Verizon says the company is conducting trials of 4K content delivery with a satellite company by the name of SES. The company gives little to no detail on when the trials will begin, but says the trial will involve test delivery of nine smaller channels to begin: NASA TV, 4K Universe, C4K60, Fashion One 4K, Insight, Nature Relaxation, Travelxp 4K, UHD1 and an SES demonstration channel.
The multiyear content agreement covers CBS-owned TV stations and cable networks Showtime, Smithsonian Channel and CBS Sports Network
Yahoo released a succession plan Monday for when the company’s core search and advertising assets transfer to Verizon. Yahoo board member Thomas McInerney will serve as CEO and Alexi Wellman will fill the CFO position after Yahoo completes the sale.
Just because its rival AT&T is buying Time Warner doesn’t mean Verizon will do the same. At least not in the near term. Reiterating CEO Lowell McAdam’s recent comments, Verizon CFO Matt Ellis said “we don’t believe that we need to own the traditional linear TV content.”
Verizon’s willingness to accept some of the lingering risks from Yahoo’s security breaches underscores the wireless carrier’s desire to become a bigger player in the digital advertising market. Google and Facebook currently dominate, but Verizon believes there’s room to grow.
Exclusives
Verizon Communications is close to a renegotiated deal for Yahoo’s internet properties that would reduce the price of the $4.8 billion agreement by about $250 million after the revelation of security breaches at the web company, according to people familiar with the matter.
Another ambitious premium content digital venture that had brought in top-level TV executives is folding before launch. Verizon and AwesomenessTV have scrapped plans for their announced premium content service, with Samie Falvey, chief creative officer, leaving and her team, led by creative SVP Russell Rothberg, disbanded.
Rumors are swirling around about a merger between the communications giant and the cable provider.
The NBCU-Verizon livestream on YouTube, to be hosted by Marlon Wayans and Olivia Culpo, will offer a 360 view of the iconic New York Turkey Day event.
Verizon is investing in online content like the new sports-themed series The 5th Quarter, which will stream on its Go90 platform. The show features L.A. Clippers star Blake Griffin and was created by Michael Ratner. The makers wanted to create a show tailored to the viewing habits of young mobile phone viewers — short episodes under 15 minutes, standalone plot lines that can be viewed in any order and plenty of famous faces.
Verizon would ditch the big TV bundles tomorrow if the networks allowed it, said CEO Lowell McAdam at the Internet Association’s Virtuous Circle conference in Menlo Park, Calif., Monday. “We would sell skinny bundles exclusively,” said McAdam.
Verizon is trying to imagine a broader future for itself, and with its acquisitions of Vodafone Group’s Verizon Wireless interest, AOL and now Yahoo, the picture is coming into focus. The Wall Street Journal reports the plan is to “own and distribute online content and use data collected from mobile phones to target advertising to tens of millions of users.” WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.
AwesomenessTV and Verizon have tapped longtime ABC comedy development executive Samie Falvey as chief content officer. In her new role at the as-yet unnamed premium content service, Falvey will oversee all content and creative, including programming, development and production.
Yahoo spent millions of dollars to hire media all-stars like Katie Couric, Joe Zee and David Pogue. So what’s going to happen with them now that Yahoo is being swallowed up by Verizon? The short answer is, they don’t know. And if Verizon knows, it’s not telling yet. But several staffers say that they expect cutbacks.
The sale announced this morning marks the second time in two years that Verizon has snapped up the remains of a fallen internet star as it broadens its digital reach. The nation’s largest wireless carrier paid $4.4 billion for AOL last year. Verizon had emerged in recent days as the front-runner for the beleaguered internet company.
Verizon, long considered the front-runner in bidding for Yahoo’s core internet business, has been bested, though by whom and how much remains unknown according to an unnamed source. Yahoo will be putting together a new shortlist of bidders in the coming days.
The Wall Street Journal reports the deadline for second-round bidding was Monday night, and Verizon, the leading contender, laid down $3 billion. Private equity firm TPG was also expected to bid, though it’s uncertain what other first-round bidders were following through. At least one more bidding cycle is expected. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.
Verizon is quietly getting ready to launch its next-generation TV service in at least one of its FiOS markets later this year, Variety has learned from multiple sources with knowledge of the company’s plans. The service will be based on a new set-top box that incorporates some of the technology Verizon acquired from Intel a little over two years ago, and represents a bigger shift towards IP-based technology and a world where traditional pay TV isn’t the only game in town anymore.
The latest contract between the company and about 39,000 workers expired in August and so far, the unions and management say negations have been unsuccessful. The workers began a strike and set up picket lines at more than two dozen locations across the eastern U.S. starting at 6 a.m. today. The unions have said Verizon wants to freeze pensions, make layoffs easier and rely more on contract workers. The telecom giant has said there are health care issues that need to be addressed for retirees and current workers because medical costs have grown and the company also wants “greater flexibility” to manage its workers.
Verizon plans to make a first-round bid for Yahoo’s web business next week, and is willing to acquire the company’s Yahoo Japan Corp. stake to help sweeten the offer, according to people familiar with the matter. Google, the main division of Alphabet Inc., is also considering bidding for Yahoo’s core business, a separate person said.
Verizon Communications has made a deal to become a new equity partner in AwesomenessTV, the popular YouTube original video multichannel network — a pact that will also boost its new premium mobile video service. Verizon has bought a 24.5% stake in the company — making it an equal partner with Hearst, which will own exactly the same 24.5% stake.
The service on Thursday admitted that for the last five years it has been capping the speed of its video streams on the AT&T and Verizon cell networks to keep customers from going over their monthly data allowance. By doing so, Netflix keeps viewers from paying stiff penalties, keeping the binge-watching behavior Netflix relies on in check.
Facebook, Amazon, Verizon and Yahoo (at least in a perfunctory gesture) have all submitted bids to the NFL for the rights to stream up to 18 regular season games. Apple, however, doesn’t think the draw is strong enough to set its Apple TV box apart from the rest, and is abstaining.
Sources familiar with the pending deal say that the agreement would include intellectual property and other traditional sponsorship rights but is centered on content — which Verizon wants for over-the-top programming efforts, especially its recently launched go90 product. As a mobile-first service, go90 is aimed at the growing audience of millennial cord-cutters.
Verizon Communications is embarking on a plan to make money from delivering TV over mobile phones. Past efforts by rivals show the chances of success are slim. Unlike those efforts, Verizon is giving away its service, starting this week, to teens and millennials, and will try to recoup some of the cost by selling ads. The company faces long odds.
Verizon Communications is hoping that millennials will start flipping their mobile phones 90 degrees and streaming live and on-demand television. The telecommunications company plans to announce this week the start of a free, ad-supported mobile streaming service called Go90, a reference to the behavior of rotating a phone to watch videos in landscape mode. Aimed at 18- to 34-year-olds, the service will be available to all users, regardless of whether or not they are Verizon customers.
A New York federal judge gunned down Cablevision’s anti-Verizon commercials and issued a temporary injunction against the cable firm. Cablevision’s TV spots feature dueling cowboys who mock Verizon, portraying it as a liar vis-à-vis claims about its Internet speeds and DVR quality.
Comcast Vs. Verizon, Part 1
AT&T is buying satellite TV provider DirecTV so it can offer packages that marry wireless and wired Internet access with traditional and online video. Verizon is buying AOL for technology to improve advertising on mobile devices. And Comcast tried — unsuccessfully — to get bigger, in part to compete better with online video services such as Netflix and Hulu. Here’s a look at what these three companies are doing.
AOL In Talks To Spin Off Huffington Post
While negotiating its Verizon deal, AOL has also reportedly been in advanced discussions with a number of parties to spin off its flagship Huffington Post content unit. The talks have been most serious with Axel Springer, the German media conglomerate, but a number of private equity firms have also expressed interest in the high-profile property.
The acquisition gives Verizon an entryway into the increasingly competitive online video space. AOL owns The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Engadget, MAKERS and AOL.com.
The complaint filed today in New York’s state Supreme Court alleges Verizon is breaching its contract with ESPN, owned by Walt Disney Co., by unbundling the sports channel from the main programming line-up of Verizon’s FiOS TV.
ESPN is objecting to how Verizon is giving its FiOS TV customers more choice. In new plans that went into effect Sunday, Verizon made the ESPN and ESPN2 sports channels optional, but ESPN says its contracts with Verizon prohibit the channels from being in a separate sports package.
