streaming

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.

According to an unnamed source, Twitter has clinched the deal to live stream the NFL’s Thursday night games. The NFL wants the deal to reach cord-cutters, while Twitter gets a key piece of content to attract mainstream users in its quest to make its service a go-to place to react to and discuss live events.

  BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Caitlyn Jenner is joining the cast of the acclaimed Amazon streaming series “Transparent.” The show’s creator and executive producer Jill Soloway called the news […]

In case you missed yesterday’s New York Times read on this, Benjamin Mullin’s take on news organizations’ adoption of Facebook’s live streaming service is a good collection of mini-case studies. He looks at how NPR, The Verge, BuzzFeed and KXLY Spokane, Wash., are using Facebook Live — a worthwhile scan for those looking for an entry point into video on the cheap.

We shouldn’t necessarily believe all of the talk about Netflix and other streaming services mean the ultimate end of cable as we know it. It’s possible consumers will want as much quality programming as they can get. In that world, Netflix simply becomes another successful premium channel — a variation on HBO or Showtime.

Fullscreen, owned by Peter Chernin and AT&T, will offer 800 hours of ad-free programming and allow users to interact with one another in real time for $5 a month.

TV programmers have noted the phenomenon that Netflix has created by binge releasing much of its programming, and Daniel Holloway writes that they’re following suit. On April 10, Starz will simultaneously release all 13 episodes of The Girlfriend Experience from Steven Soderbergh, while Showtime will release all six of its new Dice episodes with Andrew “Dice” Clay. TBS, TNT and NBC have also been experimenting with the release mode.

Making an aggressive move into a home entertainment market bereft of 4K content, Sony said its “Ultra” movie streaming service will launch April 4. Ultra is a joint collaboration between Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Sony Electronics, offering owners of Sony 4K Ultra HD TVs the chance to download, for $30 a pop, recent theatrical releases.

Twitter-owned social live streaming service Periscope celebrated its first birthday Monday by revealing a major usage milestone: Periscope has been used for more that 200 million broadcasts since its launch in March 2015. Periscope users also watch around 110 years (or close to 1 million hours) of live streams every single day, according to the company.

TrafficLand, an integrator of live traffic video, announced today an agreement to provide live video from its network of public traffic cameras to The Weather Channel’s new Local Now service.  Local Now, launched in January on […]

Fandango announced Wednesday morning that it’s launching its first-ever VOD service FandangoNOW on March 30. Earlier this year, Fandango acquired the M-GO digital video distribution platform and will re-brand that as FandangoNOW. The new service will launch across the Web, iOS, Android and Roku devices as well as on Smart TVs from Samsung, LG and Vizio.

PlayStation Vue’s streaming service, which had been limited to major cities during its first year, will start at $30 a month in the new regions. That’s $10 cheaper than current packages, but it won’t include over-the-air channels, such as stations for ABC and Fox. Vue’s seven older markets — big cities including New York City and San Francisco — won’t have access to the new, cheaper deal.

Yahoo and the National Hockey League entered a partnership today to deliver live, out-of-market NHL games for free on Yahoo. Best yet for cord-cutting puck fans, there will be no cable subscription or authentication required.

FuboTV, a video streaming service that offers a mix of sports and entertainment programming, has raised $15 million in funding primarily from 21st Century Fox and Europe’s Sky, which invested $6 million each. The money will be used to grow the company’s sports video offerings, develop new features and market the service to beef up its subscriber base. The deal is the latest sign of how traditional media companies are experimenting with new platforms to distribute sports and other content as viewing habits continue to migrate online.

CBS, unsatisfied with splitting the broadcast rights to Thursday night NFL games, is in talks to nail down the digital streaming licenses for its online subscription service CBS All Access, CEO Les Moonves said Tuesday.

Facebook, Amazon, Verizon and Yahoo (at least in a perfunctory gesture) have all submitted bids to the NFL for the rights to stream up to 18 regular season games. Apple, however, doesn’t think the draw is strong enough to set its Apple TV box apart from the rest, and is abstaining.

The streaming service is taking away viewers for sure, but a new study finds its audience is that of a mid-size cable network and that the service accounts for only about half of TV’s declines.

KlowdTV, a cord-cutting service that delivers live TV programming to any device for just a few dollars a month, today announced its app launch on iOS. KlowdTV’s iOS app features: […]

Scrambling to keep pace with consumer trends, established media companies are accelerating their push into the Internet video streaming business. The trend was highlighted this week by a flurry of deals announced by major media companies, including Sony, Disney, Time Warner’s HBO and AT&T.

Sony announced last November plans to offer Disney channels on the service and today it said the PlayStation Vue lineup in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco will expand to include local ABC stations, ESPN and Disney Channel. Customers there will also get a $10 a month price cut.

Is it time to stop calling DirecTV a satellite service? AT&T, which bought it last year, can make that case today as it unveils three DirecTV-related streamed video services it plans to offer nationwide around October. No details yet about programming or pricing. That makes it impossible to predict whether they’ll be compelling options for potential cable or satellite cord cutters, or millennials who don’t subscribe to traditional pay TV.

Move over Netflix. Mexican media giant Televisa is pitting itself against the leading OTT in the region with the launch Monday of Blim, its new streaming video-on-demand service available across Mexico and Latin America, with the exception of Portuguese-speaking Brazil.

The free, 24-hour channel will provide child-friendly fare during primetime and other periods that draw kids, said Paula Kerger, PBS CEO. Member stations now get up to 12 hours daily of kids’ programming from PBS. The service also will be available online as a live stream on the pbskids.org website and on the PBS Kids video app for mobile devices and platforms such as Roku and Apple TV.

ESPN is negotiating with streaming services to make its channel available over the Web as it does with Sling TV. “A number of people have expressed interest and we’re in discussions with a large number of people,” John Skipper, the network’s president, said.

CBS has made a first-ever deal with Cablevision Systems, in which the cable operator will provide live streaming of CBS programming. The deal means Cablevision TV customers can access CBS.com and the CBS App, streaming CBS live programming online and on mobile devices.

Subscription streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon take up nearly two-thirds of all online viewing, according to a new report. Streaming services have a 65% share of all online video viewing — with video sharing sites like YouTube and Vine at a “surprisingly low” share of 19% of total viewing, according to media researcher RealityMine.

Apple is making its first original television show. The technology giant is backing a top-secret scripted series starring one of its own executives, Beats co-founder and rap legend Dr. Dre. Multiple sources say the 50-year-old mogul is starring in and executive producing his own six-episode vehicle, dubbed Vital Signs, and the production is being bankrolled by Apple.

CBS CEO Les Moonves says that streaming talks with Apple have stopped since “awhile back,” though the network’s “phone is always ringing” with other potential partners in a Netflix-like streaming service. Nodding to a rapidly-changing business, CBS is spreading its digital bets, including its own streaming service.

Streaming TV has gotten popular as several online services such as Netflix make past seasons of TV shows available for binge-watching, while Hulu offers episodes from the current season. Now, some television companies are balking at giving viewers timely access to shows. The big worry: Making streaming TV too pleasant might encourage viewers to cut back or drop their cable service.

The streaming site is attempting to make some noise of its own with a crop of films and shows that will be exclusively available with YouTube Red, a subscription service the San Bruno, California-based company launched last October. Unlike the millions of other videos posted on the streaming site, “Lazer Team” and the other YouTube Originals will only be available with a YouTube Red subscription, which also provides ad-free access to the site and a music service for $10 a month.

Some production companies are balking at giving online services timely access to shows. They worry that making streaming TV too pleasant might encourage viewers to cut back or drop their cable service. Cable and satellite companies now pay TV networks billions of dollars a year to carry their channels. In turn, TV production companies make a lot from licensing fees paid by the networks.

2016 will be a banner year for digital video consumption, with more than half of American viewers expected to watch a TV show online at least once a month. In 2016, 164.5 million Americans will watch digital TV — 50.8% of the US population, according to a new report. That’s a jump from 47.8% last year.

The blizzard that socked much of the northeastern U.S. this weekend created the perfect environment for TV binge-viewing as millions of people were left housebound by record-busting snowfall totals on Friday and Saturday.