DirecTV is launching a free ad-supported streaming TV platform, MyFree DirecTV, available November 15. At launch, the FAST service will provide viewers with curated content and what DirecTV promises will be “an extensive on-demand library.” Additional channels are slated to join the MyFree DirecTV platform starting in 2025. The service will be offered nationwide via online, mobile and on select smart TVs and streaming devices. The company cites FAST’s earning potential, “generating nearly $8 billion in the U.S. alone this year” as viewers enjoy a free ride amidst escalating subscription fees. Continue reading MyFree DirecTV: FAST Platform Slated to Launch Next Month

Streaming rose to 40.3 percent in June, setting a record as it nudged past the previous single-category high point of 40.1, set by cable in June 2021. The percentage marks the highest share of TV ever reported in the three years since Nielsen debuted its monthly measurement report The Gauge. Google’s YouTube and Fox’s Tubi both claimed personal bests, respectively hitting 9.9 and 2.0 percent of TV viewing. Four streaming platforms achieved double-digit usage growth: Disney+ (+14.8 percent), Tubi (+14.7 percent), Netflix (+11.8 percent) and Max (+11.0 percent) — each with 20 percent or more of that growth attributable to younger viewers. Continue reading Nielsen: Streaming Reps 40 Percent Share of June TV Viewing

Venu Sports (pronounced “venue”) has been selected as the name of the new streaming joint venture launching this fall from Disney/ESPN, Fox Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery. Although pricing has yet to be announced (some estimate it will run $40-$50 per month), the partners are underway in branding their bundled package, unveiled in February as an effort to reach sports fans who don’t already subscribe to pay TV. In March the group announced the new venture’s CEO would be Pete Distad, who spent six years at Hulu followed by a decade at Apple in positions including running global distribution and business ops for Apple TV+. Continue reading Venu Sports Is Name of New Streamer from ESPN, FOX, WBD

Fox Corporation’s FAST service Tubi has launched a development hub for aspiring filmmakers called Stubios — “a fan-fueled studio” that promises to “put the power to greenlight content” in the hands of fans via this non-traditional feeder system for diverse talent. Working with actress-producer Issa Rae’s ColorCreative management company, Stubios is television’s take on UGC and the social media influencer pipeline, a path for trending creatives “to find success in Hollywood,” according to Fox. “Stubiorunners,” as creatives accepted into the program are called, will have the ability to get audience feedback on “everything from casting to key art.” Continue reading Tubi Development Hub ‘Stubios’ Lets Fans Greenlight Content

FOX, Warner Bros. Discovery and The Walt Disney Company through its subsidiary ESPN are finalizing plans to form a new, multi-league sports streaming service expected to launch this fall. The direct-to-consumer offering would be made available via a new app and subscriptions could also be bundled with existing services like Disney+, Hulu and Max. The media companies launching the joint venture — who will each have one-third ownership of the new platform — have yet to announce a name or pricing model, but said content will be “from all the major professional sports leagues and college sports.” Continue reading Disney, FOX, WBD Finalizing a New Sports Streaming Venture

Disney announced it plans to purchase the remaining one-third stake in Hulu from Comcast’s NBCUniversal in a move that has been widely expected. The announcement follows Disney’s acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets in 2019, which gave the entertainment giant two-thirds of streaming service Hulu. Disney, which is expected to pay at least $8.61 billion for the remaining stake, currently offers the Hulu service as part of a streaming bundle with its Disney+ and ESPN+ platforms. “The acquisition of Comcast’s stake in Hulu at fair market value will further Disney’s streaming objectives,” explained the company in a press release. Continue reading Disney to Purchase Remaining Stake in Hulu from Comcast

The National Football League is raising the price of its streaming service, NFL+, now in year two, as live streams of the NFL Network and NFL RedZone cable channels are becoming part of the package. Cost of the premium plan will be $14.99 a month (or $99.99 per year), up 50 percent from $9.99, with the bundled NFL Network and its exclusive regular-season games, and fan-favorite RedZone, which carries live action from all Sunday afternoon games. A subscription to NFL+ with only the NFL Network added will increase 40 percent to $6.99 per month (or $49.99 per year), from $4.99. The changes will coincide with the start of the new season on September 10. Continue reading NFL+ Boosts Prices as It Bundles with NFL Network, RedZone

YouTube TV is bundling Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max with its own NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market football package. YouTube parent Google entered into an exclusive, seven-year deal to offer the NFL Sunday Ticket package through YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels, beginning with the 2023 season. Max has become a Sunday Ticket partner as part of a broader deal with WBD that includes getting Google TV behind WBD’s relaunch of HBO as Max. Philipp Schindler, chief business officer for Alphabet and Google, shared news of the promos with analysts during his company’s Q2 earnings call. Continue reading YouTube TV Will Bundle WBD’s Max with NFL Sunday Ticket

NBCUniversal has plumbed its vaults to fuel nearly 50 new FAST channels launching in July on Amazon Freevee and the new Xumo Play joint venture from NBCU parent Comcast and Charter Communications. The lineup, taken from NBCU’s Television and Streaming and Global Distribution libraries, includes verticals for “Saturday Night Live,” “Top Chef,” “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “The Real Housewives,” as well as Spanish-language programs from Telemundo. There are also nostalgia channels featuring “The Lone Ranger,” “Little House on the Prairie” and “Murder, She Wrote,” and genre-based streams of comedy, criminality and monsters. Continue reading NBCUniversal to Introduce Dozens of FAST Channels in July

Roku introduced new ad products this week at the IAB NewFronts, touting opportunities to advertise on Roku’s home screen and within original content. That also includes its screensaver — dubbed Roku City — which McDonald’s is taking over for a summer promo. Roku also said it will be using contextual AI to automatically insert ads at appropriate moments in Roku Channel programming. In a twist on programmatic, Roku will train artificial intelligence on its advertisers’ marketing campaigns and messaging goals then have it scour the library for “iconic plot moments” that offer a good fit, inserting ads in real time. Continue reading Roku Rolls Out New Ad Products and Contextual AI Insertions

Tubi founder and CEO Farhad Massoudi is exiting the free AVOD platform in a restructuring by parent Fox Corporation. Paul Cheesbrough, Fox Corp. CTO and president of digital, will take the reins as CEO of the Tubi Media Group, which will house Fox’s standalone digital businesses — including Tubi, Credible and Blockchain Creative Labs — as well as the digital platforms and teams that underpin Fox’s wider digital business in news, sports and entertainment. TMG will be comprised of three divisions: Tubi Streaming, Fox Digital Platforms Group and the AdRise Video Network. Continue reading Fox Creates Tubi Media Group to Manage Digital Businesses

Google TV is launching a new TV experience with more than 800 free live TV channels across multiple providers as part of the smart TV operating system for Chromecast devices and various TVs. Included are news channels from NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX, along with stations featuring popular shows like “The Walking Dead,” “Westworld” and “Law & Order: SVU.” New streaming channels Tubi, Plex and Haystack News will be integrated and showcased in a redesigned Live tab programming guide. The new content will be positioned alongside Google TV’s existing channel lineup from free streamer Pluto TV. Continue reading Google TV Expands Free Live Channels and Revamps Guide

Rupert Murdoch has cancelled plans to consider merging the Fox Corporation, parent of Fox News, with News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal. Murdoch, who is chairman of Fox and executive chairman of News Corp, said in a statement that he and son Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman of News Corp and chairman and CEO of Fox, have “determined that a combination is not optimal” for shareholders at this time. The move comes as News Corp is embroiled in negotiations to sell Realtor.com owner Move Inc. to commercial realty firm CoStar Group in a deal valued at around $3 billion. Continue reading Murdochs Call Off the Proposal to Merge Fox and News Corp

The new joint industry committee, or JIC, formed by major TV networks and media firms has begun actively pursuing major advertising agency members, offering the buy side to pull up a seat at the table. The goal: “to enable multiple currencies with the primary focus of creating a measurement certification process to establish the suitability of emerging cross-platform measurement solutions in advance of the 2024 upfronts,” the JIC says. Founding members include FOX, NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery, analytics-driven ad firm OpenAP and the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB). Continue reading New Ad Certification Group Seeks Support of Major Agencies

Over the holidays, the National Football League announced a multi-year deal with Google that will provide YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels with exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which includes all out-of-market Sunday games broadcast via CBS and FOX. Beginning with the 2023 football season, NFL Sunday Ticket will be available for U.S. consumers “on two of YouTube’s growing subscription businesses as an add-on package on YouTube TV and standalone a-la-carte on YouTube Primetime Channels,” according to Google. The agreement is valued at about $2 billion annually over seven years. Continue reading NFL Sunday Ticket Is Coming to YouTube TV and Primetime