Amazon

AT&T is nearly five months out from the launch of HBO Max and the service still doesn’t have distribution agreements in place with Amazon or Roku. CEO John Stankey, speaking Monday at the WSJ Tech Live event, said the impasses demonstrate how platform companies, not network providers, have begun to hamstring access to apps and services.

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.

Amazon.com Inc. is in preliminary talks to invest in U.S. cloud services provider Rackspace Technology Inc, people familiar with the discussion said on Monday. The deal would involve Amazon acquiring a minority stake in Rackspace, the sources said. Rackspace helps companies migrate their data to Amazon Web Services, and the investment would strengthen the ties between the two companies. Rackspace also migrates companies to Alphabet Inc’s Google Cloud, Microsoft Corp’s Azure and VMware Inc.

Amazon has received authorization from the FCC to proceed with Project Kuiper, its initiative to launch a fleet of low-orbiting satellites that would be used to provide broadband internet access to underserved communities in the U.S. With the commission’s green light, Amazon will now be able to begin the deployment of its 3,236 satellites.

The staggering economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic was reflected in reports released Thursday from Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet.

Invective flew Wednesday as legislators questioned Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple at a hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. For the last year, that panel has probed the business practices of the Silicon Valley giants with an eye to determining if they need to be regulated more heavily, or even broken up.

The powerful executives sought to defend their companies amid intense grilling by lawmakers on Wednesday. The executives provided bursts of data showing how competitive their markets are, and the value of their innovation and essential services to consumers. But they sometimes struggled to answer pointed questions about their business practices. They also confronted a range of other concerns about alleged political bias, their effect on U.S. democracy and their role in China.

On Wednesday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook of Apple will answer for their companies’ practices before Congress for the first time as a group. Summoned for a House hearing, they’ll raise a hand (remotely) and swear to tell the truth, in the manner of tycoons of Wall Street or the tobacco industry in earlier high-octane televised shamings.

With the incumbent OTT operating systems at impasse with Peacock and HBO Max, Google finally has its opening into the living room, LightShed Partners says.

After spending the past nine months shopping global and streaming rights to its Emmy-winning drama, producers Lionsgate Television has sold the Jon Hamm starrer to Amazon and the show’s original home, AMC, in a sprawling deal.

Amazon is looking to add 24/7 live programming to its Prime Video service, according to multiple job listings posted over the past several weeks. The new channels could include live news, music and sports as well as scheduled movies and TV show showings.

Amazon is taking proactive action ahead of Wednesday’s annual shareholders meeting — at which investors plan on demanding the company address worker safety issues after at least eight warehouse employees have died of COVID-19 — by pushing a video package to local news outlets that promotes the corporation’s health and safety efforts.While most TV news professionals have scoffed at the idea of running Amazon-provided content as news, at least 10 stations across the country ran some form of the package on their news broadcasts. The package was produced by Amazon spokesperson Todd Walker.

The Home of the Whopper, Verizon and Amazon are among the relative few that haven’t been afraid to run ads near coverage of the coronavirus.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said the company will likely spend at least $4 billion during the second quarter in order to speed up delivery times and buy masks and other protection equipment for workers in its warehouses and Whole Foods supermarkets. Shares of Amazon.com Inc. fell about 5% in after-hours trading Thursday following the release of the earnings report.

The NFL and Amazon have inked a multi-year extension to their Thursday Night Football deal, which sees the digital giant stream 11 games throughout the season. First signed back in 2017 and extended in 2018, the agreement sees Amazon show the games on digital via Prime Video and Twitch, with Fox retaining broadcast (plus showing in Spanish on Fox Deportes) and NFL Network handling cable.

Amazon.com is postponing its major summer shopping event, Prime Day, until at least August and expects a potential $100 million hit from excess devices it might now sell at a discount, according to internal meeting notes.

Web trackers see Amazon flat or trailing rivals as a survey data show sales declines in many categories — and yet, an influx of direct-to-consumer brands is driving up ad costs.

Media stocks and all major U.S. stock market indices were slammed Monday morning as coronavirus concerns heightened. Walt Disney was down 3.8% to $133.71, while ViacomCBS lost 4% to $27.13 and Sinclair Broadcast Group fell 5% to $27.47. In digital media, Google gave up 3.7% to $1,430, while Facebook was off 3.6% to $202.64, Amazon was down 3.5% to $2,022, Netflix sank 3.4% to $367.48, Apple was off 3% to $303.53, and Roku went backwards 3.6% to $115.09.

The Federal Trade Commission has launched a lookback at some of the smaller past acquisitions by some of the largest tech companies. The FTC said Tuesday it has issued “special orders” to Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, which require them to provide info on all acquisitions over the past decade (Jan. 1, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2019).

Sony Pictures Television Chairman Mike Hopkins will exit the studio and lead Amazon’s video entertainment business, including Amazon Studios. Amazon Studios head Jen Salke will now report to Hopkins, who will report directly to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Hopkins had been with Sony since 2017, following four years with Hulu.

Amazon’s move towards one-day shipping did little to hurt its bottom line during the holiday season, with the e-commerce giant reporting on Thursday afternoon its Q4 earnings easily surpassed Wall Street’s expectations. At the same time, Amazon shared it reached a new milestone when it comes to Prime memberships.

Amazon has acquired Net Insight’s consumer streaming business, Sye, for approximately $37.2 million in cash. The deal includes all of Sye’s intellectual property rights, contracts and about 30 employees and consultants who are being transferred to Amazon. Net Insight said it’s selling the division to increase focus and investments in its core B2B media networks business.

Amazon made a series of moves at CES in Las Vegas, most notably announcing deals to get its Fire TV software built into more televisions, soundbars and even the back seats of cars.