Features
Episode 6 of 'Over The Top' with Axonista CEO - Claire McHugh
In this episode of "Over The Top'', Jocelyn, Dermot, and our CEO Claire discuss if the US dominance of the global media economy is coming to an end, the golden era of women in tech and more.
2018 Oscar nominations
This year's nominations for the 90th Academy Awards have been revealed. It seems, however, that the Academy is still resisting the shift of content creation by digital platforms. This year Netflix was hoping for its first Best Picture nomination with 'Mudbound'. This didn't happen despite the film winning recognition in four other categories. Amazon still leads in terms of Oscar success with three wins for “Manchester by the Sea” and one for “The Salesman,” a foreign film.
At Rerun, we reckon the availability of these movies in cinemas is a key factor. Amazon widely releases films in theatres before release on its platform. Netflix gives its pictures the minimum cinematic release required for Oscar contention. It will be interesting to see how current content distribution trends will affect - or not affect - Oscar nominations in the future.
Future of TV
Amazon is bringing a much needed feature to Fire TV
Now you can sign into your favourite TV apps a lot easier.
Amazon has announced that they are introducing the single-sign-on feature. With single-sign-on, you simply sign into your cable or satellite provider account once, and the Fire TV will use the credentials for all participating single-sign-on apps.
So far 18 apps support single-sign-on including A&E, AMC, BBC, Bravo, and Amazon is working on adding broadcast channels like ABC and NBC to its list of single-sign-on apps in the future.
Single-sign-on is rolling out to consumers now and should be available for your Fire TV the next time you sign on.
Top subscription video on demand apps boosted revenue 77% last year to reach $781 million
A new market analysis from Sensor Tower, shows how U.S. spending grew 77% on the top 10 VOD apps last year. Of course Netflix (which now has nearly 118 million subscribers globally), YouTube, HBO and Hulu took the top spots. Still, considerable growth was made by apps for niche audiences - like the UFC, which is in tenth place.
A notable discovery is that VOD subscribers tend not to stay with a service they don't see value in. This was most apparent with HBO, after airing the 7th season of 'Game of Thrones' they saw a bump in subscription cancelations.
Netflix Execs: we’re not afraid of Disney’s subscription service
The wild world of streaming video never disappoints. Disney's expansion has been in the news lately. Their recent $52.4b acquisition of 20th Century Fox was a big part of that. You'd assume Netflix would be starting to perspire, but CEO Reed Hastings seems pretty zen.
“We’ll all learn from each other and total streaming will grow faster because of the competition.”
Disney in the streaming game will definitely impact others. And since they'll no longer distribute content through Netflix, some great titles go with them. Hashtings believes if they can keep monetizing video for directors and producers, news from the big studios is no bother.
Their 8.3m new subscribers in Q4 seem to agree.
Facebook Watch isn’t very watchable yet.
Slate.com has published a critical opinion piece about Facebook Watch, calling it 'an ungainly mess'. A strong opinion for a platform less than six months old and still only available in the US. Slate argues that Watch's content lacks depth and quality, that it seems the purpose is to be shared between users or to encourage discussion which, for now, seems to be passive - and doesn't offer the 'community building' promised before.
We think Facebook Watch is still in its infancy — it deserves a little more time to mature and involve the wider community in this substantial shift, before we offer our judgement.
Interactive Media
Broken Back | Be the stylist of the music video
"Sooner the Better" is a track from "Broken Back". For the music video, they've created an impressive, interactive story on their website. The interaction is based around changing the protagonists' clothes. And at certain points during the video, you'll need to select the correct style to continue. Give it a try!
Burger King deviously explains net neutrality by making people wait longer for Whoppers
Net neutrality is a complicated topic to explain, which is where Burger King came in with a meaty metaphor. It set up a social experiment at a BK location with a hidden-camera setup.
In the video, you see how real customers reacted to being charged more for the same quick-serve.
The pricing board that they showed customers is great, with MBPS, referring to megabits per second in webspeak, changed to mean “making burgers per second.”
A tasty way to explain net neutrality!