Thursday, March 19, 2015

3.19.15

Entertainment:
·         In a first for ProSiebenSat.1, the station family has entered a content licensing deal with NBCUniversal - the agreement gives ProSiebenSat.1 wide-ranging exclusive linear rights, plus free catch-up rights in Germany to the studio’s new U.S. sitcoms and select drama series
·         See below for an interesting article on how Internet TV will oust cable
·         Music streaming service Deezer has opened its HD-quality offering up to all, following an initial launch in the U.S. which included a period of exclusivity with Sonos
·         Netflix has an add-on called God Mode that changes its UI
·         Hungama, an Indian media company that provides music, videos and movies on mobile, desktop and beyond, which is on the cusp of raising more than $100MM
·         Village Roadshow has put together another strong slate of films between their first-look deal at Warner Bros. and a smaller co-financing deal at Sony Pictures Entertainment
·         ESPN has signed a multiyear agreement to air Premier Boxing Champions, joining NBC and CBS as partners on the series created by Haymon Boxing
·         Hannibal Buress is getting Bill Cosby-related death threats
·         See below for an interesting article on Netflix disrupting the TV and movie industry
·         CA Media, the Asian investment arm of Peter Chernin-led Chernin Group is leading a new $2.8MM seed-financing round in Graphic India
·         See below for an interesting article on HBO and Showtime in relation to cord cutting
·         A leading entertainment research firm, Screen Engine, is trying to upend the way that consumers are tracked, reached and marketed to by emphasizing people’s political beliefs, values and spending habits instead of their sexual orientation or skin color
·         The governor of Rhode Island is defending a proposed luxury tax for pricey second homes that has been dubbed the "Taylor Swift tax"
·         Wednesday's two-hour season finale of “Empire” was watched by 16.5 million—and that's not counting how many will stream it over the next few days
·         See below for a neat tool that calculates how much it would cost to sign up for different OTT and online TV bundle services
·         Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks on Wednesday launched a subscription streaming service for fans of science, technology and history, with the goal of dominating the nonfiction category in on-demand online video
·         As it attempts to start recouping the huge fees it paid to maintain the rights to Premier League football, UK pay-TV giant Sky has announced price increases for its sports and family entertainment packages
·         The trade association for the Asia Pacific pay-TV industry, CASBAA, has welcomed reports that Chinese-language TV broadcasters have filed anti-piracy suits in US courts
·         The rapidly expanding Tata Sky, which in the last few weeks launched a host of new channels in India, has turned to Elemental Technologies to enable video delivery for its new 4K/Ultra HD service
Tech:
·         Google announced a partnership with Intel and luxury timepiece brand Tag Heuer, promising that together the companies will launch a luxury Android Wear watch in 2015
·         Sir Richard Branson recently spoke to Bloomberg where he said his racing company has “teams of people working on electric cars”
·         New Jersey Governor Chris Christie just signed a law that will allow Tesla to start selling its vehicles again to residents of the state
·         A new application called Fradio is officially launching today, offering a service that allows anyone to become a DJ, broadcasting their favorite tracks to their friends or fans, and even talking over the tunes with a push of a button in order to engage their audience
·         LinkedIn is bringing its stand-alone Job Search app to Android today - the app first launched nine months ago on iOS
·         Amazon today announced that Prime Now, its one-hour delivery service, is available in Baltimore and Miami
·         Los Angeles-based i.am+, the smartwatch startup founded by will.i.am, said today that it has tied with Gucci to develop a co-branded smartwatch
·         Feeling pressure from Shopify and Bigcommerce, Amazon is shuttering its Webstore business
·         In an exclusive Q&A, the current Apple CEO discusses the Watch, how Steve Jobs informs Apple's future, and how Apple lives "outside the box"
·         Twitter is currently experimenting with a major design overhaul that could transform the login page of the popular microblogging site into a real-time portal of news stories and celebrity updates
Deals:
·         Opera, makers of a suite of software for browsing the web on mobile and desktop devices used by some 350 million consumers, has acquired SurfEasy, makers of a virtual private network (VPN) app that lets users browse the web more securely
·         Rakuten is beefing up its digital content chops after it announced the acquisition of e-book and audio-book marketplace OverDrive for $410MM
·         Today, website host GoDaddy revealed it will initially price its stock at $17-$19 a share during its upcoming IPO
·         The private equity unit of Neuberger Berman Group has bought a stake in the activist hedge fund Jana Partners
·         Starbucks declared a 2-for-1 stock split set for April 9 at its Annual Meeting yesterday, saying it sees enough growth on the horizon to help push the company to a $100B market capitalization
Business:
·         Yahoo is expected to terminate between 200 and 300 employees in China as its closing down its operations in mainland China
·         Philips, the Dutch electronics giant, said on Thursday that it planned to spin off its lighting business through an initial public offering next year
·         U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles said on Monday that shareholders led by two pension funds did not show that questions raised about Herbalife’s business by hedge fund manager William Ackman and various investigators showed that the company had fraudulently inflated its stock price
·         More than half of the 17 senior managing directors working in Blackstone Group LP’s mergers and acquisitions advisory arm may leave as the business is combined with the advisory firm headed by star Wall Street investment banker Paul Taubman
·         Bank of America must allow shareholders to vote on a proposal that calls for the company to consider spinning off its investment banking business
·         Target has agreed to pay a $10MM settlement related to its 2013 data breach, which compromised the personal information of as many as 110 million people.
·         Chinese social media giant Tencent reported a 43% increase in net profits for 2014, on revenues that increased by 31%
Exec Moves:
·         Universal Pictures’ president of Physical Production Andrew Fenady is leaving the studio after more than 16 years and will be replaced by Jeff LaPlante, who has been EVP Physical Production since 2011
Startups:
·         Fundbox, a company that loans businesses money for outstanding invoice payments, has raised $40MM to grow its own business in the trillion-dollar alternative lending market
·         A Plus, a blog founded in Ashton Kutcher’s living room that hopes to be the next Buzzfeed, raised a $3.5MM convertible note at a $30MM valuation
Government:
·         Things are getting rocky for Greece before EU leaders attend a two-day summit discussing Europe's energy security and the Ukraine crisis
·         Kim Jong-un has accepted an invitation to visit Moscow this May, making a rare trip out of North Korea, according to Russian officials
·         Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory in the Israeli elections this week may push American officials to support a UN-led solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
·         ISIS on Thursday said in a statement that two Tunisian members carried out attack against "infidels" in Tunisia's Bardo Museum yesterday
·         The Affordable Care Act is still more unpopular than popular, but not by much, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation monthly tracking poll, released Thursday
Other:
·         Please see below for an article on why Time’s article on wearables is an attack on science
·         On Friday, people across Europe, Northern Africa, and parts of the Middle East will be able to see a partial solar eclipse

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