streaming

Netflix has refrained from takeover opportunities, but it’s sparking plenty of industry
mergers just by existing. Netflix Inc.’s grip on streaming-TV audiences is driving other media companies to pursue expensive mergers and takeovers that whiff of desperation. The irony? Netflix
may still beat them all without having spent a single penny to acquire any competitors.

Astute observers of television say the idea of a unifying show on even a modest scale is gone. In its wake are a hundred Twitter niches — and a dangerous lack of common culture. Above, Kate Winslet as Mare in HBO’s Mare of Easttown. The show was a buzzy hit on social media this spring. But like so much of television, its reach was limited.

Analyst Alan Wolk: While the entertainment offerings on streaming today easily surpass the offerings on cable in terms of both quality and quantity, the same cannot be said for news and sports.

TVision found that in the first quarter 84.4% of U.S. households were able to watch programming on connected TVs, up from 82.4% in the third quarter of 2020 and 80.3% in the first quarter of 2020.

Analysts threw ice-cold water on a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday suggesting that Comcast may buy ViacomCBS and/or Roku. “From a regulatory standpoint, ViacomCBS is a non-starter with network/station overlaps, even before considering whether network/content production market share would be an issue,” Credit Suisse’s Douglas Mitchelson wrote in a note to investors Thursday morning.

Her promotion follows that of Jordan Helman, who was the head of drama before being named head of all scripted content. That was after Beatrice Springborn moved over to run NBCUnviersal’s UCP.

Meteorologists Jason Frazer, Britta Merwin, Craig Herrera, Brigit Mahoney, Nick Kosir and Stephen Morgan will lead the platform’s weather coverage once the streaming service launches later this year.

QVC, HSN, Demand Africa and Quincy Jones’ Qwest TV bring more content to Allen Media’s free streaming platform.

Peacock will launch a Tokyo Olympics destination on July 15 featuring live coverage of some the games’ biggest events, including gymnastics, track and field and the U.S. men’s basketball team’s pursuit of their fourth straight gold. The NBCUniversal streamer said Wednesday that Peacock will feature new daily live shows, original programming, dedicated Olympics channels, full event replays and curated highlights. All of Peacock’s Tokyo Olympics programming will be available to stream for free with exception of USA Men’s Basketball live coverage that will be available to Peacock Premium subscribers.

Whip Media and the Entertainment Globalization Association are teaming up to create a new bi-monthly report called the Global Intelligence Tracker that will show how U.S. programs produced for streaming are performing in other countries.

The National Football League is exploring options for its media properties including selling stakes to strategic partners, a move aimed at expanding the reach of its television networks and digital services, the league told team owners in a letter Wednesday. The league said it has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to explore potential partnerships for the properties, which include the NFL Network and RedZone pay TV channels as well as NFL.com.

ViacomCBS on Wednesday unveiled its content leadership structure for its global streaming services. The moves include appointing Tanya Giles, currently GM of MTV Entertainment Group, as “a centralized programming head” to oversee content strategy for Paramount+ and Pluto TV globally.

Brian Roberts is out to prove that having content and distribution under one roof can turn his cable colossus into a major streaming contender. He is also wrestling with whether to build or buy to reach that goal.

NBCUniversal and Amazon just announced that Peacock will launch on Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets in the U.S. starting on Thursday. The Peacock app will bring thousands of hours of on-demand movies and shows, as well as live news and sports programming, to Fire TV and Fire tablet customers nationwide. The announcement is part of a larger partnership between Amazon and NBCU, with more announcements coming soon.

The television hit — the most abiding of entertainment traditions — appears to be dying. That isn’t to say shows don’t have fans; they do, and some of them are more passionate than ever. But according to its long-standing definition — a universally recognized show that gathers a large, verifiable audience and becomes unavoidable in all the places people talk about television and endures well beyond its run — the TV hit is vanishing.

Fuse Media yesterday kicked off the beta launch of Fuse Plus, a new streaming service that will roll out widely later this year. It’ll be available on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices to start.

In a virtual presentation today during the Cannes Lions brand confab, Nielsen shed a bit more light on streaming from its growing body of research on the U.S. market. Following up on its announcement last week of a new measurement tool called The Gauge, SVP of Product Strategy Brian Fuhrer explored the May viewing numbers during a 20-minute talk. Subscription video on demand services remain the dominant form of streaming, he said, with 52% of total streams. Ad-supported video on demand followed with 27% and MVPDs and virtual MVPDs (e.g., YouTube TV) account for 10% of all streaming.

Sinclair is working on a direct-to-consumer streaming service for its Bally Sports regional sports networks and it has disclosed to potential lenders how big it believes the opportunity could be. In an 8K filing with the SEC, Sinclair included a presentation outlining the potential upside of launching an RSN DTC service, which it predicted could eventually attract approximately 4.4 million subscribers and generate around $2 billion in annual revenue.

Major U.S. streamers including Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ could be regulated for the first time in the UK as part of proposals being considered by Boris Johnson’s government. Ministers at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have announced that they will consult on plans to subject the streaming giants to British broadcasting laws, bringing them in line with the BBC, ITV, Sky and others.

Small companies book primetime advertising — and offer media companies a shot at a big payday.

Michelle Lee, Allure’s top editor for the last five and a half years, is joining the Netflix marketing team in a newly created editorial and publishing role. She will lead and oversee Netflix’s team focused on social media channels, podcasts and other initiatives, including the streamer’s Queue magazine.

Adult Swim’s animated sensation Rick and Morty has posted its entire season 5 premiere online for free. The 10-episode new season launched Sunday evening, and the video was posted on YouTube early Monday. By midmorning, it had already racked up 1.7 million views and was the No. 2 trending video on the platform.

The popularity of Netflix’s Lupin is no fluke. Non-English shows are gaining steam. The pandemic, which stalled a number of Hollywood productions last spring, opened even more viewers to TV shows outside of their native language. In a time of uncertainty and isolation, they found solace in feel-good Korean dramas, thrilling telenovelas and other international gems.

It will feature an expanded free advertising supported (AVOD) and an all-new subscription tier (SVOD) offering, bringing together the best of VIX, Univision NOW and PrendeTV under “a unified global product and vision.” Rodrigo Mazon is tapped as EVP-GM of SVOD. It will be available across U.S. and Latin America next year.

When the young Oracle heir entered the entertainment industry, no one expected much. Instead, he’s built the rarest of businesses — a thriving, all-audiences, independent studio, Skydance Media.

News this past week that Sinclair Broadcast Group and investment banker LionTree are raising $250 million to launch a sports streaming service may not be quite as big a deal as, say, that $43 billion spinoff/merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. But despite the difference in the number of zeroes involved, a Sinclair streaming service could  dramatically reshape the sports streaming leader board, and not incidentally, what’s left of the cable bundle and broadcast TV, too.

Roku has out-executed larger companies and leaned on an unusual corporate culture to gain a $45 billion valuation. Roku batted away early acquisition offers and skepticism from Wall Street bankers to go public in 2017. Roku founder Anthony Wood is now spending much of his time thinking about the company’s content ambitions.

Adam Ware, VP of national networks and platforms for Sinclair Broadcast Group, says the company’s STIRR network of local streaming channels is seeing robust revenue growth in spinning up bespoke channels and “long-form” advertising content for local advertisers. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Shawn Wheat, executive producer of Gray Television’s Local News Live, about the new, digital-only streaming initiative that stitches together news from across Gray’s stations via a small team of anchors and producers.

A new monthly Nielsen measurement called The Gauge shows just how much the pandemic has catalyzed streaming among a broad ranger of consumers with May usage across all television homes climbing to 26% of time spent on TV — outpacing broadcast, with an audience share of 25%. The streaming video data included SVOD and AVOD. Streaming and broadcast now account for half of television time. Cable accounted for 39%, and “other” viewing for 9%.

Top ViacomCBS executive David Nevins is in talks for an expanded role that would include oversight of content for Paramount Plus, sources tell Variety. The longtime Showtime CEO and chairman, who also serves as chief creative officer of CBS, would maintain his portfolio that at present includes Showtime Networks and BET Networks, individuals with knowledge of the talks said.

The company known for measuring television ratings said Netflix and YouTube are far ahead of their digital rivals, but viewers still spend more time watching cable and network TV.