Former WWE executives George  Barrios and Michelle Wilson, about a year after their surprise departure from the scripted sports giant, have formed a Special Purpose Acquisition Corp. -- Isos Acquisition Corp. -- to raise $200 million to purchase a company in the digital media space. 

Isos filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 20 to issue 20 million shares at $10 each. The money would be used to purchase a company in the digital media space. Isos has about two years to find a target, at which time they would either make a deal or return the proceeds of the IPO back to shareholders.

Isos believes there is ample opportunity in the digital media space, with the global entertainment and media market expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.9% to reach $42.3 trillion by 2023, according to The Business Research Company Media Investment Global Outlook 2020, which was cited in the prospectus. North America accounted for about one-third of the total addressable market in 2019, or $519 billion, the report stated. 

SPACs, also known as blank check companies, have become a popular method of taking smaller private companies public. Use of the financing vehicle exploded in 2020,  when about 248 SPACs were created, more than four times the 59 formed in 2019, according to SPAC Insider. SPACs raised a total of $83 billion in 2020, compared to $13.6 billion in 2019. So far in 2021, about 59 SPACs have been formed, raising $16.8 billion, according to SPAC Insider. 

Several media companies have used SPACs to go public, including streaming company CuriosityStream and online betting company DraftKings. Severbal former and current media chiefs have formed their own SPACs over the past several months, including former Walt Disney Co., streaming chief  Kevin Mayer; current Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen and former AT&T Broadband CEO Leo J. Hindery Jr. 

Barrios and Wilson were named co-presidents of WWE in February 2018, but abruptly resigned in January 2020 after what WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon said was a failure to see eye-to-eye regarding the company’s future direction. Both had been instrumental in the wrestling giant’s success. WWE stock plummeted on the news of their departure (it was down 23% at one point on Jan. 31, 2020, but has since recovered that lost ground. 

According to the Isos prospectus, the company has attracted some top TV, finance and entertainment executives to its board of directors, including former NBA China CEO and DirecTV EVP Derek Chang; former Sirius XM SVP and head of corporate strategy Barbara Daniels; former Telemundo chief operating officer Jacqueline Hernández; Fandom CEO Perkins Miller; Facebook VP of Global Sports and Media Partnerships Dan Reed; and Boston Consulting Group managing director and senior partner John Rose.

JP Morgan and LionTree Partners are serving as bookrunners for the IPO. LionTree and Apollo Global Management also have agreed to participate financially in the company, with Apollo agreeing to purchase 7.5 million warrants for shares of Isos at $10 each in a private placement once it finds a business target and completes the combination. LionTree has agreed to purchase 1.3 million warrants at $1.50 each (for a total of $7 million) under the same terms. 

Barrios and Wilson formed Isos Capital Management in December, to seek out investments in the sports space. Aside from working together at WWE for about 11 years -- Barrios was hired in 2008, Wilson rejoined the company in 2009 -- the two have extensive experience in the  business and sports space. Barrios was CFO of The New York Times Co. and served stints at HBO and Time Warner before joining WWE. Wilson had worked for McMahon’s first attempt at a professional football league -- XFL -- in 2001, and later worked as a marketing executive at the NBA, US Tennis Association and Nabisco before joining WWE in 2009 as EVP and chief marketing officer.

The two hope to leverage that experience to find an attractive digital media target.

According to the prospectus, Barrios and Wilson were part of a management group that drove WWE’s stock price up 426% in four year (from Jan. 1, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2019), creating $4.8 billion of enterprise value over the same period.

Media agency GroupM has forecast that time spent with online media worldwide in 2018 will surpass time spent with linear TV.

The report comes during NewFronts week, a time when digital programmers are pitching advertisers on the importance of reaching consumers via online and social media.

Consumers worldwide will spend 3.69 hours per day with online media worldwide, compared with 3.63 hours spent with linear TV, according to the GroupM report. That gives online a 38% share and TV a 37% share of the media day, weighted by local media investment.

That compares with 2017's 3.53 hours with digital media and 3.71 hours with linear TV.

In the U.S., TV still holds an edge over online media, with 4.59 hours per day forecast for TV in 2018 versus 4.20 hours for online. But TV’s share of the U.S. market is declining. GroupM pegged it at 39% in 2018, down from 41% in 2017, while online will rise to 38% from 36%.

The increase in time spent on digital corresponds with a increase in e-commerce. GroupM predicted worldwide e-commerce will increase 15% in 2018 to $2.442 trillion, or 10% of all retail.

GroupM also looked at how media was being transacted. It found that 44% of online display advertising was transacted programmatically in 2017, up from 31% in 2016. GroupM forecast that rising to 47% in 2018.

Only 22% of online video was transacted programmatically, but that’s up from 17% in 2016 and will rise to 24% this year, GroupM said.

Disney/ABC Television Group has named former gaming executive Martin Keely executive vice president of product and technology. He will report to DATG’s president, business operations, Bruce Rosenblum.

Keely will oversee all aspects of Disney/ABC’s digital media strategy and products across platforms and will collaborate with the group’s leadership on existing products and developing new ones. In addition Keely will work closely with affiliates, ad sales, marketing and content teams and will oversee DATG’s digital backbone and infrastructure.

“Martin has a proven track record of building and operating profitable digital businesses, directing creative and technical teams and strategically growing partnerships,” Rosenblum said in a statement. “His mission at Disney|ABC will be to more precisely define and execute plans to monetize both new and existing content, as well as to harness the power of our strong portfolio into a more unified and holistic consumer experience.”

Keely has more than 20 years experience in digital media, most recently serviing as head of Operations for Activision Blizzard’s Major League Gaming, where he was responsible for building and running the company’s esports media networks.

Prior to joining MLG, he served as general manager at Fullscreen Media, a global leader in social entertainment. Before that, he spent 14 years at Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), the league’s digital development group, beginning as a producer and rising to the position of senior vice president of Partner Solutions where he was responsible for leading the business’ partnership operations and strategy.

“I am excited to have the opportunity to join the great team at Disney|ABC, especially given their long history of digital innovation and incredibly strong brands,” Keely said in a statement. “There is an unprecedented opportunity for creating new product experiences and driving revenue growth in digital video. I look forward to contributing my knowledge and relationships to further innovate and evolve the business at Disney/ABC.”

Thanks to increased multitasking, American are now consuming media for more than 12 hours per day, with nearly half that time spent on digital platforms, according an eMarketer report published Oct. 9.

“U.S. Time Spent With Media: eMarketer’s Updated Estimates for 2017” calculates that U.S. adults will spend 12 hours and 1 minute daily with major media this year, with TV viewing accounting for only 3 hours 58 minutes of the total. The total media time per person (over age 18) in 2017 is two minutes per day higher than in 2016 and 24 minutes more than in 2012, according to the study.

The growing use of mobile devices represents more than one-quarter of total media time, according to the research group, which observed that "people have become more efficient at multitasking."

Related: Study: 85% of Internet Users Surf While Watching TV

eMarketer's methodology tallies the minutes of use, no matter whether a person is focused on one platform or is simultaneously using multiple devices. Its analysis concluded that "total media consumption time continues to grow, even as the number of hours in a day remains the same."

In the "digital" category, American spend 3 hours 17 minutes on mobile devices (not including voice conversations); two hours, 3 minutes on desktops and laptops; and 31 minutes on "other connected devices," such as tablets, eMarketer found.

"Multitasking via mobile is primarily responsible for the overall increase in time spent with media," the report said. "Consumers are spending more of their time on mobile devices conducting attention-heavy activities like video viewing and mobile gaming, but also with less visual activities like audio listening that enable continuous media intake."

Radio attracts 1 hour, 26 minutes of Americans' daily attention, and print media gets 24 minutes, according to the study.

"The amount of attention that an individual can provide to media has its limits, though, and growth is slowing," eMarketer's report continued. "Time spent with mobile non-voice will rise by 12 minutes in 2017, and will be offset by declines in time spent with desktops/laptops, print, radio and — most of all — TV."

Although eMarketer expects that "TV will remain the most time-consuming traditional medium" for adults, it points out that the 3 hour, 58 minutes daily dose of all TV now is down seven minutes from last year, and is significantly lower that eMarketer's previously published forecast of 4 hours, 19 minutes per day.

Apps are largely driving digital media consumption on mobile devices, but it’s becoming more difficult for programmers and other media companies to entice consumers to give new ones a spin.

That’s a key takeaway from a new study from comScore, which found signs that the industry has reached a “peak app” phase as consumer interest in new apps starts to wane.

Per the company’s 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report, app users across all age segments access 20 or fewer apps each month.

Despite concentrated usage, apps are clearly the main driver for digital consumption on mobile devices.

In a look across the top 500 mobile apps and the top 500 mobile web properties, comScore found that the average user spent 16 times as much digital media time with top apps than with top mobile websites, though the mobile web still tends to capture bigger audiences.

Digital media usage time on mobile devices is led by smartphone apps (50%), then desktop apps (34%), tablet apps and smartphone web access (7% each), and web access via tablets (2%).

Smartphone apps are more concentrated among younger viewers, as two-thirds of viewers age 18-24 spent their digital media time on smartphone apps, versus a 50% average among all age groups.

A big challenge for media companies is getting consumers to try their apps, comScore found, as the majority of smartphone users don’t download any new apps in a given month, and the average user downloads just two. The most common app discovery channel remains app-store searches (20%), compared to word of mouth (15%) and advertising and marketing (10%).

Consumers age 18-34 are also more willing to pay for apps, as one out of five downloaded an average of one paid app per month, and nearly half made five or more in-app purchases on an annual basis. The study also found that Facebook, Google and their associated properties own the top six (and eight of the top 10) most-used apps. By time spent, the top category is entertainment and communications (20%), followed by music (18%) and multimedia (10%)

With the finish line in sight, British long distance runner and Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah made one final sprint at the IAAF Diamond League finals in Zurich, Switzerland, last month. It was the last race of his long and distinguished track and field career and, coming up from behind, he won the last title in his storied career to wild applause.

NBC Sports Group televised Farah’s triumph to track and field fans live via its Track and Field Pass service, a $69.99-per-year, direct-to-consumer service that’s part of an emerging category of digital streaming sports subscription offerings that could threaten to sprint past traditional linear cable sports services to super-serve sports fans across the country.

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Traditionally, live sports programming lived in cable bundles that featured national sports networks like ESPN and FS1, as well as regional sports networks and a handful of general entertainment services.

But now, subscription digital sports services can showcase a huge roster — whether it’s NBC Sports Group offering packages with sports ranging from track and field to cycling to rugby; or Turner Sports kicking up a proposed OTT service geared to UEFA Champions League European football; or ESPN planning a direct-to-consumer service featuring 10,000 live Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer games.

Getting Cord-Cutters in the Game
The new services seek to provide additional revenue to help sports programmers offset the high cost of rights while giving younger cord-cutting fans an opportunity to access content that’s not typically offered on linear sports channels.

“Before, if you were a cord-cutter or cord-never, you effectively said sports aren’t important to you because the only way to access U.S. pro sports content was through the pay TV network ecosystem,” fuboTV chief financial officer Joel Armijo said. “Now, in the [internet protocol] world, we’re moving toward completely personalizing that experience for a sports fans looking for that lean-forward kind of immersive experience.”

The sports industry has already taken several swings at the multiplatform, direct-to-consumer digital subscription model — all of the major pro sports leagues offer out-of-market packages of live games — while national and regional networks have offered marquee sports via TV everywhere platforms to authenticated viewers subscribing to the traditional cable bundle. As a result, audiences are increasingly viewing live sports content on phones, laptops and computers.

At the same time, younger viewers in particular are increasingly cutting the cable cord or choosing not to subscribe to cable at all, decreasing the pool of potential viewers who watch linear sports content. Pay TV providers lost about 976,000 net video subscribers in the second quarter of 2017, continuing a disturbing trend for cable networks, according to Kagan.

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The realities of the changing marketplace have pushed several linear sports channels, which are heavily reliant on distributor license fees and advertising dollars to offset high sports-content fees, to look for opportunities to generate revenue on alternative platforms. Last month alone, three major sports-media players committed to stepping onto the direct-to-consumer field within the next year:

● ESPN, which has recently suffered subscriber losses — its subscriber total was down 3.5% in its recent third-quarter earnings report — will launch a new service in 2018 that will mostly offer content not currently available on the linear channel. Offerings would include MLB and NHL content from BAMTech, which provides the technological backbone for the two leagues’ out-of-market streaming packages, and which is now majority-owned by ESPN parent The Walt Disney Co. While details of the service are vague, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said during the earnings report that the launch of the direct-to-consumer service marks “an entirely new growth strategy for the company.”
● CBS Sports will launch a new OTT service later this year. It also launched a Showtime PPV app on Apple TV devices for the Aug. 26 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor pay-per-view boxing match.
● Turner Sports — which distributes National Basketball Association games on TNT and Major League Baseball games on TBS — will launch a new streaming service based on its recent acquisition of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League rights in 2018.

Sports media consultant Lee Berke said the recent OTT sports service announcements mark a shift in the traditional cable bundle’s virtual stranglehold on the category as viewers migrate to more multiplatform viewing.

“I don’t think the bundle or traditional cable is going away, but it’s shrinking, and the days of 80% to 90% penetration of cable services in homes are gone,” said Berke. “The key is that [sports networks] need to be in [the digital] space in an aggressive way and take a new look at their programming rights to see how best to divvy them up in an innovative range of approaches that meet the needs of new generations of viewers that may think their televisions are their phone, laptop or tablet.”

NBC’s Niche Play
Still, cable sports networks have to walk a fine line in trying to generate new digital revenue streams with direct-to-consumer services while not syphoning away cable subscribers from its linear cable channel offerings. NBC Sports Group has tried to have the best of both worlds by launching several direct-to-consumer services under its NBC Sports Gold service featuring niche content and international sports.

The company’s Cycling Pass, Pro Motocross Pass, Track and Field Pass, Rugby Pass and Premier League Pass all offer content that isn’t available on broadcaster NBC or cable sports network NBCSN, said Rick Cordella, executive vice president and general manager for Digital Media for NBC Sports Group.

While NBC Sports Group remains a big supporter of the existing cable ecosystem, the advent of new digital technology, combined with viewers’ willingness to watch content on multiple platforms (NBC’s Sunday Night Football drew an average of 600,000 unique digital viewers to NBCSports.com last year), represents a chance to deliver content to underserved groups of fans, Cordella said.

“What I think has happened is, the technology is now available to deliver these products, and the acceptance of that technology allows you create offerings like NBC Gold that weren’t possible years ago,” Cordella said. ”People are willing and open to watch content this way.”

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A huge question looming over this shift is whether enough underserved sports fans would be willing to pay anywhere from $10 to $70 to watch live sports fare on their phones and laptops. Cordella wouldn’t provide specific subscriber numbers for any of the five OTT sports services, but he said the numbers have “exceeded expectations.”

OTT provider fuboTV is one player that’s skeptical that sports alone will draw enough subscribers to change the game in a video-streaming marketplace dominated by entertainment services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. A mix of quality sports content and entertainment-based fare will attract a broader audience and score more revenue dollars, CFO Armijo argued.

FuboTV’s 70-plus channel Fubo Premier bundle sells for $34.95 and includes 35 channels that feature sports content, including soccer-heavy beIN Sports, fuboTV Network, Eleven Sports and most recently, Pac-12 Network, to go along with FS1, Golf Channel, Olympic Channel, NBCSN, CBS Sports Network and NBA TV. Also part of the bundle are a number of news and entertainment-based channels including Lifetime, Fox News Channel, USA Network, Univision, El Rey Network, HGTV, Hallmark Channel and History.

“We will continue to work to really super-serve sports fans and that’s very core to what we do,” Ben Grad, fuboTV’s North American head of content strategy and acquisition, said. “At the same time, there’s no one-size-fits-all model out here. We’re confident with our approach of being able to very well serve a number of customers in the marketplace with both sports and entertainment programming.”

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Still, NBC’s Cordella said a sports-only OTT service is an easy sell to fans hungry to watch their favorite sport. “One of the good things about sports is the fact that this is a known entity — you’re tapping into a built-in fan base that already exists,” he said. “When you take a particular soccer game and say, ‘It’s this team versus that team,’ you know exactly what you are getting, as opposed to entertainment services where you have to explain what the content is and why it’s different and better than what your cable subscription already has.”

It could be a while before standalone OTT services replace pay TV providers, Berke said, but companies that don’t explore the direct-to-consumer marketplace do so at their own risk.

“I don’t know if it’s the end game, but it is a necessary step,” Berke said. “It doesn’t mean that that’s the only way consumers will be watching sports in the future, but it means that you need to have a substantial presence there if you’re going to keep yourself relevant for new viewing options. You have to be able to reinvent yourself for each new generation.”

Turner has led a $45 million round of funding for Refinery29, a digital media company focused on women.  

The round, which includes additional participation from legacy investor Scripps Networks Interactive, follows earlier investments from a group that also includes WPP, Stripes Group, Floodgate, Lead Edge Capital, First Round Capital, Lerer Ventures and Hearst Corporation.

Turner did not disclose the amount of its equity investment, but did note that it and Refinery29 will collaborate on content creation and development tied to programming that appeals to Refinery29’s core audience of millennial women.  Additionally, they’ll work together on cross-platform ad sales partnerships. Christina, president and manager of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang, will join Refinery29’s board.

Refinery29 said it will use the new influx of funds to “supercharge” its video production business across a variety of new formats and channels, and also to accelerate its international growth initiatives (it opened offices in Germany and the U.K. last year).  Of recent note, Refinery29 has launched thematic channels such as Brawlers (sports), Short Cuts (beauty) and RIOT (comedy), and its first first podcast and app.

Refinery29 said it hosts more than 27 million unique visitors on its website and touts a reach of more than 225 million users across all of its platforms.  It also claimed that video views have jumped 19 times across platforms since launching its R29 Originals unit in April 2015.

"In order to achieve success in today's quickly evolving digital environment, we believe in partnering with brands that have distinct voices and loyal, engaged audiences,"  David Levy, president of Turner, said in a statement."Refinery29 certainly fits the bill, bringing with it a highly coveted following of millennial-minded women, strong capabilities in digital products, event marketing and content creation, as well as an attractive advertiser base.”

Turner’s investment is the latest in its efforts to shore up its digital-facing efforts, and follows a similar, recent investment in Mashable and its 2015 acquisition of iStreamPlanet.

Turner said it will soon launch additional network apps for several platforms, including Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and the Google Chromecast. 

C-SPAN has named Richard Weinstein vice president of digital media.

Weinstein, who had been managing editor, will be responsible for all strategy and operations of online content.

Weinstein has been with C-SPAN since 1986, most recently overseeing daily event coverage and production.

"Richard brings to his new role excellent management skills plus extensive editorial and C-SPAN mission depth," said C-SPAN co-CEO Susan Swain in a statement. "He has intricate knowledge of our internal content management systems plus a longstanding interest in innovation." 

Succeeding Weinstein as managing editor will be Ben O'Connell, who had been managing producer of events and who has been a producer with the public affairs networks since 2001.

In addition, Prof. Robert X. Browning, director of the C-SPAN archives at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., has been named executive director. The multiple Peabody award-winning archive now totals more than 221,000 hours of programming.

C-SPAN is a suite of public service networks created and supported by the cable industry.

Univision Communications said it made an investment in the company that owns The Onion, the comedy and news satire site.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. One published report said Univision obtained a 40% stake in Onion Inc.

The Onion will operate independently to maintain its editorial voice, while Univision will leverage its distribution and resources to expand the site’s exposure.

“Comedy is playing an expanding role in our culture as a vehicle for audiences to explore, debate, and understand the important ideas of our time,” said Isaac Lee, Chief News and Digital Officer of Univision and CEO of Fusion." 

Read more at B&C.

Discovery Communications has named former DirecTV executive Karen Leever executive vice president & general manager, Digital Media. In this role, Leever will oversee the company’s digital brands and businesses in the United States, including Discovery Digital Networks and the newly launched virtual reality channel, Discovery VR. She also will lead strategy, design and development for all Discovery apps and be responsible for driving design and development of the network websites. She will report to Chief Commercial Officer Paul Guyardo and be based in Discovery’s New York office. 

“Digital is driving our industry in new and exciting ways, and Discovery is focused on delivering engaging content, smart innovation and growing audiences across platforms,” Guyardo said in a statement. “I know from experience that Karen is one of the best in the digital space and her diverse and impressive expertise will be invaluable to Discovery as we grow our digital brands and businesses even further.”

Leever joins Discovery from DirecTV, where she spent 10 years at the satellite giant, most recently as senior vice president, Digital and Direct Sales. Prior to DirecTV, Leever led the planning, launch and operations for a revamped kmart.com as vice president of E-commerce and Marketing. Earlier, she spent more than a decade in electronic TV retailing both at HSN and QVC, overseeing website design, messaging, pricing and programming strategies.

"Discovery has built a robust portfolio of brands and networks for the mobile generation. I am very excited to work with my new colleagues to reach wider audiences, continue to develop new partnerships and drive innovative content and digital experiences for our very passionate fans,” Leever said in a statement.

Spending on media and entertainment is expected to rise by about 5% in the U.S. in the next five years to $723 billion, as consumers continue to blur the lines between digital and traditional media, according to a recent report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

In its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2015-2019, PwC estimates that total media and entertainment spending will rise 5.1% worldwide to $2.23 trillion by 2018. PwC says the difference between digital and traditional media is irrelevant to consumers, who place the most emphasis on choice.

Still, U.S. digital spending is expected to grow at 11.1% per year over the next five years and account for 46% of overall U.S. E&M spending growth, up from 34% in 2014.

“In today’s multi-platform environment, E&M companies must take a hard look at the talent, organizational structure and alignment of performance measures with overall strategy across their entire business,” said PwC’s U.S. entertainment, media & communications leader Deborah Bothun in a statement. “While this may seem self-evident, it remains a major challenge that many companies are struggling to overcome as they transform their operations to engage today’s consumer. Mastering the user experience will be the critical success factor for monetizing consumers and sustaining growth.”

U.S. advertising revenues are expected to rise at a 3.5% annual rate, increasing from $193.8 billion in 2014 to $230 billion in 2019, according to PwC. In the U.S., Internet and video games advertising, both forecasted to grow at 11.1%, is expected to continue to dominate the landscape. Internet advertising is projected to overtake U.S broadcast TV advertising (2.5% CAGR) in 2018. Mobile and video Internet ads are expected to drive digital advertising growth, with mobile expected to surge to 25.6% growth in 2019.

The rise of over-the-top (OTT) video services is further changing advertising. As viewers migrate from traditional networks to digital alternatives, advertisers will follow, driving broadcast TV advertising’s share of U.S. total TV advertising down from 95% in 2014 to 91.6% in 2019.

In the U.S., digital out-of-home advertising revenue is expected to rise at a 9.8% annual rate.

“Amidst the proliferation of content and access options, it’s clear that consumers are demanding more flexibility, freedom and convenience regarding when and how they consume content,” said, PwC’s U.S. advisory entertainment, media & communications leader Joe Atkinson in a statement. “They want it on-demand, on mobile and are readily engaging with content experiences that they can’t get elsewhere. This has re-energized the enduring appeal of shared, real-life experiences, such as cinema and live sport and music events, which has survived during the growth of digital. In creating new offerings, E&M businesses will need to consider attributes that combine an outstanding user experience, attractive content assortment, smart discovery and a connected social community delivered through an intuitive interface that offers increased personalization and access across devices.”