mass media
Streaming viewership surpassed cable TV for the first time, says Nielsen
Streaming viewership reached new highs last month, exceeding cable usage for the first time, according to Nielsen. The measurement firm today released its total TV and streaming report for July,…
YouTube may launch a channel store for streaming services, report says
YouTube may be looking to launch an online channel store for streaming services through the YouTube app, positioning itself in direct competition with Amazon, Roku, and Apple, three tech giants…
Sling TV continues to drop subscribers, loses 55K subscribers in second quarter
Dish reported today that its streaming service Sling TV declined in subscribers during the second quarter of 2022, with a net loss of 55,000. This significantly differs from the first…
Paramount+ joins The Roku Channel’s premium subscription lineup, bringing more live sports
Paramount+ and all its films, TV shows, originals, 24/7 news and live sports will arrive on The Roku Channel as a premium subscription later this month. The launch brings live…
Roku points finger at advertising slowdown for missing the mark on quarterly results
In this current climate, Roku needed a win. Despite the company reporting total net revenue growth of 18% year over year to $764 million– a nice increase from $737.7 million…
Babbel, the popular subscription-based online language learning service, today announced a couple of updates about its U.S. businesses — the Berlin-based company’s largest market by overall revenue and its fastest-growing…
YouTube TV now has topped 5 million subscribers and ‘trialers,’ says Google
YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan confirmed today a new milestone for YouTube’s live TV streaming service, YouTube TV. Speaking on a panel at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference, the exec…
YouTube will disable hidden subscriber counts to fight comment spam
Spam isn’t a new problem for social media, but everyone seems to agree that it’s gotten a lot worse lately. YouTube is chipping away at its own spam woes with…
Music distributor DistroKid expands into music video distribution with ‘DistroVid’
Record labels used to be the one ticket into the music industry. Now, it’s easier than ever for struggling musicians to get their music and video content out there. DistroKid,…
Google and the Internet Archive are the first customers to gain commercial access to Wikipedia content
Google is going to start paying for its use of Wikipedia information to help power its knowledge panels in Google Search. The search giant, along with the digital library the…
Paramount+ announces plan for 150 international originals ahead of UK and Ireland launch
Over a year after its initial launch in the U.S., streaming service Paramount+ will be available in the U.K. and Ireland on Wednesday, June 22. Its international slate of seven…
YouTube Music introduces seasonal recap playlists to compete with Spotify Wrapped
YouTube Music has launched a new feature called seasonal recaps, a culmination of your top artists, songs, albums and playlists. “Spring Recap” will be the first recap that users can…
EU unveils tougher industry Code to combat disinformation
The European Commission has just taken the wraps off a beefed up industry Code of Practice for tackling online disinformation across the EU. Signatories to the Code — who include…
Google and Meta closing ads in Russia helped Putin, argues Navalny
Jailed Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny, has hit out at adtech giants Meta and Google for shutting off advertising inside Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine which he argues has…
Spotify hypes the revenue potential of podcasts and audiobooks at its second Investor Day event
In its second Investor Day, streaming service Spotify updated the financial community about its potential for further growth and monetization, despite the overall economic downturn impacting the tech sector. The…
SiriusXM acquires Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco podcast company for $150 million
SiriusXM Holdings, Inc. announced the acquisition of Team Coco today, the Conan O’Brien-led podcast network and digital media business. The $150 million deal (valuation first reported by The Wall Street…
Candle Media, the new media company co-backed by former Disney execs, acquires Gen Z-focused ATTN: for $100M
Candle Media, the new media company headed by former Disney execs, Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, has made another acquisition — this time with an eye on social storytelling and…
Amazon’s free streaming service Freevee launches on Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD
The free ad-supported streaming service (FAST), Amazon Freevee (formerly IMDb TV) announced that the Freevee app is now available through the App Store on Apple TV 4K and Apple TV…
Virtual product placement ads are coming to Amazon Prime Video and Peacock
Announced at this month’s NewFronts, Amazon and Peacock demonstrated new ad formats that use similar virtual product placement (VPP) tools, a post-production technique for inserting a brand into a TV…
Watch the latest TechCrunch Live here: Raising monster rounds for self-driving mobility startups
TechCrunch Live records, well, live every Wednesday at noon Pacific, and it’s a great time. The events are free, and is available to watch on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. However,…
YouTube Shorts gains a TikTok-like ‘Green Screen’ feature
YouTube is expanding on its latest feature that made any public YouTube video potential fodder for its TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts. Today, the company is announcing the launch of “Green…
YouTube TV brings more Spanish-language programming with new Spanish Plan & Spanish Plus add-on
As promised back in September 2021, YouTube TV has added two Spanish-language options: the Spanish Plan and the add-on, Spanish Plus. While the two new options sound similar, there are…
Discovery+ becomes The Roku Channel Premium Subscription’s first ad-supported plan offering
Roku and Warner Bros. Discovery announced today that discovery+ has launched as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel. Discovery+ will add its 70,000 episodes of network shows along with…
US podcast ad revenue to reach $2 billion in 2022 and top $4 billion by 2024, study says
In the last year or so, the podcast advertising industry has turned a corner. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC’s 2021 U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study, the…
Any book lover knows the feeling: The incredible novel you’re reading ends with a vicious cliffhanger, and all you want to do is gab with other fans about what might…
Roku snags Martha Stewart, Emeril and others for its original programming push
It is the second day of NewFronts, and the announcements continue. Roku today said it will extend its content library in hopes to target audiences who are fans of lifestyle,…
Tubi reports record growth, expands original content and linear channel offerings
Tubi, a division of Fox Entertainment, highlighted its growth in streaming over the past year as well as its increase in original content and entertainment FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV)…
Streaming ad spend grew 57% in 2021 reaching $15.2B, market to more than double from 2020 to 2022
Ahead of the start of the 2022 IAB NewFronts, where media and entertainment companies pitch their upcoming offerings to advertisers, the industry group behind the multi-day show released its annual…
Roku experiences slow growth with only 1.1 million accounts added in first quarter
Roku’s first quarter of 2022 shows signs of slowdown, particularly with a slowing of total net revenue and subscriber growth, which was below what analysts estimated. There was a significant…
HBO Max app just had one of its best quarters to date, but app performance still has room to improve
Sensor Tower’s “Q1 2022: Store Intelligence Data Digest” report saw HBO Max as a top contender for the most downloaded apps in the U.S. Not only did the app make…
