Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social platform now generates 8 billion average daily video views from its 500 million users, an increase from 4 billion daily views in April. “Some might contend that this stat isn’t totally accurate since Facebook counts just 3 seconds of watching as a ‘view,’” notes TechCrunch. “But the 100 percent growth in seven months shows that even when controlling for this limitation of the metric, users are still voraciously consuming videos.” Facebook is looking to leverage the shift in television advertising dollars — and its new Suggested Video interface, which recommends clips based on personal data, could give it an edge in discovery over YouTube.

Sony’s Internet TV service, PlayStation Vue — which now offers more channels than Sling TV — has announced a new content deal that will bring ABC, ABC Family, the Disney Channel and all ESPN-related channels to the service. In addition, ABC affiliates will be able to opt-in to the service with live linear programming. “Suddenly, Vue is looking like a real cable replacement,” suggests The Verge. “A wide selection of on-demand content from Disney and ESPN networks will be added to Vue, and subscribers will be able to ‘catch up’ by watching shows they’ve missed within the past three days — without having to rely on Vue’s cloud-based DVR.”

Pandora Media and Sony/ATV announced a multiyear licensing deal yesterday that brings the companies together to provide better rates for artists while allowing Pandora to “benefit from greater rate certainty” that could also help “add new flexibility to the company’s product offering over time.” The direct licensing deal arrives as the music industry prepares for potential changes regarding federal regulation of songwriting rights. Sony/ATV is the world’s biggest music publisher with songwriting rights to thousands of artists, including the Beatles and Taylor Swift. Continue reading Pandora and Sony/ATV No Longer Opponents in Streaming Wars

Verizon has signed a deal with the NBA designed to generate more interest in its go90 mobile video service among younger consumers. As part of the content and marketing partnership, “go90 will feature NBA videos such as daily highlights, original content and access to live out-of-market games through NBA League Pass,” reports The Wall Street Journal. The NBA and Verizon are also planning to collaborate on original exclusive series for the millennial-focused go90. “The platform already features short-form content from partners including the National Football League, Comedy Central and Machinima and has signed a major advertiser commitment with Publicis Groupe.”

Cloud storage company Dropbox made announcements during yesterday’s Dropbox Open conference in San Francisco meant to attract more business customers. The company introduced Dropbox Enterprise, a new tier for its business offering intended for larger companies that require more advanced functionality. Dropbox also announced that it has reached a new milestone: 400 million users and 150,000 business customers. And to continue growing its business side, the company has formed new partnerships with Synnex, Ingram Micro and HP Enterprise. Continue reading Dropbox Unveils Advanced Tools, Seeks Enterprise Customers

Microsoft announced that “Halo 5: Guardians” has generated more than $400 million worldwide, making it the biggest launch in the franchise’s history and the fastest-selling exclusive Xbox One release. “The newly released sci-fi shooter pulled in more than $400 million worldwide between game and hardware-bundled sales,” reports Variety, noting that the new release “also brought the lifetime earning for the series, which spans all the way back to ‘Halo: Combat Evolved’ for the original Xbox in Nov. 2001, to over $5 billion.” In its first week of availability, “Halo 5” was Xbox One’s most-played game, racking up more than 21 million hours of game play.

Amazon, considered by many to be responsible for the demise of some brick-and-mortar bookstores, has opened its first physical storefront. Amazon Books plans to use online customer reviews and digital data to help plan inventory decisions and provide titles that will match the prices of books available via Amazon.com. “To those bookstore owners and authors who blame Amazon for the demise of the neighborhood bookstore, though, the move is an ironic twist considering the company’s history as chief instigator of the digitization of reading and book selling,” suggests Re/code.

The Motion Picture Association of America announced yesterday that courts in Canada and New Zealand ordered Popcorntime.io and BitTorrent site YTS.to to be shut down in October. Film companies have contended that the two websites served as a clearinghouse for illegal online movie sharing. After days of tech media outlets reporting problems with the two offending sites, court documents were unsealed that disclosed the shutdown. According to the MPAA, “YTS has a library of about 4,500 film titles in violation of copyright laws,” notes The New York Times. ComScore figures showed Popcorntime.io had 1.5 million unique visitors in July and YTS had 3.4 million visitors in August.

Dish’s streaming service Sling TV is now available for Google Chromecast users. The live TV service’s entry-level package offers an array of cable channels, including ESPN, TBS, HGTV, TNT and more. “While Chromecast today supports dozen of apps, including Netflix, Hulu, Google Play Movies, HBO Now, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, and many more, Sling TV provides a way to watch live and on-demand television for the reduced price of $20 per month,” explains TechCrunch. Sling TV also offers add-on packages for an additional $5 per month and HBO for $15 a month. Google says support is also underway for Showtime, NBA and MLB apps.

King Digital is best known for its popular browser game “Candy Crush” and its mobile version “Candy Crush Saga.” The company, which went public in March 2014 at $22.50 a share, is being acquired by game giant Activision Blizzard, for $18 a share. While the game continues to generate profit for King, the developer has yet to launch another of the same magnitude. However, while “Candy Crush” generated $493 million during the last three months of 2013, it still earned $206 million in the last three months ending in June 2015. “The thing about creating a megahit game in the iPhone/Android era is that there’s no flywheel effect,” suggests Re/code. “A megahit gives you resources to market other games, which is nice. But no one has been able to prove that making one megahit lets you make other megahits.”

Samsung has unveiled its anticipated 18.4-inch Android tablet, Galaxy View, billed as “the largest Android mobile device on the market.” According to Samsung, the new tablet — which features a “large touchscreen display, video-optimized user interface and long-lasting battery life” — is designed for watching movies and TV shows around the home. The View “has a 1920×1080 resolution display, stereo speakers, a 1.6GHz octa-core processor, and up to eight hours of video playback time,” reports The Verge. The tablet also includes a 2-way stand, 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera, and an LTE NanoSIM slot.

According to Technicolor brand management exec Pam Kunick-Cohen, the company is gearing up to reintroduce the RCA brand (which Technicolor owns and licenses) to a new generation of consumers this month. Speaking at a recent industry event in Brooklyn, she emphasized the need to reach out to millennials with the message that “the RCA brand represents quality, innovation and value.” A website relaunch will join a major social media push and a national online media buy featuring the new tagline, ‘RCA: Made For Moments.’ TWICE reports: “The plan calls for a live event to be held sometime during November at California’s Glendale Galleria, which will feature RCA-branded products from around Black Friday to Christmas.”

Chinese company OnePlus — quickly building a reputation for affordable but solid handsets — is readying the November release of its $249 5-inch OnePlus X, “its cheapest and most beautiful smartphone yet,” suggests Mashable. The new phone will feature a metal frame, 1080p AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. “The 13-megapixel rear-facing camera has an f/2.2 aperture and shoots 1080p video and has a slow motion mode that shoots at 720p and 120fps. The 8-megapixel front-facing camera has an f/2.4 aperture,” notes Mashable, adding that it’s really the slick design and the price that will be the major selling points.

An all-star panel of futurists and inventors featuring John Underkoffler, CEO & chief scientist, Oblong Industries; Philip Rosedale, CEO of High Fidelity and founder of virtual world “Second Life;” Berkeley academic Jack McCauley, founder & president of McCauley Labs and a co-founder and chief engineer of Oculus; and Richard Marks, director of PlayStation Magic Lab looked above and beyond the introduction of VR to articulate an array of visions and technical challenges yet to be mastered. The panel took place at Digital Hollywood and was moderated by ETC project manager Philip Lelyveld. Continue reading Digital Hollywood Panel Discusses Interfaces and Future of VR

BeBop Technology has built a virtualized editing platform that uses IBM Cloud to offer a secure, cloud-based film and video editing service. The platform intends to facilitate greater speed and efficiency of media production while reducing costs. Software developer Teradici provides cloud media management with its Pervasive Computing Platform tech that enables secure virtual workspaces. Rather than moving content files between locations, which can result in errors and piracy risks, Teradici’s solution transmits only the pixels, securely on IBM Cloud. Continue reading BeBop Launches New Virtualized Editing Platform on IBM Cloud