04/06/16: Twitter nabs Thursday Night Football NFL streaming rights; Yahoo gets MLB streaming rights; Comcast and Disney ink licensing deal



CYNOPSISDIGITAL
04.06.16

Good morning. It’s Wednesday April 6, 2016, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

TODAY’S CODEBREAKER
 

HDMI: An abbreviation of High-Definition Multimedia Interface. An HDMI interface is used for transferring video data and digital audio data from a source device to a different, compatible device, such as a television or a computer monitor. For example, Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick are widely-used HDMI-based devices
 
 

TOP NEWS

 
And we have a winner. After months of speculation as to which digital outlet would land the streaming rights for next season’s Thursday Night Football games, Twitter has struck a deal with the NFL. (Verizon and Amazon had also been in the running; Facebook recently pulled out of talks.) The games – which will also be broadcast linearly by CBS and NBC, will be free to watch via mobile phones, tablets, PCs and connected TVs; viewers don’t even need to be registered Twitter users.  Additional content will include live pre- and post-game Periscope broadcasts from players and teams. No deal terms were disclosed, but it’s safe to guess that Twitter paid a fortune. It’s easy to see why: The growth of Twitter’s core business has slowed of late, and it needed a shot in the arm. In particular, the company has taken several recent efforts to up its video advertising game; needless to say, live NFL games are likely to help on that front.
 
Yahoo announced that it will live-stream 180 Major League Baseball games for free during the 2016 season. The company is already selling ads and sponsorships for the webcasts. The MLB partnership comes on the heels of Yahoo’s recent live-streaming pact with the NHL. Yahoo has been in a state of extreme upheaval lately, but as both Yahoo and Twitter can attest, live sports are a safe bet for a company that finds itself on uncertain footing.
 
Under a new licensing agreement between Disney and Comcast, Comcast customers are now able to purchase an array of Disney films. Titles from the Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and other Disney-owned libraries are included in the deal. (Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now available.) Titles will be available directly through the TV, as well as via the Xfinity TV website.
 
Following in the footsteps of HBO and Showtime, Starz has launched a new OTT service. But unlike those other networks, the Starz service allows users to directly download content to iOS and Android devices, enabling a user to watch without Wi-Fi access. A la carte, the service costs $8.99 month; current Starz subscribers can access it for free.
 


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PLATFORMS
 

OWNZONES, a digital content platform enabling creators to distribute their programming, has launched the new multi-platform OWNZONES Media Network. The network features customized distribution and programming services for OTT and set-top box services. Flipps, a mobile app that delivers on-demand content onto TVs, will be part of the new network. The network has also joined Binge On, the T-Mobile data plan that allows for unlimited streaming of select digital services. Speaking of which…
 
T-Mobile has also added Amazon Prime Music, Nickelodeon, Epix, ESPN Radio, Spike, Dailymotion, and a handful of other services to its Binge On program. (Technically the audio component of the program is called Music Freedom.) Users can consume content from all Binge On/Music Freedom partners without eating into their data plans. 
 
 

MOBILE VIDEO
 

Some news out of MipTV: The European mass media company Vivendi is going mobile. Vivendi Content, its newly-launched division, will be launching Studio Plus, a production label devoted to creating international series for mobile screens. The new service will be launching a new series each week; an interval of just a few months will separate each season. Studio Plus will debut in France with about 25 short-form series, according to Variety; about 60 more series are in development. The service will debut in 20 countries in Europe and Latin America by the end of the year.  
 
Comedy.com stopped being funny years ago – largely because it ceased to exist. Now it’s made an unexpected comeback. The site is relaunching as a mobile comedy network for iOS and Android. (Its web presence is largely devoted to directing users to the apps.) Variety reports that the launch is headed by Barak Shragai and Dor Mizrahi, who raised $1.5 million in funding last May, and have since tested the network in beta. The new Comedy.com has signed about two-dozen creators from various digital platforms, and will also aggregate third-party content. The goal, Shragai says, is to be putting out 70% original content by the end of 2016. 
 
 

ADVERTISING
 

MediaRadar, the ad sales intelligence company that tracks how ad dollars are spent for print, digital, and mobile clients, is now adding a TV component to its business. The new linear TV analysis tool, the company says, will provide ad sales intelligence surrounding 2.6 million brands, tailoring its recommendations to individual sales reps. “In the last year, linear ad sales teams have started to consolidate with digital,” Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-Founder of MediaRadar, told Cynopsis Digital. “Fox, NBC and Viacom all announced this publicly. This means that the same rep or team of reps manage the advertiser relationship across formats. That’s a lot of new complexity for the individual sales rep. And the transition is happening quickly. We observe today that approximately 30% of buys are already purchased together, across linear and digital formats. The sales rep needs advertiser insights, across formats, on-demand. The biggest consequence to incomplete or inaccurate information,” he continued, “is that you become irrelevant. Marketers turn to ad sales professionals to provide a consultative sell, someone who can deliver a solution, and an audience. If the sales rep is prepared and understands the client’s business through-and-through, they become an essential partner to the marketer. If not, they lose the trust and lose the business.”
 
 

PROGRAMMING
 

New Form Digital has released eight new short-form scripted pilots. The pilots come as part of New Form Digital’s Incubator series for emerging content creators. This marks the third round of Incubator projects. (New Form is dubbing it Incubator Series 3.) You can learn about the individual pilots here.

 

Endemol Shine Beyond UK, Endemol’s UK digital video arm, has launched Pretty Upfront, a new female lifestyle channel on YouTube. The channel, featuring content from digital stars such as Fearne Cotton and Madeleine Shaw, is heavy on beauty, make-up, and fashion content.
 
Seeso, the recently-launched comedy SVOD service from NBCU, has renewed the reality TV spoof Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ for a second season. The show is the first Seeso original to be renewed.
 
 

DEVICES
 

At the end of this month, Roku will launch the newest version of the Roku Streaming Stick, its HDMI-based streaming adapter. As compared to its previous Stick, Roku says the new device will deliver improved Wi-Fi performance and a less sluggish streaming experience. The device, which will retail at $50, will also enable headphone-listening through the Roku mobile app. So, why devote resources to a streaming stick when the company is best known for its set-top boxes? Simple: Roku is keeping up with competitors like Amazon and Google, which offer widely used (and relatively inexpensive) streaming sticks of their own.
 
 

DEALS
 

Acorn, the Anglophile-friendly entertainment brand owned by RLJ entertainment, has acquired all US TV, digital, and home entertainment rights to The Secret Agent, the upcoming espionage series from World Productions. The series will make its UK broadcast debut later this year on BBC One, and its US debut on the Acorn TV streaming service. 
 
 

RESEARCH

 
The ListenFirst Television Interest (TVI) Rating (TM) is a standardized measurement of the most buzzed-about TV programs on linear TV and streaming services. A complement to ListenFirst’s other syndicated data products (such as the ListenFirst Digital Audience Rating – TV), the metrics included in the rating are the purest form of showing interest digitally, since they’re organic actions that are largely unaffected by paid media. Programs that surface on the TVI leaderboards are the most hashtagged on Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr, as well as most searched for on Wikipedia (used as a proxy for organic search volume).
 
Streaming Series (3/28/16 – 4/3/16)
 
[] 
Source: ListenFirst. The TVI Rating aggregates metrics that measure organically generated activity by fans of the TV show. The metric includes total volume of official hashtag mentions on Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr, along with Wikipediapage views (as a proxy for organic search volume) for a show as a percentage of the total volume of the same activities for all shows.
 
Wowza. eMarketer projects that programmatic digital display ad spends will reach
$22.10 billion in 2016. If eMarketer’s projections prove accurate, that would include more than two thirds of the digital display advertising purchased in 2016.
 
Watcheroo Premieres and Tune-in Alerts:
– The Season Two premiere of Starz original series Outlander will be available to Starz subscribers tomorrow, April 7, via the Starz app, Starz.com, and multiple TV and online on-demand platforms. The season makes its linear debut April 9.
Watcheroo is Cynopsis Digital’s tune-in guide, categorized alphabetically by platform or network. Programming includes digital premieres, ongoing shows, live-streamed events and linear TV digital integrated series.
 
 

TRIVIA

Justin Kan co-founded which live-streaming video service? You can find the answer here.
 


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DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT
 

Does the March Madness tournament scream “digital”? Not particularly. Was the final game so spectacular as to merit a Digital Spotlight entry nonetheless? You betcha. Check out a quick video overview of the game here.

See you tomorrow,
David Teich
04.06.16

Roberta Caploe: Publisher @robertacaploe
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