Discovery and Liberty Global will buy All3Media for about $930 million. They will co-own All3Media, an international producer and distributor of TV programming, Liberty Global said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/RrBqrW). All3Media will continue operating under its own name with its own executive management team, “and its existing creative operating model as a standalone, independently managed entity,” Liberty Global said.
Disney is looking at more ways to tap into the success of Frozen, the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the best-selling title ever released on Blu-ray, said CEO Bob Iger on an earnings call Tuesday. The company is studying “other forms of storytelling,” including interactive, he said. Results in Disney’s Interactive segment were “significantly better than we anticipated” when the company reported Q1 results, said Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo. Interactive revenue for Q2 increased 38 percent to $268 million from the year-ago quarter, and operating results for the segment swung to a profit of $14 million from a loss of $54 million, driven by the strength of Infinity, which launched in Q4. Iger said in Q&A the company is looking for growth from consumption of new media platforms, including short- and long-form entertainment. Iger cited the recently launched Disney Movies Anywhere app that allows users to buy and play new Disney movies within an iTunes app or to stream content purchased via iTunes without downloading it again on a mobile device. Disney plans to grow the consumption of media on mobile platforms including smartphones and tablets. Commenting on Disney’s recent distribution agreement with Dish Network, Iger said “the bet that’s being made” is that the offering for ABC, ESPN and Disney content has the potential to “attract people who may not have already signed up for multichannel service” and get them to “sign up for something instead of nothing.” He called the offering “complementary to the pay-TV model,” comparing it to Disney’s Watch apps. Iger said it’s Dish’s responsibility to “get critical mass from a program perspective” for the service to take off. “We don’t intend to participate in that pursuit at all,” he said. He called the initiative a “smart thing to do” and “something that we should certainly try.” On whether the Dish deal is critical to business, he said, “No, but it’s certainly critical that it gets critical mass from a programmer’s perspective in order to bring it to market.” Disney is open to working out similar deals with other distribution partners “but we have not engaged in any of those discussions yet,” he said.
Western Pacific Broadcast asked the FCC Media Bureau for extra time to reply to Blue Ridge Cable’s opposition to Western Pacific’s carriage petition. Western Pacific would like to file comments no later than June 4, it said in a filing in docket 12-365 (http://bit.ly/SxhTHm). Western Pacific petitioned the FCC to require Blue Ridge to carry WACP-TV Atlantic City, New Jersey, on its cable system within the Philadelphia area. Blue Ridge opposed the petition last year and claimed that WACP’s signal quality isn’t good (http://bit.ly/RkVhZR). The companies are measuring the WACP signal strength at one of Blue Ridge’s headends, Western Pacific said. The tests were expected to be completed last month, but WACP staff resources were dedicated to the development and analysis on bureau-mandated joint tests of the WACP signal at another cable operator’s headend, it said.
Though Moody’s thinks an Aereo victory in the Supreme Court is unlikely, a win for the streaming TV service could limit broadcasters’ negotiating leverage in retransmission consent deals, the service said in an email to investors. “If Aereo wins the case, cable and satellite providers could also cease paying retransmission fees to carry local programming by setting up their own form of antennae delivery of broadcasting signals,” Moody’s said. Relationships between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors would change “unless Congress acted to update copyright laws,” said Moody’s Senior Vice President Neil Begley in the email. Congress would have the incentive to do so if an Aereo win caused broadcasters to convert to an alternative to over-the-air signals to protect their content, Moody’s said.
A select number of Hulu’s ad-supported TV episodes will be delivered to mobile apps for free this summer, said CEO Mike Hopkins in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1hexL6V) describing the Hulu Upfront for advertisers Wednesday. Hulu’s free service had previously been limited to desktops, it said. The company is planning to release its “In-Stream Purchase Unit” through Pizza Hut, which would allow customers to order food without having to leave Hulu’s website, it said. The purchase unit will be available later this year, it said. The company will also release its Hulu Plus iPhone app later this summer, it said.
Original digital video advertising will become “as important” as television advertising within three to five years, said an Interactive Advertising Bureau survey released Monday (http://bit.ly/1nzHegh). The questionnaire -- conducted by research firm Advertiser Perceptions -- surveyed 297 advertising executives. Almost two-thirds of respondents said they will spend more on digital video advertising in 2014 than they did in 2013. The survey was done April 1 to 16.
Amazon’s deal with HBO for exclusive streaming rights for select HBO original series positions Prime Instant Video as a “viable competitor and potentially more appealing alternative to Netflix,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter in a research report Wednesday. The multiyear licensing agreement gives Amazon -- which recently raised its annual Prime subscription fee by $20 -- rights to HBO original programs and miniseries. The deal raises the stakes in the contest over consumer subscription dollars between Amazon and Netflix. The latter said this week that it would raise subscription fees for new members by $1-$2, depending on country, and let existing members keep their $7.99 fees for a “generous time period” before instituting a subscription increase for them, too. Revenue from fee increases “will enable us to acquire more content and deliver an even better streaming experience,” Netflix said in a shareholder letter. Amazon said last month it was raising its membership fee for Prime, which began as a two-day free shipping service that was later supplemented by free video streaming content. A $20 price hike pushed the annual fee for Amazon Prime to $99 for new members, effective March 20. Existing Prime members will renew at the higher rate, Amazon said. The agreement is the first time HBO content has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service, and applicable programming will remain available on all HBO platforms, Amazon and HBO said. Under the HBO deal, beginning May 21, Amazon Prime customers will be able to watch, at no additional charge to their Prime membership fee, all seasons of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, Six Feet Under, Treme, Eastbound & Down, Enlightened and Flight of the Conchords along with miniseries including Angels in America, Band of Brothers,
Lenovo’s new smart TVs are using Freespace in-air pointing and motion control software from Hillcrest Labs, Hillcrest said Tuesday. Freespace enables point-and-click, gesture and motion control of smart TVs using simple in-air movements of a remote control, it said. Lenovo’s Freespace-enabled smart TVs include the S9 announced last week for sale in China, said Hillcrest. Lenovo first tested smart TVs in China in 2012, but without the Hillcrest technology. Lenovo hasn’t announced any plans to field its smart TVs in the U.S. Lenovo is the fifth major smart TV platform to use Hillcrest’s technology, following Hisense, LG, Roku and TCL, said Hillcrest. The deal with Lenovo also “builds on Hillcrest’s previous traction” in Asia, most recently with Oppo’s use of Freespace in mobile devices, said Hillcrest. Hillcrest also opened a new regional office in Taiwan to address growing demand in the region for Freespace in smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, wearable electronics and other devices, it said. Hillcrest’s technology is being used in wearable computing platforms including Kopin’s Golden-i head-mounted display and is also licensed by companies including Atmel, Intel, Logitech, SMK Electronics, Sony and Universal Electronics, said Hillcrest. Freespace will “form the foundation” of Lenovo’s smart TV user experience and enables improved content navigation, better gaming options and simple Web browsing, said Hillcrest. The technology’s easy-to-use point-and-click controls and 3D motion tracking that is “optimized” for consumers in the living room environment is “particularly important” for Android-based TVs because Hillcrest’s technology “replicates the touch and tilt based controls commonly used” by Android apps on other devices, said Hillcrest.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted a motion to allow the Solicitor General’s Office to participate in Tuesday’s oral arguments in ABC v. Aereo, according to the Supreme Court website (http://1.usa.gov/19EQqoS). The Department of Justice filed an amicus brief in support of the broadcasters’ position in March (CD March 5 p9). According to the website, the motion also requested divided argument, meaning the Solicitor General’s Office will take up some of the time allotted to broadcasters to present arguments on their side.
Video ad platforms BrightRoll and TubeMogul agreed to participate in the final technical trial of Nielsen’s mobile ad measurement tool. The partnership is part of Nielsen’s effort to expand Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, which measures the audience of digital advertising, Nielsen said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lcSNWt). The expansion includes audience measurement through mobile devices, it said. With the addition of mobile, Nielsen Campaign Ratings will be a measurement suite offering robust insight into a campaign’s full digital and cross-platform audience, Nielsen said.