Panasonic has announced that it plans to exit the television screen manufacturing business, and “will stop producing TV screens at its plant in Himeji, western Japan, by the end of September,” according to Reuters. The decision leaves Sharp as Japan’s sole remaining TV panel company. Panasonic’s Himeji plant opened in 2010, but struggled to earn a profit while faced with stiff price competition by rivals located in China and South Korea. Moving forward, the plant is expected to continue manufacturing screens for medical equipment and automobile dashboards. Continue reading Panasonic to Bow Out of TV Display Business by September

Facebook now puts viewer comments and reaction emoji as an overlaid graph on Live videos. That enables a user who fast-forwards through a recorded Live clip to identify which parts of the video are worth watching and which can be skipped. The new capability could encourage amateurs to pay more attention to how their videos are shot and paced, ultimately making their content more compelling. Periscope offers a similar ability to leave real-time feedback in the form of “hearts” on live streams. Continue reading Facebook Overlays Live Video with Viewer Comments, Emoji

Turner and WME|IMG’s new gaming league ELeague, which began showing “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” competitions via online video streaming service Twitch, will now debut the winning teams this Friday at 10 p.m. on national cable TV channel TBS. This is the latest attempt to bring eSports to TV, including one by DirecTV, which failed to gain traction. The trick to make it succeed is to translate eSports “online sensibility” to television, bringing some of its 214 million 18-to-25 year old viewers along for the ride. Continue reading ELeague Broadcasts Gaming Competitions on TBS and Twitch

Twitter’s acquisition of the rights for “Thursday Night Football” shows that a social media platform can compete with traditional broadcasters for the highest value of all TV rights deals. Although it’s not clear whether the deal indicates that more non-traditional deals are in the offing, one thing is certain: because sports organizations want viewers to be able access their events on any device at any time, they lead other content owners in figuring out what the new viewing ecosystem might look like. Continue reading What Twitter’s NFL Deal Means For Live Sports on TV, Online

During its I/O conference, Google introduced new hardware partners for Android TV and Google Cast, its solutions for watching Web content on TV screens. One of these is Chinese electronics company Xiaomi, showing a new Mi Box that supports 4K, high dynamic range and, for the first time, will ship to the U.S. The Bluetooth remote-equipped Mi Box offers voice recognition and built-in Google Cast technology, enabling the user to cast content from iOS and Android devices. Google also says new Sony Bravia and RCA TVs and a Sharp Net Player will ship running Android TV. Continue reading Google Partners with Xiaomi and its 4K Mi Box for Android TV

BitTorrent is debuting BitTorrent Live, a new live TV streaming app for the latest generation Apple TVs and computers, which offers live streams from 13 niche programmers. The goal is to build a virtual MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor), with more prominent cable networks. For now, the BitTorrent package is comprised of channels such as Clubbing TV, Filmbox Arthouse, FightBox, Newsmax TV, Heroes TV and TWiT. Although these aren’t well-known networks, the offering is free, unlike other TV streaming services. Continue reading BitTorrent Rolls Out New P2P-Based Live TV Streaming App

On Monday, AMC began an advertising campaign within Snapchat for its much-hyped new series “Preacher,” with the intent of drawing in younger viewers. The new series’ first five minutes will be featured on Snapchat’s Discover section, and marks the first time that an extended clip of a network TV show will be available on the social platform. After a 24-period of exclusivity on Snapchat, the clip will be released to other platforms. It will continue to run on Snapchat for six more days. “Preacher” debuts May 22. Continue reading AMC Takes New Approach to Promoting Series on Snapchat

AT&T plans to purchase Quickplay Media from Madison Dearborn Partners. Quickplay specializes in powering over-the-top video and TV Everywhere services. The acquisition will build upon the existing relationship between the two companies and enhance future AT&T video delivery initiatives. Quickplay currently supports AT&T’s U-verse TV Everywhere offering and will support upcoming streaming offers: DirecTV Now, DirecTV Mobile and DirecTV Preview. “Our strategy is to deliver video content however, whenever and wherever,” said John Stankey, CEO, AT&T Entertainment Group. Continue reading AT&T is Acquiring Quickplay Media to Power TV Everywhere

The move to new technology has thrown a monkey wrench in a roughly $70 billion TV advertising industry that has endured without much change for decades. Since then, television and advertising executives have been trying to determine what the future will look like among a range of competing and confusing scenarios and how to monetize it. That all comes to bear as we approach this season’s upfronts, and some sources are predicting, perhaps counter-intuitively, that ad rates will spike this year for the first time in awhile. Continue reading Advertising Spend at This Year’s Upfronts Predicted to Spike

In-home video entertainment is expected to be a $381 billion global business by 2019, of which about $100 billion represents the North American market. That’s why TV conglomerates aren’t eager to offer skinny bundles, and Apple, for the meantime, has given up on it. In the U.S., video entertainment tends to be spread among five different apps on at least two different hardware platforms, costing between $120 and $14o a month, including a TV package of 200+ channels from providers such as Comcast, AT&T and Dish. Continue reading Growth Slow for Skinny Bundles, Attracting Younger Demos

According to GfK research commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, digital video has surpassed primetime television in popularity among Internet viewers for the first time. IAB’s 2016 Original Digital Video Study found that adult respondents who view online video at least monthly indicated they were “most likely” to watch Internet video if given the option, followed by primetime broadcast or cable, and then local and national TV news, live televised sports and daytime TV (in that order). Meanwhile, Nielsen says 95 percent of time spent viewing video in Q4 2015 involved live or time-shifted TV. Continue reading IAB: Younger Viewers Prefer Internet Video Over Primetime TV

Streaming video services, including Hulu and Crackle, are now defining themselves as TV networks to capture some of the $63 billion TV advertising market, still much more lucrative than Web video’s $10 billion in annual sales. Rather than differentiate themselves from cable and network TV by emphasizing their millennial viewers, these streaming video companies are focusing on the ways they are similar to traditional media outlets, even changing their events from “NewFronts” to “Upfronts,” the moniker used by TV outlets. Meanwhile, ad buyers are losing interest in MCNs. Continue reading Web Video is the New TV, But MCNs are Fading for Ad Buyers

Facebook Live doesn’t have to be strictly live video. News outlet NowThis, which exists solely on social platforms, tried this out in late April by streaming a 38-minute selection of most popular viral videos — and received over 20,000 views and 500 comments. Streaming pre-recorded content is similar to how TV networks have operated for decades, by which previously taped programs are aired on a linear schedule. Facebook confirms it has no policy that video on Facebook Live actually has to be live, but doesn’t recommend streaming pre-recorded video. Continue reading News Outlets Stream Pre-Recorded Video via Facebook Live

Facebook’s net income almost tripled to $1.5 billion and monthly active users hit a record 1.65 billion. But the metric that matters is that users spend an average of 50 minutes a day on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger platforms, up from 40 minutes in 2014. That’s the equivalent of one-sixteenth of most peoples’ waking time, and more time than on any other leisure activity than anything but TV and movies. Facebook, of course, would like people to spend even longer on its sites and that’s behind its latest improvements to News Feed. However, the company is also facing a lawsuit regarding its photo tagging feature and biometric data. Continue reading Facebook’s Metrics Are Stellar, But Biometrics Spur Lawsuit

YouTube has long expressed interest in creating a live TV package, but now its plans for a paid subscription service have firmed up. With executives Christian Oestlien and Jonathan Zepp among those leading the charge, the company will launch Unplugged in 2017 and is now seeking content deals with major media companies, say those familiar with the plan. The new urgency in pursuing this long-held plan may be due to the fact that Dish Network and Sony have debuted online services, and Apple and Amazon plan to as well. Continue reading YouTube to Launch its Paid Subscription TV Service in 2017