CES 2025 kicked off appropriately with a high-powered panel on AI’s impact in entertainment. Under the expert moderation of our friend, and former president of the Hollywood Professional Association, Seth Hallen, three of the industry’s most senior leaders spoke candidly about what the technology means to the industry: Samira Panah Bakhtiar (GM of Media and Entertainment, Games, and Sports at Amazon Web Services), Academy Award-winner Ed Ulbrich (Chief Content Officer and President of Production at Metaphysic), and Richard Kerris (GM of Media and Entertainment at Nvidia). Continue reading CES: Industry Leaders Highlight Transformative Potential of AI

Nielsen is now offering a cross-media U.S. ad performance view that takes into account advertising on controversial social platform TikTok. As a result of the integration advertisers and agencies will, for the first time, be able to compare ad performance on TikTok across all screens, including digital, CTV, and linear. The analytics will be parsed via Nielsen ONE, a cross-media platform that debuted in alpha in May 2023 at which time it was scheduled for broad release in late 2024. Nielsen says the TikTok integration will provide “independent and verified reporting of demographic data” for campaign measurement via Nielsen ONE. Continue reading TikTok Pacts with Nielsen to Measure Cross-Media Advertising

Apple TV+ will be available as a $9.99 monthly add-on with Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., allowing users to use the service in one app with a single bill, the companies announced. The deal has the mutual upside of adding the cachet of award-winning Apple originals like “The Morning Show” and “Ted Lasso” to Amazon Prime, while getting Apple TV+ in front of Prime’s more than 100 million U.S. households. Apple doesn’t release specific subscriber numbers for Apple TV+, which has reportedly accrued about 25 million paid global subscribers since its 2019 launch. Continue reading Apple TV+ to Be Available as an Amazon Prime Video Add-On

Freely, the free UK streaming service broadcasters collectively launched in April, has gained a foothold on smart TVs that run Amazon’s Fire TV OS. Backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, Freely combines free live linear channels with on-demand content in an ad-supported streaming environment. Since those broadcasters must, by government charter, offer “programming beneficial to the public interest,” there has been concern around keeping them relevant and accessible in the streaming era. The deal between Freely and a tech giant with a popular OS is seen as a big win. Continue reading Amazon Fire TVs to Carry Freely Streaming in the UK This Fall

Popular video platform Max and food delivery service DoorDash are the latest promotional pairing as streamers vie for new subscribers in an increasingly crowded field. Warner Bros. Discovery has teamed with DoorDash to offer DashPass Annual Plan customers a Max with Ads subscription at no additional cost. It is DoorDash’s first available DashPass member benefit that extends beyond the DoorDash platform. The DashPass Annual Plan membership costs $96 per year, while the Max with Ads tier runs $9.99 per month or $99.99 annually. The new promotion starts this week. Continue reading DoorDash Teams with WBD for a DashPass and Max Bundle

A federal jury in Las Vegas has convicted five men for illegal streaming operations perpetrated through a company called Jetflicks, which generated millions of dollars in subscription revenue while causing “substantial harm to television program copyright owners,” according to the Department of Justice. Jetflicks, which charged customers $9.99 per month, had a catalog that included “hundreds of thousands” of copyrighted TV episodes, larger than the combined offerings of Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime, prosecutors said, explaining the outfit “used sophisticated computer scripts and software to scour pirate websites for illegal copies of television episodes.” Continue reading DOJ Scores Criminal Conviction Against Operators of Jetflicks

A year after its announcement, Fable is launching Showrunner, a platform that lets anyone make TV-style animated content by writing prompts that are turned into shows by generative AI. The San Francisco company run by CEO Edward Saatchi with recruits from Oculus, Pixar and various AI startups is launching 10 shows that let users make their own episodes “from their couch,” waiting only minutes to see the finished result, according to Saatchi, who says a 15-word prompt is enough to generate 10- to 20-minute episodes. Saatchi is hoping Fable’s shows can garner an audience by self-publishing on Amazon Prime. Continue reading Fable Launches Showrunner Animated Episodic TV Generator

Amazon is planning to add generative artificial intelligence to its decade-old voice assistant, Alexa, which will require a monthly fee to offset the cost of the technology, according to reports. Although the new Alexa price plan has not been disclosed, it is not expected to be included in the $139 yearly Amazon Prime plan. The possible move comes as Apple is also undergoing an AI overhaul of its voice assistant, Siri. Once considered precocious by many consumers, Siri and Alexa are now playing catch-up to AI assistants from leaders in the space including Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. Continue reading Amazon to Upgrade Alexa with AI, May Add Subscription Fee

Amazon reported $143.3 billion in Q1 revenue, a 13 percent increase year-over-year, excluding the impact from foreign exchange rates, with net income at just over $10.3 billion, a nearly 229 percent surge that set a first quarter record for the company. Both categories outperformed Wall Street expectations, with strong online sales and a booming cloud business thanks to the increased demands of artificial intelligence deployment by enterprise clients credited as driving the boom. Amazon President and CEO Andy Jassy called it “a good start to the year.” Continue reading Amazon Q1 Profits Surge on Strong Retail and AWS Comeback

Sony’s new line of Bravia televisions focuses on MiniLED display tech with the high-end Bravia 9. There is also the OLED-based Bravia 8, and the company is keeping 2023’s A95L QD-OLED in the mix. But the spotlight is in the LED backlighting system that Sony has spent several years refining, XR Backlight Master Drive, which can assert precise control over each pixel. Sony says the technology is comparable to the underpinnings of its professional mastering monitors. The XR Backlight Master Drive system allocates LED resources using purpose-built silicon created by Sony for its MiniLED TVs. Continue reading Sony Rolls Out Brighter, Better-Sounding Bravia TVs for 2024

Amazon this week began serving advertising to Prime Video customers who did not elect to pay an additional $2.99 per month in addition to the basic annual Prime membership of $139 per year or $14.99 per month. Adding commercials is estimated to potentially bring in more than $3 billion a year for Amazon, which is expected to have 2023 revenue of around $567 billion. The surplus will come in handy to pay out $1 billion a year over 11 years for the rights to NFL’s “Thursday Night Football.” The ad-supported Prime Video service launches in the U.S., Canada, UK and Germany, with Mexico, France, Italy, Spain and Australia following later in the year. Continue reading Amazon Stands to Gain $3 Billion a Year from Prime Video Ads

Amazon continues its push into social shopping, partnering with Snapchat to allow sale of some products to U.S. users directly through the app. Amazon’s Snapchat ads will display real-time pricing, Prime eligibility and delivery estimates, as well as product details. Snapchat users will be able to link their Amazon accounts via a one-time set-up, with purchases defaulting to their preferred Amazon payment method and shipping address (unless otherwise specified). Both Amazon products and those through the e-commerce giant’s independent sellers will be included in the program. Continue reading Snapchat Latest Social Site to Link Amazon for In-App Sales

Meta Platforms is offering its social media users a “more seamless shopping experience” by inviting them to link their Amazon accounts to Facebook and Instagram so purchases will complete without having to leave the apps when clicking on display ads. “The opt-in experience will allow you to see real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates and product details on select Amazon product ads in Facebook and Instagram,” according to Meta. In the past year, Meta has made improvements to its online ad system, leveraging artificial intelligence to counter the effect of Apple’s 2021 privacy changes. Continue reading Meta, Amazon Team for In-App Shopping on Social Platforms

Walmart has doubled the size of its Marketplace platform in the past 18 months, with about 100,000 active sellers. Now, the company — which receives seller applications at the rate of about 20,000 per month, about 10 percent of which get approved — feels it is within striking distance of Amazon. Some say Walmart has been emulating the moves of the Seattle-based e-retail giant, including now adding sponsored video ad units in time for the holiday shopping season. The Walmart+ online brand has been emphasizing convenience, membership, free delivery and even a Paramount+ Essential plan, similar to Amazon’s approach of offering Prime Video. Continue reading Walmart Extends E-Commerce Push, Adds Sponsored Videos

Chinese tech firm Rokid released is first AR glasses in 2017, and is now making available an attachment called Rokid Station that brings an immersive 215-inch Android TV virtual screen experience to its new Rokid Max augmented reality eyewear. The Rokid Max glasses list for $439, but bundled with the Rokid Station the price is $529 (via preorder). The Rokid Max glasses feature micro OLED screens that can project what appears to be a 215-inch screen positioned about 10 feet from the user, creating the illusion of an immersive viewing experience. Continue reading Rokid Debuts Portable Android TV Device for Its AR Glasses