streaming

Cowen & Co.’s John Blackledge thinks Netflix could bump up sales by 4% if it expanded a test it’s currently conducting in Latin America.

Netflix’s A Madea Homecoming and Disney’s Free Guy both made their debuts on Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings with more than 1 billion minutes watched in the titles’ first few days of availability.

The future in which linear TV is driven almost exclusively by live sports, news and events has arrived, according to analyst Michael Nathanson after crunching numbers from Nielsen. “Time spent on cable networks built on movies, syndicated TV and kids content has collapsed over the past two years as consumers and media companies adopted a streaming first mind-set,” said Nathanson, senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, in a report Thursday.

After much talk, nearly $100 million in development costs and some 500 employees assigned to the task — many, like Audie Cornish (above), new hires — CNN+ is set to launch next Tuesday. The company on Thursday revealed a typical day’s schedule, with a news countdown hosted by Kate Bolduan, a deep-dive news hour hosted by Sara Sidner, a Chris Wallace interview show, and hours on politics, international news and the media topped by Wolf Blitzer’s evening newscast.

FuboTV expects to surpass $1 billion in revenue this year. As the company pursues that goal, it wouldn’t hurt to grow its share of the advertising market. As it stands, advertising only accounted for $73.7 million of fuboTV’s $638 million total revenue in 2021. Indeed, subscription revenue will still account for the bulk of the company’s 2022 revenue — particularly if new price increase tests work out. But fuboTV now sounds like it’s beginning to put a more concerted effort behind growing its advertising business, which will help push the total past $1 billion.

YouTube, looking to compete with free-ad supported streaming channels as more of its viewing occurs on connected TVs, is offering viewers a collection of licensed TV programs they can watch for free with commercial interruptions. Google’s streaming video giant said it has more than 4,000 episodes of shows including relatively recent series.

Legendary NFL play-by-play announcer Al Michaels is moving to Amazon Prime Video to lead its booth when it begins its exclusive coverage of Thursday Night Football in the fall. Michaels’ partner will be ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit. An official announcement could come as early as this week.

Stephanie Slagle named chief innovation officer and Michael Newman becomes director of transformation.

NBC O&O KNBC Los Angeles has launched a new streaming series that takes viewers behind the scenes of some of the biggest news stories that rocked Southern California and beyond.

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Bill Anderson, host of The Pulse on Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia and Fox Soul, about how video podcasts can be a Swiss Army knife for local broadcasters’ content needs, especially as they ramp up streaming efforts.

Netflix will soon launch a test letting primary account holders pay an additional fee for users outside their households — a new attempt by the company to address illicit password-sharing. In an upcoming test launching in three countries — Chile, Costa Rica and Peru — Netflix will let members who share their accounts with people outside their household do so “easily and securely, while also paying a bit more,” according to Chengyi Long, Netflix director of product innovation.

A small, Cleveland suburb, Maple Heights, has filed a lawsuit against Netflix and Hulu, trying to force the streaming companies to pay a franchise fee typically applied to cable providers. The lawsuit is part of a growing national trend of cities in at least 13 states, often pinched by shrinking budgets, targeting the nascent streaming industry for new tax revenues. The city’s suit is filed under a state law written and passed in 2007 — when Netflix was mostly mailing its customers DVDs and Hulu had yet to launch.

Four dozen members of the Supreme Court bar have written Chief Justice John Roberts to ask the when the pandemic ends, the current practice of streaming oral argument audio should continue permanently.

The streaming giant is expanding its relationship Dr. Seuss Enterprises with a deal for five new animated preschool series and specials. The agreement covers projects inspired by the works of the beloved children’s author including Horton Hears a Who, The Sneetches, Wacky Wednesday and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish and beloved characters like Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose.

In its two years on TikTok, Yahoo News has garnered 1.7 million followers by following a simple maxim: It’s all about engaging with communities rather than uploading videos and leaving.

The veteran meteorologist comes to the nascent streaming weather service from WPLG Miami.

Deals with Apple TV Plus and Peacock could help revive the national pastime.