Week In Review: AT&T Boils The Frog, T-Mobile Goes Quibi
1. AT&T Boils The Frog, You know how we keep telling you that the vMVPDs aren’t really all that different from the MVPDs, that the “mesomorph bundles” of 80-100 channels Read More
TV Likely at Center of Marvel and Star Wars’ Upcoming Omnichannel Blitz
Kevin Feige taking over as Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer shows an omnichannel marketing approach that buoys that brands (and maybe Star Wars) through TV. Read More
Apple Appears Set To Move Beyond TVOD, The World Wide Web
At Apple’s WWDC, expect to see iTunes broken up, the end of TVOD, and the rise of an app-focused and integrated future for both mobile and desktop. Read More
How Many Influencers Does A Modern Marketing Campaign Need? A Lot.
Online influencers are being recruited by the hundreds to help market brands. But be careful to avoid “pay and spray” as you sign them up. Read More
Podcast: Brian Solis On Embracing Influence 2.0, Better Branding And Rescaling Your Digital Life
Digital Anthropologist Brian Solis visits the Bloom in Tech podcast to talk about “Influence 2.0,” what it means for brands and advertising, and his new book, “Life Scale,” and how we need to rewire our approach to all our digital distractions. Read More
One Year On, Sports Networks Laying Bets On On-Screen Gambling Future
One year after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to legalize gambling, media companies Fox, Sinclair and ESPN are all betting that gambling will help their programming. Read More
VidCon Names Speakers In Tenth Year Of Gathering Of The Influencer Tribes
Top execs from social-media powers YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitch, Snap and TikTok will be among those speaking at this year’s VidCon, the sprawling influencer gathering that also will feature such Read More
Sinclair Bets Big On Local Sports Gambling With $10.6B RSN Deal
Sinclair’s $10.6 billion deal to buy 21 regional sports networks is a bet on betting itself, as sports gambling and new technologies enable new viewer experiences, and revenue opportunities. Read More
Podcast: Alien’s 40th Birthday And How Tongal Helped It Celebrate
Tongal CEO James DeJulio talks on the latest Bloom in Tech podcast about creating six short films celebrating the 40th anniversary of “Alien.” Read More
Brands Wrest Back Control Of Data With ‘In-Housing’ Trend
It’s been a time of great ferment in the advertising business. New marketing approaches, direct consumer relationships, and shifting business models are pushing more companies to exert control over one Read More
From Managing Mommy Bloggers to Media Mini-Moguls: Q&A With Reesa Lake Of Digital Brand Architects
DBA Partners Reesa Lake, Raina Penchansky & Vanessa Flaherty Digital Brand Architects has been managing influencers since before the term existed, going back to the days of young retail clerks Read More
Podcast: Amid Facebook’s Fake Privacy Pivot, Social Media Approaches An Inflection Point
Last week, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the blog post that launched a thousand hot takes, promising to pivot Facebook to privacy. As with many things Zuckerberg says publicly, that promise has little Read More
WarnerMedia’s Zucker Returns To Sports Roots, And Another Chance To Remix An Industry
Well, that didn’t take long. Seemingly hours after a U.S. appeals court killed the Justice Department’s misbegotten (and, possibly, politically motivated) attempt to block the $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner merger, Read More
Podcast: Netflix Wins Even When It Loses, Oscar Edition
Netflix had a very good Oscar season. Its most celebrated awards contender, Roma, from Alfonso Cuaron, picked up three major Oscars – for best foreign language film, directing and cinematography” – and a Read More
Podcast: Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi On VR, Esports and the Future of Movie Theaters
With the possible exception of music, perhaps no corner of the entertainment business has faced more intractable challenges from tech-driven changes in our culture, lifestyle and consumption habits than the Read More
The Joys of Directing, Hollywood’s Gender Issues and Poking Surveillance Culture – Soloway And Magid At Neuehouse
This episode of the Bloom in Tech podcast includes a fascinating discussion between two very different film directors, speaking together at NeueHouse Hollywood last week as part of the huge Read More
Amateur Sports Highlights The Latest Competition For Audiences And Ads
As big media companies vie for pricey rights to pro sports broadcasts and streams, a smaller but equally hard-fought contest is breaking out for viewers of low-cost online videos about Read More
How Micro Influencers, In-Person Events And Ephemeral Video Are Transforming Content Marketing
At this year’s Digital Entertainment World conference, I moderated a panel of top entertainment and e-commerce executives talking about the trends and technologies reshaping content marketing. It’s a fast-evolving field, Read More
Viacom Building Formidable Ad-Supported Alternative For Hollywood’s Digital Future
With its $340 million acquisition of ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV, Viacom has added another important piece to its transformation as a player in the digital world. Importantly, the company Read More
Netflix Turns Up Heat In Online Video’s Shark Pool As Three More Services Jump In
As if the pool of big fish in on-demand video wasn’t already stuffed full, this past week saw three more sharks dive in, just to make it interesting, along with Read More
NBCU Building A ‘Bluprint’ For Its Post-Cable TV Future: Q&A With Dave Howe
Among a string of experiments and ventures at NBCUniversal, few are as intriguing as Bluprint, the revamped hobbyist education and e-commerce site formerly known as Craftsy that the media giant Read More