Digital

Peacock has a serial TV problem and is counting on a pandemic-delayed pipeline of programming to help overcome it. More than a year after its launch, NBCUniversal’s streaming service lacks the buzzy original TV shows of its rivals or even the fan-friendly Star Trek offerings of Paramount Plus, the ViacomCBS service formerly known as CBS All Access. And while top brass praised Peacock as “headed in the right direction” during Comcast’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts last week, the lack of breakthrough hits, considered key to streamer growth, suggests the service has much work to do before it becomes truly competitive with its rivals.

Roku stock dropped sharply in after-hours trading after the company reported third quarter revenue that fell just short of Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimate. Revenue of $680 million missed the Street number by a bit more than $3 million. On the bottom line, though, earnings per share of 48 cents far outpaced the estimate of 6 cents.

Integral Ad Science (IAS) this morning announced it has been accredited by the Media Rating Council for impression and viewability measurement and reporting of display and video ads across Facebook and Instagram.

Though Netflix’s most popular (OK, “sampled”) original series has yet to be renewed for any additional season, the nine-episode Korean thriller will compete as a drama series, and not as a limited series, at upcoming awards shows (including next fall’s Emmys). It thus will throw in against the anticipated likes of Succession, Better Call Saul‘s final season, The White Lotus and the farewell season of This Is Us.

FuboTV has fully integrated with Dentsu International’s M1 people-based identity and data platform to better target the live sports viewers on its live streaming TV platform. The companies said that advertisers can now use M1’s connected individual, device and panel data across fuboTV’s connected TV inventory that includes 50,000 live sports events per year along with more than 100 sports, news and entertainment channels.

Netflix is officially ready to compete with the likes of Fortnite, launching its expansion into the gaming world. Starting today, the streamer has rolled out five exclusive mobile games to all Android subscribers, including two based off its Stranger Things franchise.

While urging Comcast to get out of the video business altogether, LightShed Partners’ Richard Greenfield assembles a rather bleak snapshot for the conglomerate’s struggling streaming service.

After more than a decade of controversy, Facebook will halt its use of facial recognition technology.

The streaming service’s new agreements with Hearst, Citadel, Morris Network and others add more than 70 stations from top DMAs including Boston, Baltimore, Orlando and Pittsburgh.

Charter looks poised to go over the top, with Chairman Tom Rutledge telling investors that he “likes the Comcast model of putting its platform on televisions.”

Competing with SpaceX, OneWeb and others, the e-commerce titan will rely on small rockets to get prototypes of its satellite constellation into space.

In the span of one month, Comcast has gone from outlier in the streaming platform market to suddenly having a robust smart TV strategy on two continents.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a director of strategy and creative, two digital sales managers, a director of technology and an anchor/reporter for stations owned by Nexstar, Gray, Lockwood and Heritage Broadcasting.

There was a lot of advance hype for the FX series American Crime Story: Impeachment with Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton. But it won’t be available on any major streaming platform for another 10 months, and that’s a problem in 2021.

If his new strategy works — a big if — it could help address several of Facebook’s biggest problems.

In the wake of a court order that permanently shut down Locast, the erstwhile provider of free streams of local broadcast TV feeds is now on the hook to pay $32 million in statutory damages after agreeing to settle a copyright lawsuit brought by ABC, CBS, Fox and NBCUniversal.

Facebook the app, along with Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, are here to stay; the company’s corporate structure also won’t change. But on Dec. 1, its shares will start trading under a new ticker symbol, “MVRS.”

What does a dual channel TV future of both streaming and linear mean for the ad business? The implications are significant.

Netflix’s Squid Game utterly dominated Nielsen’s latest U.S. streaming ranking, and it did so by joining the elite “3 Billion Club” — as in, total minutes viewed during the week-long evaluation period.