The Roku Channel tops Comscore’s list of most popular FAST services
A new report from measurement firm Comscore has shed light on the popularity of Roku, both as a streaming service and an operating system. According to the June findings, Roku is the most popular CTV operating system by time spent, representing 49% of the total market. Capitalizing on this usage, The Roku Channel has become the most popular streaming service among all free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) offerings. The data was made available because Comscore recently began including The Roku Channel in its planning tool, called Connected TV Intelligence (CTVi). It reveals, for the first time, a side-by-side comparison of the most popular FAST services, which have grown rapidly in recent years. Read more from AdWeek.
Apple unveils Apple Intelligence, OpenAI partnership at WWDC
Apple unveiled a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) offering called Apple Intelligence during the keynote of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday. The company also revealed a much-anticipated partnership with OpenAI. Apple Intelligence is billed as a personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad and Mac that joins generative models with personal context to drive relevancy. The offering, which promises to simplify everyday tasks and actions across a variety of apps, was introduced alongside a privacy-focused solution called Private Cloud Compute. Apple is also integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT into experiences within iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, including within offerings like its new Writing Tools and Siri. The integration will be powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o model and become available later this year. Read more from MarketingDive.
Report: Retail sales jumped significantly in May
Retail sales jumped significantly in May, showing strong increases both month-over-month and year-over-year, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF). Total retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, were up 1.35 percent seasonally adjusted month-over-month and up 3.03 percent unadjusted YoY in May, according to the Retail Monitor. That compared with an increase of 0.26 percent month-over-month and a decrease of 0.6 percent YoY in April. The Retail Monitor calculation of core retail sales (excluding restaurants in addition to automobiles and gasoline) was up 1.2 percent month-over-month in May and up 2.88 percent YoY. That compared with an increase of 0.4 percent month-over-month and a decrease of 0.05 percent YoY in April. Read more from Total Retail.
Brands are embracing ad-free features on social media, like comments and DMs
Brands can no longer solely rely on the feed or Stories to capture users’ attention. Marketers are showing up in spaces where users are spending time and where running a traditional ad isn’t an option, like a post’s comments section or in group chats. For many users, the comments are just as much a part of social scrolling as the posts themselves. Nearly half of US adults (49%) said commenting is one of the features they would most prefer to have available on their ideal social media platform, per a March 2023 YouGov study. And more than half (54.2%) of Gen Zers used social media to like or comment on content, according to eMarketer’s July 2023 US Gen Z Social Media survey. Read more from Insider Intelligence.
Fever set another record as Clark’s rising tide lifts rest of WNBA
The rising tide of Caitlin Clark’s arrival in the WNBA is lifting not only her games, but the rest of the league. Friday’s Fever-Mystics WNBA regular season game, a matchup of teams that entered a combined 3-20, averaged a 0.6 rating and 1.02 million viewers on ION — the most-watched WNBA game on the Scripps-owned “netlet” that began carrying games last season. The previous high was 724,000 for another Clark game, a late night matchup with the Sparks. Clark’s Indiana Fever have set viewership records on ION, NBA TV and each of the primary ESPN networks — ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC — this season. After the WNBA went nearly 16 years without a single seven-figure audience, Friday’s game was the sixth this season to cross the million viewer threshold. Read more from Sports Media Watch.
