Her promotion follows that of Jordan Helman, who was the head of drama before being named head of all scripted content. That was after Beatrice Springborn moved over to run NBCUnviersal’s UCP.
BuzzFeed hopes the move will put it in a better position to capture lucrative digital ad dollars against much bigger rivals like Google, Facebook and Amazon. The company, founded by Jonah Peretti in 2006 and initially known for listicles and online quizzes, has established itself as a serious contender in the news business, this year winning a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.
Meteorologists Jason Frazer, Britta Merwin, Craig Herrera, Brigit Mahoney, Nick Kosir and Stephen Morgan will lead the platform’s weather coverage once the streaming service launches later this year.
He is promoted from digital marketing and strategic partnerships at Fox Television Stations.
QVC, HSN, Demand Africa and Quincy Jones’ Qwest TV bring more content to Allen Media’s free streaming platform.
Peacock will launch a Tokyo Olympics destination on July 15 featuring live coverage of some the games’ biggest events, including gymnastics, track and field and the U.S. men’s basketball team’s pursuit of their fourth straight gold. The NBCUniversal streamer said Wednesday that Peacock will feature new daily live shows, original programming, dedicated Olympics channels, full event replays and curated highlights. All of Peacock’s Tokyo Olympics programming will be available to stream for free with exception of USA Men’s Basketball live coverage that will be available to Peacock Premium subscribers.
Exclusives
The digital publisher is said to be on the verge of announcing a SPAC merger that would take the company public.
Whip Media and the Entertainment Globalization Association are teaming up to create a new bi-monthly report called the Global Intelligence Tracker that will show how U.S. programs produced for streaming are performing in other countries.
The National Football League is exploring options for its media properties including selling stakes to strategic partners, a move aimed at expanding the reach of its television networks and digital services, the league told team owners in a letter Wednesday. The league said it has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to explore potential partnerships for the properties, which include the NFL Network and RedZone pay TV channels as well as NFL.com.
ViacomCBS on Wednesday unveiled its content leadership structure for its global streaming services. The moves include appointing Tanya Giles, currently GM of MTV Entertainment Group, as “a centralized programming head” to oversee content strategy for Paramount+ and Pluto TV globally.
Brian Roberts is out to prove that having content and distribution under one roof can turn his cable colossus into a major streaming contender. He is also wrestling with whether to build or buy to reach that goal.
NBCUniversal and Amazon just announced that Peacock will launch on Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets in the U.S. starting on Thursday. The Peacock app will bring thousands of hours of on-demand movies and shows, as well as live news and sports programming, to Fire TV and Fire tablet customers nationwide. The announcement is part of a larger partnership between Amazon and NBCU, with more announcements coming soon.
The TV Hit Isn’t Just Dying — It May Already Be Dead
The television hit — the most abiding of entertainment traditions — appears to be dying. That isn’t to say shows don’t have fans; they do, and some of them are more passionate than ever. But according to its long-standing definition — a universally recognized show that gathers a large, verifiable audience and becomes unavoidable in all the places people talk about television and endures well beyond its run — the TV hit is vanishing.
Fuse Media yesterday kicked off the beta launch of Fuse Plus, a new streaming service that will roll out widely later this year. It’ll be available on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices to start.
The Hill, a D.C.-based digital and print publication, is being more aggressively shopped by its owner Jimmy Finkelstein, sources tell Axios, including holding recent talks with broadcasting giant Nexstar Media Group.
Executives, lobbyists, and more than a dozen groups paid by Big Tech have tried to head off bipartisan support for six bills meant to undo the dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.
In a virtual presentation today during the Cannes Lions brand confab, Nielsen shed a bit more light on streaming from its growing body of research on the U.S. market. Following up on its announcement last week of a new measurement tool called The Gauge, SVP of Product Strategy Brian Fuhrer explored the May viewing numbers during a 20-minute talk. Subscription video on demand services remain the dominant form of streaming, he said, with 52% of total streams. Ad-supported video on demand followed with 27% and MVPDs and virtual MVPDs (e.g., YouTube TV) account for 10% of all streaming.
Without speaking a word or scratching a pen across paper, President Joe Biden drove up the pressure on Big Tech companies already smarting under federal and congressional investigations, epic antitrust lawsuits and near-constant condemnation from politicians of both parties.
Sinclair is working on a direct-to-consumer streaming service for its Bally Sports regional sports networks and it has disclosed to potential lenders how big it believes the opportunity could be. In an 8K filing with the SEC, Sinclair included a presentation outlining the potential upside of launching an RSN DTC service, which it predicted could eventually attract approximately 4.4 million subscribers and generate around $2 billion in annual revenue.
The Federal Trade Commission will be the agency to review Amazon’s proposed acquisition of Hollywood studio MGM, according to people familiar with the matter, just as the commission gets a new chairwoman, Lina Khan, who has been critical of the online giant’s expansion.
Major U.S. streamers including Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ could be regulated for the first time in the UK as part of proposals being considered by Boris Johnson’s government. Ministers at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have announced that they will consult on plans to subject the streaming giants to British broadcasting laws, bringing them in line with the BBC, ITV, Sky and others.
Small companies book primetime advertising — and offer media companies a shot at a big payday.
David Katz, EVP of digital at Fox Sports, will leave the Fox Corp. division this fall after three years. Katz is departing to “return to my entrepreneurial roots,” he wrote in a memo to Fox Sports staff Monday. He also will serve as non-executive chairman of ThePostGame, the digital sports content and marketing agency he founded in 2007 and previously ran before joining Fox Sports in September 2018.
Michelle Lee, Allure’s top editor for the last five and a half years, is joining the Netflix marketing team in a newly created editorial and publishing role. She will lead and oversee Netflix’s team focused on social media channels, podcasts and other initiatives, including the streamer’s Queue magazine.
The popularity of Netflix’s Lupin is no fluke. Non-English shows are gaining steam. The pandemic, which stalled a number of Hollywood productions last spring, opened even more viewers to TV shows outside of their native language. In a time of uncertainty and isolation, they found solace in feel-good Korean dramas, thrilling telenovelas and other international gems.
It will feature an expanded free advertising supported (AVOD) and an all-new subscription tier (SVOD) offering, bringing together the best of VIX, Univision NOW and PrendeTV under “a unified global product and vision.” Rodrigo Mazon is tapped as EVP-GM of SVOD. It will be available across U.S. and Latin America next year.
When the young Oracle heir entered the entertainment industry, no one expected much. Instead, he’s built the rarest of businesses — a thriving, all-audiences, independent studio, Skydance Media.
The National Association of Broadcasters said a recent appeals court decision has established the precedent for commission authority to levy regulatory fees on Big Tech. NAB has been pushing the FCC to start charging Big Tech and other unlicensed spectrum users such a fee, as it does broadcasters and other FCC licensees and said it is now clear the FCC has the authority to make it happen.
