In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: Gray Television acquire 17 of Meredith’s TV stations as the media firm focus on their publishing and digital assets businesses; Berlin Brands Group look for American sellers to bring to the European market; and Facebook report higher-than-expected revenues for Q1, but remain wary of the impact that ATT will have on their future ad sales.
Gray Television acquire Meredith TV stations
Gray Television have inked a deal to buy 17 of Meredith Corporation’s TV stations for USD $2.7bn (£1.9bn). The move will increase Atlanta, Georgia-based Gray’s holdings to 101 outlets across 113 US markets, bringing the firm’s national reach to 36% of all US households.
In this week’s episode of the MadTech Podcast, ExchangeWire’s Rachel Smith, Lindsay Rowntree, and Ciaran O’Kane discuss the latest news in ad tech and martech.
In this session:
– WhatsApp has extended the deadline for accepting its new terms and conditions. The move follows a mass exodus of users who balked at the company’s demand that they allow their data to be shared with parent-platform Facebook. Millions have since flocked to rival messaging apps Signal and Telegram, sending the stock value of each company skyrocketing.
In response to the boycott and other criticism, Facebook had launched a newspaper campaign in India (where the app also hosts a payment and a food delivery service), telling users that neither the Mark Zuckerberg-helmed firm nor its instant messaging subsidiary has or will have access to their private conversations, which are protected with end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp also attempted to reassure users by stating that the new T&Cs boil down to