Read original story on: The Verge
Walmart is ready to compete with the likes of Chromecast and Roku in the increasingly saturated market of streaming dongles. The “Vudu Spark” will be launched this coming holiday season to help push Vudu—the Walmart-owned video streaming service—and Vudu only, into more living rooms. With such limited functionality, the massive retailer may need to set a competitive price to be a true contender.
Read original story on: THR
A theater production called The Noir Series running this weekend in Los Angeles has managed to be both a stage play and live Internet TV: tickets are available to see the show in person while special “online viewing tickets” for live streaming are also available. It’s an interesting twist on companies such as BroadwayHD and Broadway Near You that have been working to bring hit Broadway shows to movie screens around the world. These dual models could potentially open up new revenue streams for the struggling theater business.
One of the biggest stories in media this week has been Taylor Swift abruptly removing all her back catalogue from Spotify, sparking debate on the monetization strategy and shifting audience behavior of today’s music industry. Some artists have voiced their support for Swift’s decision and criticized the unfair compensation granted by streaming services.
Although Swift’s current popularity may let her defy media consumption trends, the move from ownership to subscribed access seems all but inevitable, as Spotify royalties have reportedly overtaken iTunes earnings by 13% in Europe.
Impressive as that sounds, Spotify still got beaten by Pandora in App Annie’s new Music App Index report released today, which ranked the latter as No. 1 among music apps for most downloads and monthly revenue with a reported $100 million in mobile ad revenue for the recent quarter.
Both services, however, might need to watch out for SoundCloud, an up-and-coming challenger who just signed a licensing deal with Warner Music Group. In an effort to alleviate the tension between musicians and digital music services, the deal mandates that Warner artists will get paid when all versions of their music, including the D.J. remixes and fanmade mash-ups, are played on SoundCloud.
All in all, one could say that music streaming services are taking the “breakup” with Taylor Swift pretty well.
Read original story on: The Guardian
Backed up by her record-breaking album sales, Taylor Swift and her label have made a bold decision to remove her back catalog from Spotify. Tension between musicians and streaming services over low royalties (reportedly around $0.007 per play) has been brewing for quite a while, but it took something as strong as Swift’s popularity and negotiating clout to break away from the increasingly influential streaming service. Unlikely to spread to other artists in the music industry, this incident may just be one of the growing pains for Spotify.
Read original story on: AdWeek
After going digital with a standalone streaming service, American senior citizens’ most-watched network CBS just dove deeper into the digital swirl by launching a new 24-hour digital news network, tentatively and imaginatively named CBSN. Designed to be a more casual newsroom setting than traditional news shows, the channel, set for an official launch early next month, will stream live to TV sets, laptops and mobile devices with stories from all CBS reporters.
Read original story on: Re/code
Earlier this week at the Code/Mobile event, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki confirmed an ad-free music service is on the way as the company investigates paid video subscriptions. In addition, she also revealed that about 50 percent of views are coming from mobile devices — the limited local storages make streaming a favorable choice for consuming content. As viewers spread across digital platforms and moving towards streaming instead of purchasing content, launching a subscription-based service seems like a good move for the YouTube.
Read original story on: TechCrunch
It looks like Google’s Chromecast has a new competitor as Amazon introduced the Fire TV Stick today. It is a $39 dongle that works just like Chromecast, currently priced at $35. To sweeten the deal, Amazon also throws in a free month of Prime membership, while also offering it at a discounted $19 to existing Prime subscribers. It seems to be a serious challenger to Chromecast in terms of both features and value, and we won’t be too surprised if we see an Apple TV Stick soon.
Update 10/30: The ship date for Fire TV Stick has been pushed back to January.
Read original story on: AdAge
Armed with $25 billion from its historic IPO, Alibaba is now following the footsteps of Netflix and courting Hollywood for entertainment content to sell to Chinese consumers through its set-top boxes. Its founder Jack Ma is reportedly meeting with major Hollywood studios, including Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Walt Disney Co., Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal, seeking either rights to distribute U.S. film and TV at home, or investments in studio stakes.
Read original story on: AdAge
As we reach the tipping point over whether broadcast ad budgets will start shifting to digital video, the answer seems to be a resounding yes. With cable companies gradually giving in to the pressure to unbundle — like CBS and HBO did last week — we’re on the cusp of entering a digital TV landscape where TV just becomes a homescreen to video, while TV channels become apps. In this new landscape, programmatic buying would become the norm. That would enable more targeted audience buying, more personalized cross-platform advertising, and more connected calls for real-time response.
Source: The Verge
Following HBO’s announcement offering standalone HBO GO yesterday, CBS is launching a streaming service. Dubbed CBS All Access, the service will be available for $5.99 per month, and allows subscribers to watch CBS content and classic shows online. NFL games are not being made available, though, given the huge ratings live sports still attract. As the cord-cutting movement continues to gain momentum, we expect more TV content providers to join in.
