In today’s Digest news: Paramount’s Linear Revenue Dips as Streaming Sales Soar; One Billion Monthly Users Consuming Podcasts on YouTube; Digital Rights Activists File Complaints Over Meta’s Targeted Ads 

Paramount’s Linear Revenue Dips as Streaming Sales Soar

Paramount’s linear TV unit saw its overall revenue decline by 4%, reveals its latest earnings report, reflecting the precarity of traditional TV. The unit’s ad revenue also fell 4%, in addition to affiliate and subscription revenue decreasing seeing a 7% dip. However, the picture was very positive for Paramount’s direct-to-consumer division (which includes the Paramount+ streaming service and Pluto TV). The division’s ad revenue increased by 9%, while subscription revenue rose 7%. Looking at Paramount+ specifically, subscriber growth was responsible for revenue growth of 16%: the streaming service gained 5.6 million subscribers during the quarter, taking the total to almost 78 billion. Meanwhile, Paramount Global is one of the latest companies to announce the dissolution of DEI hiring goals.  

YouTube Podcasts Reach One Billion Milestone 

YouTube has reached a significant milestone: each month, more than one billion users are tuning into the platform to listen to podcasts. In the US, YouTube is the most frequently used service for viewing podcast content. Last year, users consumed over 400 million hours of podcasts on the platform just from living room devices such as TVs.   

Digital Rights Activists File Complaints Over Meta’s Targeted Ads 

Digital rights activists at Eko have filed complaints with several data protection authorities across Europe (Germany, Spain, and Norway) over Meta’s targeted advertising practices, reports Reuters. The group says it has collected evidence to demonstrate that Meta did not listen to explicit user requests to opt out of data collection and targeted advertisements. It hopes that the complaints will trigger an investigation from the countries’ watchdogs. Eoin Dubsky, Eko’s spokesperson, said that 5,000 members of the group had asked Meta to stop processing their personal data, yet the company continued to serve them targeted ads.