Media News Roundup: ESPN Declines; Facebook Ads Best YouTube; Do Twitter Cards Help Publishers?

July 24, 2015

Here is this week’s roundup of media news, with a touch of our take.

Even ESPN isn’t protected from the decline in cable TV. The network lost 3.2 million cable subscribers in about a year.
GoogleVentures’ M.G. Siegler notes challenges for the sports powerhouse, said to contribute 25% of Disney’s operating profits.
Signer predicts they will go it alone with a service outside any traditional network “sooner than many people think.” SportsCenter viewership is declining with consumers getting sports news via apps.

Facebook is growing as an ad platform as their ads get more targeted and relevant to users, AdWeek reports.
Though they’ve decreased the number of ads per page, they’ve seen an increase in engagement. Clicks of Facebook ads are up 12% in a year, while impressions dropped 47%.
An Adobe survey found 51% of people find Facebook ads relevant, compared to 17% for YouTube.

The new Twitter cards allow for each link to have an expanded summary and image to been seen from the newsfeed without actually clicking on it.
There is a image and quick summary shown in the expanded space, which is another part of the company’s attempt to bring more media into the newsfeed instead of text.
The more time users keep scrolling through their newsfeeds, the more revenue Twitter will make. However, will these article preview cards lead to more traffic on the actual article page, or will users read the quick summary and keep scrolling, leaving the original content page with even less clicks and viewers?