APPS + PLATFORMS
Amazon’s Prime Video service has finally been added to the Apple TV streaming box. The announcement comes after years of negotiations between the two tech giants. The news isn’t exactly a surprise; back in June, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the deal would be finalized by the end of 2017. The streaming service will now be available for Apple TV’s 4K set-top models – as well as third-generation models of the device – in over 100 countries.
SHORT FORM VIDEO
YouTube revealed the top ten viral and music videos that appeared on its platform during 2017. The video for Luis Fonsi’s ‘Despacito,’ featuring Daddy Yankee, sat atop the music videos list. In fact, it sat atop every list: With more than 4.4 billion views, it’s the most-viewed YouTube video of all time. Other entries on the music video list included those for Ed Sheeran’s ‘The Shape of You,’ J Balvin’s and Willy Willaim’s ‘Mi Gente’, Maluma’s ‘Felices los 4’, and Bruno Mars’s That’s What I Like (numbers two, three, four, and five respectively.) A video from the Thai singing competition ‘The Mask Singer’ reigned supreme on the top ten list of “trending” videos. In that video (Official title: Until we will become dust – Oyster Mask), a man in an oyster mask delivers a heartfelt musical performance. Just the kind of bizarre, infectious content that would go viral. You can check out the full lists here.
BRAND INSIDER
Video news brand NowThis has partnered with Campbell Soup Company – along with Wavemaker, the company’s media agency – to launch a new channel. Called NowThisFood, the channel will focus on the impact that food has on communities, culture and the environment. NowThis will produce editorial and Campbell-branded social videos for the channel.
VIRTUAL + AUGMENTED REALITY
The Wolves In the Wall, a 2003 children’s book from famed fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, is getting the VR treatment. Wolves in the Wall VR, a new experience based on the book, will make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival next month. Wolves in the Wall VR faced a difficult path to production. It was one of the final projects in development at Oculus Story Studio – before Facebook shut the unit down in May. But most members of the Story Studio team continued working on the project, and even landed more funding from Oculus. What premieres at Sundance may be just one of multiple chapters: Two additional installments are currently in the works, though there’s no planned release date for those just yet.
Also getting a VR adaptation is 1968 horror classic Night of the Living. Developed by VR production company Supersphere, the multiplatform VR experience will be released next year, in time for the 50th anniversary of the original film’s release. The project was made possible by a deal between Supersphere and Image Ten, the production company launched by late Night of the Living Dead director George Romero.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
As Apple gears up for a massive foray into original content, the tech giant has named Michelle Lee as a creative exec. She’ll work at Apple Worldwide Video, the unit that will lead the way on Apple’s original content push. Since 2012, Lee had worked at Universal Television-based True Jack Productions, serving as a producing partner to writer and showrunner Jason Katims. There, she developed and executive produce a number of TV series, including NBC’s Rise, Hulu’s The Path, and CBS’s Pure Genius.
Vice Media made a couple of new hires. Marsha Cooke, a 24-year veteran of CBS News, will serve as Vice’s SVP of Content Strategy. She’ll coordinate development and production for Vice’s content, across platforms including TV, social media, mobile, and other digital platforms. Another longtime TV exec, Josh Cogswell, has been named as the company’s President of Digital. Cogswell most recently worked at Tribune Media; before that, he spent 15 years at Viacom. He’ll now oversee the launch of Vice’s upcoming direct-to-consumer content services, among other duties. The hires were first reported by Variety.
MEASURING UP
SHAREABLEE SOCIAL TV RATINGS: Top 10 U.S. Primetime and Streaming Shows for November 27 – December 3. Based on Shareablee’s Video Power Index (VPI), which combines viewing, consumer interactions and audience scale across all active platforms, and includes the video performance of primetime and streaming shows.
Source: Shareablee Inc. The total actions metric includes the total volume of post-level likes, shares, favorites, retweets and comments across social platforms.
Tubular Top Ten Global Sponsored Videos Sunday, November 26, 2017 – Saturday, December 2, 2017. Based on Tubular Video Ratings measuring 8 million video publishers, 3 billion videos, and 400 million viewers. Sponsored videos are ranked by V3, total views in the first three days after upload.
Canvs, the emotion measurement company, analyzed tweets about TV and streaming programming from Nov. 29-December 5 using Twitter data from Nielsen. Check out their findings below.
TRIVIA
Who did Netflix cast to take over the role of Queen Elizabeth II in season 3 of The Crown? (Email trivia@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and state.)
Our Last Trivia Question: Fincher has served as executive producer on two Netflix series: One is the recently-released Mindhunter. What’s the other? Answer: House of Cards. Kudos to Andy Pittman-TAMU/TX, Stephen Kelley-9 Story Distribution International LTD./Dublin, Ireland, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/CA, and David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/CA
