Digital

Signiant’s Megan Cater: Cybersecurity experts have long been warning of FTP’s potential threat to network security, intellectual property and privacy. Most major media enterprises have banned FTP, requiring that all partners use secure accelerated file transfer solutions. Smaller operations should follow their lead.

Bird Box, Susanne Bier’s apocalyptic survival tale starring Sandra Bullock and Trevante Rhodes, attracted almost 26 million viewers in the U.S. during its first seven days on Netflix, according to the new Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings.

Hulu is keeping its pedal to metal in the streaming TV race: The company said it ended 2018 with more than 25 million total subscribers, a net gain of 8 million for the year. The 47% year-over-year growth in subscribers for 2018 gives Hulu more video customers than the U.S.’s biggest pay-TV providers — including Comcast, one of its owners.

Netflix’s new chief financial officer will receive $10 million in total compensation, a more generous pay package than was afforded his predecessor, according to a new regulatory filing. Spencer Neumann will earn $5 million in salary and receive $5 million in stock options.

Nielsen is enhancing its cross-platform campaign measurement of advertising inventory through the inclusion of mobile and over-the-top (OTT) audiences. The ratings firms is looking to provide media buyers and sellers with better measurement and monetization of campaigns across TV and digital.

No, CBS and Viacom won’t merge (but Verizon will be a buyer), Netflix growth will slow as Disney goes OTT, a tech giant will gobble up a major studio, Sean Hannity will leave Fox News and more bold forecasts.

The show, which will be featured on Snapchat Discover during the Golden Globes, will offer regular updates as awards are handed out.

The TV and OTT landscapes continue to shift and slide as consumers adopt digital video and streaming options, and the companies producing long-form content make bets on where audiences will spend their time. Here are eight digital video market predictions for 2019.

TV station groups all across the country, like Tegna, Cox, and the ABC-owned stations, are using Megaphone TV’s live polling, live voting and live trivia on social and on-air to drive and hold viewers during their newscasts. “We look at it as something that helps us connect with our viewers and helps our viewers connect with us, and it gets our viewers to be heard,” said Rhonda LaVelle, WXYZ Detroit’s news director.

High-tech tools for immigration crackdowns. Fears of smartphone addiction. YouTube algorithms that steer youths into extremism. An experiment in gene-edited babies. Doorbells and concert venues that can pinpoint individual faces and alert police. Repurposing genealogy websites to hunt for crime suspects based on a relative’s DNA. Automated systems that keep tabs of workers’ movements and habits. Electric cars in Shanghai transmitting their every movement to the government. It’s been enough to exhaust even the most imaginative sci-fi visionaries.

Roku said on Wednesday it will begin offering premium video channels to customers for a subscription fee as it expands its free streaming video service. Premium channels from CBS Corp.’s Showtime, Lionsgate-owned Starz and Noggin from Viacom, among others, will be available to viewers of the Roku Channel, a free video service offered to owners of Roku streaming video devices.

In 2018, TVNewsCheck reported the deaths of outstanding men and women who shaped television as actors, lawmakers, producers, business people, journalists and on-air personalities. Here’s a look back at some of those influencers.