Topic: Video
YouTube Clarifies Content Policies for Creators and Advertisers (Jun 1, 2017)
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AT&T Adds $10 DirecTV Now Bolt-On to Unlimited Mobile Plans (Jun 1, 2017)
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Weekly Narrative Video – Disrupting TV (May 27, 2017)
This week’s Narrative Video covers the Disrupting TV narrative, or as I’d call it if these things could have slightly longer names: “Disrupting TV is Hard”. I talk through all the ways in which various entities are trying to disrupt traditional TV business and consumption models, and the barriers to their success. I also talk about the ways in which TV is being successfully disrupted, and argue that we’ll eventually reach a tipping point at which the legacy providers currently trying to resist and hold back disruption come to enable and even embrace it. As usual, you can find the Weekly Narrative Video on the relevant narrative page here if you’re a subscriber. And if you’re not a subscriber yet, you can sign up on this page, starting with a 30-day free trial.
Facebook Signs Original Video Content Deals Using Two Different Models (May 24, 2017)
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Facebook Creates Smaller Group Viewing Experiences around Live Video (May 23, 2017)
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Amazon Channels Launches in UK and Germany (May 23, 2017)
Amazon Channels is one of those slightly under the radar offerings that I suspect many people still aren’t aware of, but which has seen Amazon slowly create a version of a pay TV package alongside its Prime subscription. The US version is now pretty comprehensive, with channels from HBO, Starz, Showtime, and Cinemax to more specialized niche and foreign channels. It’s now launching in the UK and Germany, with a different set of channels more relevant for local audiences, but without some of the more high profile channels that are part of the US version. I’m sure that, like the US version, the European versions will evolve over time with additional channels. I’ve said before that this is a great model for Amazon, which gets to bolt on additional revenue to its Prime subscription while learning lots about how people consume pay TV should it want to launch a self-contained pay TV service at some point in the future, and which is also useful in continuing to flesh out the Prime Video service itself.
via Variety
Twitter Hires Former Bloomberg Exec to Lead Live Video (May 22, 2017)
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eMarketer Forecasts Rapid Growth in AR and VR, Almost All Without Headsets (May 22, 2017)
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Facebook is Pushing Back Launch of Original Video Content (May 22, 2017)
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Facebook Signs Deal for 1500 Exclusive and 5500 Total Hours of Live E-Sports Video (May 19, 2017)
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Facebook to Stream 20 MLB Games on Friday Nights in 2017/8 Season (May 18, 2017)
Twitter already has a deal with Major League Baseball to stream some games, and now it appears Facebook has a similar arrangement. The latter will broadcast 20 Friday-night games throughout the season. Given other recent deals for major sports, including Twitter’s last year for Thursday night NFL games, that might sound like a lot, but of course there are 30 teams in the MLB, each of which plays 162 regular season games, which means that including the postseason there are nearly 2500 games in total each year, so Facebook will air less than 1% of the total. And I’m guessing Friday night games have among the lowest viewership of any games, so this feels like a low-risk proposition for MLB and an experiment at best for Facebook. For viewers, too, the chances that Facebook will be showing the one game your team is playing in any given Friday night will be slim. But this feels like a good step for Facebook as it both scales up its live broadcast offerings and feels out what the audiences will be like for sports on Facebook.
via FT
Netflix’s Cannes Movies Blocked From Release in France by Film Board (May 11, 2017)
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Amazon Partner Accuses it of Copying its Product for Echo Show (May 10, 2017)
Amazon previously invested in Nucleus, a company that makes a tabletop videoconferencing system for the home, and now the company’s CEO is angry because Amazon has just released the Echo Show, which he sees as very similar. Two quick things to say about this: firstly, if you take an investment from a company like Amazon, you have to go in with your eyes open. You have to know that the reason for the investment is that the company is interested in the technology, which might mean to an outright acquisition of your company (best case scenario) or might simply enable it to learn about it and do its own thing (worst case scenario). If you don’t know that going in, that’s your fault. Secondly, it’s not like the Echo Show is a pure clone – it’s first and foremost an Echo, a concept Amazon can quite fairly say it has pioneered, and only secondarily a videoconferencing system. Yes, that element was emphasized in its video and so on, but that’s because it’s a big part about what’s new and different from this device compared with its previous Echo devices. This device does far more than that, though, and anyone suggesting it’s some kind of clone is on the wrong track. It sucks to be Nucleus right now, but it should have known this outcome was a strong possibility from the start.
via Recode
★ Amazon Announces Echo Show, an Echo with a Screen and Video Calling (May 9, 2017)
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Facebook Gearing Up To Launch Original Video Content in June (May 5, 2017)
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Amazon Video App May Finally Come to Apple TV in Q3 (May 5, 2017)
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★ YouTube Announces Six New Original Content Series For Its Free Service (May 4, 2017)
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Facebook Hiring For Original Video Content Roles (May 4, 2017)
Facebook has a job opening on its site for a “Film Producer”, and the description for the role talks about “motion picture content” in a way that makes it sounds like this person is being hired to make movies. On the face of it, that’s an odd thing to do: movies aren’t made by in-house producers, they’re made on an ad hoc basis using the filmmakers (directors, producers, cinematographers, writers etc.) who make sense for a particular project, so if you’re looking to make original content you hire people good at commissioning it, not the people who actually make it. However, the detail of the posting makes it seem as though what this person will be responsible for creating probably isn’t movies for consumption by Facebook’s audience. I think Facebook means video where it says either film or motion picture, especially as it talks about “shareable content”, and a 90-minute movie is not overly shareable. I actually wonder whether this person will be creating content for internal use or to promote Facebook to its audience rather than to be enjoyed by the audience as entertainment. But Facebook’s earnings call this week reinforced the idea that Facebook is getting more serious about creating and seeding video content on the site to boost its video ad revenues, which are very dependent on longer-form video.
via CNBC
★ Facebook Will Hire 3,000 To Shorten Response Times to Problematic Content (May 3, 2017)
Mark Zuckerberg today announced that Facebook will be hiring 3,000 additional people (on top of the 4,500 it already has in this area) to work on reviewing content, in light of several recent horrific events that have taken place or been promoted on its live video platform. There have been calls for Facebook to shut down or severely limit its live video capability because of the murders and suicides which have been broadcast or bragged about on the platform, but that’s always felt a little overly heavy-handed to me. This approach is much more in line with what I’ve proposed, which is that Facebook needs better reporting tools and a more rapid response to those reports. Later today we’ll get an update on total employee numbers, but as of the end of 2016 Facebook had 17,000, meaning that its 4,500-strong existing team was already a quarter of total employees. Even if Facebook’s total headcount grows on the past trend line, 7,5000 employees in this area would make up around a third of its employees, which is remarkable. As Facebook dives deeper into hosting its own content, it’s having to spend inordinate amounts of money and employee time policing that content, something I suspect it didn’t fully anticipate when it embarked on this strategy a few years ago.
via Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook
HBO Will Pull Shows from Amazon Prime After Next Year (May 3, 2017)
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