At 15 million paid subscribers, Peacock isn’t on the same level as other streaming services, but NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell says that’s no accident.
07.10.2022 - 21:57 / variety.com
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Any Slingboxes still out there are about to get bricked. Dish Network this week emailed reminders to users of Sling Media’s Slingbox — the once-controversial devices that “place-shift” pay-TV services by streaming live TV over the internet — that the servers that power Slingboxes will be permanently taken offline on Nov. 9, 2022. The Slingbox, which never achieved mass adoption, came out before the ascendancy of video-streaming powerhouses like Netflix and YouTube. But some of the technologies developed by Sling Media have since become widely adopted by the industry.
“Slingbox is being discontinued due to technology advances within the TV industry,” the notice sent to Slingbox customers said. “The demand for Slingbox has decreased as the ubiquitous nature of streaming devices and services has changed and modernized over the past several years. As a result, we are focusing our efforts on continuing to develop and enhance innovative products for Dish TV and Sling TV to meet the evolving needs for place-shifted viewing.”
Dish had announced the planned shutdown of Slingbox two years ago, when it said it was discontinuing the products. Founded in 2004, Sling Media was acquired three years later by EchoStar, which at the time was Dish’s parent company, for $380 million. At the height of the Slingbox’s popularity, the product raised the ire of content owners, including Major League Baseball, which contended the device illegally transmitted its TV programming online (although MLB never pursued litigation). In 2014, Fox Broadcasting filed a lawsuit alleging that Dish’s Sling-based feature represented copyright infringement; after a court ruled Sling technology didn’t violate copyright law, Fox
At 15 million paid subscribers, Peacock isn’t on the same level as other streaming services, but NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell says that’s no accident.
EXCLUSIVE: Here’s the striking first official image of Kate Winslet as Lee Miller in feature Lee.
EXCLUSIVE: Karin Lindström and Andreas Hjertø only joined Prime Video Nordics in 2021 but they’ve already hit the ground running, this week showcasing an 18-strong slate of originals and touting ambitious plans for growth in an exclusive interview with Deadline.
Taylor Swift's latest LP has broken the Spotify record for most-steamed album in a single day.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Just over three years ago, Netflix unequivocally shot down the idea that it would ever roll out an ad-supported streaming service. “When you read speculation that we are moving into selling advertising, be confident that this is false,” the streamer said in its second-quarter 2019 investor letter. “We believe we will have a more valuable business in the long term by staying out of competing for ad revenue and instead entirely focusing on competing for viewer satisfaction.” Clearly, Netflix’s thinking about advertising has changed. Both Netflix and Disney+ are launching ad-based tiers this fall, seeking to broaden their addressable markets and tap into a new revenue stream as subscriber growth has slowed — in Netflix’s case, it lost 1.2 million in the first half of 2022, compared with a net gain of 5.5 million in the prior-year period.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment is taking ElectricNow, its AVOD channel and app, into international markets for the first time. The rollout outside the U.S. starts in early November with outreach into Australia. Los Angeles-based indie, Electric Entertainment has previously licensed its content to local distributors and channels at international markets. When it launched the OTT channel in 2019 it did not seek to build global operations, which would have entailed undoing, or waiting for the expiry, of some of those deals. The company , headed by Devlin and partners Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan-Wilson, says that ElectricNow will soon be rolled out in other English-language territories, Canada and the U.K, but did not specify a timetable.
Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Nearly a decade after acquiring the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Ballmer is finally realizing his dream to build a bigger and better TV platform for his beloved basketball franchise. The Clippers today are launching ClipperVision, a regional subscription streaming service that offers six channel options for watching the vast majority of the team’s home and away games – more than 70 out of 84 regular season games. The service will cost $199 per season and is available largely in Southern California. The service’s first live stream bows Oct. 22. with an away-game against the Sacramento Kings. One of the six channel feeds will be dedicated to the team’s traditional linear cable TV coverage via Bally Sports. Two more are dedicated to Spanish-language and Korean-language coverage of live games – with the Korean team anchoring from a studio in Seoul.
The rising cost of living in the UK has led almost 1m British households to cancel their subscriptions to streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, a new report by market research firm Kantar Worldpanel has found.
BTS’ 2021 English-language hit ‘Butter’ is now the group’s second single to amass over a billion streams on Spotify.Today (October 14), the music streaming service announced that ‘Butter’ had recently surpassed a billion streams on the platform.
In the latest fantasy streaming battle, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power retained a slim lead over House of the Dragon on Nielsen’s weekly streaming chart for September 12 to 18.
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Cobra Kai” closed in on nearly 2 billion minutes viewed on Netflix in the first full week after its Season 5 launch on Sept. 9, as the streaming audience for Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and HBO’s “House of the Dragon” dipped, according to Nielsen’s newly released streaming rankings for the month-ago period. From Sept. 12-18, the first four episodes of “The Rings of Power” hit 988 million minutes viewed on Prime Video, while the first five of “House of the Dragon” landed 960 million minutes viewed on HBO Max. Meanwhile, “Cobra Kai” — which currently has five seasons and 50 episodes available for streaming on Netflix — was watched for 1.9 million minutes when counting viewership across the entire series, per Nielsen.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After years of Netflix execs spurning the idea of serving up commercials to viewers, the streaming giant is flipping the switch on its first cheaper, ad-supported plan next month. Netflix Basic With Ads will launch in the U.S. on Nov. 3 at 9 a.m. PT, priced at $6.99 per month, the company announced. The cheaper plan will be available in 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. It will first roll out in Canada and Mexico on Nov. 1. Basic With Ads will be $2 cheaper than Netflix’s Basic plan ($9.99/month in the U.S. currently), which provides the ability to stream on one device at a time. Previously, the Basic plan has not supported HD, but with the launch of the ad tier, Netflix will provide video quality of up to 720p HD for both Basic With Ads and the plan with no ads.
Lili Reinhart is all about healing.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix fans continue to flock to binge-watch “Dahmer,” the unsettling drama series starring Evan Peters as the infamous killer cannibal, in record numbers. Ryan Murphy’s “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” topped Netflix’s English TV Top 10 list for the third week in a row, with 205.33 million hours viewed for the week of Oct. 3-9. That means the limited series is now Netflix’s second most popular English-language series of all time in its initial release, with 701.37 million hours watched, behind only “Stranger Things 4,” which was watched 1.35 billion hours in its first 28 days. “Dahmer” has now garnered more watch-time than seasons 1 and 2 of Shonda Rhimes’ “Bridgerton” in their first four weeks on the service.
Brent Lang Executive Editor Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired domestic distribution rights to “Sweetwater,” a recently completed feature about Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the first African American to land an NBA contract. The drama is written and directed by Martín Guigui and stars newcomer Everett Osborne as Clifton. The ensemble includes veteran actors such as Kevin Pollak, Cary Elwes, Jeremy Piven, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Ri’chard. There are also special appearances by Gary Clark Jr., Jim Caviezel and NBA champion Bobby Portis Jr. The film follows Clifton (Osborn), who is the star attraction of the Harlem Globetrotters, led by owner/coach Abe Saperstein (Pollak). When New York Knicks executive Ned Irish (Elwes) and Knicks coach Joe Lapchick (Piven) decide it is time for the Knicks to integrate, with the support of NBA President Maurice Podoloff (Dreyfuss), they come together with the other team owners of the league to make history. Briarcliff will give the film a wide theatrical release on April 14, 2023.
posted to his official account, reporting that the music veteran died Friday night at his home in Palm Springs after catching pneumonia.“Condolences to Art’s legions of fans, family, friends, and colleagues,” the post reads.“ September 2022, marked 79 years as a radio performer marking the longest continuous period of broadcasting service.”The AP describes Laboe’s efforts at aiding the end to segregation through organizing live DJ shows at drive-in venues attended by Black, Latino and white listeners who danced to rock-n-roll.“Art Laboe’s legacy will endure as his team will continue to produce his current nightly request and dedication syndicated radio show, The Art Laboe Connection, which is heard on 93.5 KDAY/Los Angeles Sundays from 6pm-midnight, and weeknights from 9pm-midnight on KOCP/Oxnard, KQIE/Riverside-San Bernardino, KMRJ/Palm Springs, and many stations throughout the Southwest,” the statement continued.In 1957, Laboe started Original Sound Record, Inc., and in 1958 he released “Oldies But Goodies Vol. 1,” a compilation album that remained on Billboard’s Top 100 chart for 183 weeks.His hosting of the syndicated “The Art Laboe Connection Show” attracted a strong Mexican-American following.
Netflix has decided to pull their newest hit Korean series, Little Women, from the streaming service in Vietnam.
Penske Media Corp. purchased Deadline for a reported $14 million, with her remaining editor-in-chief and continuing her reporting and commentary.Finke was legendary in her day, writing scoops on her Deadline blog that often proclaimed “Toldja!” when something she’d reported turned out to be true.But although she was required daily reading in Hollywood, Finke was also feared and hated by many, as she became notorious for threatening sources and trading one piece of information to get another more damaging piece of information.Among the targets of her often personal-seeming grievances were then-NBC chief Ben Silverman, the former head of the William Morris agency and many other Hollywood power players of the early oughts.She suffered from lifelong diabetes and was notoriously reclusive because of her discomfort over being overweight, having been a society debutante as a young woman.