Detroit’s WXYZ Has It All At Auto Show
According to a new Local Watch Report from Nielsen, there were 16 million homes it classifies as getting its TV over the air, rather than from a traditional cable, satellite or telco pay-TV provider. That’s up 48% over the past eight years. But Nielsen says what’s going on in those over-the-air homes is changing. Nielsen breaks down those home into those with no subscription VOD services, or “No VOD” and those with SVOD, or “Plus SVOD.” A new sub-segment of the Plus SVOD group is emerging, according to Nielsen, and those are the 1.3 million homes that as of May 2018 had a virtual MVPD like Sling TV, DirecTV Now or YouTube TV.
Bonnie Hammer is moving to oversee NBCU’s forthcoming streaming service as Mark Lazarus and Jeff Shell take on expanded roles running the media conglomerate’s TV operations.
The New York Times is pushing further into voice products for smart speakers. On Friday, the company announced that it’s launching a weekday flash news briefing called The New York Times Briefing for Alexa-enabled devices (hosted by Michael Barbaro, who is a busy man). It’s also debuting a weekly interactive news quiz from The Daily’s producers.
Exclusives
The National Association of Broadcasters’ “We Are Broadcasters” initiative will host a Twitter Chat Jan. 15 at 1 p.m. ET on the role of Spanish-language broadcasting. Online to chat about the “explosion” of Spanish-language broadcast content will be Fernando Pizzaro, Washington correspondent for Univision, and former Univision journalist Maria Elena Salinas.
For cord cutters and streaming lovers, 2019 will mean two things: A raft of new streaming services will hit the scene, and users will see major changes to viewing libraries. Two major new streaming services will launch this year from Disney and WarnerMedia. That means more movies, TV shows and originals, but also greater stratification. Here’s what to look out for this year.
Andrew Heyward: “As a loyal viewer (and alumnus) of WCBS-TV in New York, I admit I find the station’s promotional tagline — “Expect More” — unintentionally ambiguous, as in “Frankly, I expected more.” But all that’s changed now that CBS has rolled out the station’s 24/7 live streaming service, CBSN New York, with other CBS markets to follow. Who could possibly expect (or ask for) more than round-the-clock live breaking news, local coverage and weather, streamed on the station’s website and available on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV and CBS mobile apps?”
Netflix’s stock is beginning 2019 on a hot streak, rising more than 24% in January to date. Shares gained another 1.5% Thursday to close at $324.66 and rose nearly another 2% in after-hours trading. A big boost to investor sentiment came late Thursday afternoon when UBS analyst Eric Sheridan upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral” and raised his 12-month price target to $410 from $400. Healthy numbers are expected Jan. 17 when Netflix releases 4Q results.
The streaming service struck a partnership with Amazon this fall to make Hulu available on the Echo Show, a tablet that’s powered Alexa.
Hulu, the video-streaming hub that is owned by Comcast, Fox and Disney, will launch its own effort to help sponsors determine “attribution,” or whether the ads people see spur a consumer to make a purchase or take some other concrete action, like sign up to take a test drive at a car dealership. “We have advertisers who want to move more quickly into that,” says Julie DeTraglia, head of research at Hulu.
Will it soon be possible to pay one fee for Netflix, Amazon and Hulu? Observers increasingly believe it’s inevitable that the era of bundled streamers is near as households tire of paying an average $107 a month for cable.
Warner Bros. has promoted Jay Levine to a newly created corporate post as EVP television business strategy and digital services. Levine will report directly to Warner Bros. Chairman-CEO Kevin Tsujihara on all matters related to television, and to the studio’s chief digital officer and executive vp strategy and business development, Thomas Gewecke, for the digital side of things.
A new multi-year agreement brings Comscore’s linear and non-linear measurement to all Nexstar markets.
“We are active in the OTT space,” Viacom CEO Bob Bakish said Wednesday. “We are also active in the SVOD space through our third-party production business.” A growing part of this strategy will be to lean into mobile, said Bakish. “Mobile distribution really is the catalyst that will turn this whole decline of television argument on its head.”
Executives from Viacom, Sling TV, Discovery and Group Nine said Wednesday at CES that holding on to audiences in a fragmented video ecosystem comes down to leveraging quality brands and embracing the platform agnosticism that their audiences already follow.
The three companies will jointly develop and commercialize a broadcasting network-based automotive platform in the U.S. and globally. The advanced automotive platform will be applied with ATSC 3.0-based broadcasting solutions to provide terrestrial TV broadcasting, HD map updates, V2X, etc. The three companies will seek business opportunities in the global market for connected cars.
AT&T’s Turner networks and advertising business Xandr said Tuesday they have begun using the wireless carrier’s customer data to help advertisers better reach audiences across Turner brands like CNN and TBS on TV and over digital platforms.
Sinclair Hopes To Create OTT Stir With Stirr
The group’s planned package of ad-supported channels, including local news and programming, will be available via the Roku and Amazon Fire OTT TV platforms, via apps for Apple and Android smartphones and on the Web.
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.
The Local Media Consortium (LMC), a strategic alliance of leading local media companies, elected executive board members Nicole Goksel of Tribune Media, Jeff Moriarty from GateHouse Media and Newsday’s Andrea […]
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.
