Digital

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.

The HBCU Go free streaming digital platform will have distribution rights to sports content related to the Southwestern Athletic Conference beginning this fall.

Robert Iger spent decades helming a company known for its animated characters. For his next act, the former Walt Disney Co. boss is backing a startup that celebrities and others are using to create avatars for the much-hyped metaverse. In his first career move since leaving the entertainment company in November, Iger has taken a board seat with Los Angeles-based Genies Inc. He is also an investor in the business, one of five fledgling tech companies he’s recently backed.

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.

In Mehta’s newly created role, she will be in charge of ABC News’ multi-platform and direct-to-consumer content strategy and pipeline. She will oversee the development and slate of unscripted documentaries and narrative non-fiction series and specials for linear and streaming. She will also manage the teams at ABC News Live, ABC News’ digital portfolio consisting of the ABC News, Good Morning America and FiveThirtyEight brands and products, and ABC Audio.

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.

It’s not much of a mystery why we are seeing brands that dove into streaming using the premium model now pivoting to ads. The story of the past few months in the industry has been slowing growth for the most established and successful platforms, particularly in mature markets such as the United States. The arrows are still headed up — streaming is not a fad — but acquiring and holding on to customers is infinitely harder to do when you’ve already signed up huge swaths of the populations in North America and Europe (as Netflix and, to a lesser degree, Disney+ have done). And while raising prices can bring in more revenue, it also risks increasing churn.

NBCUniversal’s Peacock is nearing a deal with Major League Baseball for exclusive rights to stream games in a new Sunday time slot, according to people familiar with the discussions, as the league looks to increase digital partnerships. The deal with NBCU would involve a package of 18 games, some beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET and others just after noon, the people said. That would limit the conflict with Sunday games that typically start at 1 p.m., making the telecasts more valuable for Peacock. The games would primarily be played on the East Coast, given the early timing, the people said.

For the week of Feb. 7-Feb. 13, the show came in at No. 1 on the list, with 1.589 billion minutes watched during its first full week of availability. Nielsen said: “The audience for the action thriller starring Alan Ritchson largely skewed male (58%), while increasing its viewership from younger streamers in the 18-34 and 35-49 age demographic.”

Customers will be charged $5.99 a month or $59.99 to get the service, with a special deal for charter subscribers. CNN’s announcement on Friday comes a day after MSNBC said that it will offer much of its television lineup on a time-delayed basis on the Peacock Premium streaming service, which is available for $4.99 a month.

Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, discusses how the battle in cyberspace is shaping up.

A senior Netflix Inc executive said on Tuesday the company had no current plans to offer a streaming option that included advertising but declined to rule it out in the future. “Never say never,” CFO Spencer Neumann said when asked if the company would change its long-standing position that its service should remain ad-free, adding “it’s not something in our plan right now.”

The proliferation of news on live linear streaming has set off an explosion of innovation in television news. TVNewsCheck will turn a spotlight on this trend during a webinar set for March 24 at 1 p.m. ET. Sharing their experience and insights during the event will be: (clockwise from upper left): Micah Grimes, VP news and sports, Atmosphere TV; Shareef Al-Ela, VP and head of LiveNow from Fox; Sarah Katt, general manager of AccuWeather Network and OTT streaming services; Brian Ring, senior director, product marketing for news, Amagi and the webinar’s moderator; and Matt Dominguez, senior manager, streaming distribution and partnerships at Cox Media Group. To join us at the webinar, please register here. 

The streamer has struck a rights deal with Major League Baseball to carry a weekly doubleheader of games on Fridays, starting with the 2022 season — whenever that may begin.

Judge Judy Sheindlin will serve another helping of Judy Justice. Her streaming series, which launched in November, has been renewed for a second season. IMDb TV, Amazon’s complimentary (i.e., not Prime) streaming service, made the announcement on Tuesday — simultaneously revealing that the show has been among the platform’s most popular originals, with a combined 25 million-plus hours streamed in four months.

The news organization that prides itself on short-format writing has big plans to expand in local news, paid newsletters and even the emails sent by your bosses.