OTT

Scripps’ millennial-targeted OTT news network expects to be available in about 40 million cable homes by the end of next year after purchasing carriage contracts from the Retirement Living Television cable network for up to $23 million.

Tektronix | Stand 10.D14 | Website: Tek.com Ensuring the availability and quality of both live and file-based content is a critical challenge for video content distributors moving to adaptive bit […]

Newsy, the next-generation national news network, and the Scripps Washington Bureau have launched Getting a Fix, a new series focused on their joint investigation into the opioid crisis. The series […]

The series presents an on-the-ground look at solutions to the devastating opioid epidemic in the United States. Newsy and the Scripps Washington Bureau investigative team research the emergence of synthetic opioids, like fentanyl and carfentanil, while providing an in-depth look at who is trying to solve the crisis and how.

Video streaming player pioneer Roku listed a $100 million fundraising target in a Friday regulatory filing. But that figure is likely to change after its investment bankers gauge the demand for its initial public offering of stock. Like many young tech companies, Roku is still unprofitable. Last year, it lost nearly $43 million on $399 million in revenue. Since its 2002 inception, Roku has amassed $244 million in losses.

Continuing to carve out deals with local broadcast network affiliates, YouTube TV has expanded into 12 more markets: Cleveland, Denver, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Kansas City, St. Louis; Greensboro, N.C; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Hartford, Conn.

By deploying Nielsen Marking Cloud’s Data Management Platform, FuboTV aims to provide advertisers with “deep consumer analytics” tied to its subscriber base, enabling advanced audience segmentation, modeling and targeting.

WTHR Indianapolis and WBNS Columbus, Ohio, are now carried on the local live-streaming subscription TV service.

Hearst says it is donating $1 million to the Greater Houston Red Cross to aid in Harvey rescue and recovery efforts and will match employee donations up to an additional $1 million.The Walt Disney Co. and its Houston ABC O&O KTRK have pledged $1 million to the Red Cross for Harvey relief efforts and will also match, dollar for dollar, employee donations to the Red Cross and other organizations involved in Harvey relief.

Analyst Colin Dixon took at look at YouTube TV economics and determined the new virtual service is losing quite a bit of money.

The idea that content is king has long rested on the notion that distribution — in whatever form it takes — is a low-margin commodity, and the biggest share of profits flows to the creators of original programming, who can sell to the highest bidder. But as internet streaming disrupts channels like cable and broadcast, Disney now appears to have set its sights on distribution — and a potential new revenue source.

Delivering to the linear pay-TV industry a rather conclusive marker as to what devices companies should be developing OTT and multiscreen apps for, Parks Associates said that Roku now controls 37% of the market for streaming players in the U.S. Roku’s market control rose from 30% in the first quarter of 2016.

TV viewing via internet-connected devices continues to see sharp growth — up 45% in TV homes in June and 43% among 18-49 viewers over the same period a year ago. The TV usage share for TV-connected devices — which includes Roku, Apple TV and Google Chromecast set-top boxes — is now at 12.7% of all TV use on a total day basis among 18-49 viewers, according to Pivotal Research Group. It was 8.5% in June 2016 and 4.9% in June 2015.

Disney’s upcoming branded streaming service will likely be priced around $5 per month in order to drive wider adoption, according to MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson. He says that the new Disney streaming service and the upcoming ESPN services need clear distinctions. The ESPN service will likely test different prices as it prepares ESPN to be ready to go fully over-the-top, according to the report, but the Disney service is about building asset value instead of taking licensing money from SVOD deals.

Younger viewers are discovering reruns of network shows not by flipping through TV channels but on streaming devices such as Hulu and Netflix. At a time when television is booming with more than 450 original series in production this year, viewers have a multitude of options. But shows such as HBO’s Game of Thrones and NBC’s family drama This Is Us also are competing for fans’ attention with such well-worn fare as as The Golden Girls, Full House, and the political drama The West Wing, which debuted when Bill Clinton occupied the White House.

The arrival of Apple, Facebook and Google means that the world of scripted TV is going to become even more competitive.

Consumer Reports wants it. So do a whole lot of consumers. But, get ready for some “bad” news. We’re all going to be paying a whole lot more for our video entertainment. Count on it. On top of that, there’s more video in a head-spinning array of options.

Under a comprehensive contract, the streaming service will carry Sinclair’s ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates within their markets. The deal also includes carriage of the Tennis Channel and possibly later CW and MNT affiliates and the Comet TV diginet. Terms were not disclosed.

The youth-focused news service becomes the latest addition to Google’s OTT streaming service.

Users of the popular media player Roku receive a stark warning when they install channels outside of the official store. While these private or “non-certified” channels are still permitted, the company says that copyright-infringing channels may be pulled without prior notice. The news follows a few weeks after Roku was dragged into a piracy lawsuit in Mexico.

Former WGN America head of scripted Jon Wax is joining YouTube as head of drama, scripted and current programming. He is one of two high-profile new executives hires by the Google-owned online video platform tied to the company’s YouTube Red Originals, along with former Fox Broadcasting Chief Marketing Officer Angela Courtin, who has been named global head of YouTube TV and originals marketing.

Bob Iger’s plan to launch two streamers — one for family fare, another for ESPN — carries huge stakes for the media giant and the future of the cable bundle itself.

The second-quarter earnings season of 2017 has wound down for media companies and broadcasters. Here’s a roundup of the developments that highlighted the reports: OTT, retrans, subscriber losses and ad revenues under pressure.

The senior research analyst at MoffettNathanson will be the opening speaker at a daylong conference about emerging and future revenue streams for the broadcasting industry.

With more and more studios and programmers producing copycat streaming services, consumers are eventually going to figure out that they are getting less than when they subscribe to the overflowing packages of cable and satellite. And how they are all going to make money is puzzling.

The failure of NBC’s comedy SVOD service, Seeso, is largely the result of a failed strategy of simply taking linear content online, Barclays contends. “In our opinion, most media companies are looking at OTT as a defense mechanism to solve for the loss of legacy distribution due to cord-cutting and shaving,” said a Barclays investor note, spearheaded by analyst Kannan Venkateshwar.

With cable TV subscribers fleeing, the sports giant has to look for customers online. That’s not where the money is.

Over-the-top video keeps growing, largely due to connected TV users. Overall gains are coming at the expense of pay TV. eMarketer estimates there will be 193.3 million OTT users in 2017, with 168.1 million U.S. connected TV users. By way of comparison, Nielsen says there were 292.4 million users of live and time-shifted TV viewing in the first quarter of this year.

Disney’s plan for two new streaming services (and possibly more) is just the latest sign that everyone is jumping into the streaming business. All of that will simply add to a cacophony of existing Netflix-style video services that let you watch what you want, when you want. More are probably on their way, as entertainment companies see profits in controlling not only the creation of their films and shows, but also their distribution.

Disney’s announcement this week that it will launch two Internet-based streaming-TV services — one for sports and one for family fare — is a declaration of independence from cable and satellite companies that would have subscribers pay for hundreds of channels they may never watch.

Sony has announced that it has signed on seven more CBS affiliate stations for its virtual MVPD service, PlayStation Vue. With the deals, Vue users in Houston, New Orleans, Washington and San Antonio now have live streaming access to their local CBS stations. Other regions gaining CBS local access: Greensboro, N.C., as well as Tampa and Orlando, Fla.

Young people are happy to shell out for online TV: Nearly 80% of Millennials said they watch or have access to streaming services, according to eMarketer, a digital research firm. But if other media companies follow the lead of Disney (and HBO and CBS), we could be up to our eyeballs in streaming subscriptions. That could get really expensive really fast.

The Walt Disney Co. finally unveiled its plan to offer an over-the-top video streaming edition of ESPN for the growing number of fans who want live sports — but not the big cable bill that a previous generation paid. Now the question is whether the revenue generated by the new service to be launched in 2018 will be enough to offset the subscriber dollars that go away every time a household decides it can do without cable.

Fox did not follow Disney’s lead last night in announcing new subscription streaming services for its content. But CEO James Murdoch told analysts Wednesday that he’s “very open minded about an independently priced, direct to consumer offering and we’re certainly mindful of what we see in the marketplace and how these things are progressing for other firms out there.”

Walt Disney Co’s shares fell 5% on Wednesday to their lowest in eight months as investors doubted whether the world’s biggest entertainment company can succeed with its plan to launch its own streaming services rather than rely on Netflix Inc to reach online viewers.

Disney’s creating its own streaming service for its central Disney and Pixar brands and another for live sports. That would allow it to bypass the cable companies it relies on — and Netflix — to charge consumers directly for access to its popular movies and sporting events. “They’re bringing the future forward. What they talked about were things that looked inevitable, at some point,” said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Weiser. (AP photo / Richard Drew)

For those existing Xfinity TV customers who pay $5.99 for a monthly upgrade, they can get FX+, a commercial-free option of FX Networks: FX and FXX. It will be available Sept. 5.

The new agreement deal will bring CBS-owned TV stations, Showtime, the CW and Pop to the DirecTV Now streaming service. Financial terms of the pact were not disclosed.