Digital

The Stitcher company includes the Midroll advertising rep firm; owned-and-operated podcast networks including the comedy-focused Earwolf; and the Stitcher podcast listening platform.

Univision Network Chief Meteorologist Albert Martinez will join HellerWeather’s Tim Heller and The Weather Company’s Mike Convey for a TVNewsCheck webinar focused on elevating local TV weather segments to more effectively compete with digital platforms. Key to their strategy: storytelling with augmented reality. Register here.

The Starfleet crew clearly has more work to do. A day after its Season 3 premiere, CBS All Access announced it has renewed Star Trek: Discovery for a fourth season, with production set to begin on Nov. 2.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said on Friday his company had been wrong to block links to an article making claims about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son. “Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that,” he tweeted here.

Another high-ranking executive is out at Netflix. Head of comedy Jane Wiseman has left the streamer. Wiseman, who had served as VP originals at Netflix, had been with the company for six years. Wiseman’s departure arrives days after another VP originals, Channing Dungey, left the company.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has signaled he plans to follow President Trump’s lead and “clarify” Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. He also says he has been assured by FCC lawyers that the FCC has the authority to do so. ““As elected officials consider whether to change the law, the question remains: What does Section 230 currently mean?,” Pai said in a statement. “[M]any advance an overly broad interpretation that in some cases shields social media companies from consumer protection laws in a way that has no basis in the text of Section 230. The commission’s General Counsel has informed me that the FCC has the legal authority to interpret Section 230.  Consistent with this advice, I intend to move forward with a rulemaking to clarify its meaning.”

COVID-19 accelerated long-term viewership changes and channeled ever-higher numbers toward streaming and toward leaner cable packages, but broadcast remains a reliable and flexible buy for advertisers.

The growth of video streaming of all types is now an impetus for Nielsen to add new measurement for YouTube and YouTube TV when it comes to the video-site advertising inventory on connected TV platforms. YouTube’s streaming TV inventory will be measured in Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings and Total Ad Ratings.

Facebook and Twitter cast doubt on a New York Post story that made claims about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, taking proactive steps to restrict dissemination of the story in the hours after it was published on Wednesday.

Amazon has struck a deal with the National Football League to stream a playoff game this season, people familiar with the matter said. The agreement, which the league disclosed to team owners Wednesday during a video meeting, deepens the relationship between the nation’s premier sport and the online retail and entertainment giant. The wildcard playoff game will also be available on ViacomCBS platforms.

17% of U.S. internet users viewed one or more AVOD services in the past month,  vs. just 13% in the third quarter of 2019, according to a survey conducted by UK research firm Ampere Analysis. The research company says Tubi, recently purchased by Fox for $440 million, is leading the usage surge, based in large part by its extra-large content library, which features more than 29,000 movies and TV show episodes.

Facebook said Tuesday it is launching a new global policy that bans ads that discourage people from getting vaccines. The company previously had a policy against vaccine hoaxes that were publicly identified by global health organizations.

Comcast’s Peacock added more new subscribers than any other streaming VOD services during the third quarter, according to Kantar. Kantar also found that more consumers who added one service were canceling another. Kantar called this subscription switching, and said 10% of new subscriptions were the result of switching, up from 9% in the second quarter.

The Newsy channel will be available on Philo’s streaming TV service just in time for the highly-anticipated 2020 election.

Faster speeds will enable new levels of video, AR, VR, and other _Rs that haven’t even been invented yet. But news products are unlikely to benefit as much as all the other apps competing for audiences’ attention.

Industry veteran René Santaella, previously at Sony and Disney, will lead the multi-platform Spanish-language media company’s digital transformation and growth.

Kat Downs Mulder has been named The Washington Post’s managing editor for digital, a top leadership role in which she will oversee online operations as well as video, photography, graphics, audio and other departments of the newsroom.

The company is creating three content arms, one each for sports, general entertainment and its studios, which have famous brands including Star Wars and Marvel. Their primary focus will be on making shows and movies for streaming services, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in a statement. Meanwhile, a new distribution group will centralize how the content is sold and oversee streaming operations.

YouTube has supplanted Facebook as the most popular social media platform for viewing sports highlights, according to a new survey from Ring Digital. The research firm surveyed 1,400 sports video highlights viewers in August and found that 53% of respondents use YouTube for sports highlights on a regular basis, compared to 45% of respondents who said they use Facebook regularly.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday that the tech giant would be expanding its hate speech policies to ban any content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust.”

With 13 weeks left in the season, DirecTV has lowered the price of the streaming NFL Sunday Ticket to $220.47 for the basic plan and $281.97 for the Max package. That’s a 25% decrease for the basic plan and a 29.5% drop for Max.

Prosecutors for the Justice Department and state attorney general offices are discussing ways of curbing the search giant’s market power as they prepare to sue the company.

Channing Dungey has stepped down as VP original content and head of drama at Netflix after 20 months at the company to pursue another opportunity. Her last day is today (Oct. 9). While that opportunity has not been revealed, Dungey, the former ABC Entertainment president, is among the handful of top female TV executives rumored to succeed Susan Rovner as president of Warner Bros. TV.