Slack filed a complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, claiming the tech giant illegally tied its collaboration software, Microsoft Teams, to Microsoft Office, a bundling tactic Slack argues is part of a pattern of anticompetitive behavior. Microsoft responded that the company is “committed to offering customers not only the best of new innovation, but a wide variety of choice in how they purchase and use the product.”

TikTok reported it has set up a Creator Fund, to be distributed over the coming year. The goal is to “encourage those who dream of using their voices and creativity to spark inspirational careers,” wrote TikTok US General Manager Vanessa Pappas in a blog post. “The U.S. fund will start with $200 million to help support ambitious creators who are seeking opportunities to foster a livelihood through their innovative content.”

Despite such feel-good gestures, concern over security issues regarding the Chinese-owned company continues – and a group of US investors is reportedly consulting with regulators to determine whether acquiring a minority stake in the company would alleviate concerns. “We are very confident in the long-term success of TikTok and will make our plans public when we have something to announce,” said a TikTok spokesperson.

Nipping at YouTube’s heels, Spotify announced the global launch of video podcasts, allowing users to watch video content on the Spotify app on mobile and desktop. A video podcast on Spotify will sync with the audio feed, allowing multitaskers a seamless switch out of the app.

Nielsen is making sweeping changes to its digital measurement methodology, in an effort to help brands monetize in a privacy-first world. “Over the last year, we’ve been laser focused on transitioning Nielsen to become a platform company. With a privacy-centric lens, we are creating a flexible platform that we can adapt to new technology, data and regulatory changes,” said Karthik Rao, Chief Operating Officer of Nielsen. The new digital methodology is aimed at providing comparability and transparency across third-parties and the open web; broadening coverage and deepening granularity of reporting of personal and connected devices; and fostering more resilience in measurement by reducing reliance on third-parties and unreliable digital identifiers. The new methodology will start to roll out in 2021.

Integrated Media Technologies is expanding its advanced software development division to bring to market software tools and applications that automate and simplify business operations, workflows and hybrid cloud data management. IMT also announced the general availability of SoDA, an enterprise software application that streamlines the process of intelligent data transfers to and from the public cloud. Targeted for media and entertainment workflows, “SoDA predicts the cost and speed of data movement between on-prem and cloud solutions, giving customers the tools they need to control their spend and understand the time it takes for data movement,” said Greg Holick, VP of product management for software at IMT. “SoDA data management software gives users unprecedented insight into their total cloud storage spend.”

CreatorIQ, the software to unify and power advanced influencer marketing, announced a $24MM Series C investment round led by Kayne Partners Fund, with participation by TVC Capital and Unilever Ventures. CreatorIQ currently powers global influencer marketing for brands like Disney, Salesforce, Sephora, and Unilever, as well as global PR and media agencies via its Creator Intelligence Cloud.

Weta Digital has partnered with Avalon Studios and Streamliner to combine Weta’s VFX expertise with live stage experience from Streamliner and production facilities from Avalon, forming a new LED-stage virtual production service in New Zealand. “LED stages are the latest technique to take advantage of game engine technology to provide virtual production workflows that can greatly expand what is possible on set,” said Weta Digital executive producer David Conley. “Being able to shoot final VFX imagery at the same time as principal photography adds another level of creative control for producers and filmmakers.”

Dapper Labs, the company behind blockchain game CryptoKitties, is partnering with Dr. Seuss Enterprises to create new digital collectibles to the Flow blockchain. Featuring characters, including Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, Horton and Thing One and Thing Two, the web-based experience will enable fans to collect digital packs of characters and wholly own them on blockchain forever. “As the world moves increasingly online, so has consumers’ desire for discovering and collecting digital memorabilia that brings them one step closer to their favorite athletes, musicians and iconic characters,” said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO and founder of Dapper Labs. “With our new Dr. Seuss digital decal experience, we are marrying the best of both worlds – allowing fans to interact and discover something entirely new, while tapping into our collective nostalgia for the characters that mean so much from our childhood.”

OpenX announced the launch of Bidding Intelligence Data Set (BIDS), a solution to make log-level reporting available to marketers or agencies looking for more visibility into their programmatic media buys. Through a partnership with cloud data platform Snowflake, buyers that work with OpenX can access granular data around auction participation and bid performance on Snowflake Data Marketplace. “One of the macro trends in digital advertising over the past few years is that marketers are taking a much more hands on approach to their digital campaigns, digging deep into what is happening behind the scenes. The increase in log-level data requests is a direct result of that,” said Brian Murphy, SVP, Demand at OpenX. “We love to partner with marketers on initiatives like this, and our partnership with Snowflake is all about making it easy as possible to access and analyze this data.”

UK’s Sky Media, the advertising sales arm of Sky, has announced its partnership TV attribution company TVSquared to launch a direct web attribution tool across linear, on-demand and addressable TV advertising campaigns. Sky Media’s viewing panel will link to an advertiser’s online analytics to track where audiences have come from. Brands will be able to measure mid-funnel consideration and intent goals, link TV exposure to online response and directly understand the customer journey via Sky Analytics, Sky Media’s self-serve reporting tool. “TV continues to remain the most trusted and impactful way for brands to engage current and future customers, illustrated by the growing number of digital native brands turning to TV,” said Dev Sangani, Director of Strategy and Capability, Sky Media. “It’s really exciting to see the results for these campaigns come through. Our emerging insights show that there is a 50-100% increase in web visits attributed to TV versus traditional models. Clearly that means TV’s impact on advertising performance has been wildly underestimated.”

Nielsen’s decision to combine its national in-home and OOH television viewing measurement numbers into a single stream will negatively impact the ability of agencies and marketers to distinguish data streams to support pricing, analysis and audience understanding, said the 4A’s. ”Agency buyers and marketers have the right to negotiate for the inventory pricing and related metrics including data access, and the use of a single data stream eliminates that choice,” said 4A’s CEO Marla Kaplowitz. The organization wants Nielsen to devise a way to avoid combining the two measurements without the ability to separate them out, and asks for a delay in a combined data stream until it is accredited by the MRC.

Adapt Media has joined DOOH trade marketing association DPAA. “Adapt Media has a stellar reputation for helping brands connect with consumers through digital out-of-home media, including the development of bespoke media networks that address advertisers’ specific needs,” said Barry Frey, DPAA President & CEO. “We are pleased to welcome one of Canada’s great media companies to our member community.”

TV data company Alphonso announced that CBS Television Stations has selected Alphonso Local to provide TV attribution for local advertisers in its owned stations, in markets including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tampa. “Over the past three years we worked closely with all of the major station groups and O&Os to understand the challenges they have in demonstrating TV ad efficacy to local clients,” said Ashish Cordia, CEO of Alphonso. “Alphonso Local is built on their input.”

Data-driven content value management platform Whip Media Group announced that Shout Factory will use Whip Media’s solution to provide real-time performance data to partners. “As we embark on another year of tremendous growth in our EST/IVOD businesses, our new partnership with Whip Media enables us to integrate our performance tracking in real-time and deepen our understanding of how our content engages with viewers across multiple platforms. We look forward to getting that data on digital transactions and consumer insights from Whip Media,” said David Landau, Associate VP of Sales at Shout! Factory.

Outfront Media announced a new partnership between its Canadian business and Vistar Media, a provider of programmatic out-of-home technology, to enable programmatic transactions. Outfront Canada will leverage the Vistar supply-side platform to allow buyers to purchase Outfront’s Canadian digital inventory programmatically, via an open exchange or private marketplace deals.

Video advertising platform SpotX announced a strategic investment in SpringServe, the ad serving platform for OTT and CTV. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will work together to provide joint customers with advanced video advertising capabilities, while connecting platform customers to the advertiser ecosystem. “SpringServe’s steadfast approach to enabling seamless, effective ad serving for OTT publishers is something we have followed closely, and our investment in their company is a logical next step to build on our existing partnership while also enhancing our capabilities for partners,” said Sean Buckley, COO at SpotX.

STREAMING

Plex is taking a deeper dive into live TV with the addition of over 80 free live TV channels with a broad range of content. Channels include KidsFlix, fubo Sports Network, Reuters TV, Yahoo Finance, The Pet Collective, Dove Channel, Game Show Central, Law & Crime Trial Network and more. Previously, viewers could only capture and record live TV via a digital antenna and tuner connected to a Plex media server. The service’s free content is supported by programmatic advertising.

Peacock’s mobile app was downloaded 1.5 million times across the US App Store and Google Play within its first 6 days on the market, according to Sensor Tower. That’s versus 1.2 million downloads during Quibi’s first 6 days, and 13 million for Disney+. Complicating comparisons: Peacock has not rolled out yet on Amazon Fire TV or Roku.

Sports media company WAVE.tv closed a $32 million Series A funding round, led by CoVenture and GPS Partners with participation from existing investors Golden Ventures and Sweet Capital, as well as new investors. With the new funding, WAVE.tv says it will grow into a comprehensive sports entertainment company with an eye for continued category and platform expansion, IP and talent development, eCommerce, acquisitions, sports betting, and more. WAVE.tv partners with leagues and rights holders to transform their IP into programming for core and emerging digital.

As it tilts toward streaming, content distribution and marketing services investment firm 1091 Media has rebranded its holding company as Streamwise, while its film and TV distribution business will now operate under the banner 1091 Pictures. In addition, Simon Zhu, a media technology executive based in Palo Alto, has been named Chief Technology Officer of Streamwise and is tasked with building Streamwise’s new technology platform that will power 1091 Pictures.

UAE operator Etisalat has launched SwitchTV, a new direct-to-consumer service based on Synamedia’s Infinite cloud TV platform and its end-to-end video portfolio. Infinite is pre-integrated with Evergent’s global revenue and customer lifecycle management platform. “SwitchTV is a game-changer for viewers across the region. Evergent complements the Synamedia service with pre-integrated, advanced and innovative monetisation options that contribute to a seamless customer journey,” said Vijay Sajja, Evergent founder and CEO.