Happy Friday everyone!
Friday Fun Fact: 1 in 3 football fans will watch the 2018 Russia World Cup using mobile data.
Let the scrolling begin!
Top Pick
Sweetening live video, then & now
Live TV's fundamental challenge has always been to create an experience where a global audience feels the presence of others. The infamous laugh track was a way for early TV viewers to feel that presence. This article from our design blog explores how contemporary mobile interfaces for live video have the same problem, but solve it in a whole new way.
Features
Inside the Binge Factory
An amazingly in-depth and insightful read into how Netflix has set itself up to produce and distribute content. A careful blend of intuition + data, using 'taste communities' instead of traditional demographics, and empowering its executives with the autonomy to say 'yes'.
But at almost every opportunity, Sarandos and Holland downplay the role data plays. âYou have to be very cautious not to get caught in the math, because youâll end up making the same thing over and over again,â Sarandos says. âAnd the data just tells you what happened in the past. It doesnât tell you anything that will happen in the future.â
A company built on a bluff
The fascinating story of Vice Media and the company's brash ex-CEO, Shane Smith. A media and broadcasting company that seemed to resonate with a younger audience due to it's cutting edge nature. How it went from massive success to it's current unsure future, and the extraordinary outlook of the company's co-founder.
âI said to Rupert. âI have Gen Y, I have social, I have online video. You have none of that. I have the future, you have the past,ââ â ...later, Murdoch pulled out his checkbook, investing $70 million in Vice at a valuation just north of a billion dollars.
Future of TV
Hulu lost $436m in the first quarter of 2018
Despite the 3rd most steaming service worldwide it seems that Hulu is struggling with losses of $436 million in Q1 of this year. This is on the back of last year's $920 million loss.
20th Century Fox currently owns the majority state in Hulu. However Disney and Comcast are both respectively hoping to take Fox over. Given the investment to date in Hulu, at Rerun, it is likely both parties have a strategy in mind for Hulu. Given Disney intend to launch its own platform next year, Hulu could help grow the content library with titles like The Handmaid Tale.
Netflix could be a surprise winner in Comcast and Disneyâs bidding war for Fox
As Comcast and Disney begin a bidding war for Fox, it's really a win-win situation for Netflix.
At the centre of it all is Hulu, which has losses of $436m in Q1 this year, and who both Comcast and Disney own equal 30% stakes in. Whoever the future owner of Fox is, their plans for Hulu will be of great interest to Netflix, being one of their streaming main competitors.
But this process of bidding, approval, acquisition, and integration will take quite some time. Meanwhile, Netflix can remain focused only on growing itself.
Interactive Media
Stranger Things is getting a Telltale game
Telltale Games, known for their adventure games and adaptations of other properties (such as The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones), are soon to announce a partnership with Netflix.
Tellltale Games will adapt Netflix's sci-fi original 'Stranger Things' whilst "Minecraft: Story Mode", a licensed five-episode interactive narrative series which players will control using remote control devices, will drop on Netflix this fall.
Netflix suggests that while Minecraft: Story Mode will be the first game to launch on the platform âin an adapted form,â Stranger Things will not be an interactive experience through Netflix, but will be a brand-new Telltale series.
Briefs
- 40% US broadband homes have 2 OTT subscriptions
- Inside Heinekenâs first e-commerce push in the US
- BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Arqiva invest ÂŁ125MN to secure future of UK free-to-view TV
- La Liga using mobile phones to detect TV piracy in bars
- Free HBO And All That Data: Dissecting The AT&T Time Warner Decision
- Grow your app with Snapchatâs best features
These shoes let users walk through virtual worlds
We hope the latest VR accessory comes in our size...! Cybershoes, allows the user to walk and run through virtual reality worlds. The device intends to address the lack of 'real' space most encounter when using VR kits. To use the shoes, the wearer will have to sit on a stool and swing their legs to simulate walking.
That is all from the Rerun team at Axonista, have a fantastic week and we look forward to sharing more news on the future of TV and interactive video next week.