streaming

Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings received a stock option grant worth $28.7 million for the coming year, according to documents filed with the securities and exchange commission. Hastings’ annual salary in 2018 will be $700,000. 

2018 is going to be another full year of OTT and streaming proliferation along with continued growth from the major players.

Disney, which two weeks ago announced a deal to buy $52.4 billion of Fox TV and movie assets, has made clear its intention to go head-to-head with Netflix, saying it plans to yank its Disney movies and TV shows from the streaming giant in 2019 for its own soon-to-be-launched service.

DirecTV Now has experienced frequent buffering and widespread outages for several consecutive nights, according to the service’s Twitter customer help page, and user comments at social media sites.

Capping a breakout year, Roku is promoting Scott Rosenberg from advertising chief to GM of its platform business in January in an executive restructuring. Steve Shannon, a five-year veteran who headed the content and services unit, will be leaving the company.

The glow from streaming services only brightened in a year of stellar programming. While network shows occasionally displayed admirable qualities in 2017 — the audacity of NBC’s The Good Place, the ambition of PBS’s The Vietnam War, the maturity of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live — they fell short of the standard set by newer, gutsier players that dominated my top 10.

2018 could be a breakthrough year for so-called “post-cable” networks, channels distributed via over-the-top streaming platforms rather than through the traditional pay-TV ecosystem.

The standoff between Amazon and Google continues today with Amazon Fire TV owners scheduled to lose access to Google’s YouTube app in just six days. On Dec. 5, Google posted a message on the YouTube app on Fire TV devices that it would remove the app on Jan. 1. (The warning notice was still there this morning.)

 A media company built on subversion and outlandishness was unable to create “a safe and inclusive workplace” for women, two of its founders acknowledge.

Tara Sorensen, the head of Amazon kids programming, will take on a similar role at Apple as the company pushes more into developing original content. Along with Sorensen, international development executive Carina Walker and business affairs chief Tara Pietri will also depart Amazon for Apple, with Pietri leading Apple’s legal affairs division. Walker will again be an international creative executive, reporting to fellow Amazon alum Morgan Wandell.

The new agreements with cable operators means Newsy’s national news programming lineup is on track to be available in about 40 million U.S. homes by the end of 2018, according to owner E.W. Scripps.

ESPN and NBCUniversal have extended their media rights deals with the NFL to include live-streaming games on mobile devices — deals that come after Verizon struck a new digital pact with the league relinquishing its status as the exclusive mobile home for NFL games in the U.S. No word yet from CBS and Fox, the NFL’s two other U.S. broadcast partners, about whether they’ve also landed mobile rights.

Television has changed remarkably over the past few years. It might be time for your viewing habits to change as well. Unless you enjoy paying more than $100 a month for a cable or satellite subscription you only half-use, you’re likely considering joining the growing ranks of consumers who have “cut the cord” and are now getting their favorite TV shows, movies and even live sports through the internet and streaming services. Making this change requires some preparation, though. Here’s a step-by-step guide to the cord-cutting process.

Hulu has announced the addition of 61 second-city and small-town broadcast network affiliates to its virtual MVPD service. With the addition, Hulu Live now has access to 492 broadcast network O&Os and affiliates across its national footprint.

Using someone else’s credentials to stream for free will soon be a $10 billion problem for pay TV companies. Tom Rutledge has had enough. The CEO of Charter Communications, which sells cable TV under the Spectrum name, is leading an industrywide effort to crack down on password sharing.

Cable TV cord-cutters expecting YouTube TV’s full app for Roku and Apple TV devices this year will have to wait a little longer.

Netflix will likely end 2017 having added nearly 10 million subscribers in the U.S. alone, pushing its global paid subscriber base well over 110 million (versus 94 million at the start of the year). Its continued growth is all the more impressive when you consider that its streaming rivals also did very well this year — at least in terms of burnishing their brands. The best performance by a streamer not named Netflix was from Hulu, which in 2017 finally established itself as a legit player in original programming thanks to The Handmaid’s Tale.

NBCUniversal has acquired rights from the NFL to stream Sunday Night Football through NBC’s “TV Everywhere” offering to mobile phones for the first time, beginning with the 2018 season.

Netflix and Spotify have turned their users’ habits into marketing campaigns to the delight of some. But not everyone.

Disney’s purchase today of much of Fox’s assets could make the company the most dominant force in streaming, both live and subscription video on demand.

Alibaba Group Holding’s video streaming service, Youku Tudou, has signed content licensing deals with NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures Television, marking a deeper foray into entertainment for the Chinese e-commerce giant.

T-Mobile, the nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier, said today that it bought startup Layer3 TV to help it roll out a nationwide TV service next year. The service will target people who aren’t interested in traditional cable and satellite TV packages. T-Mobile didn’t disclose how much it paid for Layer3, which is available in five U.S. cities.

Star Wars’ value to the Burbank entertainment giant goes well beyond the box office. Aside from spawning new video games, toys and theme park attractions, the space opera franchise will play a pivotal role in Disney’s efforts to build an online destination that can rival Netflix when it debuts in 2019.

Netflix has fired Andy Yeatman, the executive who told one of Danny Masterson’s alleged sexual assault victims that he did not believe the claims against the former Ranch star, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

People with services like Sling TV and DirecTV Now may get access for the 2018 football season.

The wireless carrier is making a big bet on its pro football deal — but it will no longer have exclusive mobile rights.

Big media struggles with streaming but increased competition will make it harder for Netflix to stay ahead.