streaming

As the streaming market matures, it is incumbent upon platforms to diversify their offerings. The attraction of unscripted, as the session showed, is its measurable ability to hold a core audience over a prolonged period of time as compared to marquee scripted titles. Those prestige shows have huge viewerships in the first weeks but then their popularity wanes. Conversely, unscripted shows, though not as gargantuan at launch, exhibit significantly lower popularity decline over time.

The $20 million round was led by venture firm Sapphire Sport. New athlete investors include tennis player Nick Kyrgios, football player Myles Garrett and basketball star Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures. It brings the company’s total funding to more than $44 million.

It’s official: Warner Bros. Discovery announced Wednesday that its newly merged streaming service, combining assets from HBO Max and Discovery+, will be called Max.

Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled three tiers for its new Max service today. The pricing keeps Max in line with HBO Max, and at the top end of the entertainment streaming spectrum. A price hike several months ago by HBO Max made it the most expensive service among major streamers, and the new set of plans will keep it just ahead of Netflix’s most popular U.S. plan, which now costs $15.49 a month. The top-end plan also gives Max 4K functionality and up to four concurrent log-ins, both increasingly popular options for discerning streaming consumers.

Google TV, the operating system that powers Chromecast and various smart TV devices, is integrating access to free, ad-supported channels (FASTs) including Tubi, Plex and Haystack News, into its Live tab. Added to more than 300 existing Pluto TV channels already there, and new built-in channels that can be watched without downloading an app, Google TV now enables browsing and accessing more than 800 channels, without subscription fees. The selection includes NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox news channels.

YouTube revealed the highly anticipated details of its new streaming plan for NFL Sunday Ticket on Tuesday, providing a win for fans who were shut out of the programming when it was aired by DirectTV by making the service available to anyone with web access. But it’s a win that comes at a hefty cost: The price for the out-of-market football game service is rising, the Google-owned YouTube said in a blog post. Fast-acting fans can get a $100 discount if they sign up for the service before June 6.

Most shows used to kick off in the fall, air big episodes in November and February, and go out with a bang in May. Network television still largely follows that model, but the streamers and premium cable competitors of the new guard tend to operate with different goals. Rather than angling for ratings, those companies are releasing new seasons of popular TV shows — Ted Lasso, Succession, The Mandalorian, The Last of Us and Yellowjackets — with an eye to Primetime Emmy Award recognition.

As streamers face mounting pressure to save money, several are dropping shows. Erasing original shows can help streamers get tax write-downs and, to a smaller extent, save on residual payments. But it brings criticism that they are sidelining already marginalized voices and shortchanging creatives. These issues have increased tension between executives and writers amid union contract negotiations that started in March and could lead to a significant work stoppage.

The streaming company released Ben Affleck’s Air on 3,500 movie screens this week, and it plans to open 10 to 12 films theatrically every year.

Cops Reloaded is headed to Dan Abrams’ Law&Crime Network. Consisting of 158 episodes, Cops Reloaded features some of the most memorable suspects, car chases and action-packed moments from the long-running series Cops.

Attendance and exhibitors will still fall well below the pre-pandemic high-water mark, but station groups and vendors plan to hit the Sunday-Wednesday event with packed schedules and shopping lists.

The new capability includes feeds that have unique, streamed content that is not available on the station’s over-the-air channels or direct-to-cable station feeds.

Disney has a new streaming boss. Joe Earley (left), who was president of Hulu, has been promoted to president, direct-to-consumer, Disney Entertainment. Michael Paull (right), who was previously in that role, is leaving the company. The move comes after Bob Iger launched Disney Entertainment, the new division run by Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, in February, a shakeup that saw the pair take over all of the company’s global streaming businesses and managing all content decisions for Disney+ and Disney-controlled Hulu.

DirecTV for Business has reached an agreement with Amazon Prime Video to distribute 20 Yankees games to bars, restaurants and other commercial venues across the baseball team’s home footprint. The Yankees’ home regional territory covers New York state, Connecticut, north and central New Jersey, and northeast Pennsylvania. DirecTV for Business customers will get access to the games for the 2023 season via their existing satellite equipment. DirecTV said it will make the games, which were previously exclusively available only on Prime Video, available to “thousands of sports bars, restaurants and other public places” without disclosing a specific number.

Eight years ago, more than a quarter of all streaming was done on an Xbox or PlayStation. Not surprisingly, the smart TV now rules streaming, with Aluma Insights reporting smart TV penetration into 64% of U.S. households, and 50% of consumers using the smart TV as their primary streaming device.

CBS local affiliates have rejoined Fubo’s virtual MVPD TV lineup after being pulled from the live streaming TV service earlier this year amid a renewal spat with Paramount Global. On Friday a Fubo spokesperson said: “Virtually all CBS local affiliates have returned to Fubo and are now live.” It marks the latest resolution in a somewhat messy carriage dispute that pitted the CBS affiliate board and its represented local station owners against Paramount Global.

The Mandalorian has made its return to Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings. Through the Feb 27-March 5 viewing window, during which Season 3 premiered and was available for five days, the Star Wars series starring Pedro Pascal was watched for 826 million minutes. It followed directly behind NCIS, which often makes the streaming chart, though usually not in such a high position. The boost came from the fact that Nielsen has now added Paramount+ to the list of streaming services it measures.

Blake Sabatinelli, CEO of Atmosphere TV, explains how to make good TV deliberately for background consumption, and how his company has turned its network of FAST channels into a lucrative business at bars, restaurants and other venues. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Roku said it will eliminate 200 employees, or about 6% of the company’s workforce as part of a new restructuring plan. The restructuring will result in a nonrecurring charge of $30 million-$35 million, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said it will stop using and sublease some of its office facilities.

The Better Business Bureau is warning of a scam involving popular streaming devices, such as Roku and Amazon Fire TV sticks, and services like Netflix and YouTube TV. The BBB said it has received an influx of reports regarding scammers targeting victims through pop-ups on their smart TVs.