streaming

Locast, the nonprofit streaming service focused on local TV stations, said Wednesday that it has debuted in its 24th U.S. market, Indianapolis. The streaming service also said it now has 1.7 million users.

Following the exit of several top executives, Netflix’s head of global television, Bela Bajaria, has set her new global leadership team and overhauled the streaming service’s U.S. operations under her purview, creating a new overall team in the process.

Stewart will host an hour-long, current affairs series that will explore topics of national interest as well as his advocacy work, the streaming service said Tuesday.

With its TVision service, T-Mobile says it’s aiming to offer a simpler and and cheaper service for people dissatisfied with cable. It will cost $10 a month with live news, entertainment and sports channels. But it’s entering a crowded field. And most similar streaming services have found it difficult to sustain low prices over time.

The Lincoln Project is looking to beef up its media business after the election, sources say. The group recently signed with the United Talent Agency to help build out Lincoln Media and is weighing offers from different television studios, podcast networks and book publishers. Lincoln’s plan is part of the new trend of activists developing massive audiences for political influence that they are then able to spin into commercial media success.

Quibi is an anomaly, not the norm, according to new research published by Parks Associates.
The number of over-the-top video services in the U.S. has now reached nearly 300, with those platforms exiting the market actually declining.

It may not be quite as momentous as taking home nine total Emmys, but Schitt’s Creek has another reason to celebrate. The lauded comedy series has broken into Nielsen’s list of top 10 most-streamed shows for the first time. For the week of Sept. 21, viewers watched the show for a total of 839 million total minutes, placing it fifth overall. Schitt’s Creek bursting into the rankings for that week in particular is hardly surprising, as it coincides with the show’s stunning Emmys sweep the weekend before.

Quibi expects to shut down “on or about Dec. 1,” according to a new post on the mobile video startup’s customer service page. The message gives subscribers an update on the future of the app following the Wednesday announcement that it would be ceasing operations after failing to gain traction with users.

Hulu says its live TV service will no longer carry the Fox regional sports networks now owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, effective Friday. In a post on its website, Hulu said it will “no longer have the rights” to distribute the channels. The move comes after the end of the baseball season and follows the networks being dropped Oct. 1 by YouTube TV, another virtual MVPD aimed at sports fans.

The demise of Quibi, the short-form video service led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, will cause complications for a wide range of TV partners who supplied new and often innovative programming to the streaming upstart, which promised to deliver top-quality entertainment in episodes that would last ten minutes or less. CBS News, NBC News, the BBC, Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro, Kevin Hart, Queen Latifah and Chrissy Teigen were among the popular actors and media entities that latched on to the venture.

The company said Wednesday that it would wind down its operations and plans to sell its assets. “Quibi is not succeeding,” its top executives, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, bluntly declared in a letter posted online. The video platform — designed for people who were out and about to watch on their phones — was one of a slew of new streaming services started to challenge Netflix over the past few years, most of which were part of much bigger tech and entertainment companies, like Apple and Disney.

The streaming service is considering shutting itself down, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that points to a possible crash landing for a once-highflying startup that raised $1.75 billion in capital.

As the Hollywood giant hands studio leaders greater control over the content they create and builds out a new distribution division, the shake-up raises new questions.

Alan Wolk: How is the industry going to handle this new interim period, where traditional pay TV is far from dead, but streaming is rapidly growing an audience?

AT&T has officially launched its in-car video streaming service WarnerMedia Ride, offering it free to owners of 27 vehicle brands who have AT&T unlimited data connected car service. Ride will include news, sports and entertainment programming from brands including Bleacher Report, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, TNT and more. AT&T also plans to offer HBO Max on qualifying data plans next year.

ViacomCBS today named Tom Ryan, currently CEO of Pluto TV, as president and CEO, ViacomCBS Streaming, unveiling a new leadership structure for its evolving global free and pay streaming services. Marc DeBevoise will step down from his role as chief digital officer, ViacomCBS, and president and CEO, ViacomCBS Digital, serving in an advisory capacity for the remainder of 2020 to support the transition and ongoing transformation of the digital organization.

AT&T is nearly five months out from the launch of HBO Max and the service still doesn’t have distribution agreements in place with Amazon or Roku. CEO John Stankey, speaking Monday at the WSJ Tech Live event, said the impasses demonstrate how platform companies, not network providers, have begun to hamstring access to apps and services.

The debut of the limited software tool comes after the London startup bags another $2 million from its angel investors.

NBCLX is NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations’ multiplatform lab for storytelling innovation, iterating across digital, diginets and OTT. It’s turning news conventions on their head in a bid to build loyal younger audiences. Above, LXNews hosts Ashley Holt and Nik Zecevic at its studio at KXAS Dallas.