Will youtube break into the streaming business

According to the WSJ Youtube is looking into breaking the streaming video space. It will compete directly with serivces like Netflix, Amazon prime video and Hulu.

Personally I feel like there is not much difference between these type of service. Most of the series and movies are old, and there is a lack of new material. The only place that I see these streaming services differentiting is on the originl content they produce.

So that raises a question, will Youtube just be another streaming service?
The answer is no. While the other providers license older tv series and movies, youtube will focus on new material. This may definetly give Youtube an edge and grab an important size of the pie in its first motnhs.

We should expect to see this new service by 2016, and I am personally looking forward to it.

Calling all Adam Sandler Fans!

Are you an Adam Sandler fan? If you answered "yes" to that question - you're in major luck. Netflix, the world's largest subscription video service, recently announced that they would be producing four (that's right: FOUR) movies with comic actor Adam Sandler, in an effort to further expand into exclusive feature films. Happy Madison Productions, Adam's production company, will join forces with Netflix to develop the movies. Currently, Netflix operates in close to 50 countries, and the movies will premiere only to their customers. 

According to AdAge and Bloomberg News, Netflix endeavors to add motion pictures to its lineup, which includes "first-run series, newer and vintage movies and TV programs, as well as documentaries and shows for kids." Netflix also recently announced a collaboration with Weinstein and Co. to produce a sequel to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Theater owners nationwide are protesting Netflix's plan to release the feature film on IMAX screens on the same day that the film becomes available for online streaming. This, however, won't be a problem for the Adam Sandler movies, which will not be released in movie theaters. 

This move by Netflix to partner with Happy Madison Productions is most likely a very, very smart move. Sandler's movies do extremely well at the box office, and Netflix has said that his movies are among the most viewed by subscribers--not only in the United States but also worldwide. 

Netflix has found tremendous success in original content, including Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, so this move to feature films is perhaps not so surprising. Netflix is slow to release data on how many people watch their original content, so this takes some of the pressure off of Sandler. It will be exciting to see how this partnership will affect Netflix, Adam Sandler, and the entire streaming landscape. 

SOURCE: http://adage.com/article/media/netflix-making-movies-comic-adam-sandler/295260/

Is online streaming killing television?

It is that time of year again--moving season in New York. A time of year when young people across the City reevaluate the conditions in which they have been living and determine whether or not it is worth it to stick it out another year or plot a move and take a chance on craigslist or a broker while running around the city with piles of paperwork hoping to be the first person to arrive at a listing.

I have opted to stick it out in my current lease, but the season has made me reflect about different set of conditions, namely Time Warner cable. This is the first time in my life that I have seriously considered forgoing my cable TV, and I think I am finally ready to take the plunge. I realized how rarely I watched any live television anymore. Everything I wanted to watch was on my DVR, and everything on my DVR can be found online. A good internet connection and maybe a Netflix account could finally free me from years of price gauging.

From an advertiser’s perspective, should this be cause for alarm? Not necessarily. An Affective facial tracking study found that online video ads received 18.3% more viewer attention than those found on TV. Not only do you pay more attention to these in-stream video ads, they are also impossible to skip through fast-forwarding. Since the online ads appear at short and infrequent intervals in comparison to TV ads, viewers are less likely to build to step away from their computers, knowing they are likely to miss the content they have been viewing if they do. All of these factors combine to make video ads significantly more effective that than their TV counterparts.