Byers Market: Facebook, Google brace for an advertising hit

Plus: Eric Schmidt talks up Big Tech, Bloomberg News comes under fire and NBC's Peacock takes flight.

View in browser April 15, 2020 By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles &  AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in San Francisco Good morning. 🗣️  Top talker: Bill Gates on President Donald Trump's decision to halt funding for the World Health Organization: "[It's] as dangerous as it sounds. Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs @WHO now more than ever."   📱  New today: Jim VandeHei has launched an Axios app with topic channels and customized feeds. It's valuable for consumers, but also hints at Axios' ambitions in the B2B software space. (CEOs, think about being able to use this for internal communications).   📺 What's next: NBCUniversal will formally enter the Hollywood streaming wars today as Peacock becomes available for Comcast subscribers. Comcast is now hinting that the national launch could happen earlier than scheduled. Scroll down for details. (NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News.)    Join the Market: 🗞️ Newsletter | 🎙️ Podcast Bloomberg/Getty The Ad Game Facebook, Google brace for an advertising hit   Moving the Market: "Google's and Facebook's advertising businesses, which have roughly tripled in combined size over the last five years, may be headed for a rare stumble as the coronavirus pushes the global economy into a tailspin," NYT's Daisuke Wakabayashi, Tiffany Hsu and Mike Isaac report.   • "Once-abundant travel and entertainment ads have all but disappeared from Google search. The prices for Facebook advertisements are at record lows. And Wall Street analysts are estimating that annual revenues will decline for the first time in the history of the two companies." Warning signs:    • "Yelp said on Thursday that it was laying off 1,000 employees and furloughing another 1,100."   • "Twitter withdrew its quarterly estimate last month and forecast revenue to decline slightly."   • "Pinterest pulled its projection of full-year revenue growth of more than 30 percent because, it said, it started to see a sharp decline from mid-March."   The big picture: "It's the type of downturn that traditional media has experienced before, but was hard to imagine for the duopoly that accounts for more than half of the spending in online advertising," Wakabayashi, Hsu and Isaac write.   • "And yet as gloomy as the situation may appear... the outlook for the rest of the digital advertising industry is even bleaker. What little digital spending there is will still flow to them, leaving smaller social media platforms and publishers out in the cold." John Lamparski/Getty Post-Pandemic Eric Schmidt talks up Big Tech    Big in the Bay: Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google, "thinks the coronavirus pandemic should teach Americans to be 'a little bit grateful' for powerful tech companies — and angry at their government," Recode's Teddy Schleifer reports.   • "The benefit of these corporations — which we love to malign — in terms of the ability to communicate ... the ability to get information, is profound — and I hope people will remember that when this thing is finally over," Schmidt told the Economic Club of New York.   • "So let's be a little bit grateful that these companies got the capital, did the investment, built the tools that we're using now and have really helped us out," Schmidt said. "Imagine having the same reality of this pandemic without these tools."   The big picture: "Big Tech is indeed using its resources and know-how for the common good," Schleifer writes. "But concerns are also mounting that these companies — and the billionaires leading them — will emerge more powerful than ever." 🌞 Good News News  🌞   What we're reading: "The coronavirus pandemic has driven interest in uplifting headlines way, way up," NYT's Taylor Lorenz writes.   • "Though it can be hard to see past the daily deluge of devastating headlines, there is plenty of good news in the world right now — and a great deal of interest in reading it." Bloomberg/Getty Bad practices Bloomberg News draws fire   Moving Manhattan: Bloomberg News reportedly killed a multi-part investigation into the wealth of Communist Party elites in China, fired the reporter behind the story, and also sought to silence that reporter's wife, NPR's David Folkenflik reports.   • The big picture: Folkenflik's report shows the lengths Bloomberg News went to in an attempt to squash the story. It also undoes years of attempts by the company to deny any such efforts.   The tape: NPR obtained audio of a 2013 call in which Bloomberg's founding editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler said the company risked being thrown out of China if it continued to run the investigation, and that the investigation therefore wasn't justified.   • "It is for sure going to, you know, invite the Communist Party to, you know, completely shut us down and kick us out of the country," Winkler said. "So, I just don't see that as a story that is justified."   • Bloomberg LP and its founder, Mike Bloomberg, declined to comment to NPR for the story.   The backstory: The incident came to light because of Bloomberg LP's broad use of nondisclosure agreements, which was called into question during Mike Bloomberg's presidential bid. Bloomberg News tried to get the wife of one of the investigation's reporters to sign an NDA, even though she wasn't an employee. Market Links   • Jeff Bezos cuts commission rates for affiliate program (CNBC)   • Patrick Soon-Shiong furloughs Los Angeles Times staff (WWD)   • Guru Gowrappan donates $10m in digital ad inventory (Variety)   • Erik Carlson makes Sling TV free during primetime (CNET)   • Jeffrey Katzenberg eyes a TV version of Quibi (Bloomberg) Bloomberg/Getty The streaming wars NBC's 'Peacock' takes flight   Talk of Tinseltown: NBCUniversal will today launch "an 'early preview' of Peacock Premium ad-supported tier, available for no extra cost to some 31.5 million of the operator's TV and broadband customers across the U.S.," Variety's Todd Spangler reports.   • "The streaming service will begin rolling out Tuesday to subscribers with Xfinity X1 and Flex, the video service for broadband-only customers, with Peacock slated to be fully available across Comcast's footprint by April 30."   • "At launch, Peacock Premium includes more than 15,000 hours of movies and shows... But the bulk of Peacock's originals slate will be delayed until 2021, given the shutdown of productions with the coronavirus pandemic."   • "NBCU has lined up 10 advertisers for the Peacock launch, which it says have signed on to long-term deals. ... The media conglomerate says Peacock will include no more than 5 minutes of ads per hour of programming, less than is typical on traditional TV networks."   What's next: NBCUniversal is considering a plan to move up the nationwide launch of Peacock, which is currently slated for July 15, in light of the coronavirus pandemic and "shelter-in-place" orders, our colleague Claire Atkinson reports. (NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News.)   • "Some have asked, 'is there an opportunity to launch Peacock nationally even sooner' and that is something we are evaluating,' Matt Strauss, chairman of Peacock and NBCUniversal digital enterprises, said on a conference call Tuesday afternoon."   The big picture: An earlier launch date could be a boon to NBCUniversal. Nielsen recently reported that streaming viewership was up 50 percent from a year earlier due to the pandemic. 📺  What's next: Bloomberg News has launched a new entertainment vertical called Screentime. It launches with a smart essay by Lucas Shaw on how coronavirus has changed our media consumption habits.   See you tomorrow. Follow Dylan Byers Follow Ahiza García-Hodges Get the NBC News Mobile App Privacy Unsubscribe