Business
Film Commissioners, Producers Discuss Production Incentives at AFCI Show (Variety)
A superpanel composed of 13 film commissioners, producers and reps from production service companies addressed on Friday the global mosaic of tax credits and other incentives that ... More
NBC Universal Acquires DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 Billion (HMM)
As expected, Comcast unit NBC Universal is acquiring DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, which is a 27% premium on DWA’s inflated stock price since scuttlebutt about a possibl... More
AWS, Pitney Bowes Partnering on New Commerce Cloud (eWeek)
Pitney Bowes will run Commerce Cloud on AWS infrastructure and operate alongside the AWS Marketplace. PB already has launched seven services in the AWS Marketplace for Location Int... More
Comcast in Talks to Buy DreamWorks Animation for More Than $3 Billion (WSJ)
Comcast Corp. is in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. for more than $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that could make the cable giant a r... More
The Charter-Time Warner Merger Would Create a New Internet Giant (WIRED)
Regulators are paving the way for a merger that could create a new Internet giant. The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice are set to approve Charter’... More
Microsoft’s Azure IoT Takes to the Skies with Rolls-Royce (ZDNet)
Rolls-Royce will use Microsoft Azure IoT Suite and Cortana Intelligence Suite to support current and future generations of its intelligent aircraft engines. Rolls-Royce engines pow... More
YouTube’s Quest for TV Advertising Dollars (WSJ)
Cord-cutting is on the rise, ratings for many networks are in decline, Web video consumption is surging and there’s a new crop of stars on digital media. Surely, marketers are ch... More
NAB 2016: NAB Show Attendance Tops 103,000 (TV Technology)
The National Association of Broadcasters announced today preliminary registered attendance of 103,012 for the 2016 NAB Show. The exhibition featured 1,874 companies spanning 1,063,... More
Video Ads Are Better Than Ever On Social Platforms (MediaPost)
With Instagram opening up its platform with an advertising API and Pinterest offering a programmatic solution, it’s a good time to market on social media. New data from Kinetic�... More
Verizon Will Pilot 5G Fixed Wireless in 2017 (Light Reading)
Verizon will have a fixed wireless 5G pilot up and running in 2017, CFO Fran Shammo told investment analysts today. That statement came in a first-quarter earnings call that reinfo... More
China Shuts Down Apple’s Film and Book Services (THR)
Apple Inc.'s movie and book services have abruptly gone dark in China, just six months after they were launched there. China is Apple's second-largest market by revenue, and the sh... More
NCTA: We’ll Sue If FCC Set-Top Box Proposal Stands (B&C)
National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell says his association will sue if the FCC's set-top proposal is adopted. In a press conference with reporter... More
NAB Show: MESA Member Focus
By Chris Tribbey The Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA) asked its members attending the NAB Show to highlight what they offered at the annual confab. This is the fir... More
Digital Media Is a Slippery Pyramid (Bloomberg Gadfly)
Let the events of the past week serve as the 4,271st iteration of the same lesson: Digital media is hard. Every six months or so, companies that seemed to have cracked the formula... More
See it, Get it: How Wymsee Crafted a New Product for the Film Industry (The Heights)
One day, while [Jeff] Impey and [Dan] Stefanis watched the Jason Statham action flick The Mechanic at home, one of them really liked the sunglasses Statham was wearing. Intrigued, ... More
NAB 2016: Crawford Media Services Chooses GrayMeta Iris Software for Media Workflows (MESA)
GrayMeta, a leading provider of metadata solutions that brings tremendous value to company assets, today announced that Crawford Media Services bought Iris™ software for its medi... More
AOL Deploys IBM Aspera Software to Accelerate and Automate Global Media Production and Distribution (MESA)
IBM today announced that AOL, a global digital media and technology company, has deployed a full suite of high-speed transfer and automation software from Aspera, an IBM company, a... More
NAB 2016: Ericsson, Fox Partner Up on Content Delivery (Broadcasting & Cable)
Ericsson joined Fox Innovation Lab as a partner in late February, backing the studio’s digital-first R&D initiative to better deliver content to consumers across every screen. At... More
NAB 2016: Disney TV Chief Ben Sherwood Urges Broadcasters to Take ‘Urgent, Smart Action’ (Variety)
In recent years, the NAB Show opening keynotes have been marked by rancor and suspicion toward the FCC, hostility to pay TV and patriotic rhetoric about the vital role of broadcast... More
SportsNet Pushes out the 4K: All 81 Toronto Blue Jays Regular Season Games to Air in Ultra HD (4k)
Major League Baseball delivered a TV tech frontier milestone this past Wednesday night when the Toronto Blue Jays faced off against the New York Yankees. This was done in the form ... More
