As Apple News Readership Nearly Doubles, Apple and NBCUniversal Ink Exclusive In-App Advertising Deal

As Apple News' Reader Base Nearly Doubles, Apple and NBCUniversal Ink Exclusive In-App Advertising Deal
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Although Apple had announced the pending demise of its iAd platform earlier this year, it now appears as if the Cupertino-company might be reassessing the future of its mobile advertisement prospects — in particular, as it continues to see significant increases to its faithful reader base.

That’s according to a recent report from Recode, which sought to share details about Apple and NBCUniversal’s exclusive, freshly inked advertising deal that would allow the latter, multi-media conglomerate, to sell targeted advertising spots on behalf of Apple, showcased via the Cupertino-company’s increasingly popular News app.

“Publishers who put content on the app can still sell their own ads and will keep 100 percent of the revenue from any ads they sell. The new deal means that NBCUniversal, instead of Apple, will sell any remaining ad inventory,” according to the Recode report. “As before, publishers will keep 70 percent of those sales. In a note to her staff, NBCUniversal sales boss Linda Yaccarino said her organization would create a dedicated sales group for the app.”

In other words, individual news publishers — such as The Onion, Slate, CNN, or Bloomberg, for instance — will still be able to sell their own advertisements in Apple News, while also keeping 100% of the revenue generated by those ads. However, the lion’s share of overall advertisement sales — which would have formerly been managed through Apple, directly — will instead be scooped up and managed by NBCUniversal, instead, constituent with the terms of the iAd business that Apple gave up on earlier this year.

Noting that the “transfer of power” will shift from Apple to NBCUniversal by the end of January, 2017, the Recode report goes on to highlight the “dramatic shift” this deal marks, particularly in relation to Apple’s current News ad sales strategy.

Apple’s proprietary News app is compatible with iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches running iOS 9 or later. However, as of today, the app is only available to readers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australian markets. Even still, the Recode report is quick to note that Apple has seen its reader base in those select few markets nearly double — jumping from 40 million just a year ago, to over 70 million, and counting — over the last year or so.

In light of this new deal, it’s clear that Apple sees potential with the future of selling advertisements within the News app. The company just doesn’t want to bear the burden of managing sales and intricate details in house.

Not only was Apple News redesigned, and optimized substantially, for iOS 10 — even boasting its own widget in the iOS 10 Widget panel, but the sheer growth of the aggregated news platform is paving the way for selling a great deal of targeted advertising for Apple — even though the company doesn’t really want to be involved in the “business” of selling ads anymore.

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