The Drum Show: Elon Musk buys Twitter and Netflix opens door to advertisers
On this week’s episode of The Drum Show, Gordon Young, editor-in-chief at The Drum, asks his panelists to unpick Elon Musk's controversial buyout of Twitter, the launch of TalkTV and Netflix’s shock announcement that it would introduce ads.
This week billionaire Elon Musk brought Twitter for $44bn, causing anxiety in adland over a major disruption to the social site’s ad business. Head of partnerships at Aircards Marek Wrobel relays advertisers’ brand safety concerns if Musk opens up the platform like he has vowed to do.
Are there opportunities to be had? Some industry commentators believe Musk will make Twitter a more premium offering and his reputation at Tesla is proof he can bring innovation and growth to the platform. Wrobel echoed this, saying advertisers will be sitting watching with intrigue.
The Drum reporter Hannah Bowler weighs in on the launch of News UK’s TalkTV, which opened to a healthy 300,000 views on Tuesday, but has since slipped on its ratings. Hannah explains the industry has reserved judgment on the fledgling news outlet – unlike its rival GB News, which was hit with a boycott before launch.
In other major media news this week, Netflix lost subscribers for the first quarter in 10 years. The announcement was followed by its chief executive Reed Hastings, suggesting Netflix would finally introduce ads to its platform. In an interview with Innvoid’s Tal Chalozin we learned how Netflix would lean toward sponsorships and integrated advertising over ad breaks.
Elsewhere, The Drum’s events boss Lynn Lester chatted about the links between artificial intelligence (AI) and creativity off the back of The Drum’s Digital Awards.