Digital

YouTube’s vice president of content partnerships, Kelly Merryman, a key executive who helped smooth relationships with Hollywood networks and studios, has left the company.

The moves may result in a second antitrust lawsuit against Google before the end of the year.

Apollo Global Management said Wednesday that it has completed its purchase of internet icon Yahoo — formerly Verizon Media — for about $5 billion, from Verizon Communications. As part of the deal, Verizon will retain a 10% ownership interest in the new company. Verizon and Apollo first announced the deal in May, and the sale includes ad tech assets.

Locast, the local TV station streaming services, said late Wednesday that it was suspending its interruptions to its programming to ask those who have not contributed to the service to do so. Locast has argued since its inception that it is eligible for a nonprofit exemption from copyright laws, but the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York this week agreed with the broadcast networks, who challenged that nonprofit status.

The NBC News anchor, who previously led breaking news coverage for streaming platforms in addition to other duties at ABC News, is preparing for the launch of a digital evening endeavor for NBC News, a project he vows will have a kinetic feel and range a little further afield than the linear products that still represent the best-known examples of the format.

Cox Media Group has signed an agreement to stream its local content on the VUit national streaming service. VUit was started by tech company Syncbak with backing from Gray Television. With Cox Media Group’s stations, VUit now has local coverage and programming in 150 of the nation’s 210 markets.

Break out the Drake’s Coffee Cakes and the Junior Mints: Netflix has set a debut date for Seinfeld. The classic sitcom, to which the streamer acquired global rights in a $500 million deal with distributor Sony two years ago, will make its Netflix bow on Oct. 1. The show has called Hulu home for the past six years.

BNC Go is tailored to suit the interests, active lifestyles and consumption patterns of Black millennial and Gen Z audiences. It will debut Sept. 13 on Amazon Fire TV, Pluto, Roku, Tubi, Samsung, Vizio and more with 18 hours of original content daily.

Streaming-TV monogamy still isn’t a thing, according to the latest survey by Leichtman Research Group. The Durham, N.H., firm released its Emerging Video Services 2021 survey Aug. 31, finding that 58% of Americans subscribe to more than one of the big three of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu.

The four major U.S. broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — have emerged victorious in a lawsuit against Locast, a nonprofit that enables — or they say, basically steals — local TV streams. Plaintiffs — the stations — asked a judge to throw out Locast’s claim that its online service is legally exempt from copyright infringement liability because it seeks only donations, not fees, from users, and only enough to keep its business running. Locast wanted a finding that it is exempt.

FuboTV said its Fubo Gaming unit got approval to offer online sports wagering in Iowa. Fubo Gaming plans to launch its Fubo Sportsbook in the fourth quarter. The company has already gotten approvals to operate a betting service in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Indiana and New Jersey.

One of the three former Netflix software engineers charged with insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission has pleaded guilty. Sung Mo Jun, 49, and his brother Joon Jun, 45, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to securities fraud stemming from their roles in an insider trading ring that they say generated more than $1 million in illegal proceeds, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.

After a year of unprecedented growth in the connected TV space, the industry’s top players are flush with more users than ever. But the real battle is far from over, and connected TV platforms need to figure out the best way to keep those customers coming back.

While much attention continues to be dedicated to the growth of Netflix, Disney+ and other popular subscription VoD services, the market for free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services is also on the rise amid the precipitous decline of traditional pay TV. Fueled in part by an influx of new, premium content, building audiences and fresh advertising dollars, the FAST market in the US is poised to reach 216 million monthly active users in 2023, according to a new study from nScreenMedia.

Manifest will live on. After weeks of negotiations, Netflix has closed a deal for a super-sized fourth and final season (20 episodes) of the missing plane drama, which will be available exclusively on the streamer worldwide. In a nod to Manifest‘s fans, whose passionate support helped resurrect the show following its cancellation by NBC, the announcement of the Season 4 pickup by Netflix was made on so-called “828 Day” (8/28) — when the series about the mystery of Flight 828 is celebrated annually — at 8:28 a.m. PT.

The season 3 debut of The CW’s All American on Netflix was the most watched program on the major U.S. SVOD services for the week of July 26-Aug. 1, attracting 1.433 billion viewing minutes during, according to Nielsen.

TikTok, the world’s most downloaded non-gaming app in July, is testing longer videos on its platform. Social media consultant Matt Navarra broke the news by publishing a screenshot of a TikTok bulletin. “Upload longer videos,” the post read, “…up to 5 minutes long from your device.”

Researchers have identified YouTube as playing a major role in misinformation campaigns, including the effort to discredit the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Yet it has repeatedly ducked the brunt of backlashes that Facebook and Twitter have absorbed head-on.

A month ago, Vice Media announced a plan to reduce the number of text articles it publishes on Vice.com, Refinery29 and other Vice-owned sites by 40% to 50% as the company shifts its emphasis to video. On Thursday, Vice Media laid off more than a dozen employees, many of them writers and text editors.

It’s just possible that Rupert Murdoch and his boutique media joint might be onto something that other media companies should be thoroughly investigating, too.