. Prices go up and down. Certain movies get banned. New subscribers get just four movies a month. (Older plans are grandfathered into the 30-a-month rate.) And now subscribers can’t watch certain movies more than once.

— Read on lifehacker.com/moviepass-got-worse-again-1825650639

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings spoke with Business Insider and said there’s no limit on investments in original material. He predicted the budget would keep growing as Netflix keeps growing, adding that investors and consumers both seem to like the huge amounts of new content.
— Read on www.fiercecable.com/video/netflix-ceo-says-there-s-no-limit-investing-new-shows

Amid T-Mobile and Sprint’s planned merger, TheStreet’s founder and Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio Manager Jim Cramer said AT&T should be "shaking."…TMUS
— Read on www.thestreet.com/video/jim-cramer-on-tmobile-sprint-att-should-be-shaking-14573122

Rethinking Skinny Bundles and Their Impact on Pay-TV – VideoNuze
— Read on www.videonuze.com/article/rethinking-skinny-bundles-and-the-impact-on-pay-tv

Entertainment Media Ventures founder Sandy Climan on the consumer shift to streaming.
— Read on video.foxbusiness.com/v/5778401656001/

The average first-quarter movie ticket price for North America jumped 3.6% from a year ago, rising from $8.84 to $9.16.
— Read on variety.com/2018/film/box-office/average-movie-ticket-price-first-quarter-1202791861/

Following 1Q18 results, I have turned from a cautious AT&T bull to becoming more enticed by other names in the space. Operational metrics on the mobility side l
— Read on seekingalpha.com/article/4167425-t-hurts-ego-changing-mind

Rumors that the country is to install a single entity as the sole distributor of films stoke fears in Hollywood that studio releases will have to go through a monopolizing, government-owned company that would control the market.
— Read on www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-saudi-arabia-take-a-page-chinas-state-run-distribution-playbook-1106691

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos interviewed by Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner about Amazon, Trump, Blue Origin, his family, and the advice he’d give entrepreneurs.
— Read on www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-interview-axel-springer-ceo-amazon-trump-blue-origin-family-regulation-washington-post-2018-4

The Netflix documentary series about the Oregon Rajneeshi community that clashed with local and state government suggests there’s no real answer to who was right that’s entirely satisfactory.
— Read on www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee/2018/04/30/606501968/on-one-hand-and-on-the-other-hand-too-wild-wild-country

Artificial intelligence systems search for stress in the workplace.
— Read on www.wsj.com/articles/companies-use-ai-to-help-managers-become-more-human-1525053660

DocuSign and Smartsheet are the latest to take the public plunge.
— Read on www.recode.net/2018/4/27/17292190/tech-ipo-market-docusign-smartsheet

Current T-Mobile CEO John Legere will lead the combined company, which will be called T-Mobile.
— Read on www.recode.net/2018/4/29/17299270/sprint-tmobile-merger-legere-wireless-5g-claure-softbank

Michelle Wolf did not mock Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ looks at the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, despite the critics who claim otherwise. Her jokes about politics, Donald Trump, and journalism went a lot deeper than that.
— Read on www.vulture.com/2018/04/michelle-wolf-sarah-huckabee-sanders-whcd-joke.html

NEW YORK (AP) — Liz Garbus’ first day shooting inside The New York Times newsroom was President Donald Trump’s inauguration day. Her final day was April 16, when the Pulitzer Priz
— Read on apnews.com/

After years boasting about its mobile reach, this year YouTube will be focused on the living room screen.
— Read on adage.com/article/special-report-newfronts/youtube-selling-ads-live-tv-service/313284/

Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O) said on Friday, Jeffrey Ubben has stepped down from the company’s board at a time when the media company is in the process of completing a deal with Walt Disney Co (DIS.N).
— Read on www.reuters.com/article/us-fox-board-ubben/jeffrey-ubben-steps-down-from-fox-board-idUSKBN1HY1T4

Charter director John Malone shares his views in an exclusive interview with CNBC’s David Faber Thursday.
— Read on www.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/john-malone-there-have-been-four-different-approaches-for-charter.html

Analysts worry Apple could expose a weakness in consumer demand as the tech giant releases its first-quarter numbers
— Read on www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/29/apple-acquisition-rumors-first-quarter-numbers

Frederique Constant’s Peter Stas details why the Swiss watch industry is heading for trouble—and can’t ignore smartwatches any longer.
— Read on www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-30/this-swiss-ceo-is-sounding-the-alarm-on-apple

Allcargo Logistics Ltd. is emulating Uber Technologies Inc. to boost its business of sharing marine containers.
— Read on www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-30/biggest-indian-cargo-company-wants-to-build-an-uber-for-shipping