Apple Can’t Revolutionize TV Without Content

I was called a pamplemousse last week. It’s French for grapefruit. I took it as a compliment. Some links to consider:

There’s been a lot of talk of Apple’s plans to “revolutionize” TV, but without access to content, that’s a near impossibility. The problem is most TV content is owned by a small group of companies that have little incentive to change what they’re already doing, because although the user interface experience is poor, it monetizes just fine. (Fortune)

FourSquare now has 135 employees, but revenue for the company remains elusive and its actual active user base is relatively small. So what exactly do 135 people do all day? The company’s VP of engineering, Harry Heymann, felt it necessary to explain. (Business Insider)

Hulu was designed as a catch-up service for U.S. content, but it’s picking up more and more high-quality content from places like the U.K., Canada and Israel. That’s a smart strategy and could help it package some compelling niche audiences for advertisers. (Slate)

Comparisons between Facebook’s ad products and Google’s AdWords are made frequently, but the fact remains that they are, and always will be, very different beasts. Searches on Google are inherently intent-focused and, therefore, easy to monetize, while searches on Facebook are not. Comparisons abound but, even the sponsored results search ads the social network launched last week really aren’t much like AdWords at all. (SearchEngineLand)

Entrepreneurs can learn a lot from Jay-Z, according to Jason Hirschhorn. Most notably, how to confront critics and piss off Noel Gallagher. (Hypebot)

More in Media

Media Briefing: Step by step, publishers are building toward an agent-led ad business

Agentic AI-driven media trading could wipe out a lot of the problems caused by its programmatic predecessor. Namely, ad tech middlemen.

In Graphic Detail: How AI search is changing publisher visibility

AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google AI Mode are driving more search activity. Some publishers are gaining visibility — but not traffic.

AI royalties for small and midsize publishers: collective licensing’s next big play

Don’t credit OpenAI’s ChatGPT, credit corporate LLMs – enterprise RAG is what’s creating royalty revenue for publishers.