For its upcoming Shark Week, Discovery Channel plans to allow third-party sources to post content via live-streaming app Meerkat. “Finbassador” educators, conservationists and marine experts are scheduled to post clips on SharkWeek.com to complement the content being broadcast on the network. The Meerkat content is not expected to appear as part of the television broadcasts. “There’s a stream planned around a live shark feeding from the National Aquarium in Baltimore,” reports USA Today. “And Discovery plans to stream various parties and promotional events leading into Shark Week, which officially commences on air July 5.” According to Discovery, no money exchanged hands to launch the collaboration.

Facebook is rolling out a new option allowing marketers to pay for video ads only after users view the ads for a minimum of 10 seconds. According to The Wall Street Journal, “The social network previously charged advertisers immediately when their video ads came into view, but marketers have been calling for ways to ensure consumers actually see their video messages, as opposed to simply scrolling past them in the Facebook News Feed.” The option is available through the Power Editor and API buying tools. “We don’t believe it’s the best option in terms of capturing the best value and brand objectives marketers care about, but we want to give them control and choice over how they buy,” said a Facebook spokeswoman.

Facebook has been in discussions with major labels such as Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group about its potential interest in the music industry. “To what extent the social network wants to get involved is still up in the air — while the popular assumption may be a streaming service, sources say that Facebook hasn’t yet decided precisely what it wants to do,” according to The Verge. Facebook is likely interested in growing the engagement of its users (who spend over 40 minutes per day in the U.S.), while one source mentioned that the company is looking to do something unique with its video platform.

As part of its ongoing rivalry with Amazon, Google has begun highlighting low prices in some of its product search results. The company is testing a feature designed to provide users with access to special deals and helpful pricing info. Some searches steer users toward merchants that list products considerably lower than others. “For a recent search for a KitchenAid mixer, for example, Google highlighted that Macy’s $299.99 price was 14 percent lower than average,” notes The Wall Street Journal. “The notations are added to items in so-called Product Listing Ads that typically include pictures.” While merchants bid to include products in these ads, Google adds the price notations independently, free of charge.

HBO’s standalone streaming service HBO Now, a $14.99 per month over-the-top option for accessing HBO’s premium content without the need for a cable or satellite TV subscription, is atop the iTunes App Store revenue rankings. According to analytics firm App Annie, the HBO iOS app was the highest grossing app on the market in May. While June’s figures have not yet been released, App Annie indicates HBO Now is still performing well. Since Apple has an exclusive launch agreement for HBO Now, this could be the best insight into the service’s traction thus far. Continue reading HBO Now Tops iOS Revenue Charts, Big Hit with Cord Cutters

Binge-watching television shows is becoming a less shameful activity, according to a March survey of TiVo users. While 53 percent of respondents in 2013 characterized the activity in a negative light, only 30 percent of recent respondents felt the same. “People who are binge-viewing are feeling better about themselves,” said Jonathan Steuer, chief research officer for TiVo. Interestingly, 92 percent of respondents indicated that they have engaged in binge-viewing at some point, and 32 percent said they often wait to watch an entire season at once. Continue reading Survey: Stigma Associated with TV Binge Viewing is Declining

A federal appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling that determined Apple conspired with publishers to raise digital book prices. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit voted 2-to-1 in agreement of Judge Denise Cote’s 2013 decision when the case originally played out in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Apple and five publishers had been accused by the Justice Department of conspiring to increase prices above Amazon’s standard for new e-books through an ‘agency pricing’ model. The publishers settled prior to the trial, but Apple opted to fight the accusation. Continue reading Appeals Court Agrees That Apple Conspired on E-Book Pricing

Sony has launched its own crowdfunding platform called First Flight that plans to help finance projects developed by the company’s employees and promote new business ideas. The platform also provides backers with the opportunity to directly purchase and pre-order new products. “First Flight currently offers pre-orders for two Sony-affiliated projects — the MESH Smart DIY kit, and the FES e-ink watch,” reports The Verge. “A third, a sleek all-in-one remote called the HUIS Remote Controller, is already 20 percent of the way to its 5 million yen (about $40,820) crowdfunding goal.” First Flight is initially available to Japanese consumers only.

Uber plans to purchase assets from Microsoft Bing, including about 100 employees presently involved with image collection activities. The deal, confirmed by both companies, is expected to help Uber bolster its mapping efforts. “A firm doesn’t hire 100 specific-focus engineers in a single move if it doesn’t have large product aspirations,” suggests TechCrunch, also speculating that Microsoft is selling some of its image collection with plans to retain licensing rights. “The new Uber kids are the folks who worked to get image data into Bing, meaning that the search engine’s 3D, aerial and street footage is in large part their doing. You can therefore start to presume what Uber has in mind.”

More than 21 million gaming fans tuned in to Twitch during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, nearly twice as many viewers as the year before. Concurrent viewership peaked at 840,000, according to Amazon-owned Twitch. The streaming site’s coverage included live press events and action from the Los Angeles Convention Center showroom floor. Roughly 1,800 streamers provided their own commentary, the first time Twitch allowed them to do so from its E3 channel. “Last year, Twitch became the fourth-largest source of U.S. Internet traffic, trailing Netflix, Google and Apple, according to research firm DeepField,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

In Part 2 of our E3 overview, we look at the featured products and emergence of virtual reality. E3 operates with a familiar orchestration: Press events, lavish floor displays and private parties with big name bands. The Who, for instance, entertained guests of Electronic Arts. The layout of the exhibit floor gathers the platform players — Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo — in the Convention Center’s West Hall and fills the South Hall with the major game developers. In a sign of where VR leader Oculus fits into the spectrum, its booth anchored a prominent corner of the platform-centric West Hall. Continue reading Perspective: In Reality, VR Not the Only Game at E3 (Part 2)

Nintendo plans to continue developing games for its Wii U and 3DS consoles as the company preps the release of its secretive “NX” platform. The company “will start from zero” with the new hardware, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said during the company’s annual meeting, also noting that the platform will be separate from plans to develop mobile games with DeNA. According to Nintendo, details on the NX platform will not be made available until sometime next year. Due to an overall negative response regarding the quality of its E3 announcements, the company “has been forced to offer up more information to satisfy fans and investors,” suggests Wired UK.

In a deal valued at 1.3 billion euros (about $1.45 billion), Discovery Communications has paid for exclusive rights to broadcast four Olympic Games across most of Europe from 2018 to 2024. The rights include broadcast and pay TV, the Internet and mobile. The deal, announced by Discovery yesterday, marks the first time that a single media company has paid for exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics across Europe. Discovery plans to make at least 200 hours of the Summer Olympics and 100 hours of the Winter Games available on free-to-air television. Continue reading Discovery Acquires European Rights to Four Olympic Games

Findaway launched its Playaway audio player in 2006, a device that came pre-loaded with one audiobook. Despite distribution deals with Borders and Barnes & Noble, the product failed to gain traction, likely due to the lack of customization options. However, since libraries are in the business of passing one item from person to person, the device had some appeal. Now the company is introducing its Playaway Launchpad, designed specifically for the children’s sections of libraries. The device comes pre-loaded with educational apps developed by app maker Fingerprint. Continue reading Findaway Launches Tablet Specifically Designed for Libraries

Facebook has added Snapchat-like photo filter features to its iOS app that allow users to customize images with text, filters and stickers on their Facebook profiles. “A Facebook spokesperson told The Verge that the company was rolling out the features as ‘a new place to house photo-editing tools,’ accessed by pressing the new icon in the lower left-hand corner of your chosen photo.” After Facebook failed to acquire Snapchat in 2013 for $3 billion, the social giant attempted to duplicate the popular service with Poke and Slingshot, but they proved less than popular. The new photo uploader, also being tested on Android, aims to leverage the growing popularity of editing features available on social media.