Apple is bringing in NBCUniversal to sell ads in Apple News


Re/Code

Apple is going to hand over ad sales for the app to Comcast's NBCUniversal in an exclusive deal that starts in January.

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.

Kind of an interesting development. When it first launched, I didn't really care for the News app, but it has gotten better. With iOS 10, I like it and use it daily.

As Apple struggles to maintain its iPhone cash cow, it's looking for alternative revenue streams to fuel revenue and return to growth. At the same time, however, Apple has punted on doing advertising itself. The company shut down its iAd business unit, which seemed a strategic counter to Google when it launched Android.