OTT/Streaming
TiVo: Smart TVs Deliver the Fastest Search, Discovery (Next TV)
According to the tech company’s latest survey, it takes 10.3 minutes on average using a smart TV’s interface to find a new movie or TV show vs. 12 minutes for Apple TV.... More
Netflix Content Spending to Top $17B in 2020 (Variety)
Netflix is keeping its foot pressed firmly on the gas pedal in the streaming-video road race. The streamer will invest around $17.3 billion this year in content on a cash basis, ac... More
NBCUniversal’s Peacock Ends Phase One of the Streaming Era (CNBC)
In what’s become a right of passage in the world of media and entertainment, Comcast’s NBCUniversal will unveil Peacock, its new video streaming service, during the company’s... More
With Stars Made for Streaming, Nature Shows are Hot Again (NY Times)
Wildlife’s global, family appeal, when the environment is “the issue of the age,” gives Netflix and its rivals a rich supply of new content. ... More
Apple Has its Eye on MGM (Ampere Insights)
Apple has reportedly been in talks with MGM in a bid to acquire content to bolster the Apple TV+ catalogue, which will be particularly important when its free trial periods start t... More
Streaming Wars Will Force Media Companies to Choose Between Pricey Subscriptions and Sitting Through Ads (CNBC)
The streaming wars are poised to heat up in a big way in 2020, but that doesn’t mean consumers are jazzed to open up their wallets for them. HBO Max is scheduled to launch in May... More
How to Solve the Smart TV Challenge for OTT (Irdeto Perspective)
The streaming wars are intensifying as content owners like Disney go direct to consumer and Telcos and OTT-only operators like Amazon snap up live sports rights. At the same time t... More
The Rise of Streaming is Sapping Cable TV Programming (Digiday)
Cable TV networks are contending with an existential crisis. Not only are their linear TV audiences eroding, but so is the market for programming they can acquire to keep the viewe... More
What the Death of iTunes Says About Our Digital Habits (The Atlantic)
We started the 2010s obsessed with our electronic hygiene—and ended them a nation of digital hoarders. Eleven ideas about the decade that killed iTunes.... More
The Appetite for Live Streaming is Bigger Than Ever (The Verge)
It would be easy to assume that because competition is so stiff among live-streaming platforms — for talent, for eyeballs — that the market is zero-sum. But as it turns out, th... More
Disney+ Was the Most Downloaded App in the U.S. in Q4 2019 (TechCrunch)
U.S. consumers have shown strong interest in Disney’s new family-friendly streaming service, Disney+, according to new data from Sensor Tower, which focused on app trends in the ... More
U.S. Home Entertainment Market Topped $25B in 2019, With 63% Coming From Streaming (Variety)
Consumer spending on home entertainment rose 8.4% to a record $25.2 billion in 2019, spurred by the at-home sector’s biggest growth engine — digital, according to DEG: The Digi... More
Oscars: Netflix Leads All Hollywood Studios With 24 Nominations (THR)
Streaming made Hollywood history again Monday as Netflix picked up a leading 24 Oscar nominations, marking the first time that the company has earned more than any major studio or ... More
Fox Soul, a New Streaming Service, Targets African-American Viewers (Deadline)
Fox Television Stations is rolling out Fox Soul, a live, ad-supported streaming channel aimed at African-American viewers. The free channel will combine a set of new original progr... More
NBCUniversal’s Peacock Aims to be the Comfort Food of Streaming TV (IBD)
Comcast-owned NBCUniversal plans to detail its Peacock streaming video service on Jan. 16. But at CES 2020, an executive described the general strategy behind the content on the vi... More
Adapt or Die: Why 2020 Will Be All About Entertainment’s New Streaming Battleground (Variety)
From a consolidation of historic Hollywood studios and the reunification of two major media companies to Apple taking the leap into content as the streaming wars ensue, 2019 was a ... More
Netflix Copycats Get Put to the Test in 2020 (Bloomberg)
HBO Max and Peacock are coming soon, but the incumbent streaming-video service still has an advantage.... More
2020 to be the Year of Direct-to-Consumer Video (Rapid TV News)
2020 will represent a profound step toward a future where more OTT content goes direct-to-consumer and video-on-demand reaches 900 million subscriptions worldwide, according to a n... More
Quibi Versus the World (The Verge)
Can Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman change everything about video on your phone?... More
Cable Lost, but Streaming Services Aren’t Ready to Celebrate (Bloomberg)
People have been talking about the streaming era for so long that it’s hard to imagine the tipping point just happened. In 2019 the rate of Americans quitting cable went from ste... More
