Issue 15  12th June 2015

Fast & Furious director Justin Lin on making 360-degree movies with Google

Now I'm interested to see the reaction from the viewer. That's something that's so new and so unique that I don't know what other time in my life I'm ever going to have this experience again.

Justin Lin, director of the Fast & Furious movies—and the upcoming Star Trek 3—has turned his talent towards 360-degree film by making "Help" in a collaboration with Google for their Spotlight Stories.

In this interview with The Verge, he describes what a unique and special process it was just to make the short film, and what he thinks of the future of 360-degree video. You can also see a behind the scenes video to get an insight into the making of 'Help'.

Netflix no threat, but makes cable better, say Liberty Global, Vodafone

During the opening panel session of ANGACOM both Liberty Global and Vodafone Deutschland hinted that they do not see OTT video as a significant threat, but rather as something that has stimulated them to provide a better overall experience to their consumers.

The Rerun team thinks the cable giants still have plenty to learn from Netflix, and shouldn't discount the threat just yet.

Apple increases test device limits for developers, hinting at plans for Apple TV apps

We really wanted an Apple TV announcement at WWDC, but alas, that was not to be :( However, an increase to the number of Apple test devices for developers, which includes Apple TV, gives us renewed hope that finally, we'll be hearing about Apple TV at the next Apple event in September.

How a 1995 TV Guide predicted the future of TV, sort of

Look for the next big trend to find fans of shows like The X-Files (which already has an internet location) to join in virtual TV parties—large groups of people, each watching the same show in the solitude of his or her home, conversing with one another through cyberspace.

An amusing TV Guide story from 20 years ago actually predicted the future of TV pretty well! Interactive TV and internet 'parties' being two of the top predictions. Rabbit-ear antennas replacing cable though... not so much! (Although Aereo’s failed model of cloud-hosted antennas as a service almost had a shot at making this somewhat true. Ish...)

NowThis Media sees a big appetite for short news videos

Online video news company NowThis Media says it has seen dramatic growth, going from 1 million video views a year ago, to 50 million earlier this year, to 200 million in May.

NowThis, a startup that creates "platform-appropriate" video content for different social media channels, has experienced enormous growth over the past year. Why is this significant? They are an entirely distributed news company, proudly flying the phrase "Homepage. Even the word sounds old.". For example they create videos to be watchable even in mute autoplay on Facebook by cleverly overlaying text on the video, which no doubt adds to their view count.

As traditional outlets like the New York Times start distributing their content to Facebook and Apple's new News app, the success of NowThis is a strong indicator of the future of news and entertainment.

The Huffington Post opens a citizen journalism video network with BroadbandTV

What HuffPost did for blogging, it's now doing for video

Huffington Post and Broadband TV have joined forces to launch the YouTube news network, Outspeak. The idea is to change news as we know it, by providing a medium for everyone to become their own content creators.