US television broadcasting company Sinclair Broadcast Group is to launch STIRR, a free, ad-supported streaming service that will include access to some of the most popular national news, sports, entertainment and digital first channels, a robust video on demand (VoD) library and a new local channel featuring programming based on a user’s location, ensuring that […]
Research from analyst firm Parks Associates finds 16 per cent of US broadband households admit to sharing their passwords for their video service accounts with other people. Innovations in Authentication and Personalization Technologies reports that service providers will have a difficult time moving subscribers to new methods of password-free authentication. Only one-third or fewer of […]
Roku has U-turned on its addition of InfoWars – the right-wing conspiracy channel of Alex Jones. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and others had all banned the channel but Roku had defended its carriage claiming it did not censor legal content. But after facing widespread criticism Roku has responded by dropping the channel. The California-based company […]
AR/VR 1.0 kicked off in earnest when Facebook bought Oculus back in 2014. This inspired a generation of entrepreneurs, corporates and VCs to build early stage AR/VR. Despite significant technical progress, even industry insiders admit this hasn’t produced a mass market yet. Mobile AR delivered 2 per cent higher revenue than we forecast for 2018 […]
YouTube videos that feature dangerous or emotionally distressing pranks have been banned from the video-sharing platform. The move comes in response to so-called “challenges” that have sometimes resulted in death or injury – with the latest trend that has seemingly spawned the action seeing challengers attempt to complete every day tasks whilst completely blindfolded, inspired […]
Five of the top 10 most watched programmes in 2018 in the UK were created and produced by labels which are part of ITV Studios. The best performing shows are: Bodyguard (created and written by Jed Mercurio and made by World Productions for BBC One); I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here (created and […]
A report by global digital infrastructure provider Tata Communications examining the commercial transformation of sports identifies 2019 as a defining tipping point for the global sports industry, with digital technology innovation set to kick-start a new era of unprecedented commercial growth for broadcasters, rights holders and sports organisations. The Show Me the Money! report – […]
A study from Juniper Research has found that revenues from VR-specific games will reach $8.2 billion (€7.1bn) by 2023, rising from an expected $1.2 billion in 2019. It argued that development of smartphone VR content is essential to increase consumer confidence in VR across all platforms, following a disappointing year of hardware sales in 2018. […]
The Premier League’s first international office has opened in Singapore. Based in Tanjong Pagar, the office will provide a base for the Asia-Pacific region and has primarily been established to fight piracy of Premier League content and support broadcast partners. This will include deploying the league’s hugely successful enforcement programme across multiple markets and assisting […]
Analysis of US broadcast network dramas in development or production has revealed that 42 per cent feature a strong female lead – more than double that of programmes with a male lead (20 per cent). According to Ampere Analysis, the existence of a strong female character is a winning factor when choosing new drama content […]