Digital

FuboTV shares are riding high again after the emerging company announced it is acquiring sports betting startup Vigtory and will use it to launch a full-fledged sportsbook later this year. Terms were not disclosed for the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter. It positions Fubo, which was founded in 2015 as an internet-delivered pay-TV operator akin to YouTube TV, as more of a hybrid company.

In addition to heading the new streaming service, he will retain his role as executive vice president of marketing at Fox News Media.

Spanish-language broadcast giant Univision today announced first quarter launch plans for PrendeTV, joining the crowded streaming market with a free, add-supported service created for the U.S. Hispanic audience. It will featuring premium 100% Spanish-language programming, debuting with over 30 channels and 10,000 hours of video-on-demand content in Spanish from global partners.

The company adds media veterans to augment monetization efforts fueled by Latinos’ growing video consumption across all platforms. Ezequiel Fonseca Zas is named SVP, revenue strategy and distribution and Malu Carmona-Botana joins as content monetization VP.

As new and more graphic videos of the mayhem emerged on social media and TV, the enormity of what happened only deepened.

Facebook is halting all political spending until at least next quarter, company communications director Andy Stone confirmed Monday. The decision comes after Facebook indefinitely suspended President Trump from its platform last week, following the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Twitter shares plunged by more than 10% Monday in early morning trading following the social media giant’s move to ban President Trump, reflecting fears of political retribution and financial fallout stemming from the company’s decision.

The deal calls for Hart to star and produce four features for the streamer and then enter into a first-look deal via his production banner, HartBeat Productions. The comedian previously had a first-look deal with Universal, for whom it made the comedy Night School, and a deal with Nickelodeon.

The social media platform, beloved by conservatives, went offline after Amazon pulled its web support.

He may desperately need his own platform now that he’s been exiled from Twitter, but it’s going to cost him more than he’s got.

Parler CEO John Matze said Sunday that his social media company has been dropped by virtually all of its business alliances after Amazon, Apple and Google ended their agreements with the social media service. “Every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too on the same day,” Matze said on Fox News.

The new, 10-episode chapter from Michael Patrick King will feature Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon all reprising their roles.

Tim Berners-Lee wants to put people in control of their personal data. He has technology and a start-up pursuing that goal. Can he succeed?

Though deprived of his big online megaphones, Trump does have alternative options of much smaller reach, led by the far right-friendly Parler — even if Google and Apple both removed it from their app stores.

Twitter on Friday permanently suspended President Donald Trump from the site, meting out its toughest punishment two days after a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

Is on-demand streaming the future of local TV news? For Scripps ABC affiliate KGUN Tucson, Ariz., OTT is not just a convenience for viewers. It’s an opportunity to experiment aggressively with new programming driven by new technology — and a way to deepen ties with the community.

The Copyright Royalty Board today published a Federal Register notice announcing that SoundExchange was auditing a number of broadcasters and other webcasters to assess their compliance with the statutory music licenses provided by Sections 112 and 114 of the Copyright Act for the public performance of sound recordings and ephemeral copies made in the digital transmission process by commercial webcasters.

Rich Greenfield, the analyst who is outspoken in his belief that streaming will demolish the traditional TV business, said he was wrong about his recommendation to sell stock in the Walt Disney Co.

Stirr, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s over-the-top service, is exclusively streaming the late Alex Trebek’s last episodes as host of Jeopardy. The episodes are available on demand in markets where Sinclair stations air the syndicated show. And they will only be available until five more episodes air. At that point, the new episodes will be available on demand.

Roku created its business solely as a hub for other streaming services, but has recently begun piling up content for its free Roku Channel. With the acquisition, Roku will acquire 75 staccato-style programs with some very big names attached. Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Liam Hemsworth, Anna Kendrick, Nicole Richie, Chrissy Teigen and Lena Waithe have all been in Quibi shows. That includes more than 12 shows that never aired on Quibi before it was shuttered.

In his new role, Ernesto Mourelo will continue to lead the digital strategy for the station group while also leading Hearst Television’s central news team that publishes national and feature news content, produces original video for company franchises including Stitch and “Dispatches from the Middle,” and manages the company’s digital copy desk.

Next week’s CES will feature virtualized presentations of new 8K TV sets, streaming technology and ever-improving home video production tools that will be of interest to broadcasters. Veteran consultant Shelly Palmer says smart TVs will take a leap forward, smartphone tech will pause until post-pandemic mobility returns and huge trade shows like CES itself will never be the same again.

With the CTV space growing ever more crowded, Discovery+ launched with a big bet that there’s room for “passing the day” programming on streaming. It’s banking on loyal subs to cut the cord, capturing international audiences and ad-supported tiers and commerce for the win.

For the week of Dec. 7, the cringe comedy and mockumentary about the lives of office employees at a drab Pennsylvanian paper manufacturer blasted past the mysterious Mandalorian and weirdly endearing Grogu (aka, Baby Yoda), settling into first place in Nielsen’s Top 10 SVOD programs list. It is the seventh time The Office takes the gold, a record-breaker.

Former Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner’s Tornante Co. is working with a group of other former media and technology execs to launch Struum, a service aimed at helping viewers find content in an increasingly crowded streaming environment.

Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday that outgoing president Donald Trump is “indefinitely” banned from Facebook and Instagram. The indefinite banning comes one day after the Capitol came under siege by a group of the president’s supporters, sending lawmakers into a lockdown and leaving four people dead.