Digital

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Shawn Wheat, executive producer of Gray Television’s Local News Live, about the new, digital-only streaming initiative that stitches together news from across Gray’s stations via a small team of anchors and producers.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Chris Inglis to be President Joe Biden’s national cyber director, installing the former NSA deputy director as Biden’s top cyber adviser at a time when many lawmakers are pressing the White House for a muscular response to a series of high-profile hacks. As head of the new Office of the National Cyber Director inside the White House, Inglis will coordinate federal agencies’ disparate work on cyber issues and oversee the development of the U.S.’ digital defense strategy.

A new monthly Nielsen measurement called The Gauge shows just how much the pandemic has catalyzed streaming among a broad ranger of consumers with May usage across all television homes climbing to 26% of time spent on TV — outpacing broadcast, with an audience share of 25%. The streaming video data included SVOD and AVOD. Streaming and broadcast now account for half of television time. Cable accounted for 39%, and “other” viewing for 9%.

Top ViacomCBS executive David Nevins is in talks for an expanded role that would include oversight of content for Paramount Plus, sources tell Variety. The longtime Showtime CEO and chairman, who also serves as chief creative officer of CBS, would maintain his portfolio that at present includes Showtime Networks and BET Networks, individuals with knowledge of the talks said.

The company known for measuring television ratings said Netflix and YouTube are far ahead of their digital rivals, but viewers still spend more time watching cable and network TV.

Comcast, Charter Communications and Vizio, among others, have created a consortium to identify ways to simplify and scale an increasingly complex TV ad business.

Christy Tanner, one of CBS News’ top streaming executives, is leaving the company after eight years. Tanner announced her exit Thursday morning. Tanner, who joined CBS News during the advent of the streaming era, is one of the architects of CBSN, the company’s free streaming news channel. In her role as executive vice president and general manager of CBS News Digital, Tanner oversaw CBS News across all digital platforms, including CBSNews.com. Tanner is the latest high-ranking female executive to leave ViacomCBS in the last few months.

Netflix is actually the beneficially for this latest big off-net comedy move following a $500 million-plus deal in 2019 to acquire the Show About Billions.

It marks the newest expansion of major market local news streaming services from CBS and features local news content produced by KOVR and KMAX.

In a shift that could help Google’s YouTube sidestep future political controversy, as well as make it more attractive to a broader audience, the social video site has announced that it has stopped taking ads related to elections and political content, alcohol, gambling and prescription drugs in its masthead ads.

NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS may eventually find themselves on the outside looking in as the subscription streaming video industry continues to grow. That’s according to MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson, who kicked off The StreamTV Show with a forward-looking assessment of which major streamers have the best chance at future success. Assuming that both the Amazon-MGM and Discovery-WarnerMedia deals go through in 2022, he said that the clear winners will be Netflix, Disney, Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery while AMC Networks will have success, albeit on a more niche level.

The Florida 24 Network highlights reporting from Scripps’ six stations in the state and is available over-the-top in every TV market across the state.

Technology companies’ blithe disregard for consumer desires is an outgrowth of decades of permissive or nonexistent government oversight. Regulators ought to consider how Big Tech’s monopoly power further empowers the companies to ignore their own customers, in part by gobbling up competitors that offer more consumer-friendly services. Whatever the outcome of the Arizona case, if Google and others are willing to continue offering users choices, they should also be willing to respect them.

A bipartisan group of House members introduced five bills targeting Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.

Forty-six percent of U.S. broadband homes supported four or more subscription streaming services at the end of the first quarter, a percentage that is more than double the 22% Parks Associates reported in 1Q 2020. Parks also reported that the U.S. homes with at least one subscription OTT service reached 82% in 1Q vs. 76% a year earlier.

Between Us, a digital-only series from Al Jazeera, aims to generate “more of a human story” from veteran correspondents using animation, illustration and other novel storytelling tools.

Premion, Tegna’s connected TV advertising company, said it expanded its relationship with IHS Markit to use Polk Automotive Solutions data to target ad campaigns and measure their results. Automotive advertisers using the Premion platform to create regional and local streaming campaigns will be able to incorporate Polk audience segments and data on sales, make and model, price and vehicle type.

Netflix, HBO Max and others are investing in Spanish-language content to target U.S. Latinos and Latin American markets.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center this week include openings for a multimedia sales account exec, a news producer, a general manager, a national sales manager, a broadcast technology manager, a senior account exec and a digital sales director.

Peacock has added premium streaming as an option for all of the National Hockey League’s remaining Stanley Cup Semifinal games. As previously announced, the games will also air on NBCSN or USA Network and NBC Sports digital platforms. The series starts June 14 at 9 p.m. ET with Game 1 in the semifinal between the Montreal Canadiens and Vegas Golden Knights.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has expanded its sports production and delivery capabilities with the launch of a new 25,000-square-foot, SMPTE ST 2110 media operations center here dedicated to its regional sports networks (RSNs). The operations center, which leverages cloud-hosted disaster recovery channels, also serves as a large-scale ST 2110 production facility for its Tennis Channel. Sinclair’s Tennis Channel features a cloud-based environment for pop-up live special events as well.