Apple HLS may block ad skipping

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• Podcast ad skipping "isn’t as bad as I thought”, says Bumper’s Dan Misener, suggesting that - for Bumper’s clients - for most shows, 90% of their audience listen right through the ad breaks. He concludes “The longer your ad break, the greater your ad avoidance, and the lower your ad retention”.
• The CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. The company has donated £1mn to the National Film and Television School. In a wide-ranging interview covering the future of television, he highlighted how much of a competitor YouTube is, criticised the BBC for “giving free programming” to them, and criticised YouTube for not investing in creativity. He also spoke about podcasts: in the absence of a listen-again facility on the BBC’s international website, we’ve clipped those comments here should you want a listen. “I think podcasts are just an extension of chat shows”, Sarandos said, adding “I think that there’s a million podcasts now around the world, literally”. (The most conservative number is literally three times higher).
• Ozen FM, an audio monetization network, has expanded to Brazil with the appointment of a Commercial Director for the country, Priscila Falcone.

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