Baking special Snoop and Martha’s Very Tasty Halloween premieres Oct. 21 on Peacock. With Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart hosting, Very Tasty Halloween showcases bakers facing off in a Halloween showdown. 

Teams of three bakers, called Scare Squads, bake and build an “immersive, edible spectacle,” according to Peacock, a Halloween world that is inspired by the concept of fear. Alvin Zhou is a judge alongside Snoop and Stewart. 

The competition ends in a big Halloween party. 

The show comes from BuzzFeed Studios, Magical Elves and digital food network Tasty. It is the first project between Peacock and BuzzFeed, which have many in development pertaining to celebs, pop culture, games and pets. 

Snoop and Martha’s Very Tasty Halloween is produced by BuzzFeed Studios, Magical Elves and Snoopadelic Films. Casey Kriley, Jo Sharon, Hillary Olsen, Patrick J. Doody and Gaylen Gawlowski executive produce for Magical Elves. Richard Alan Reid and Charlotte Simms do so for BuzzFeed. Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart executive produce as well. 

Snoop and Stewart host Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party on VH1.

Vice Media Group, apparently close to a deal with a blank check fund that will allow it to go public, is once again becoming the example that investment schoolmarms point to when warning about throwing good money at the latest fad. But for all the tsk-tsking, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Vice, once the epitome of the brash, take-no-prisoners, let’s-break-stuff management style, is now valued at less than half what it was at its height four years ago. It’s partners did that ages ago.

According to The Information, Vice Media is talking with at least two unnamed special purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs), one of which made an offer that values the media operation at about $2.5 billion, or less than half the $5.7 billion it was valued at in 2017. 

According to some reports, Vice Media’s global revenue was about $600 million in 2020 -- about the same as in 2019 -- making the $2.5 billion valuation about four times revenue. 

While Vice seeks out some kind of lifeline, another digital company that appears to be the target of SPACs -- Buzzfeed -- appears to be having better luck. 

Buzzfeed, according to The Information, is being courted by a SPAC -- 890 Fifth Avenue Partners -- that values it at slightly below its peak $1.7 billion valuation. 

Vice grabbed a lot of headlines in 2017 when private equity fund TPG Capital invested about $450 million in the media company, giving it that eye-popping $5.7 billion valuation. That was nearly twice the market cap of AMC Networks -- home of the most watched program on cable at the time The Walking Dead -- for a media company that was ready, by its own admission, to take the cable business by storm.

That storm never happened. Viceland, the network that took the place of H2, the network even History Channel forgot, rebranded as Vice TV last year and has continued to have middling ratings. Its most-watched show is Dark Side of the Ring, a wrestling docu-series that averages under 400,000 live-plus-three viewers in the coveted 18-49 year old age bracket. The rest of its programming lineup is a mix of “edgy” programming like F*ck That’s Delicious, Gaycation and Balls Deep, as well as reruns of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. 

Also Read: Of Vice and Men

But signs that the wheels were falling off the Vice Media gravy train were apparent as early as in 2018, when Disney, which invested $400 million in Vice Media in 2014, took a $157 million impairment to that stake in 2018 and another $353 million impairment in 2019. 

According to its last 10-K annual report, filed in November. Disney effectively owns a 24% interest in Vice (14% fully diluted), that it deems essentially worthless. 

Now, Disney’s write-down doesn’t man that Vice Media is worth nothing, just that Disney doesn’t believe it will ever get its money back. But the write-off still was a smudge on Vice’s once bright veneer.  

Seasoned programming executive Nancy Dubuc took the helm of Vice in 2018 and has been looking for a way to make its anxious investors whole for years. Talk of an IPO first surfaced in 2019, and Dubuc reportedly renegotiated the terms of the TPG investment -- replacing stock and cash dividend payments to the PE firm with preferred equity awards.  That gave Vice some breathing room, as it moves toward profitability. This year, with the surge in SPAC offerings looking to put their money somewhere, anywhere, in the media space, Vice has attracted some attention. 

SPACs have the money -- according to SPAC Insider, 270 SPACs have been created this year raising $88 billion -- to invest in the media space, but not necessarily the stomach. 

Also Read: SPACs: The (New) Final Frontier 

While there have been some SPAC programming investments -- notably Software Acquisition Corp.’s purchase of CuriosityStream last year -- they have generally steered clear of television. The main reason, some SPAC executives say, is that consolidation in the industry has already taken place.  

But Vice Media isn’t just TV. Its biggest business is in digital media, with websites like Munchies, Motherboard, Noisey, i-D and Garage. Vice Studios has produced films like The Report, starring Adam Driver and Annette Bening; Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum; and Netflix docu-series 1994.  But there too lies a problem. Vice Media’s websites don’t appear to be growing that much.

According to web analytics company SimilarWeb, vice.com ranks 101st among news sites and averaged about 30.29 million total visits in February. In contrast, SimilarWeb ranked Buzzfeed.com 29th among news sites with 125.24 million total visits in February.

On its own website, Vice says its digital properties attract about 50.4 million unique visitors per month in the U.S. and 135 million globally.  

Also Read: Losing Cool? 

Former and current media executives have hopped on the SPAC bandwagon recently. Dish chairman Charlie Ergen launched a $1  billion SPAC (CONX Corp.) in October that has since lowered that amount to about $750 million;  John Malone’s Liberty Media closed the $575 million Liberty Acquisition Corp. SPAC in January;  former AT&T Broadband and YES Network chief Leo J. Hindery Jr. launched two SPACs -- Trine Acquisition and Trine Acquisition II ; former WWE executives George Barrios and Michelle Wilson  are trying to raise $200 million through their own SPAC vehicle (Isos Acquisition); and former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs raised $250 million through their Forest Road Acquisition SPAC -- so there is no scarcity of media expertise in the space. And let’s not forget that the most successful line of SPACs to date -- Eagle Investment Partners, which last year purchased online sports betting giant DraftKings -- is led by two former media executives, former MGM Chairman Harry Sloan and former CBS Entertainment chief Jeff Sagansky. 

That scarcity of available media assets would appear to be in Vice Media’s favor, but at least one exec has said there are other factors that would serve as roadblocks to a deal.

“On the one hand, it seems like a bad neighborhood,” said one SPAC executive who asked not to be named. “I think of the other names that seem similar to Vice over the past few years -- Mashable, Gawker, the Univision properties -- there were several that effectively billed themselves as strong digital media companies that had their finger on the zeitgeist of millennials and would capitalize on all the Facebook and Google advertising to grow their top line.”

That obviously didn’t happen as planned. And the decline in digital properties isn’t specific to Vice. Everyone in the space has seen their lofty valuations plummet.Vice has been singled out in part because if its brash owner -- Smith once said that a year from the launch of Viceland he would be on the cover of Time as the guy that brought millennials back to TV  -- and accusations of sexual harassment and a frat boy culture that caused some shakeups in the ranks. 

Vice has made some big strides in dismantling the boys club culture -- its latest diversity and inclusion report notes that 56% of its employees identify as women, as well as 58% of new hires. 

But that combination of bad press and a declining market with no obvious growth resolution has made a private capital injection unlikely and an IPO out of the question for Vice. That leaves the SPAC door open. 

A SPAC would be an efficient way for Vice to get enough capital to clean up its balance sheet, get some money to fund growth and give early investors at least some of their money back. 

“You have to cash all of these guys out,” said the SPAC executive. “From the standpoint of the people whose money is trapped, the SPAC is an amazing solution.”

But the nagging question remains: If Vice couldn’t reach revenue milestones in the past, what’s to say it won’t miss them again?

“There is a fair price for Vice, and if they hit the right price it can trade and make a lot of shareholders happy,” the executive said. “I just don't understand how they are going to solve the core issue of how the industry is in bad shape and the company just doesn’t have the goods to deliver.” 

The SPAC executive said that Vice has been shopped to just about every blank check company looking at the media space, and added that while he was not privy to which ones are taking a closer look, TPG could ultimately be a player as well. TPG has its own SPACs -- earlier this month it launched TPG Pace Tech Opportunities II Corp, TPG Pace Beneficial II Corp and TPG Pace Solutions Corp with the intention of raising more than $1 billion to invest in technology, media and telecom firms. TPG has a lot of experience with the SPAC format, having raised billions of dollars through several SPAC vehicles over the years. Most recently, its TPG Pace Tech Opportunities SPAC agreed to purchase tech company Nerdy in a deal that valued that firm at $1.7 billion.

TPG could take the same route with Vice Media, agreeing to buy the company at a lower valuation in return for a larger equity stake. That would allow Vice to pay down some of its debt, get capital to run the business and give TPG a larger piece of a smaller pie. 

“Over time the share price will go up and they can monetize that investment at various share prices and get back their money,” the SPAC executive said. “But it all requires that the growth is really there. That would be a clever way for TPG to use the structure to potentially get out of this.”  

And like some other vices, getting out from under is the ultimate goal. 

Multichannel News has partnered with social video analytics company Tubular Labs to bring you a monthly ranking of the most-viewed U.S. media creators across social video platforms. The ranking below covers December 2018.

For the second month in a row, sports-related content makes repeat appearances throughout the chart — but it’s once again the children’s creator Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes that leads with 2 billion views, all from YouTube. Appropriately for the holiday season, its most-watched video was “Deck the Halls - Christmas Song for Kids,” with 95.9 million views.

In second place (also for the second time in a row) is Buzzfeed’s Tasty, with over 1.5 billion views across social video platforms. Its most-watched video for the month (19.5 million views) was posted to Facebook and shows how mozzarella cheese is made.

It’s worth noting that Ellen DeGeneres is the only TV personality to make the chart, coming in at No. 9 with 846 million views across social video platforms. 

An online security expert has found yet more ways for malicious individuals to obtain sensitive information on Comcast subscribers using the company’s online customer service portal.

As first reported by Buzzfeed, cyber-security engineer Ryan Stephenson--a self-described “penetration tester”—has found two more ways a hacker could exploit Comcast customer-facing websites. It’s at least the second time in the last three months that Stephenson has found a breach in a Comcast portal, before going to the press about it.

In his latest discovery, Stephenson found one flaw on Comcast’s Xfinity in-home authentication page, which lets customers pay bills without entering their username and password, given that they’re connecting with their own IP address. Stephenson determined that a hacker could obtain a customer’s IP address, then derive partial home address info for the user.

Comcast is now requiring customers to authenticate, even though they’re in their bed or living room.

Related: Comcast Confirms Deactivation of Congestion Management System

The other exposed vulnerability involves Comcast’s authorized dealer sign-up page. If a hacker could obtain a customer’s billing address, they could use this tool to also illicitly obtain the last four digits of the subscriber’s Social Security number, the security consultant found.

“We quickly investigated these issues and within hours we blocked both vulnerabilities, eliminating the ability to conduct the actions described by these researchers,” Comcast said in a statement. “We take our customers’ security very seriously, and we have no reason to believe these vulnerabilities were ever used against Comcast customers outside of the research described in this report.”

The cable company continues to reconcile customer demand to make online tools intuitive and easy to use with the efforts of at least one notable online security guru, determined to find every conceivable way possible to exploit the cable company’s portals.

In May, for example, Stephenson discovered a means to use a Comcast online portal for router configuration to illicitly obtain home address info, as well as Wi-Fi network names and passwords, then reported to ZDNet.

And in June, ZDNet reported on a tip from anonymous security expert, showing that an API used by Comcast could be “tricked” into returning customer data, including account numbers and home addresses. 

With all the talk about Facebook traffic troubles for publishers, we wanted to investigate a little further. Insights from social video analytics company Tubular Labs reveal that while there have indeed been some fluctuations when it comes to video on Facebook, for the most part views and engagements have been steady over the last few months.

We looked at views, engagements and uploads from March through May this year for U.S. publishers in the media & entertainment sphere with 500K+ followers and at least 10K+ views per video. Specifically, we found:

Related: Creator Profile: Jimmy Kimmel Is Late Night’s YouTube King

• Views from March to April grew about 1.4%, but dropped slightly in May with the total percent change from March to May hovering around a 1% increase. Put simply, publishers are still reaching their audiences.
• Engagements went up about 3% from March to April, but dropped again in May with the total percent change from March to May at about -0.7%.
• Uploads slowed throughout the period measured, with about a -3.5% drop from March to May.

We also looked at some of the publishers and videos that had the most traction over March and April (note: Tubular releases their May leaderboards mid-month; monthly numbers for May 2018 are not yet publicly available).

In March, Buzzfeed’s Tasty topped the list of popular U.S. publishers with nearly 1.4 billion Facebook views. Its “Banana Bread on a Stick” video was the most-viewed with 52.4 million views, 27 million of which occured in just the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

In April, NTD Funniest lead the way with over 1.9 billion Facebook video views. A three-minute clip complication of super cute babies garnered the most total views (154 million), with 12.6 million occurring in the first three days according to Tubular’s V3 rating.

MCN has teamed up with social video analytics company Tubular Labs for a recurring look at how various content creators are deploying video to reach audiences online. In this brand-focused edition, a look at the success that big brands have had partnering with BuzzFeed’s Tasty (note that this article focuses on the main Tasty property and does not include stats around the other spin-offs such as Proper Tasty, Tasty Vegetarian, etc). As you may imagine, for food and beverage companies in particular, working with Tasty is a natural fit.

In April, Tasty posted seven branded content videos on Facebook, racking up an impressive 39.5 million views. And although this publisher is predominantly known for its focus on food, four out of the six brands it worked with have been beverage brands: Milk (aka the California Milk Processor Board), 7UP, Don Julio Tequila and Seagram’s 7.

Tasty and its partners have been getting into the warm-weather mood with multiple how-to videos that focus on summery drinks. And while there’s the requisite installment of “cheesy pull-apart” goodness (a Tasty staple), it’s a potato dish sponsored by Milk that has generated the most views (12 million).

Tasty’s recent branded content videos ranked by total views:

1. Queso? Potatoes? Say no more. Serve this with a glass of real milk for the perfect dinner.

Partner: Milk

Facebook Views: 12 million

2. Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread With Tomato Soup Fondue

Partner: Cooper Cheese

Facebook Views: 10.8 million

3. What kid doesn't love mac 'n' cheese!?

Partner: Milk

Facebook Views: 5.5 million

4. 7UP Clubhouse Sangria

Partner: 7UP

Facebook Views: 4.1 million

5. Pretty Simple Drinks

Partner: Don Julio Tequila

Facebook Views: 3 million

6. Make this KILLER Turkey and Veggie Sheet-Pan Panini

Partner: Dave’s Killer Bread

Facebook Views: 2.1 million

7. 7&7 Slushie

Partner: Seagram’s 7

Facebook Views: 2 million

Digital video company BuzzFeed has named former MTV executive Laruen Dolgen as its new head of BuzzFeed Studios.

Dolgen will oversee oversee development of original productions for BuzzFeed partners across TV, SVOD, and film, as well as the company’s growing slate of original digital series. She will also be responsible for creating and developing series concepts drawing from IP and talent from across BuzzFeed, including BuzzFeed News and its lifestyle portfolio under BuzzFeed Media Brands, according to the company.

Most recently, Dolgen served as Head of West Coast Development for Viceland, overseeing West Coast-based production and development for the joint venture between Vice Media and A+E Networks. Prior to that, Dolgen served as Executive Vice President, Series Development and Head of Unscripted Programming at MTV.

Dolgen will be based in Los Angeles and report to Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed.

“Lauren’s fun, irreverent sensibility, her great eye for talent, and her obsession with pop culture make her the perfect fit for BuzzFeed,” said Peretti in a statement. “Her track record and relationships are incredibly strong, and I’m excited to work with her to capture the opportunity with our Studio business and expand what we can do creatively across all platforms.”

Oxygen, which has turned into a crime-programming focused cable network, says it has four new projects in the genre in development.

One series comes from Buzzfeed motion pictures, with the working title of Buzzfeed: Behind the Crime. Another is based on the Up and Vanished podcast.

Related: True Crime Confidential

“Fans of the crime genre have really responded to the new Oxygen,” said Cori Abraham, Oxygen's senior VP, development and international. “We're attracting some of the biggest producers and talent in this space, and we’re looking forward to unveiling our 2018 slate.”

With its new orientation toward crime programming, including series from Law & Order’s Dick Wolf, Oxygen says viewership among total viewers in total day is up 53% year over year.

Related: Dick Wolf’s ‘Criminal Confessions’ Debuts on Oxygen Oct. 1

The newly slated projects include Up and Vanished (working title), produced by Propagate Content; Buzzfeed: Behind the Crime (wt), produced by BuzzFeed Motion Pictures; License to Kill (wt), produced by Shed Media, a division of Warner Bros. Unscripted and Alternative Television; and Unhinged (wt), produced by Peacock Productions.

Read more, including show descriptions, at broadcastingcable.com.

BuzzFeed News and Twitter are taking on TV’s lucrative morning news daypart with a live streaming show and have signed up several large sponsors before the weekday program launches Sept. 25.

The live stream for the new show, AM to DM, will be free and accessible globally to logged-in and logged-out users on Twitter and connected devices. The stream will be available at @BuzzFeedNews.

Related: NBCU Pumps Another $200M in BuzzFeed

Wendy’s, Toyota and Bank of America are the first sponsors of AM to DM, which will be produced by BuzzFeed. Wendy’s will be the show’s presenting sponsor. Twitter, which announced plans for the show at its NewFront presentation in May, expects to announce more major sponsors in the next few weeks.

Related: Twitter Says It Can Boost Reach of TV Ad Campaigns

"Twitter is the beating heart of news, and our newsroom has always embraced its power unabashedly, both for breaking news and for staying on top of it,” said Ben Smith, Buzzfeed editor in chief. “The exciting thing about this show is that while much of television news now is basically explaining to you what happened a few hours ago on Twitter, we get to come to an informed and up-to-date audience from right inside the news cycle."

AM to DM will be hosted by BuzzFeed Books editor Isaac Fitzgerald (@IsaacFitzgerald) and BuzzFeed News’ executive editor of Culture Saeed Jones (@theferocity), and produced by Cindy Vanegas-Gesuale, a veteran of CNN, Fox and the Huffington Post.

Read more on broadcastingcable.com.

Oxygen Media, expanding into the crime programming genre, said it has greenlit eight new series and acquired Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.

The new projects come from producers including BuzzFeed, Dick Wolf, Ice-T, Soledad O’Brien and Nancy Grace.

In connection with the network’s new focus, it unveiled a new yellow and black logo. Since becoming a crime destination for women, total day ratings are up 48% from a year ago among total viewers.

“This new slate has a great mix of high stakes real-time crime investigation and innovative formats that allows viewers to stay engaged from beginning to end with immersive storytelling,” said Rod Aissa, executive vice president of original programming and development at Oxygen Media, part of Comcast’s NBCUniversal. “It’s a real differentiator in our programming, and we’re thrilled to be working with some of the sharpest talent and producers in the genre.”

Read more, including descriptions of Oxygen's new series, at broadcastingcable.com.

In the race to appeal to younger viewers, traditional content companies are increasingly turning toward short-form video and digital content providers, with several deals on the books over the past 12 months and more likely to come.

The latest to go short is Time Warner Inc.’s CNN, which paid about $25 million for online video company Beme, home of YouTube star Casey Neistat. As part of the deal, Beme’s 11-member staff, including Neistat — who has some 5.8 million YouTube followers — will join the news network and start a new media brand focused on millennial viewers.

Other companies have dipped their toes in the digital waters to varying degrees, ranging from NBCUniversal, which has spent about $600 million in online media sites BuzzFeed and Vox Media over the past 18 months, to 21st Century Fox, which in September paid about $6.5 million for a stake in DriveTribe, a new online motoring venture from former Top Gear stars Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

Earlier last month, Discovery Communications said it would invest about $100 million for a 35% stake in a new digital venture called Group Nine Media that would combine its science site, Seeker.com, and Sourcefed Studios production arm with pop culture site Thrillist, news site Now This and animal advocacy site The Dodo.

EXPERIMENT TIME

“Everyone is trying to figure out what the right format is,” Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan said in an interview. “There is going to be a lot of experimentation.”

Programmers have been trying to attract young viewers since the beginning of television. But as more and more content is available on more and more devices, snagging the coveted millennial audience means the delivery mechanism is almost as important as what is being delivered.

“What has been tried is to take a regular cable or broadcast linear service and try to make it fit,” Eagan said. “That doesn’t always work, whether it’s on a mobile device or some other device. I think they realize they not only have to change the content, but the format.”

In a recent interview, Discovery chief commercial officer Paul Guyardo called the Group Nine investment part of the programmer’s three-pronged strategy, consisting of its full product bundle, its participation in skinny bundles for more price-sensitive consumers and the creation of short-form video and content partnership Group Nine, which is aimed squarely at younger viewers.

“That’s an ad-supported model that does rely primarily on short-form [video], because that’s how millennials want to consume their content — it’s all about highlights and sound bites and snippets,” Guyardo told Multichannel News. “If you look at the way we’re building it, we’re building it in a very Discovery-esque way.”

Like Discovery, each programmer seems to be forging its own path with digital investments. At NBCUniversal, the BuzzFeed and Vox Media deals seemed to be more geared to enhancing its social media and digital advertising strengths. BuzzFeed reaches more than 500 million people per day on its various platforms, more than any other pure digital media company, and has a strong presence on social media sites like Facebook. Vox Media, which has eight separate brands including news site Recode, sports site SB Nation and the food-centric Eater, has about 170 million unique monthly visitors and 800 million total monthly content views (on- and off-platform), and two of every three of its users are on mobile devices, according to the company.

Pivotal Research Group senior research analyst Brian Wieser said practically every programmer is looking to secure a digital business, and buying established providers is frequently the quickest path to success. There are many reasons to take the digital plunge, he said.

HEDGING BETS

“Some of it is hedge,” Wieser said. “In the event alternate forms of content packaging become more common, someone knows what they’re doing. Some of it is for show to Wall Street and other constituents, just to say that ‘we’re doing this too.’ And there also can be the belief that combining small entities into larger ones, and you can build an even bigger business.”

Another reason could be a desire to align with a particularly strong management team. That’s what Wieser believes was a big driver for Disney’s 2014 investment in Vice Media, then a fledgling Canadian publisher and multimedia company with a brash CEO in Shane Smith who wanted an inroad into more traditional media. With Disney’s initial $200 million investment (it invested another $200 million later that same year), Vice announced it would take over A+E Networks’ H2 channel, rebranded as Viceland. A+E Networks, which itself owns about 15% of Vice Media, is jointly controlled by Disney and Hearst.

While sluggish early ratings put a bit of a damper on the initial enthusiasm for the channel, it has been attracting young men with shows like the self-explanatory Weediquette and skateboarding reality-competition series King of the Road. In November the channel said it would launch four new shows aimed at that demographic in the next two months — Payday, which follows the lives of four 20-somethings over the course of a single pay period; Big Night Out, which showcases how millennials party around the world, and Bong Appétit, which follows cooks who create high-end, cannabis-infused foods.

“Everyone wants a piece of Shane Smith’s pixie dust,” Wieser said.

MORE MOVES SEEN

The analyst added that he expects more deals to be done, but to what extent will depend on each individual company. At Fox, which in the past has leaned more toward developing new properties internally, Wieser believes that practice will continue.

Time Warner and NBCU are expected to continue on their previous path of making small venture investments in digital companies, he added.

“Do we expect to see more [deals]? Sure. I don’t see why not,” Wieser said. “You can argue that most companies don’t need to hurry because it just doesn’t change that quickly. But the perceptions of change are often greater than the reality.”

SIDEBAR: All About the Digits

Major programmers are increasingly investing in much smaller digital companies to attract younger audiences and tap into online ad streams.

InvestorInvesteeInvestmentDate

NBCUniversal . . . . . . . . . . . BuzzFeed . . . . . . . . . . . . $400 million . . . . . . Aug. 2015/Nov. 2016

NBCUniversal . . . . . . . . . . . Vox Media . . . . . . . . . . . .$200 million . . . . . . . August 2015

Verizon . . . . . . . . . . . .. . AwesomenessTV .  . . . . . . . $159 million . . . . . . . . April 2016

Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . Group Nine Media . . .. . . . . . $100 million . . . .  . . .  November 2016

Time Warner . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beme . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25 million* . . . . .  . . . .  November 2016

21st Century Fox . . . . .  . . .DriveTribe . . . . . .  . . . . . $6.5 million . . . . .  . . .September 2016

AMC Networks . . . . . .  . . Funny or Die . . . . .  . . . . . . . N/A . . . . . . . . . . .  November 2016

* Estimate

SOURCE : Individual companies and published reports

Developments this week at BuzzFeed, Vice and Spotify underscore the velocity of over-the-top activity and the race to reach young viewers. In the context of Comcast's rationale this month that millennial viewers were tuned to the Olympics via NBC's digital platforms, this week's flurry of OTT programming movement sets the stage for intense competition between new and old media as well as among the corporations that back them.

To be sure, this week's activities were largely structural and conceptual, not surprising for a languid summer week. But collectively, they are a reminder that OTT providers are aggressively going after audiences that cable and other multichannel platforms are losing.

BuzzFeed's plan to reorganize itself into Entertainment and News departments also demonstrates that new media companies are learning lessons from their predecessors. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti compared the split to Ted Turner's creation of TBS and CNN.

“Back in the day, all the big incumbents would criticize CNN and TBS and make fun of them, saying they were never going to make it and that they weren’t legitimate,” Peretti told Vanity Fair. "Ted Turner didn’t care what anyone thought, and he built a news and entertainment empire side by side.”

In his memo to staff explaining the restructuring, Peretti said the company cannot organize "around a format or technology."  He said that going forward, the BuzzFeed ventures should "take full advantage of many formats and technologies."

"Having a single 'video department' in 2016 makes about as much sense as having a 'mobile department,'" Peretti said. "As digital video becomes ubiquitous, every major initiative at BuzzFeed around the world will find an expression as video, just like everything we do works on mobile and social platforms."

Under the new structure, the newly created BuzzFeed Entertainment group, headed by current BuzzFeed Motion Pictures president Ze Frank, will include video, lists, quizzes and micro-content. BuzzFeed News, under editor-in-chief Ben Smith, will handle global news, health and video news.

NBCUniversal invested $200 million into BuzzFeed last year, a reminder that old media recognizes where its viewers are heading.

At Vice, the signs of change are more speculative, fueled in part by some raucous remarks this week by CEO Shane Smith and a Wall Street Journal report that The Walt Disney Co. may acquire the 82 percent of Vice that it doesn’t already own. Disney pumped $200 million into Vice last December.

Prior to delivering the prestigious MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday (Aug. 24), Smith told reporters that it makes sense to sell Vice while it is at “the peak of media valuations.” But he added that Disney has not yet made an offer. The WSJ report put Vice's current valuation at nearly $4.5 billion. Smith suggested that Vice could be worth $50 billion in three or four years.

“If you look at the brands like Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars that have [sold] to Disney, they have all gotten bigger,” Shane was quoted as saying in the WSJ.

On a more mundane level, Spotify -- known for its music dominance -- last week fulfilled its May promise to move into the video realm with original programming. Its first documentary series, Metallica: The Early Years, debuted last weekend. Chapter One (about 8 minutes long) includes exclusive interviews with the band plus archival footage. It was available on YouTube; the next three Metallica segments are available only on the mobile version of Spotify’s app.

Spotify's Landmark series of video music stories will continue with a series on the Beach Boys’s iconic Pet Sounds album.

NBCUniversal said it agreed to make a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed, the online content company.

The investment follows last week’s $200 million investment in Vox Media, another digital content company. NBCU, a unit of Comcast, is looking to make sure it can reach younger consumers who are spending more time online — and less time with traditional media, including TV.

"BuzzFeed has built an exceptional global company that harmonizes technology, data and superior editorial abilities to create and share content in innovative ways,” Steve Burke, NBCUniversal CEO, said. “They reach a massive, loyal audience and have proven to be among the most creative, popular and influential new media players. We are pleased to be making this investment and for our companies to partner and work together."

As part of the investment, the companies in the coming months will also explore strategic partnerships across both organizations.

“It's a fascinating time for the media industry; social, mobile, digital and broadcast platforms are converging to create new opportunities to connect with global audiences, and we're excited to partner with NBCUniversal to combine our respective strengths to build the future of news and entertainment,” said Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s founder and CEO.

BuzzFeed reaches more than 200 million unique visitors monthly and registers 1.5 billion monthly video views.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.