streaming

Media barons have long acknowledged that the future will be streamed.

Over the coming weeks, as the world’s largest media and tech conglomerates report earnings for the July-September quarter, it will become increasingly clear how well entertainment companies are handling the pivot away from cable bundles and theatrical releases, and toward streaming services. Investors expect to hear entertainment executives finally explain not only how they plan to compete in an ecosystem that’s historically been dominated by Netflix, but also to learn about the ways their companies will do business long after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

Veteran ad sales executive Raoul Marinescu will oversee all digital ad sales for Allen’s free streaming platforms Local Now and The Grio.

The Starfleet crew clearly has more work to do. A day after its Season 3 premiere, CBS All Access announced it has renewed Star Trek: Discovery for a fourth season, with production set to begin on Nov. 2.

Another high-ranking executive is out at Netflix. Head of comedy Jane Wiseman has left the streamer. Wiseman, who had served as VP originals at Netflix, had been with the company for six years. Wiseman’s departure arrives days after another VP originals, Channing Dungey, left the company.

COVID-19 accelerated long-term viewership changes and channeled ever-higher numbers toward streaming and toward leaner cable packages, but broadcast remains a reliable and flexible buy for advertisers.

Amazon has struck a deal with the National Football League to stream a playoff game this season, people familiar with the matter said. The agreement, which the league disclosed to team owners Wednesday during a video meeting, deepens the relationship between the nation’s premier sport and the online retail and entertainment giant. The wildcard playoff game will also be available on ViacomCBS platforms.

17% of U.S. internet users viewed one or more AVOD services in the past month,  vs. just 13% in the third quarter of 2019, according to a survey conducted by UK research firm Ampere Analysis. The research company says Tubi, recently purchased by Fox for $440 million, is leading the usage surge, based in large part by its extra-large content library, which features more than 29,000 movies and TV show episodes.

Comcast’s Peacock added more new subscribers than any other streaming VOD services during the third quarter, according to Kantar. Kantar also found that more consumers who added one service were canceling another. Kantar called this subscription switching, and said 10% of new subscriptions were the result of switching, up from 9% in the second quarter.

The Walt Disney Co.’s Monday announcement that it was undertaking a major reorganization of its film and television teams with a goal of bolstering its streaming services was a hit with investors.  Shares of the entertainment giant rose on the news that the company would refocus its operations to produce movies and shows and decide at a later date if they would debut on the big screen, cable or streaming arms Hulu and Disney Plus. But internally, employees across the board were left puzzled by both the timing and contents of the announcement.

The Newsy channel will be available on Philo’s streaming TV service just in time for the highly-anticipated 2020 election.

Industry veteran René Santaella, previously at Sony and Disney, will lead the multi-platform Spanish-language media company’s digital transformation and growth.

The company is creating three content arms, one each for sports, general entertainment and its studios, which have famous brands including Star Wars and Marvel. Their primary focus will be on making shows and movies for streaming services, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in a statement. Meanwhile, a new distribution group will centralize how the content is sold and oversee streaming operations.

Since August, Anderson Cooper has been producing his Full Circle program thrice weekly via smartphones in his Hudson Yards office. The remote production was “quick, simple and cheap,” says CNN’s Jason Holterhaus, and signals that CNN is starting to take its digital-only shows as seriously as its linear broadcast.

With 13 weeks left in the season, DirecTV has lowered the price of the streaming NFL Sunday Ticket to $220.47 for the basic plan and $281.97 for the Max package. That’s a 25% decrease for the basic plan and a 29.5% drop for Max.

Channing Dungey has stepped down as VP original content and head of drama at Netflix after 20 months at the company to pursue another opportunity. Her last day is today (Oct. 9). While that opportunity has not been revealed, Dungey, the former ABC Entertainment president, is among the handful of top female TV executives rumored to succeed Susan Rovner as president of Warner Bros. TV.

The streaming service is also offering live news from NewsNOW from Fox, Fox Soul, Bloomberg TV, NBC News Now, and PeopleTV and will add more premium content including Euronews, USA Today News, and three of the largest local station groups in the country, including Hearst Television, with two others coming soon.

The streaming service that has one half of 1% of Neflix’s subscriber base originally targeted a $150 million Wall Street haul.

After years of buying and selling, the nation’s largest TV station groups have become local leviathans that own dozens of outlets across the country. At an unsettled time for broadcast TV, the biggest independent groups — including Nexstar Media, Sinclair Broadcast Group and E.W. Scripps — are increasingly trying to generate new profit sources by using local news and programming assets in innovative ways.

In a hour-long digital edition of her syndicated show Matter of Fact tomorrow night (7 p.m. ET), O’Brien will lead a discussion of race and privilege, racial stress, the impact of bias in the images and language in our daily news and the creation of stereotypes and how they influence the way we think. It will livestream on the digital platforms of Matter of Fact and most Hearst media properties.

Streaming services need to offer a synchronous, interactive livestream of sports options if they want to hold on to the cord cutters they’ve gained since the pandemic.

For the first time ever, consumers don’t need a cable subscription to watch AMC Networks channels including AMC, BBC America, IFC and SundanceTV. AMC Networks has dramatically increased the footprint for AMC+, its expanded ad-free streaming service, which will be available today through Apple TV and Prime Video channels.

Today’s launch includes the debut of LX News, a weekday newscast targeted to Gen Z and millennials.

Google has altered its approach to TV and streaming, merging Chromecast and Android TV into a $50 Google-branded offering featuring a remote control. Chromecast with Google TV is the official new name for the setup, which marks the end of the Android TV brand name, which had been in use since 2014.