| | | | From the Newfronts kicking off this week to Hulu making power moves (buys Seinfeld rights for $160MM, drops mic) to compete with Netflix and Amazon, there's never a dull moment in our rapidly evolving industry. Just as important, we're trying a new layout! Let us know if you like this format, with a bit of teaser copy or the old format with just the links.
Here's the top three from Sunday: Streaming Overtakes Live TV Among Consumer Viewing Preferences - Variety As Cable Industry Unravels, Opportunity For Brands To Trade Sales For Content - Forbes Taking Streaming/OTT Experience To The Next Level - MediaPost Follow us on Twitter for the full "firehose" of every link we find interesting - even the ones that don't make the final cut. |
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NewFronts
How MCNs Are Courting Ad Buyers With Facebook, Snapchat and Vessel Facebook might not have an official presence at the Digital Content NewFronts in New York, but it’s almost certain that advertisers will be hearing a lot about the social networking giant and other emerging video platforms during the next two weeks.
Hollywood Reporter
Digital Players Push Superiority to TV
At this year’s Digital Content NewFronts, expect to hear a recurring theme from Internet media firms: We’re a better ad buy than TV, especially for targeting younger audiences.Over the two-week NewFronts run from April 27-May 7 in New York City, 34 companies have scheduled presentations — up from 22 last year.
Variety
Yahoo’s Mayer Bullish on Video For Magazines, Lukewarm on ‘Yahoo Screen’
Yahoo plans to produce lots more original video content tied to its growing stable of digital magazines. It has also secured the rights to stream more live concerts and music festivals, while continuing to dabble in scripted content.
WSJ
Maker Studios Touts Disney Synergies with Marvel, ESPN
Maker Studios unveiled a slate of shortform programming Tuesday at its NewFronts energized with synergies with the many content powerhouses of its owner, Walt Disney Co. Marvel, ESPN and ABC’s Lincoln Square Prods. were among the many entities teaming up with the massive multichannel network in order to get Maker’s target millennial audience feasting on content across the Disney universe. Disney acquired Maker in March 2014.
Variety
Over The Top
Netflix Ratings Revealed: New Data Sheds Light on Original Series’ Audience Levels
One of the media business’s best-kept secrets isn’t entirely confidential after all: Netflix audience ratings. Select content companies have been turning to San Diego-based Luth Research, which has assembled a sizable panel of Netflix subscribers in the U.S. as a means of determining the most popular programs on the streaming service.
Variety
Meet the hackers who smuggled the Netflix of piracy aboard your iPad
The most controversial app available for your iPhone and iPad isn’t in the App Store. Popcorn Time let’s users stream pirated TV shows and movies as easily as they would stream Netflix, and has made waves with millions of defiant users, thanks to the virtual middle finger it flips at movie and TV producers. A new free Popcorn Time app for non-jailbroken iOS devices went live on April 8. We’ve used it, and we’ve talked to the folks that made it.
Digital Trends
Is Hulu Ready to Take on Netflix and Amazon?
When Hulu launched in 2008, the ad-supported streaming service wasn't a big priority for owners Fox, Disney and NBC. "It was like, if the ship is going to blow, at least we have an escape pod, but we don't want to equip this escape pod so well that everyone would prefer it to being on the ship with us," Forrester analyst James McQuivey put it.
Adweek
Hollywood Studios Win Landmark Court Victory Blocking Popcorn Time Sites
On Tuesday, the Motion Picture Association of America and its members won a big ruling from a U.K. High Court when a justice there agreed to issue website blocking orders against several Popcorn Time websites.
Hollywood Reporter
Cable
Cablevision is the first cable company to sell Hulu, but how?
Cablevision was already the first provider to start pushing HBO Now for its internet subscribers, and today it's announcing a deal with Hulu. The two have reached an agreement to bring Hulu's VOD catalog to Optimum customers, but exactly what that means is unclear.
Engadget
The Comcast-Time Warner Merger Died so OTT Video Could Live
If the deal had gone through, it would have created a monster accounting for 57 percent of U.S. broadband subscribers. A combined Comcast-Time Warner would have had unthinkable market power, influence and control over substantial programming interests.
Wireless Week
Charter Communications makes another play for Time Warner Ever have that ex that just wouldn't leave you alone? So does Time Warner Cable. Less than 24 hours after news broke that Comcast was backing out of its merger deal with Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications stepped in to start wooing the company. Charter Communications, the third-largest cable TV provider in the U.S., is already having low-level talks with TWC advisors, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. The only trouble: Time Warner Cable tried once before to escape Charter, and in fact signed the deal with Comcast specifically to avoid it.
Mashable
ESPN Sues Verizon For Breaching Contract With "Custom TV" Offering
You knew this was coming, right? ESPN just took Verizon to court, charging that FiOS’ new “Custom TV” offering — which gives subscribers an opportunity to buy a basic package without the sports channel — violates their carriage agreement. “ESPN is at the forefront of embracing innovative ways to deliver high-quality content and value to consumers on multiple platforms, but that must be done in compliance with our agreements,” the company says in a statement. “We simply ask that Verizon abide by the terms of our contracts.”
Deadline |
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Heads up: this section will be moving *out* of the newsletter shortly to a webpage; we'll replace it with "newly announced/discovered conferences" as we find them.
The Internet & Television Expo INTX 2015 (Chicago, May 5-7)
The APAC Television Symposium (Singapore, May 14-15)
Future TV Advertising Forum Canada (Toronto, May 21)
OTT Executive Summit (NYC, June 17)
The TV of Tomorrow Show (SF, June 23-24)
Connected TV World Summit 2015 (London, June 24-25)
SNL Kagan TV and Radio Finance Summit (NYC, June 25) |
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