Tuesday, March 17, 2015

3.17.15

Entertainment:
·         Apple is set to launch a dedicated streaming TV service beginning in September for $30
·         Sling TV, the over-the-top streaming service that brings live content without the big price tags of cable bundles makes the leap to Xbox One today
·         Chromecast now lets you pause and un-pause videos with your TV’s infrared remote
·         HBO today revealed that New York-based Cablevision Systems will become the first pay-TV provider to offer the content for its broadband customers
·         YouTube for Artists aims to be more of guide to various resources available to music artists promoting their work on YouTube, and includes tips about how to get discovered, how to engage fans, and how to generate revenue, among other things
·         A group of athletes trying to win a slice of the billions of dollars universities reap from football and basketball will face a full court press from the NCAA, which is determined to enforce amateurism in college sports
·         Mystery surrounds the identity of the two U.S. companies purportedly the beneficiaries of major investments from two of China’s leading film companies: Huayi Brothers Media Corp. and Beijing Enlight Media Co. said it was planning on inking an 18-pic co-financing, co-producing and co-distributing deal with an undisclosed American company
·         Euro major Studio Canal has announced that it will now handle the TV sales and marketing for all of the studio’s television production companies, including any output created by German-based Tandem Productions
·         National CineMedia shares are down more than 8% in post-market trading after the two leading movie theater ad sales companies decided it wasn’t worth what they called “the ongoing cost and distraction” of fighting the Justice Department, which in November sued to block their merger on antitrust grounds
·         Clint Eastwood will be saluted at the annual filmmaker's lunch at CinemaCon, the convention of exhibitors that runs April 20-23 in Las Vegas
·         Grammy Award winners Rihanna and the Zac Brown Band will headline this year's March Madness Music Festival
·         Magic Leap which had been on a public relations blitz in the last few weeks, has gone dark and abruptly backed out of two high-profile appearances this week
·         Sony Pictures' channels Canal Sony and AXN target a general audience, both networks have found a gold mine in young adults up to 34 - who have high purchasing power in Latin America - thus strengthening their positions in key markets such as Colombia, Mexico and Argentina
·         LATAM digital TV market to double to 152 million homes by 2020
Tech:
·         Google Now will open its API to all app developers - the news means the most valuable information within the apps on your phone could one day feed into a single, streamlined Google Now experience
·         XPRIZE announced the launch of HeroX, a new tech platform that will allow any individual or organization to set up their own prize competitions online
·         Bezar, the curated online marketplace that takes after its predecessor Fab.com, is going live today with twelve designers across four categories: art, accessories, house, and jewelry)
·         Nintendo is finally bringing its games and characters to mobile after the company announced an alliance with Japanese mobile gaming firm DeNA
·         Pinterest has raised $367MM in this latest round and they’re still open to raising another $211MM
·         McDonald’s announced a partnership with General Assembly – they are launching a pilot program in which a small subset of McDonald’s employees can take one of two GA courses and receive a monthly stipend for the duration of the courses
·         Music-streaming service Rdio made a number of announcements at SXSW, including Songkick integration that will surface live concert information on artist directly within the app
·         Rhapsody, the online music streaming service, announced today that it is making 30 million songs from its catalog available for tweeting and instant listening by Twitter users
·         The Google Art Project is part of the Google Cultural Institute, the Google arm that has been working with art and cultural institutions to digitize offline exhibits
·         eBay is taking another step into high-end auctions, launching a new area of its website built specifically for auction house
·         Dropbox is unveiling two major upgrades to its platform: the Dropbox badge—which adds a layer of powerful collaboration tools to any Microsoft file stored in a shared Dropbox folder on your desktop—and the ability for users to chat or comment in real time alongside any document uploaded to the service
·         Watch: This new type of 3D printing was inspired by “Terminator 2”
Deals:
·         Jeff Fagnan of Atlas Ventures has announced a new $200MM fund dedicated exclusively to financing technology startups
·         Lookback — a user testing app that was co-founded as a side project by Spotify engineers before striking out on its own with funding from Index and others — has made its first acquisition: it has acquired a UK startup called Reissued, the company behind screencasting app QuickCast
·         Los Angeles-based Triton Digital, the provider of software for the digital audio streaming market, has been acquired by private equity firm Vector Capital
Business:
·         Permira, which acquired a majority holding in Hugo Boss in 2007, had been steadily reducing its holdings in anticipation of an eventual exit
·         Adidas has announced it is stepping away from its 11-year agreement to provide jerseys to the NBA when the current contract expires
·         Orange will invest over €15B in its networks over the next four years as part of its new plan, dubbed "Essentials 2020", aimed at reviving sales growth and profitability after years of decline
Exec Moves:
·         Tonia Davis, formerly exec director of production at Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures overseeing oversaw the Disney Staff Writing Program, has joined Chernin Entertainment as VP of film
·         Marc Evans has replaced Adam Goodman as President of Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group
Retail:
Startups:
·         OX Factory is a privately funded ICT-focused “startup factory” designed to build high potential businesses, taking projects from the idea stage to launch
Government:
·         Israelis are heading to the polls for a general election, with most surveys showing Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party trailing Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union by three or four of the Knesset's 120 seats
·         FCC chairman tries to convince Congress that Obama doesn't have a secret plan to control the internet
Other:
·         A restroom at a Wal-Mart in eastern Indiana has been closed indefinitely after an employee discovered a working meth lab inside
·         Matthew McConaughey was looking to do some Pro bono acting, so he decided to help Jimmy Kimmel save a video store in Austin, Texas, with its marketing
·         Warren Buffett’s house in now on Airbnb

No comments:

Post a Comment