Friday Five: Media and Subscription Insights

Start your weekend off right with the latest issue of Friday Five! In this edition, we review America’s largest newspaper publisher suing Google, Netflix’s password crackdown boosting new subscribers, Google’s new policy for serving ads, subscriptions becoming the fastest-growing revenue stream among publishers, and Spotify increasing rate for subscription plans. 

America’s Largest Newspaper Publisher Sues Google 

America’s largest newspaper publisher, Gannet, has filed a lawsuit against Google and Alphabet, alleging an illegal monopoly in the online advertising space. Gannett claims that Google has used its power to reduce advertising prices and limit content production, leading to job losses and declining readership. Read the full article. 

Netflix Password Crackdown Boosts New Subscribers

Netflix is testing a new feature to prevent password sharing in several counties, including Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain. Now, Netflix reported a net increase of 1.75 million subscribers in the first quarter, up nearly 5% from the same period last year. Read the full article. 

Google’s New Policy for Serving Ads

Google has announced a new policy that could affect publishers serving EU audiences. To continue using Google’s monetization tools, publishers can only engage with platforms that follow the latest version of the Transparency Consent Framework (TCF), an industry-wide privacy agreement. If publishers do not follow the guidelines, Google will show non-personalized advertisements (NPA) rather than personalized advertisements (PA). Read the full article. 

Subscriptions Fastest-Growing Revenue Stream Among Publishers

Digital subscriptions have become the fastest-growing revenue stream for online publishers, according to a survey by the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and Deloitte. Despite a 0.1% year-on-year increase in total digital revenue, digital subscriptions increased by 18.3% from the first quarter of 2022. Read the full article.

Spotify Increasing Rate of Subscription Plans

Spotify plans to introduce a new and more expensive subscription tier. The “Supremium” tier will offer lossless audio and HiFi sound quality. Spotify is considering charging $19.99 for the new subscription tier. Read the full article.