streaming

VidAngel, the self-touted family-friendly technology service that burst onto the Hollywood scene with a plan to clean up filthy language, nudity and violence from films and television shows, has suffered yet another blow. On Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an injunction in a copyright lawsuit brought by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros.

Why would Shonda Rhimes, the star writer of ABC’s primetime lineup for the last decade and the creator behind shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, want to leave network TV? Her move to Netflix is the clearest sign of a seismic shift in the television world, where traditional metrics of success like massive ratings, syndication deals, and prime-time slots matter less, and greater artistic independence is the ultimate goal.

Four out of five of the shows watched on Netflix were found by its subscribers thanks to recommendations offered them, Netflix says. Those suggested new favorites are much more customized for each subscriber than might be evident from a glance at the Netflix home page.

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.

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.

Turner Broadcasting System plans to launch a standalone sports streaming service for consumers in 2018, the Time Warner Inc unit said on Thursday. The service will offer access to UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League soccer matches as part of a three-year multi-platform rights agreement with the governing body of European football beginning with the 2018-19 season. Turner will add other content to the service as it becomes available, executives said. Pricing has yet to be determined.

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.

With the news this week that Shonda Rhimes is leaving ABC for Netflix, the streaming giant added yet another big name to its increasingly deep bench. Since it began investing eye-popping amounts of cash in original programming, Netflix has quickly won over showrunners and filmmakers interested in getting financed with few strings attached. So Rhimes is in very good company. Here’s a look at some of the other bigwigs who have made the leap.

Despite having been one of the first to offer live, streaming TV over the internet, Dish’s Sling TV service has just now introduced a way to watch its service via a web browser. The company is today launching an in-browser player for Google Chrome. The player, which is still in beta, will work on both Windows and Mac devices, the company notes. Via the web player, you’re able to watch live TV and on-demand content, much like you can on Sling’s other platforms.

The company still will air about 250 matches on its television networks, mostly NBCSN, NBC and CNBC. But 130 games are being moved to its stream. Priced at $49.99 as “Premier League Pass,” on NBC Sports Gold, those matches previously had been available to cable subscribers as Premier League Extra Time on overflow channels and as part of the regular NBC Sports app.

The ABC network three years ago handed its most lucrative night of the week — Thursday — to its most prolific producer, Shonda Rhimes. ABC grouped three Rhimes-produced shows together and promoted the bloc as “Thank God It’s Thursday.” So Netflix’s announcement late Sunday that Rhimes would be moving her Shondaland production company to the streaming service was a gut punch to ABC. The network has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars over the years in advertising revenue and foreign distribution fees from the sale of Rhimes’ shows.

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.

The prolific showrunner behind Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and more has left her longtime home at ABC Studios for the streaming giant. Under the multiple-year deal, Rhimes and her Shondaland banner will create and produce new projects for the streaming giant. Rhimes’ longtime producing partner Betsy Beers will continue to head Shondaland in the move to Netflix. Under what is said to be a rich four-year pact, Rhimes is expected to score a percentage of the back-end on programming she creates for Netflix.

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.

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.

In the wake of layoffs and the departure of its top executive, the company announced Wednesday on Facebook, “We’re writing to let you know that later this year, Seeso will be shutting its comedy doors.”

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.”