SpotlightJuly2018

APPLE STRIKES CONTENT STREAMING DEAL WITH OPRAH WINFREY W eight Watchers and now Apple says it has reached a multi-year deal to create original programs for its streaming service with Oprah Winfrey who founded and heads the OWN channel as their chair and CEO. Apple has yet to launch its service, whose major competitors will include Amazon and Netflix, but announced that the programs will be released worldwide as part of a lineup of original content. An OWN spokeswoman said Winfrey has an exclusive on-camera deal with OWN but can appear elsewhere on a limited basis. USERS GETTING LESS OF THEIR NEWS FROM FACEBOOK S tudies are showing that Facebook is being used less and less to find and share news while people are increasingly turning to alternative platforms like

Whatsapp.

The use of Facebook for news dropped by 9 percent from 2017 to 2018 in the U.S., research by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute found, with news consumption among younger groups falling 20 percent. Average news consumption on Facebook globally has declined 6 percent since 2016, while Facebook owned Whatsapp saw a 4 percent increase in that same time period. Instagram, also owned by Facebook, and Snap- owned Snapchat news usage rose 3 percent and 2 percent respectively in the same two-year time period. Snap-owned Snapchat has been driving news content on its platform, with a redesign last February prioritizing pub- lishers and content creators and it seems to be paying off with increased users.

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JULY 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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