B4| Friday, November 8, 2019 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
floor of his office in the dark,
feet away from a Mac com-
puter, when the iPhone next to
him lights up with an incom-
ing call.
In total, there are 31 shots
of Apple devices in Episode 1,
including eight with the com-
pany’s logo.
The other shows in the ini-
tial batch of nine programs for
TV+ aren’t really conducive to
product placement.
Several are set in times
when Apple doesn’t exist,
while others are children’s
shows or nonfiction programsthat couldn’t easily accommo-
date gadget shots.
Product placement has
surged over the past decade as
marketers aim to get their
brand in front of viewers who
increasingly skip commercials
and watch shows on demand.
Spending on product place-
ment has doubled since 2012
to about $10 billion, according
to PQ Media, a media research
firm that tracks the industry.
“In a changing world where
people watch less traditional
television, especially younger
audiences, how do you reachthem?” said Patrick Quinn,
president of PQ Media. “One
way to do that is to launch
your own streaming service
and show off your product.”
Apple has said it doesn’t
pay for product placement.
People close to “The Morning
Show” said producers weren’t
under pressure to include Ap-
ple products in the shows.
Dow Jones & Co., publisher
of the Journal, has a commer-
cial agreement to supply news
through Apple services.
—John Jurgensen
contributed to this article.TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech
the period with 12.2 million
pay-TV subscribers.
Financial analysts expected
the company to post a loss of
162,000 subscribers, according
to an average of estimates com-
piled by FactSet.
Dish’s earnings have come
under pressure in recent years
as satellite-TV customers drop
their channel bundles in search
of cheaper alternatives. Some
have stopped paying for live TV
altogether.
Rival channel bundlers have
suffered more defections, how-ever.AT&TInc. reported a loss
of 1.4 million pay-TV customers
over the third quarter, a figure
that included customer declines
in its online TV service.
AT&T recently increased
prices for its AT&T TV Now
streaming video service, while
Sony Corp. said it would scrap
its PlayStation Vue streaming
service. Dish has also raised
Sling TV prices, though its ba-
sic packages still attract cost-
conscious customers with plans
as low as $25 a month.
Dish’s earnings fell as ittraded satellite subscribers for
gains at Sling TV. Its average
revenue per user slipped to
$85.29 during the quarter from
$86.29 a year earlier.
Dish reported a third-quar-
ter profit of $353.3 million, or
66 cents a share, down from
$431.7 million, or 82 cents a
share, a year earlier. Revenue
fell 6.7% to $3.17 billion.
Growth at Dish was under
pressure last year as the com-
pany fought with Univision
over carriage rates. The two
sides struck a deal in March torestore the Spanish-language
channels. Dish executives said
that cord-cutting helped boost
growth at Sling, which high-
lights the value of its “skinny”
channel bundles. Chief Execu-
tive Erik Carlson said he
couldn’t remember a recent
quarter in which the company
hadn’t entered a programming
spat with a channel owner as
the company focuses on man-
aging its costs.
Dish shares rose 3.5% Thurs-
day. They have climbed nearly
40% this year.Dish NetworkCorp. posted
a surprise customer gain for
the quarter as its internet-TV
business overshadowed ac-
counts lost on the satellite side.
The company posted a net
gain of 148,000 pay-TV custom-
ers during the three months
that ended Sept. 30, its first
such increase since 2017. That
included a loss of 66,000 satel-
lite-TV customers while inter-
net-based Sling TV added
214,000 customers. Dish ended
BYDREWFITZGERALD
Dish Posts Rise in Pay TV Clients
Corp said it booked $273 mil-
lion of impairment charges, pri-
marily at News America Mar-
keting, its coupon business.
Revenue declined 7.3% to
$2.34 billion. Analysts polled
by Thomson Reuters expected
earnings of 5 cents a share on
revenue of $2.4 billion. The
company said that it recorded
an $84 million revenue decline
due to currency fluctuations
and its exit from a gaming
partnership in the U.K., which
generated a $48 million benefit
a year earlier.
“The results were affected
by pronounced currency head-
winds, a particularly sluggishAustralian economy and prop-
erty market, and comparisons
with a prior year in which there
was a significant one-time rev-
enue item,” said Chief Execu-
tive Robert Thomson.
Mr. Thomson said efforts to
simplify the company were
continuing, to present a more
cohesive business to investors.
He said News Corp was in ac-
tive discussions about a sale of
News America Marketing and
was also considering a sale of
Unruly, a London-based digital
advertising technology business
that was acquired in 2015.
Earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation and amorti-zation fell 38% to $221 million.
News Corp’s largest unit, the
news and information-services
business, which includes the
Journal, Times of London and
New York Post, reported a 7.9%
revenue decline to $1.15 billion.
Advertising revenue for the
news unit fell 8%. Circulation
and subscription revenue rose
1% overall and increased 6% at
Dow Jones, reflecting growth in
digital subscribers, price in-
creases at the Journal and
growth at the company’s Risk &
Compliance product.
The Journal added 36,000
digital subscribers from the
end of the previous quarter,bringing its total to 1.854 mil-
lion. That was down from
43,000 additional subscribers
in the previous quarter. Digital
advertising revenue at the
Journal rose 13% on the year,
the company said.
In print, the Journal had
764,000 subscribers as of the
end of September, according to
the company. Ebitda fell 49% at
the news unit to $56 million,
primarily due to the exit from
the U.K. gaming partnership
and lower revenue at News
Corp Australia and News Amer-
ica Marketing, but partly offset
by cost savings and higher con-
tributions from Dow Jones.News Corpswung to a net
quarterly loss, driven by a sub-
stantial impairment charge at
its in-store marketing and cou-
pon business, as well as cur-
rency headwinds.
The New York-based media
company, owner of The Wall
Street Journal and HarperCol-
lins Publishers, has large opera-
tions in the U.K. and Australia.
The company’s net loss for
the quarter ended Sept. 30 was
$227 million, or 39 cents a
share, compared with a profit
of $101 million, or 17 cents a
share, a year earlier. News
BYLUKASI.ALPERT
News Corp Reports Loss, Citing Charge at Coupon Unit
delayed by an antitrust suit
brought by a coalition of state
attorneys general.
The states, led by New York
and California, worry the deal
would stifle competition, espe-
cially in the market for pre-
paid mobile plans that tend to
cost less. A trial is set for Dec.
9.
T-Mobile Chief Executive
John Legere said he wrote to
attorneys general Thursdaymorning, including New York’s
Letitia James, laying out the
new pricing plan and other
moves, and said he had met
with several in recent weeks
to hear their concerns.
“What’s important to these
states is exactly the things
we’re talking about,” Mr.
Legere said, adding that he
was confident the Sprint deal
would be able to progress af-
ter either a settlement or suc-cessful trial.
In addition to offering the
$15 prepaid plan, T-Mobile
said it would also offer free in-
home internet for some low-
income and rural households
with children, as well as free
wireless service to first re-
sponders. It plans to offer free
internet to 10 million house-
holds with children, a move
that amounts to a $10 billion
commitment by the combinedcompany. First responders
would have access to free 5G
wireless service for 10 years,
T-Mobile said.
“This is something we could
never do if the merger doesn’t
happen,” T-Mobile operating
chief Mike Sievert said.
The wireless home internet
offer resembles Comcast
Corp.’s Internet Essentials, a
roughly $10-a-month internet
service for low-income house-
holds that the cable giant of-
fered to win federal approval
of its NBCUniversal purchase.
T-Mobile and Sprint have
tried to pick off individual
states from the state-led law-
suit, successfully getting Colo-
rado and Mississippi to drop
out and support the transac-
tion. Executives said they hope
the new commitments would
help spur more defections.
T-Mobile also said it would
launch a 5G network that cov-
ers 200 million people on Dec.
6, three days before the case is
scheduled to begin.
Executives said that T-Mo-
bile won’t charge more for 5G
service.
Mr. Legere said the parties
are discussing how to extend
their deadline for the deal and
didn’t rule out the possibility
of renegotiating its price.
While T-Mobile has been
adding subscribers at a consis-
tent clip, Sprint has continued
to shed phone customers.T-Mobile USInc. opened a
new front in the cellphone
pricing wars, unveiling a
monthly data plan that starts
at $15 as the company re-
sponds to critics that its
planned merger withSprint
Corp. will lessen competition.
The No. 3 carrier by sub-
scribers said Thursday it
would sell phone plans with 2
gigabytes of high-speed data
for $15 a month, one of the
lowest entry-level prices from
a major U.S. provider, if its
Sprint takeover is allowed to
proceed. The company previ-
ously charged $30 for its low-
est-cost unlimited plan.
A monthly allotment of 2GB
is enough to support most on-
line-browsing and social-me-
dia use, but below the data
needed to support extended
music and streaming-video
binges. T-Mobile said it would
guarantee the price and gradu-
ally increase customers’ data
caps over time for five years.
AT&TInc.’s prepaid Cricket
service offers a similar 2GB
plan for $30 a month. Sprint’s
Boost charges $35 a month for
3GB.
T-Mobile’s proposed take-
over of Sprint, the No. 4 pro-
vider, has secured approval
from federal telecom and anti-
trust officials, but has been
BYSARAHKROUSE
ANDDREWFITZGERALD
T-Mobile Slices Cost of Monthly Data Plan
The carrier will offer phone plans for $15 a month, down from $30 for its previous lowest-cost plan.DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWSwastes little time giving Apple
screen time. The first scene of
the first episode opens with
the character of executive pro-
ducer Chip Black, played by
Mark Duplass, sprawled on theContinued from page B1iPhone,
iPad Take
TV Roles
Reese Witherspoon’s character, TV journalist Bradley Jackson, sleeps beside her iPhone and MacBook in a ‘Morning Show’ scene.Capital One Financial
Corp. is moving its chief in-
formation security officer out
of the role after the bank’s
huge data breach, according
to people familiar with the
matter.
The bank informed employ-
ees on Thursday that Michael
Johnson will become an ad-
viser and that the bank will
begin an external search for a
successor, the people said.
Mr. Johnson had been chief
information security officer,
or CISO, since 2017, and re-
mains at the bank.
Mike Eason, chief informa-
tion officer of Capital One’s
commercial bank, was named
the interim successor, the
people said.
Mr. Eason’s LinkedIn pro-
file doesn’t list cybersecurity
experience.
Capital One disclosed in
July that a hacker accessed
the personal information of
about 106 million of its card
customers and applicants.The bank didn’t learn
about the breach until it was
tipped off by an outside re-
searcher 127 days after the
hacker began attempting to
access the bank’s information.
It was one of the largest
hacks in recent years and ran
counter to a reputation the
bank had cultivated for being
technologically savvy.
Since the breach was dis-
closed, at least a dozen expe-
rienced cybersecurity employ-
ees have left the bank, people
familiar with the matter said.
Many of them were frustrated
at flagging security lapses to
Mr. Johnson and other execu-
tives that they believed hadn’t
been fully addressed, these
people said.
Through a bank spokes-
woman, Mr. Johnson and Mr.
Eason declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal re-
ported in August that employ-
ees had raised concerns
within the company about its
failure to promptly install cer-
tain software to help spot and
defend against hacks as well
as what they saw as high
turnover in the cybersecurity
unit. The concerns had been
raised with Mr. Johnson, the
bank’s internal auditors, the
human-resources department
and other senior executives.BYANNAMARIAANDRIOTISCapital
One Shifts
Security
Official
At least a dozen
cybersecurity
employees have left
the bank.