Syncbak says its MarketSync app will allow providers and broadcasters to syndicate, deliver and monetize original content.
For cord cutters and streaming lovers, 2019 will mean two things: A raft of new streaming services will hit the scene, and users will see major changes to viewing libraries. Two major new streaming services will launch this year from Disney and WarnerMedia. That means more movies, TV shows and originals, but also greater stratification. Here’s what to look out for this year.
Andrew Heyward: “As a loyal viewer (and alumnus) of WCBS-TV in New York, I admit I find the station’s promotional tagline — “Expect More” — unintentionally ambiguous, as in “Frankly, I expected more.” But all that’s changed now that CBS has rolled out the station’s 24/7 live streaming service, CBSN New York, with other CBS markets to follow. Who could possibly expect (or ask for) more than round-the-clock live breaking news, local coverage and weather, streamed on the station’s website and available on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV and CBS mobile apps?”
The Freedive streaming service will include a selection of acquired movies and TV shows, with the launch lineup including TV shows like Fringe and Heroes and movies such as The Last Samurai and The Illusionist.
Netflix’s stock is beginning 2019 on a hot streak, rising more than 24% in January to date. Shares gained another 1.5% Thursday to close at $324.66 and rose nearly another 2% in after-hours trading. A big boost to investor sentiment came late Thursday afternoon when UBS analyst Eric Sheridan upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral” and raised his 12-month price target to $410 from $400. Healthy numbers are expected Jan. 17 when Netflix releases 4Q results.
The streaming service struck a partnership with Amazon this fall to make Hulu available on the Echo Show, a tablet that’s powered Alexa.
Exclusives
Hulu, the video-streaming hub that is owned by Comcast, Fox and Disney, will launch its own effort to help sponsors determine “attribution,” or whether the ads people see spur a consumer to make a purchase or take some other concrete action, like sign up to take a test drive at a car dealership. “We have advertisers who want to move more quickly into that,” says Julie DeTraglia, head of research at Hulu.
Will it soon be possible to pay one fee for Netflix, Amazon and Hulu? Observers increasingly believe it’s inevitable that the era of bundled streamers is near as households tire of paying an average $107 a month for cable.
A new multi-year agreement brings Comscore’s linear and non-linear measurement to all Nexstar markets.
“We are active in the OTT space,” Viacom CEO Bob Bakish said Wednesday. “We are also active in the SVOD space through our third-party production business.” A growing part of this strategy will be to lean into mobile, said Bakish. “Mobile distribution really is the catalyst that will turn this whole decline of television argument on its head.”
Executives from Viacom, Sling TV, Discovery and Group Nine said Wednesday at CES that holding on to audiences in a fragmented video ecosystem comes down to leveraging quality brands and embracing the platform agnosticism that their audiences already follow.
Sinclair Hopes To Create OTT Stir With Stirr
The group’s planned package of ad-supported channels, including local news and programming, will be available via the Roku and Amazon Fire OTT TV platforms, via apps for Apple and Android smartphones and on the Web.
Bird Box, Susanne Bier’s apocalyptic survival tale starring Sandra Bullock and Trevante Rhodes, attracted almost 26 million viewers in the U.S. during its first seven days on Netflix, according to the new Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings.
Hulu is keeping its pedal to metal in the streaming TV race: The company said it ended 2018 with more than 25 million total subscribers, a net gain of 8 million for the year. The 47% year-over-year growth in subscribers for 2018 gives Hulu more video customers than the U.S.’s biggest pay-TV providers — including Comcast, one of its owners.
Netflix’s new chief financial officer will receive $10 million in total compensation, a more generous pay package than was afforded his predecessor, according to a new regulatory filing. Spencer Neumann will earn $5 million in salary and receive $5 million in stock options.
Veteran TV executive Joe Earley has been named head of marketing for Disney’s new subscription streaming service. Earley will serve as executive vice president, marketing ad operations for Disney+.
Nagra, an independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, along with Novatek, a silicon solution provider, today announced that Novatek’s next-generation TV chipsets will natively support both Nagra […]
The TV and OTT landscapes continue to shift and slide as consumers adopt digital video and streaming options, and the companies producing long-form content make bets on where audiences will spend their time. Here are eight digital video market predictions for 2019.
OTT provider Accedo said today that it has raised $17M in equity to further drive its growth over the coming years. This round of financing was led by SEB Private Equity, […]
Roku said on Wednesday it will begin offering premium video channels to customers for a subscription fee as it expands its free streaming video service. Premium channels from CBS Corp.’s Showtime, Lionsgate-owned Starz and Noggin from Viacom, among others, will be available to viewers of the Roku Channel, a free video service offered to owners of Roku streaming video devices.
Services like Netflix are gaining competition with new platforms from Apple, Walmart and more.
The streamer disclosed in a regulatory filing Dec. 28 that its top executive, CEO Reed Hastings, could make as much as $31.5 million during the upcoming year. That compares with the up to $29.4 million he stood to receive for his work in 2018. Hastings’ 2019 pay package is made up of just $700,000 in salary and as much as $30.8 million in stock options. Content chief Ted Sarandos will also see his compensation go up in 2019, matching Hastings’ $31.5 million potential total.
Television, already bursting at the seams with peak programming and lots of filler, finally blew apart this year, fragmenting into a dizzying constellation of nearly 500 new original series and destinations we’ve yet to explore (the forthcoming launch of subscription streaming services from Apple, Warner Media, Disney and, yes, Costco and Walmart), plus a whole lot of space debris that includes “Terrence Howard’s Fright Club,” a Fox Nation cooking show and 98% of the offerings on YouTube TV.
In a post on the FTC’s website, the agency warns of scammers using household company names to dupe consumers. In a specific example, it cited a phishing email sent to a Netflix customer that claimed the user’s account is on hold because Netflix is “having some trouble with your current billing information.” The email invites the user to click on a link to update their payment method.
Armed with a new production studio in Connecticut and broadcast rights to this year’s Super Bowl, CBS Sports is making a push behind its 24-hour streaming channel, CBS Sports HQ.
The chief catalyst for technology-driven changes in consumer news habits? The rise in on-demand and OTT viewing as the most direct threat to traditional live linear viewing. Here are five critical things TV news leaders and executives need to understand and respond to now to insure their content remains relevant in this new, disrupted viewing ecosystem.
ABC exec Channing Dungey’s move to the streamer signals a new front in Reed Hastings’ battle with Bob Iger in the run-up to the Mouse House digital competitor’s debut next year.
The dominant online video streamer started 2018 with almost 118 million subscribers, went on to win its first feature-film Oscar, briefly surpassed Disney as the most valuable U.S. media company, lured the likes of superstar show runners Shonda Rhimes, Kenya Barris and Ryan Murphy — not to mention Barack and Michelle Obama — and is expected to end the year with 146 million subscribers and a likely best picture Oscar nominee in Roma. In a sign of how influential the giant streamer has become, it also got what every celebrity gets — a gentle mocking on Saturday Night Live.
IP-enabled production and playout models promise cost savings and increased flexibility. And once content flows through a data center, artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to generate metadata and direct the future distribution, repurposing and archiving of that content.
NBCUniversal’s boss sent a holiday greeting to employees this week, and it contained an intriguing hint about the coming year. Steve Burke, head of the Comcast Corp. division, suggested that the company might unveil an online TV service in 2019 — though it’s hard to know how seriously to take a message written in the rhyming style of Dr. Seuss: “While you all go off to relax, swim or ski,” Burke wrote. “Maybe, just maybe, next year we will announce our plan for OTT.”
On The CES Exhibit Floor: NAGRA
NAGRA, a Kudelski Group company and an independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, will demonstrate its latest technologies and solutions in end-to-end content value protection, active content […]
