Appearing at the NewFronts, Snap unveiled a new program in conjunction with celebrity greeting app Cameo as well as a new advertising initiative called Snap Promote and some new original programs. Snapchat creators will have the opportunity to team on short-form video ads with the 45,000-plus actors, athletes, musicians and influencers. The new Snap x Cameo Advertiser Program venture — an expansion of the Creator Marketplace Snap launched last year to increase monetization opportunities — was created by Cameo for Business and built by Snap. Read more

Peacock premium subscribers will have streaming access to Bravo shows the day after they air on the NBCUniversal sister service, which has also secured a multiyear output deal with Lionsgate for movies that will begin streaming in 2024. “Bravo fans have another reason to celebrate” in addition to the recent news that BravoCon is returning to New York City this October, NBCUniversal touted. Starting this week, new seasons of Bravo hits “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” “Top Chef” and “Below Deck” will be available on Peacock the day after air. Read more

European regulators on Monday hit Apple with an antitrust charge, alleging it has created a “closed system” for contactless mobile payments. The so-called statement of objections says the iPhone maker has abused its market power by favoring its Apple Pay for mobile contactless payments to the detriment of third-party services like PayPal, which reportedly helped initiate the charges. The European Commission says it has reason to believe Apple withheld access to its NFC inputs in order to suppress other mobile-wallet app developers from competing with Apple Pay, which the Commission called “a closed ecosystem.” Read more

Wall Street is warming up to cryptocurrencies. Large banks and other financial institutions have been staffing departments ready to serve clients’ blockchain needs. Hedge funds and professional investment outfits led the way, with many mutual funds and pension managers now following along, lest they be perceived as out of touch. Some say the involvement of traditional investment sectors could add some stability to the often-volatile crypto markets, whose ongoing viability is hardly assured. Although Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong thinks it is, predicting that at least one billion people will have tried crypto within a decade. Read more

A strong showing by Netflix in Asia amidst an otherwise lackluster Q1 report has focused attention on the region, where streaming is just coming into its own in territories that house roughly half the global population. There are still potentially hundreds of millions of untapped subscribers in the Far East. But the area has its own challenges, namely local streaming services that offer a wide variety of regional content. Not to mention deep-pocketed domestic rivals, including Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video are also competing for market share. Read more