Morning Bulletin: Channel 4 bares criticism, Mercedes complaint & Sky on a high
This morning’s bulletin delves behind Britain’s worst ever TV show, Naked Attraction, whilst finding time to cover a potentially dangerous Mercedes ad and yet another profit windfall at Sky.
Road safety campaigners are calling on the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate Mercedes over a new advert which apparently shows its E-Class vehicle driving itself, despite such technology still being several years away, according to Advertising Age.
The Times exposes a backlash against controversial Channel 4 dating format Naked Attraction, which as the name suggests sees contestants bare all. The complete opposite of Blind Date has garnered a slew of negative headlines since it premiered labelling it the worst TV show ever and a new low in reality shows.
The broadsheet also covers Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the Democratic convention in which he urged his supporters to carry Hilary Clinton into the White House.
Mark Zuckerberg is quoted as saying that Facebook is only ‘one per cent done’ after posting a quarterly revenue estimate of $6.24bn in ad sales over the second quarter thanks to the popularity of its mobile app and live video feeds.
There is good news for Sky this morning after the pay TV provider reported a 12 per cent uplift in its full-year operating profit, beating analysts’ forecasts, as the business doubles down on encouraging existing customers to spend more rather than win new subscriptions.
Reuters reports that Donald Trump has escalated his war of words with his democratic rival Hilary Clinton after inviting Russian intelligence to ‘find’ 30,000 emails he believes to be missing from her server. This prompted his adviser to later backtrack by stressing that Trump wasn’t encouraging a foreign power to hack Clinton’s emails.
Over at Business Insider comes news that WePay electronic transaction platform is to expand in the UK, with a new office in London and a roll out of its integrated payments service to customers.
Campaign meanwhile carries a report on Instagram which is said to be introducing new tools designed to aid users in managing and combating online abuse following the high profile trolling of musician Taylor Swift. In recent days negative comments on her Instagram pictures have begun to vanish suggesting enhanced editing tools have already been built
Ad Exchanger opens its coverage with a prediction that video is about to become the leading digital ad driver, courtesy of a shift in the US toward 5G – which allows consumer to download a 4K movie in less than 10 minutes.
Retail Week highlights how consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in three years, undermined by the Brexit vote which has seen many hold off on purchases until the political uncertainty clears.