Thursday, February 19, 2015

2.19.15

Entertainment:
·         Newly launched sports portal, The Players’ Tribune, the first-person multimedia site for athletes to tell their own stories (and Derek Jeter’s second act after a storied baseball career), is partnering with Blue Jeans Network to craft new video and multimedia content
·         YouTube content head Robert Kyncl said top YouTube content partners will receive benefits to help them out
·         Whalerock Industries plans to create direct-to-consumer subscription web and mobile networks for celebrities, has signed up Howard Stern, the Kardashians, and Tyler the Creator for development
·         ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ has eclipsed $300MM worldwide
·         Jack Osbourne and his new banner Osbourne Media have signed an overall co-production deal with Jenny Daly’s T Group Prods
·         Discovery Communications put Wall Street, and cable operators, on alert about some potential head-butting — especially beginning around June when the programmer’s carriage deal with Comcast expires
·         Cartoon Network unveiled its programming and digital slate for the 2015-2016 upfront season
·         Neill Blomkamp’s next movie will be an ‘Aliens’ film for 20th Century Fox - sources say Ridley Scott’s Scott Free will produce the pic, which Blomkamp will direct
·         Emmy nominated director Neil Marshall (Game Of Thrones) and his longtime agent Marc Helwig have formed a TV/film production company, Applebox Entertainment, which has signed a two-year overall deal with Legendary TV
·         Vice News is launching a weekly half-hour talk show — “On the Line,” to be streamed live on YouTube each Thursday — and the media company has cut a deal with Samsung to provide on-demand replays on the consumer-electronics maker’s Milk Video service exclusively for a 72-hour window
·         Fabric, which just raised $1.5MM in seed from WME, Allen DeBevoise and more, is an app that enables users to build and share lists of new movies, TV shows, music and travel destinations they love but also want to check out
·         DirecTV added a net 149,000 subscribers in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2014 — after dropping a net 62,000 customers the two previous quarters — which it said was in part due to “competitor programming disputes” in the period
·         Days after the departure of Van Toffler from the top spot of its music-related television and web properties, Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman sent a memo to his vast network of employees this morning laying out a massive organizational and managerial shift
·         Please see below for an interesting article on the cable unbundling
·         Video startup Vessel has reached an agreement with Universal Music Group for exclusive early access to some of the music label’s videos
·         Paramount Channel will broadcast the Film Independent Spirit Awards across the whole of Latin America
Tech:
·         IFTTT’s new Do apps let you trigger actions of other apps yourself
·         Google today launched the beta of a new security tool for developers on its App Engine platform-as-a-service offering
·         A new video messaging app, Pop, founded by Josh Nguyen, who previously ran product at both Tumblr and Flickr, is launching today to make video messages as easy to send as traditional SMS
·         Indiegogo announced Perk Insurance, the optional coverage will allow backers to receive a full refund — minus the cost of the insurance — if the perk is not delivered within a specified period of time after the estimated delivery date
·         Snapchat is launching a new feature that allows you to record video while playing music from your phone, rather than the music pausing you can bump jams from iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, or any other app while recording
·         Kik’s one-to-one ads connect with an audience eager to speak directly with brands
·         Uber is stepping into the international meal delivery wars with the start of UberEATS in Barcelona
·         A new lawsuit against Apple may add fuel to rumors that the tech giant is working on a car
·         Vizio P-Series review: now is a great time to buy a 4K television
Deals:
·         Uber raised another billion dollars in its Series E
·         Samsung has acquired LoopPay - the acquisition confirms earlier rumors that suggested the two were working closely together on an upcoming project, and suggests Samsung could make use of LoopPay’s technology to offer is own Apple Pay competitor on future devices
·         Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) announced its latest investment fund today with $1.6B in investments
·         Sysco has hired top antitrust lawyers as its counsel if the Federal Trade Commission files a lawsuit to block its $3.5B purchase of rival U.S. Foods
Business:
·         BrightRoll has released findings from its 3rd annual U.S. ad agency survey, including among other things, that agencies believe targeting is by far the most valuable benefit of online video advertising
·         Convinced that it faces threats from governments in China, Iran, and Russia, and that the U.S. government isn’t doing enough to help, JPMorgan has built a vast security operation and staffed it increasingly with ex-military officers
Exec Moves:
·         StyleHaul said it has named Olivier Delfosse as its Chief Operations Officer
·         Sean Cocchia has been promoted to EVP Business Operations and General Manager, Disney Channels Worldwide
Retail:
Startups:
·         Secret Media is an advertising technology startup specialized in advertising encryption so that even the most sophisticated ad blocking software can’t block your ads
·         ScienceLogic, a company with software for tracking the health of companies’ applications and underlying IT infrastructure, is unveiling today a new $43MM funding round
·         Philz Coffee, the Silicon Valley coffee chain which has a single outpost outside of the Bay Area--in Santa Monica---has raised $15MM to expand its footprint
·         NewCo, the company which put together the NewCo festival in Los Angeles in November, has just raised $1.7MM in a seed funding, the company disclosed today
Government:
·         The White House has named DJ Patil its first ever Chief Data Scientist and Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy
·         With U.S. inventories expected to hit record highs, crude futures are down 3.9% at $50.76 amid new worries of oversupply
·         Yesterday, the UN said that Syrian President Assad is willing to agree to a cease-fire in a key Syrian city
Other:
·         Shane Smith, the chief executive of Vice, spent $300,000 for a dinner (for 30 people) at the Prime Steakhouse at the Bellagio in Las Vegas during the International CES trade show in January
·         Two women, together for 31 years, were finally married on Thursday morning in Travis Country, Texas after a judge ordered the county clerk to issue a marriage license

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