Unless there is breaking news, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish during the upcoming national holiday. We wish you and your families a very happy 4th of July. Our team will return on Wednesday with the latest in entertainment technology news. Continue reading Happy Independence Day: ETCentric Will Return on July 5th

Private equity firm Sycamore Partners has agreed to purchase office supply retail chain Staples for $6.9 billion. Staples is another retailer that has been impacted by the growing success of Amazon and other online shopping services. Amazon, for example, has become a major competitor for corporate customers, while Staples’ overall sales have declined 6.1 percent over the past five years, according to ABC News. In 2015, Staples attempted to merge with Office Depot in an effort to stay competitive online, but last year the deal was blocked by a federal judge in response to a lawsuit initiated by the Federal Trade Commission. Continue reading Sycamore Partners to Acquire Retailer Staples for $6.9 Billion

AMC is introducing AMC Premiere, its new $5 per month streaming service that offers commercial-free versions of current programs, movies, trailers, bonus scenes, and the ability to stream shows at the same time they air on television. However, the cable network is not targeting cord cutters yet. “For now at least, you have to be a pay TV subscriber to use AMC Premiere — and specifically, a Comcast Xfinity TV customer,” reports TechCrunch. “That’s because launch of the new service is currently tied to a deal with Comcast, whose Xfinity TV customers will be able to stream the service via their set-top boxes as well as the Xfinity Stream website and mobile app.” Continue reading AMC Announces the Launch of its Ad-Free Streaming Service

Amazon launched its $230 Echo Show smart speaker this week. The device features voice control powered by digital assistant Alexa and a 7-inch touchscreen with the ability to display photos and video. Another key feature is the speaker’s Flash Briefing that provides a customizable playlist of news updates upon request. Since videos are made available to users through Flash Briefings, media companies — including Bloomberg, CNN, Fox News, NBC and Reuters — are already producing video content specifically for the Echo Show and updating their Alexa Skills. Continue reading Media Companies Are Creating Video Content for Echo Show

Social media giant Facebook announced it now has 2 billion monthly active users. The new milestone comes five years after reaching 1 billion users, and 13 years after Mark Zuckerberg first launched the platform. According to TechCrunch, Facebook leads social apps based on number of logged-in users, “above YouTube’s 1.5 billion, WeChat’s 889 million, Twitter’s 328 million and Snapchat’s estimated 255 million.” Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger each have 1.2 billion users, while its Instagram photo-sharing app recently exceeded 700 million. Continue reading Facebook Reaches New Milestone of 2 Billion Monthly Users

According to a new report from App Annie, the app economy will be worth $6.3 trillion in five years, up from $1.3 trillion in 2016. The average consumer is not downloading more apps, but is spending more time and money in apps. The measurement firm predicts the number of worldwide app users will nearly double to 6.3 billion in 2021, and the time those individuals use apps will more than double. Ninety percent of last year’s total app economy was represented by the purchase of goods and services through mobile apps, a figure App Annie expects will increase to 95 percent by 2021. Continue reading Mobile Commerce to Push App Economy Over $6T by 2021

The European Union issued a record-breaking $2.7 billion fine against Google yesterday for violating EU antitrust rules. Margrethe Vestager, European commissioner for competition, announced that the seven-year investigation determined the U.S. tech giant had manipulated search results in order to place its own shopping service ahead of services offered by rivals, thereby creating an “illegal advantage.” Google now has up to 90 days to adjust its practices or potentially face additional penalties. The company is said to be considering an appeal. Continue reading Antitrust Case: EU Slaps Google With Record $2.7 Billion Fine

AI visionary Andrew Ng — co-creator of the Google Brain research project, former chief scientist at Chinese web giant Baidu, and co-founder of online education platform Coursera — has launched a new AI company called deeplearning.ai. While details are scarce at this point, Ng recently promised “more announcements soon” via tweet. The company’s website simply features the tagline “Explore the frontier of AI,” followed by #deeplearniNgAI and “August 2017,” suggesting more information is coming later this summer. Continue reading Andrew Ng Leaves Baidu’s AI Group to Launch New Startup

Pandora co-founder and CEO Tim Westergren plans to step down from his position running the 17-year-old streaming music pioneer. The company has yet to select a replacement. Earlier this month, satellite company Sirius XM announced it would invest $480 million in the web radio service for a 19 percent stake in the company and three board seats. Despite a user base of 80 million, “Pandora has struggled to generate enough advertising revenue to cover the cost of the free service,” reports Recode. “Meanwhile, music listeners have begun gravitating to the on-demand subscription services of Spotify, Apple and others, which offer ad-free access.” Continue reading Westergren to Step Down as CEO of Music Service Pandora

Fox Networks Group plans to introduce a six-second, unskippable ad format for digital and on-demand platforms by October. The new format, similar to an approach adopted by YouTube, could eventually be offered to traditional TV advertisers, following its testing phase. “TV ads are typically longer than 15 seconds, but as viewing shifts online, where people are skipping or blocking ads, advertisers and media companies have experimented with new ad formats and strategies,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Fox’s new format could be ideal as pre-roll ads before long-form episodes and premium sports content. Continue reading Fox Plans Six-Second Ad Format for Digital Platforms and TV

With its new Snap Map feature, now available on iOS and Android, Snapchat encourages friends to get together in real life instead of just digitally. Snap Map shares your current location via a map that updates when Snapchat is opened. The tech is based on Snap’s acquisition of social map app Zenly. Users can select specific friends for location sharing or disappear from the map via Ghost Mode. Tapping a friend’s “BitMoji avatar opens their Story to show what they’re up to, or lets you message them directly to make meetup plans,” explains TechCrunch. “Snap Map also gives users an alternative way to discover Story content beyond the well-worn Stories feed.” Continue reading Snap Map Location Sharing Aims to Bring Friends Together

Time Warner’s CNN plans to spend $40 million over two years to turn its in-house social video startup Great Big Story into a 24-hour streaming channel. The cable news pioneer “launched Great Big Story in 2015 to make short videos about offbeat places and people,” explains Bloomberg. “The goal was to distribute videos on social media to reach millennials who don’t watch CNN on television.” By next summer, Great Big Story will transform to a 24-hour schedule, “including live programming or feature-length films,” streaming via web TV services such as Sling TV or DirecTV Now. According to CNN exec Andrew Morse, the online feed could one day become its own subscription service or TV network. Continue reading CNN to Transform Great Big Story Into a Streaming Channel

Comcast’s NBC Sports announced its plans to televise an eSports tournament this summer, as broadcasters continue to experiment with competitive videogaming to increase viewership. “The cable network hopes a tournament built around a popular quirky game called ‘Rocket League’ will attract hard-to-reach viewers — particularly younger males — who increasingly are ditching cable subscriptions for live-streaming services such as Netflix,” reports The Wall Street Journal. According to Newzoo, the number of viewers for eSports will double this year over 2012 and reach 286 million by 2020. Continue reading NBC Sports Targets Younger Viewers With eSports Tourney

Travis Kalanick stepped down from his chief exec position of ride-hailing service Uber yesterday. Kalanick helped found the company in 2009, but months of scrutiny regarding charges of harassment and discrimination, followed by a recent shareholder revolt resulted in his departure. “Five of Uber’s major investors demanded that [he] resign immediately,” according to The New York Times. “The investors included one of Uber’s biggest shareholders, the venture capital firm Benchmark, which has one of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber’s board.” The company will seek new leadership, although Kalanick will remain on Uber’s board of directors. Continue reading Uber CEO Considers Investor Concerns and Resigns Position

In the largest ransomware payout to date, South Korean web provider Nayana has agreed to pay $1 million to hackers who originally demanded 550 Bitcoins, about $1.62 million. Following negotiations, Nayana has agreed to pay $1 million in three installments. The ransomware, identified as Erebus by cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, impacted 153 Linux servers and more than 3,400 websites hosted by Nayana. “This is the single largest-known payout for a ransomware attack, and it was an attack on one company,” reports CNET. “For comparison, the WannaCry ransomware attacked 200,000 computers across 150 countries, and has only pooled $127,142 in Bitcoins since it surfaced.” Continue reading Ransomware: Hackers Extort $1 Million From One Company