streaming

After fixing a bug that stopped its channels from accurately portraying subscriber counts, many of those channels saw a precipitous fall in their followers, YouTube’s analytics, however, were unaffected. 

YouTube Red, the Google-owned paid streaming service, has acquired its first big-budget, Hollywood-produced television drama, Step Up, moving it into more direct competition with players like Netflix and traditional cable networks.

It could happen, but don’t expect the major leagues to migrate there. They’re too valuable to TV, which is willing to pay. Instead, imagine fringe sports or those without long-term contracts.

Netflix and the CW are close to finalizing a megabucks new deal covering scripted series that significantly speeds up the availability of the shows to less than two weeks after each season ends on the network.

Using data from more than 190 countries between October 2015 and May 2016, the survey offers a rare peak into Netflix’s closely guarded audience metrics. It divided titles into two categories — “savored” and “devoured” — and found that median viewing time for a Netflix user watching one title was two hours and 10 minutes per sitting.

Product integration, in which products are blended into scenes, is hardly a new phenomenon. But the practice is becoming more prevalent in an era of commercial-free streaming and ad-skipping DVRs. For Hulu, the trend represents a quandary: how to keep its relationship with advertisers who help finance much of its programming, without alienating viewers fed up with regular commercials.

Amazon announced pilots for its next development season, with actors including Matt Bomer, Lauren Ambrose, Kelsey Grammer, Jessica Pare, David Arquette and Thomas Lennon. The pilots will be available June 17 on Amazon Video and, once again, viewers will be invited to vote on which should go to series.

It feels like it’s been forever since Netflix and Disney inked an exclusive licensing agreement, but it wasn’t until Monday that viewers got a better idea of what that will mean for them. On Monday, Chief of Content Ted Sarandos wrote in a blog post that come September 2016, all new theatrical releases from Disney, Pixar and LucasFilms will have a streaming home on Netflix.

Facebook is now selling video ads on behalf of other companies, a move that could prove lucrative and intensify its competition with Google and other online-ad specialists.

Nadine Krefetz reports from last week’s Streaming Media East conference, where a number of players in the over-the-top space shared some emerging best practices for the rapidly-evolving new media front. Among them: you can’t be on every device, niches are a good thing and some degree of marketing is essential to being found.

This year, there is a new element that has made network negotiations with outside studios even more complicated — in-season stacking rights, which allow nets to stream all episodes from a series’ current season on its platforms.

YouTube is working on a paid subscription service called Unplugged that would offer customers a bundle of cable TV channels streamed over the internet, people familiar with the plan say. The project, for which YouTube has already overhauled its technical architecture, is one of the online video giant’s biggest priorities and is slated to debut as soon as 2017, one of the people said.

Beginning next year, the new pay service will offer a mix of cable and broadcast programming as well as news, sports and events. Hulu did not give details on the exact partners it will be working with on the streaming TV service, the exact programing that will be included or what pricing options their might be.

Enabled by the emergence of user-friendly platforms like Facebook, Periscope and Google Hangouts, stations are expanding their use of live streaming to complement regular on-air weather coverage and build a community around the coverage.

Mike Hopkins, Hulu’s chief executive, confirmed Hulu’s plans to create an offering of both live and recorded programming from a streamlined bundle of broadcast and cable channels. The initiative is part of a push by Hulu and its three corporate owners — 21st Century Fox, the Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal — to rethink how TV companies approach the future. He talks about a streamlined bundle of broadcast and cable channels and other plans in the works.

Dan Schechter, managing director/partner at L.E.K. Consulting: “Traditional TV remains a robust offering, but new forms of entertainment (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, etc.) are also performing well. In our proprietary research on media consumption habits, we dove even deeper into why consumers are shifting. Many analysts talk about what is happening, but we are among the very few who ask ‘Why?’ ”

The Internet’s biggest video site on Tuesday rolled out a smarter machine learning engine on its iOS and Android mobile apps, allowing it to serve up better recommendations for viewers. The gussied-up recommendation system is based on deep neural network technology — the same type parent Google uses for search results — that will help YouTube find patterns and learn more about what a viewer wants with each visit.

Turner Broadcasting is introducing a new over-the-top streaming TV service that will bring art house movies into the home. Turner plans to announce today that it’s launching FilmStruck, a subscription service offering cult, foreign and independent films that appeal to movie aficionados.

There are now more internet-connected TVs and streaming devices in U.S. households than pay TV set-top boxes, according to a new report from the Leichtman Research Group. Sixty-five percent of all U.S. TV households have at least one streaming device connected to their TV or a smart TV set connected to the internet.

Dish’s Sling TV is getting a slate of new channels as a byproduct of negotiations with Viacom to avoid a blackout on the satellite service. Now Comedy Central, BET, Spike, MTV, Nick Jr. and other unspecified channels will be available on Sling TV in the coming months.

Comcast is going to launch an app on the streaming-TV gadget Roku that takes the place of a cable box. Comcast is also working on a cable-TV app for Samsung smart TVs. Comcast doesn’t say when the apps will be available. Only people in places where Comcast provides cable service could get it, but they don’t have to get Comcast internet too.

The live streaming arms race saw another salvo Monday as YouTube debuted live streaming 360-degree video. Ben Popper writes, “Live 360 content is the gateway drug between what most people watch today and the immersive era of virtual reality that is just getting underway.”

Amazon is getting into the monthly business in a move that makes it a more aggressive competitor against Netflix and Hulu in the streaming wars. The Seattle-based company on Sunday night launched two new monthly membership options that allow customers weary of a yearly commitment to opt for more flexible monthly options.

Social News Desk’s Kim Wilson is a veteran of numerous f8 conferences, and she says this year’s marked Facebook’s most intensive reach-out to media. Here, she looks closely at presentations on Facebook Live and Instant Articles, the game-changing implications of both for publishers and the journalism and monetization opportunities within them.

The live-TV streaming service launches a plan that adds Fox channels and lets users view multiple channels on different TVs, but at the expense of Disney networks.

Here’s the top line from CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s f8 keynote Tuesday: Facebook is developing new ways for users to engage and share. Building out new functions in its Messenger app and promoting the everyday use of live streaming video are top of the list,

Instead, it’s giving its Twitter deal top priority, and the three London games won’t be streamed, the league said, noting that hasn’t ruled out live streaming London games in the future. Last year’s London games were streamed by Yahoo.

Al Roker has launched Roker Media, a live streaming content and ad network, with a view to having a early-mover advantage in the space. His partner is Ronald C. Pruett Jr. (of As Seen on TV provenance), and they’re focusing on personality-driven programming and signing on social influencers, along with monetizing via product placements and show sponsorships instead of pre-roll.

In a win for Google, smart TV maker Vizio introduced a home entertainment control system Tuesday that is built on the internet search giant’s Chromecast streaming technology, rather than on competing systems from such companies as Apple.

Yes, affiliates will face increasing demands for reverse comp, but that’s the price of belonging to America’s most-watched network and joining CBS in exploiting new broadband pay media like CBS All Access. The ever-bullish CEO also says CBS is open to ATSC 3.0 and is willing to take a run at more first-run syndication, and he sees no end to the lucrative broadcasting-NFL partnership.