OTT

As its parent company, Time Warner Inc., is throttling back on the amount of content it licenses to outside SVOD platforms like Netflix, Turner Networks is getting set to deliver a direct-to-consumer OTT offering.

Netflix and Hulu may get the headlines but the likes of MLB.tv and WWE Network are growing fast, with three ranking among the top 10 services. And more are coming.

Following in the footsteps of HBO, CBS and Showtime, broadcast networks Univision and UniMas can now be streamed for $6 a month or $60 a year. with the new direct-to-consumer streaming service, Univision NOW.

In the wars to own the future of television viewing, the salvos are flying. Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are on one side, while content powerhouses like NBC and Time Warner are on the other. Time Warner’s interest in a Hulu stake marks an interesting turning point, and if Hulu is the front line, each company is still developing the services that can serve as the calvary. A fascinating synopsis of a fast-moving and high-stakes conflict.

RR Media, a provider of global digital media services to the broadcast and media industries, announced today that it has added an additional seven new VOD platforms capable of directly […]

Panelists at CCW 2015 say that for broadcasters to make the most of OTT, which will be a necessity for survival, they must have compelling content that will garner viewers so they can sell that aggregated reach to advertisers.

Count ABC among the growing number of TV networks developing original programming for its own new streaming effort, but not quite like all the others are doing. Instead of launching standalone subscription services like CBS All Access or NBCUniversal’s Seeso, the Disney-owned broadcaster is assembling a slate of series intended to live only on its WatchABC app, according to sources.

The company has added a couple markets and said last week that Disney-owned channels are coming. On Thursday, it said it is making Vue available with an Amazon Fire TV box or Fire TV stick. It’s also cutting prices for the pricier two of its three bundles by $5 each.

The local news service available nationwide via app expands just days after its launch. It now offers video from 119 stations in 91 U.S. markets.

Sources familiar with the pending deal say that the agreement would include intellectual property and other traditional sponsorship rights but is centered on content — which Verizon wants for over-the-top programming efforts, especially its recently launched go90 product. As a mobile-first service, go90 is aimed at the growing audience of millennial cord-cutters.

Confused on whether you should subscribe to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, HBO and more? Here’s a look at the cost and the content for each.

Disney and ESPN Media Networks and Sony Network Entertainment International on Thursday unveiled an agreement to bring Disney’s TV networks to PlayStation Vue, Sony’s cloud-based TV service. Disney will offer ESPN, ABC-owned local stations, Disney Channel, ABC Family, which will become Freeform in January, and other networks on PlayStation Vue. In addition, local ABC affiliates will also have the opportunity to opt in to the PlayStation Vue service with their respective live linear programming.

The broadcaster-operated mobile news service with content from 118 stations is now available on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets as well as Roku devices.

The Atlanta-based cable channel is vowing to return to basics of programming focused on weather reports and meteorological sciences now that the digital half of its parent Weather Co. is to be acquired by IBM in a deal estimated at $2 billion. Weather Channel also plans to launch a customized streaming service designed to be bundled into channel packages from OTT providers such as Sling TV.

Newsy, an over-the-top video news service geared to millennials owned by E.W. Scripps, will offer a channel on Xumo, a new connected TV technology platform that provides free access to programming across multiple content delivery options.

Richard Plepler raps “myopic” distributors, including Comcast, for failing to use HBO Now to drive broadband value.

Cable or satellite packages, excluding promotions, can easily run $70 to $100 a month. That gets you hundreds of diverse channels — ESPN for sports lovers, premium channels like HBO and Showtime, the major networks and niche options. But maybe you can find more cost-effective options online. Here’s a sample of services for different tastes

This year, 181 million people in the U.S. will watch video via an app or website that provides streaming content over the Internet and bypasses traditional distribution, according to eMarketer’s first forecast of over-the-top video viewership. The vast majority are regular YouTube viewers.

CBS is the first broadcast network to include digital audience measurement in its television ratings by incorporating Nielsen’s SDK metering technology into the CBS All Access experience within the network’s mobile apps and online video player.

Wall Street analysts say cable and satellite operators will be hurt more by OTT offerings than will stations because the skinny bundles are going to need stations’ local programming as well as their network lineups.

The BBC will launch a Netflix-style video subscription service for American audiences next year, the head of the U.K.’s public broadcaster said Thursday. Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC’s director-general, said the new Internet-based service will allow U.S. audiences to access BBC programs that aren’t already screened on TV channels or available on existing streaming services.

While some in Hollywood are heralding a golden age of quality TV, driven by investments in new shows and movies by the likes of Netflix and Amazon, some content provider execs say the growing interest in a la carte options and skinny bundles could stifle the development of new and experimental TV programs and content.

Some pay TV providers are better at attracting OTT subscribers than others. That includes Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and Cox Communications. A study by Millward Brown Digital found these traditional cable operators performing better — in general — than satellite and telco operators.

A new version of the Apple TV device has a lot more capabilities than earlier versions. But getting television shows on the device is a challenge.

Renard T. Jenkins, the public broadcaster’s senior director of operations: production, media and distribution, talks about why PBS is converting to the Interoperable Mastering Format for delivering programming to OTT services. While the move was spurred by a Netflix requirement, Jenkins says that because of the format’s many advantages “I think IMF makes sense. It is the right thing for television broadcasters to be looking at right now.”

It’s the first time a company has turned out a set-top box and a home entertainment system that could be considered comprehensive. The new Apple TV takes what competitors do in a piecemeal way, brings it all together and adds more functionality.

The opening session at IBC features broadcasters from around the world talking about how they’re finding ways to cut through the noise of other media — both traditional and digital — with their news, entertainment and even brand to establish themselves as a go-to destination for the content people want to consume. The panelists (l-r): David Butorac, Phillip Luff, Fran Unsworth, Thomas Riedl and moderator Ray Snoddy.

Apple will introduce a retooled, more ambitious Apple TV on Wednesday marking a new seriousness for the company in the competitive “living room” market. Among its upgrades are a new remote and greater support for apps and games, which could position the device against mainstays like the Xbox and Playstation.

One discovery: many subscribers are opting to stream the network’s live feed, instead of seeking out on-demand programming. “The livestreaming has done better than we expected,” said President David Nevins of the feature, something which HBO Now doesn’t offer. “As people are discovering Showtime, a lot of them just want to see what’s on the livestreaming, so they’re watching it there.”

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that big broadcast TV networks and their affiliates are wrangling over which of them will be the ones to negotiate with the new generation of direct-to-consumer streaming services and what each side’s split should be. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.

According to The NPD Group, half of Internet-connected homes in the U.S. have a device that connects their television to the Internet (the tally includes Internet-enabled TVs, as well as separate devices Blu-Ray disc players, video game consoles and commercial streaming media players, that use the TV as a screen). In total, 46 million homes had some sort of connected-TV device in the second quarter of this year, up four million from the same period last year, according to NPD.

Viewing with over-the-top streaming devices on connected TV sets is rising sharply — 380% in the first quarter of this year — yet engagement in ads on these platforms remains low, according to a recent study by Freewheel cited by the ANA/BrightLine research.

This year’s annual tech gathering in Amsterdam has an ambitious agenda including tackling shifting business models and new viewer behavior; how broadcasters are beginning to adopt the Netflix on-demand, streaming model with their own online offerings; challenges in delivering new mobile broadcast platforms; the latest OTT developments as well as up-to-the-minute status reports on ATSC 3.0 and Ultra HD.

More than half say they spend part of their video time on over the top networks, including a growing number of Spanish-dominant Hispanics. Adriana Waterston, SVP of marketing and business development at Horowitz Research, talks about what recent research findings mean for media buyers and planners, how Hispanics can be targeted using this information, and why Spanish-language offerings are finally going up.

The nation’s biggest online video distributors would rather the FCC not do them any favors by regulating over-the-top services like it does cable. Representatives from Microsoft, Amazon and Apple, companies that haven’t been regulated by the FCC, have been increasing their face time at the FCC to keep the agency from advancing a proceeding that would regulate some OTT services like facilities-based multichannel video distributors.

CBS All Access — CBS’ standalone digital video streaming service — will expand its live local TV station feeds to 75% of U.S. TV homes. The $5.99 a month platform, that launched last October, will now cover 124 markets across the country. Forty affiliate groups have signed up along with the 14 owned-and-operated CBS stations.

Revenue from “premium” U.S. OTT services will grow from $4 billion in 2014 to somewhere between $8 billion to $12 billion in 2018, according to a study conducted by London’s MTM and commissioned by online video service providers Ooyala and Vindicia.

This fall, 112 TV stations will begin streaming their newscasts through the NewsOn app, one of a number of planned OTT alternatives. Verizon Digital Media Services is also talking with affiliate owners about programming directly over the Internet. All are moves to adapt to viewers looking to watch TV on their own schedules.

Where Barry Diller’s Aereo failed, Apple is hoping to succeed. The Cupertino, Calif., tech firm is making broadcast networks the centerpiece of its cable-killer TV app — and talks with all four networks are rapidly gaining momentum. ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC are close to obtaining the right to negotiate with Apple on behalf of their affiliates, sources say, with the nets promising their stations a share in the added revenue the Apple streaming product will produce.