Snap Sulks, Disney Hopes to Expand by More Than 280 Characters
What went down in the next generation of entertainment this week? The OG youth star Disney may be making a deal with Fox-- or at least Hulu-- in an attempt to score streamers. This strategy seems solid, whereas holes are appearing in Snapchat's cool kid facade. Keep an eye on Snap's redesigned app (going live December 4th) and pixel tracking while keeping your children's eyes away from the violent content on YouTube.And of course, everyone's whipping out their SAT words and run-on sentences to announce the arrival of 280 characters on Twitter.Disney’s Hulu play could turn out to be like Facebook buying Instagram [CNBC]Owning a majority stake in Hulu prepares Disney perfectly to be one of the big players in over-the-top video.Fox-Disney Deal Would Redraw Battle Lines: “Content Is The Weapon Of Choice” [Deadline]With streaming services like Netflix luring away cable TV subscribers with increasing speed and threatening traditional business models, distributors such as AT&T and Comcast have gained leverage through consolidation…. though it should be noted that talks apparently have reached an impasse.NBCUniversal Calls for Media Summit to Fix Industry’s Advertising, Measurement Woes [Variety]NBCUniversal has asked top media buyers, executives at rival TV networks and digital-media outlets, video distributors, ad-tech platforms and even a handful of advertisers to come together on November 28, according to five people familiar with the matter, to talk about a legion of problems the industry just can’t seem to dispel.Snapchat's biggest redesign ever is planned for December 4 — here's how it will work [Business Insider]To the right of the camera will be all crowdsourced videos from users around events like sports games, which Snapchat calls "Our Stories," along with content produced by Snapchat's publishing partners like NBC and BuzzFeed. The window to the right of the camera will also show Stories from verified celebrities on Snapchat, a move seemingly aimed at further separating interactions between friends and public figures.Snap says it's going to start paying top creators [The Verge]Over the next year, he said the service would build out more distribution and monetization options. He said the company might make professional tools available, and generally, would facilitate sharing beyond friend groupSnapchat share price craters on weak revenue and user growth in Q3 2017 [TechCrunch]Snap’s losing streak continued with today’s Q3 2017 earnings report that saw it miss financial expectations and add just 4.5 million users.Snapchat Finally Lets Advertisers Use Pixels to Track Ad Results and Eventually Retarget [AdAge]Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has been wary of such ad technology in the past, fearing the creep factor of following consumers across the internet with ads that won't leave people alone. However, Snapchat has had to embrace those tactics as it looks to develop as sophisticated advertising model that can compete with the likes of Facebook and Google.Twitter officially expands its character count to 280 starting today [TechCrunch]And still more argued that the expansion doesn’t really mean people will be able to better express themselves – they’ll just say the same thing, but use more words to do so.Facebook and Salesforce further their team-up against Microsoft Office and Google [Business Insider]The partnership will give both Salesforce and Facebook a way in with each other's customers.Hearst Opens a New 26,000-Square-Foot Studio to Ramp Up Its Video Production [Adweek]Currently, Hearst sees an average of 1.5 billion video views per month and creates about 150 videos per week (not including quick meme content) across all brands; the company is eager to generate more.PeopleTV Strikes Deal With Twitter for Streaming Video [WSJ]Beginning Nov. 20, the content will be available via @PeopleTV on Twitter. Advertisers will be able to sponsor and promote across both Twitter and the over-the-top PeopleTV network. The two companies said they will share advertising revenue from ads sold on Twitter but declined to disclose the exact revenue split.Signs that Facebook food videos are losing their luster [Digiday]One exception is BuzzFeed’s Tasty, simply because of the sheer scale of distribution it brings to the table: Seven of Tubular’s top 25 food publishers are Tasty verticals.Vice Launches Broadly Films to Finance Female Filmmakers [THR]Called Broadly Films, the three-year program will see Vice help 36 filmmakers develop and create short films focused on innovation, technology, youth and women's issues. AE Ventures is backing Broadly Films with a multimillion-dollar annual commitment. All films created through the program, which will launch by the end of this year, will be distributed on Broadly, Vice's female-centric channel, and other Vice platforms.BuzzFeed to Debut Interactive Dating Show on Facebook Watch [THR]On Thursday, the publisher is debuting interactive dating show RelationShipped on Facebook Watch. Like The Bachelor, the series will follow one man on his quest for love, but there's a catch. Over the course of the 18-episode season, viewers will have a say in how that love story plays out. The Nov. 9 premiere will introduce the audience to five bachelors. Viewers will then have until 7 a.m. ET the following day to vote for the man they want to see continue on his journey to find love. Future episodes will ask the audience to help plan dates and nominate potential contestants.Watch Rhye’s New “Taste” Video [Pitchfork]Digital media and social sharing have raised the importance of visuals to songs. So Rhye, indie duo, sought out DanceOn to produce and choreograph their music video for their latest single "Rhye." DanceOn’s VP of Programming, Roxanne Teti, adds, “We’re honored to add Rhye to our list of collaborative artists and are thrilled to share our vision of 'Taste'. Rhye was amazing to work with throughout this entire creative process."
Group Nine Media Acquires Production Studio Jash [Tubefilter]Founded by former Jimmy Kimmel Live! execs Daniel Kellison and Doug DeLuca — as well as Maker Studios vet Mickey Meyer — in 2012, Jash was originally conceived as a comedy collective comprising Sarah Silverman, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, the actor Michael Cera, and musician Reggie Watts. It was initially funded through YouTube‘s now-defunct Original Channels Initiative.Brands are using influencers on Musical.ly to reach teens [Digiday]Musical.ly, a lip-syncing app that has more than 200 million mostly teen users, is focused on user growth, but brands like Beiersdorf, Disney and Kit Kat are using influencers to crack the audience there.Go90 shows that mobile-only platforms won’t work, Vubiquity executive says [FierceCable]Go90’s primary content strategy now is cornering the market on what it calls “premium midform content,” or video content that slots between the less-than-10-minute clips that dominate social media and the more-than-30-minute shows and films popular on SVODs like Amazon, Hulu and Netflix.‘Facebook views are a vanity metric’: Overheard at the Digiday Video Anywhere Summit [Digiday]“Go90 markets one show every quarter. They’ll have 50 shows, but they’ll market one show and do a good job with it, and people will see it. What I think you’re likely to see is that they pull back on the volume of shows they do and put more marketing behind the stuff that they do.”Why Maybelline is winning at social media [Digiday]The L’Oréal-owned brand has beat out its parent company, as well as competitors including Estée Lauder and Revlon, in cross-platform engagement since the start of the year, according to recent analysis from ShareIQ, a social analytics company.Vivendi Brings Mobile Short-Form Video Service to U.S. [B&C]Looking to make a stronger connection with consumers who are on the go, Vivendi has made the U.S. debut of Studio+, a short-form premium video service that sells for $3.99 per month.Tailored for mobile consumption, Studio+ is initially available on iOS, with Android mobile devices on deck.The service is a combined effort from Vivendi’s Canal+ Group and Universal Music Group brands.Studio+ leans on a 10x10 format (10 episodes that are 10 minutes each) that can be streamed or downloaded.OTT Content on YouTube Offers New Ad Opportunity [B&C]Zefr found that 77% of the views of Netflix related content was driven by fans. There are more than 81,000 fan channels on YouTube versus 10 official channels. Those fan channels had 4.7 billion fan views and 46.8 million fan engagements, compared to 1.2 billion views and 10.9 million engagements on the official sites.YouTube is reportedly pointing kids to thousands of disturbing, violent, and inappropriate videos [Business Insider]"We’re always looking to improve the YouTube experience for all our users and that includes ensuring that our platform remains an open place for free communication while balancing the removal of controversial content," a YouTube representative said.
