BBC News Channel Loses 1M UK Viewers After International Merger & Presenter Purge

The BBC News channel has lost 1M viewers in the UK after it was merged with BBC World News as part of the corporation’s efforts to slash costs.

BBC News’ audience reach in April stood at 9.7M viewers, according to figures published by Barb, the UK ratings body. This was down 9% from 10.7M in March and 23% from 12.6M in April 2022.

The 9.7M figure was comfortably BBC News’ worst audience reach in at least 16 months, though it is likely to be longer, given Barb’s figures only date back to December 2021.

BBC News remains the most-watched news network in the UK. Its closest rival is Sky News, which had a reach of 7.7M last month. New entrants GB News and TalkTV posted audiences of 2.8M and 1.4M respectively.

April was the first month that BBC News broadcast merged output with World News, with the channel taking on a more international flavor, even though it does split for big domestic stories.

Presenters familiar to UK audiences, including Ben Brown and Jane Hill, have exited the channel as part of the changes, which have proved unpopular with employees.

Insiders said BBC managers were warned about a potential ratings slump and Barb’s figures were “entirely predictable.” One person said the channel’s agenda was “relentlessly global,” while a second added: “The UK viewer never knows what they’re going to get.”

A third insider said the audience drop was indicative of a wider downward trend in news viewing. They argued, however, that viewers still come to the BBC for big stories, such as elections, and online engagement is increasing.

Ofcom has voiced concerns about the merger and it is understood that representatives from the UK media regulator visited BBC News last month. Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s outgoing Group Director, said the BBC’s failure to properly explain the changes had resulted in “a lot of uncertainty for audiences.”

The BBC first suggested the channel merger last May as part of measures aimed at plugging a £1.4B ($1.7B) hole in its finances after the license fee was frozen. It has also positioned the merger as an opportunity to reinvent the BBC’s news output for a digital age.

Disney To Launch Single App In The Us With Disney+ & Hulu, Questions Lurking Over Star

During Disney’s quarterly results, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that in the United States, they will be launching a single app, which will incorporate Hulu content into Disney+.

Each app will still be available individually, and this might be a way around Disney getting ready to bring together Hulu and Disney+, until Disney sorts out its ownership of Hulu from Comcast.

Bob Iger stated that the one-app experience will offer a better service to its subscribers and increase advertising revenue.

“While we will continue to offer Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ as standalone options, this is a logical progression of our [direct-to-consumer] offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content, resulting in greater audience engagement and ultimately leading to a more unified streaming experience,”
This follows other moves being made by studios, like Comcast and Warner Brothers Discovery, who are consolidating their apps. Disney feels it can spend more money advertising its major movie and show releases by marketing a single app.

The single-app experience will launch in the United States by the end of the year. Disney’s tech teams have been working on migrating the Hulu legacy system into the Disney+ tech, since early last year, and the teams referred to the project as “Nu-Lu”.

Bob Iger has had conversations with Comcast about buying its stake in Hulu, which Disney can force to happen in 2024. In the last few months, Bob Iger has come to the conclusion that offering more general entertainment with Disney+ content is what they need to do.

“What we’re doing right now — because we own two-thirds of Hulu, and we have an agreement with Comcast that may result in us owning 100 percent — is we’re really studying the business very, very carefully, all those competitive dynamics with an understanding that we have a good platform in Hulu.

We have very strong original programming, actually highly awarded original programming, some delivered by FX, which is a great not only producer but brand, and we also have a good library, so it’s a solid platform. And it’s also a very attractive platform for advertisers. It’s already proven to be valuable for them and advertising is proven to be valuable for us. But the environment is very, very tricky right now and before we make any big decisions about our level of investment, our commitment to that business, we want to understand where it could go”.

Bob Iger has said that the addition of Star to Disney+ internationally has been very successful and they want to offer more general entertainment alongside Disney, to reduce churn, increase revenue and reduce costs.

For more Disney+ and Video Entertainment updates head over to Insidus Plus

CNBC To Relaunch In Turkey As CNBC Turkiye By The End Of 2023

According to the statement made by İlbak Holding, CNBC Turkiye will evaluate the global developments in the business world from the perspective of Turkey with its objective and accurate news content. The channel, which will convey the developments in the global financial markets with comprehensive reports and exclusive interviews, will convey the local perspective to the global as well as how global events affect local markets.

CNBC Turkiye, headquartered in Istanbul, will include finance, economy and business news with live broadcast content of at least 10 hours a day. The channel's broadcast content will be supported by international broadcasts from CNBC offices around the world, including Abu Dhabi, London, New York and Singapore.

CNBC Turkiye, which is scheduled to be launched in October 2023, will offer widespread and easy access to viewers across the country through platforms that offer satellite, cable, terrestrial broadcasting networks, internet broadcasting platforms and broadband services.

John Casey, President and General Manager of CNBC International, who included his assessments on the subject in the statement, stated that as a global brand, they are aware of the importance of delivering business news, insights and analysis at the local level.

"We are very excited to herald CNBC Turkiye together with Ilbak Holding and to bring CNBC's unique and dynamic content back to the audience in Turkey," Casey said.

Murat İlbak, Chairman of the Board of Directors of İlbak Holding, stated that they are happy to bring CNBC back to Turkiye with its Turkish content and made the following evaluations:

"CNBC Turkiye will undoubtedly break new ground in the business markets in our country with the complete, impartial, accurate information and news content we have committed to. Turkey has a vibrant and versatile economy with a population of 85 million and a growing investor base. Our aim is to provide an advanced information flow that will facilitate decision-making processes and to reveal the full potential of the business world and markets in Turkey. CNBC Turkey will help its audience make informed decisions and seize opportunities in an ever-changing global business environment.”

Noting that the TV channel will also play an important role in the development of Turkey, which is among the top 20 economies in the world, İlbak emphasized that this strong partnership with CNBC International will also show the strength and dynamism of the Turkish economy.

Disney+ Loses Another 4 Million Subscribers

Today, the Walt Disney Company has released its latest quarterly results for the fiscal second quarter 2023, and that means we get an updated look at how many subscribers Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ have.

This gives us a clear indication of how the apps are doing, especially with growth or decline in subscriber numbers. These subscriber numbers are based up to April 1st 2023.

Disney+ now has 157.8 million subscribers globally, down over 4 million subscribers from 161.8 million subscribers last quarter. All of these losses have come from subscribers leaving Disney+ Hotstar in India, following the loss of the cricket and, most recently, HBO content. In the US and Canada, they lost 300,000 subscribers, likely due to the recent price rise, less content and political issues. However, Disney+ subscribers in other areas, including Latin America, Europe and Asia, increased by 900,000.

While Hulu has added around 200,000 subscribers, ESPN+ has also added 400,000 subscribers in the US.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement:

“We’re pleased with our accomplishments this quarter, including the improved financial performance of our streaming business, which reflect the strategic changes we’ve been making throughout the company to realign Disney for sustained growth and success. From movies to television, to sports, news, and our theme parks, we continue to deliver for consumers, while establishing a more efficient, coordinated, and streamlined approach to our operations.”

More importantly, Disney’s streaming businesses have been able to increase its revenue by 12% to $5.5 billion and decrease its operating lost by half a billion dollars, which mainly came from better Disney+ and ESPN+ results, partially offset by lower operating income at Hulu.

The improvement at Disney+ was due to higher subscription revenue and a decrease in marketing costs, partially offset by higher programming and production costs and, to a lesser extent, increased technology costs. Higher subscription revenue was attributable to subscriber growth and increases in retail pricing, partially offset by an unfavorable foreign exchange impact. The increase in programming and production costs was due to more content provided on the service. Improved results at ESPN+ were attributable to growth in subscription revenue due to an increase in retail pricing and subscriber growth.

The decrease in operating income at Hulu was due to higher programming and production costs and lower advertising revenue, partially offset by subscription revenue growth and, to a lesser extent, lower marketing costs. The increase in programming and production costs was attributable to more content provided on the service and an increase in subscriber-based fees for programming the Live TV service, partially offset by a lower average cost mix of SVOD content. Higher subscriber-based fees for programming the Live TV service were due to rate increases and more subscribers. The decrease in advertising revenue resulted from lower impressions, partially offset by higher rates. Subscription revenue growth was due to increases in retail pricing and subscribers.

Disney has also provided a detailed breakdown per region: (Million)

Disney+ – Global – 157.8

Disney+ – Domestic (US & Canada) – 46.3

Disney+ – International excluding Disney+ Hotstar+ – 58.6

Disney+ Core – (excluding Hotstar) – 104.9

Disney+ Hotstar – 52.9

ESPN+ – Million Subscribers (US Only) – 25.3

Hulu – Million Subscribers (US Only) – 48.2

To compare, here are the subscription numbers (Millions) from November’s Investor Call:

Disney+ – Global – 161.8

Disney+ – Domestic (US & Canada) – 46.6

Disney+ – International excluding Disney+ Hotstar+ – 57.7

Disney+ Core – (excluding Hotstar) – 104.3

Disney+ Hotstar – 57.5

ESPN+ – Million Subscribers (US Only) – 24.9

Hulu – Million Subscribers (US Only) – 48.0

How Will Disney+ Adding Hulu Content Work?

It’s finally happening. Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced plans to bring together its streaming services in the United States under one app, bringing Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ content all together to offer subscribers a better experience but it also comes with many business benefits.

The details of how all of this will work are still very much unknown. Bob Iger was very vague about how Hulu content would be added within Disney+, but there are some key things we know.

• It will be happening by the end of 2023

• Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu will still be offered as separate services

• Hulu content will be available within Disney+

• More advertising is going to be offered

• Price rises for Disney+

However, we still know very little about how all of this will work out because the Hulu situation is very complicated. First off, Comcast still owns 33% of Hulu and due to a contract that was put into place when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, which means Disney or Comcast can force Disney to buy out the 33% stake, for a minimum of around $9 billion. Bob Iger has said he has had meetings with Comcast over Hulu, but ultimately, the deal hasn’t been finalised, which is why the information has been so vague.

Disney is being open about its plans to consolidate its streaming services, similar to how HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge and how Paramount+ and Showtime have recently done. It’s setting the tone for the future, which Disney knows will be all about the streaming business as the linear business is declining yearly.

There are many reasons why the merger of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ will make sense. It will drastically reduce costs for the company. They can make less content and stretch it out easier, because when you look at all of the content being created across Disney’s studios, they release lots of shows and films. Publicity costs can be reduced, since they will be only promoting one app. Bob Iger even mentioned in the quarterly conference call that they’ve been releasing so much content on their streaming platforms, they’ve not been advertising them properly to get the most out of their investment. That’s in addition to savings that can be made on just running one platform, reduced overheads etc.

The merging of the platforms also will help reduce churn, as subscribers of the Disney Streaming Bundle have been generally less likely to unsubscribe, since there is usually something someone wants to watch on one of the three platforms.

ESPN+ is already available within the Hulu app, so Disney has already begun getting subscribers used to them being together. However, adding ESPN+ into Disney+ should hopefully be something that can happen easier, since they are built on the same tech. Disney has also already added ESPN content onto Disney+, but with the high costs of sports, it’s likely this will remain a premium add-on or as part of a bundle.

Internationally, Disney+ has had lots of success with the addition of the Star brand, which offers the majority of Hulu Originals and other general entertainment from Disney’s studios like 20th, FX and ABC. Bob Iger has said that it’s been a huge success and one of the reasons why they want to merge the platforms.

Unfortunately, with the Hulu contract, Disney has never been to share its plans for the future properly, but now with just over six months until 2024, it is starting to let subscribers know what’s going on. It makes the recent decisions for Disney+ to make more sense, such as moving to the next-day programming for Disney Channel and National Geographic content. Or why more Disney+ Originals have been added to Hulu and why “A Small Light” and the next Searchlight Pictures film, “Flamin’ Hot”, are being released on both Hulu and Disney+ simultaneously. Slowly blending together the two platforms.

Disney’s CFO Christine M. McCarthy also revealed during the quarterly results that they are going to be taking an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 to $1.8 billion, due to them planning to remove content from their streaming platforms. Disney+ in the United States generally probably doesn’t have a huge amount of content to remove, but Hulu has thousands of titles, many of which aren’t owned by them, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if we see lots of content removed from Hulu in the coming months, ahead of the merger.

There will no doubt be many more questions about how all of this is going to work in the coming months ahead. We know that Disney has been working on incorporating Hulu’s legacy system into the Disney+ tech since last year. Plus, the Disney Streaming Bundle accounts already use a single login, so that’s something that will hopefully make this smoother, but it’s bound to be a bit bumpy.

There are so many questions that we know nothing about such as:

• How much is the combined app going to cost?

• When will it happen?

• Will Hulu + Live TV continue?

• Will the Hulu brand continue?

• Will ESPN+ be a paid add-on?

• What will happen to other add-ons like HBO within Hulu?

• What will happen with the Star brand internationally?

Ultimately, the direction for a combined streaming platform for Disney makes sense. Offering multiple outlets is more expensive, and one platform will offer more content to more people. It’s already proven to work, but there are lots of hurdles, including Disney paying Comcast a huge cheque for billions of dollars. But now we know there is a plan to combine Disney’s streaming services under a single offering.

Eventually, a single app for all of Disney’s content is going to make it much easier for both subscribers and Disney, but it will also likely lead to less overall content being available, as Disney is looking to scale back its general entertainment side, but pairing it with Disney+, which has been lacking general entertainment, means the combination will result in us getting regular content constantly.