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Crunch Network
Facebook content and brand strategies that win in a silent autoplay world
The business of Facebook native video is relatively new. Not incidentally, the company also began advantaging native video in the News Feed over posts with outbound links to YouTube and other sites. And recently, the company further enhanced its video focus, rolling out a series of initiatives that should vastly increase the amount of live-streaming video on the site. Read More
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Crunchyroll-owner Ellation announces Vrv, a multi-channel, streaming video service
Digital media company Ellation is announcing a big push into streaming video with Vrv, which will offer a variety of channels aimed at gamers and other geeks. Ellation is best known as the parent company of anime service Crunchryoll. Otter Media, the joint venture from Chernin Group and AT&T, acquired a majority stake in the company back in 2013 and invested another $22 million last… Read More
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Sling TV hits Apple TV with a new interface, more channels
Sling TV, Dish’s internet-based streaming TV service for cord cutters, has rolled out a number of changes to coincide with its debut on Apple TV, announced yesterday at Apple’s WWDC keynote. The company also launched a dozen Viacom channels across both its service tiers, including popular additions like Comedy Central, BET, MTV, Nick Jr., Spike and more. The Sling TV app is… Read More
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The Apple TV gains deeper Siri integration and single sign-on option
Apple just announced minor updates to the operating system that powers the Apple TV. The news comes from Apple SVP Eddy Cue from the company’s developer’s conference WWDC. The future of TV is apps, Apple often says, and today’s update reinforces that mantra. Today’s news brings more apps and makes them easier to use on the Apple TV. Read More
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Wattpad teams up with Turner and Tales from the Crypt
Social publishing platform Wattpad is announcing one of the first partnerships as part of its new Wattpad Studios program — the company has struck a deal with Turner to help generate ideas for shows on Turner networks, starting with the upcoming Tales from the Crypt revival on TNT. Wattpad Studios head Aron Levitz said it’s too early to reveal all the details of the partnership, but… Read More
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Nameless.tv tries to bring that live TV thrill to online video
Nameless.tv is bringing some of the communal feeling of watching regular TV — you know, the sense that people are watching along with you – to the experience of streaming online videos. “Watching videos alone is boring,” argued CEO Kareem Rahma. The New York-based startup was previously known as NYC.TV, and it was supposed to recapture the “anything goes”… Read More
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Crunch Network
Whatever happened to MCNs?
Remember MCNs? Those quaint multi-channel networks — aggregators of YouTube channels — that generally focused on a specific vertical audience? In the past year or so, something curious happened — companies shied away from the “MCN” moniker. Some did so violently, contending they were never MCNs in the first place. Here the five reasons this happened. Read More
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Gawker files for bankruptcy
Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy today, according to documents filed in a Southern District of New York court. The filing comes as Gawker’s legal battle with the wrestler Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) drags on. Hogan sued Gawker after the site published a clip of his sex tape and a blog post analyzing it; his lawsuit, as well as others against Gawker, have been funded by… Read More
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UNU set to forecast tech trends after accurate Oscars, Kentucky Derby predictions
Can AI outpace the expertise of vaunted futurists like Mary Meeker or Ray Kurzweil? The artificial intelligence system called UNU is slated to answer questions tomorrow about technology and its long-term impact on humanity via a Reddit AMA (“ask me anything” interview). The same system accurately predicted Oscars winners, and the top four horses to win at the Kentucky Derby… Read More
Latest Crunch Report
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Now You See Me 2 director talks stage magic and CGI
How do you bring stage magic to life with contemporary movie technology? That’s what I asked Now You See Me 2 director Jon M. Chu — after all, you could use CGI to make any trick work on-screen, but doesn’t that ruin some of the fun? “It’s always a challenge to shoot magic in a movie because magic really happens in person,” Chu told me. “You want to… Read More
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Time Inc. signs up for Wochit’s video creation tools
Time Inc. has an ambitious goal for 2016 — creating 40,000 pieces of video content. Today it’s announcing a partnership with Wochit, which should make it easier for the media company to hit that target. Wochit is a New York City-headquartered startup that’s supposed to make it easier for online publishers to create short videos. To do that, Wochit analyzes the text of an… Read More
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Snapchat uncovers Discover
Snapchat combines the best of social networks, magazines, and television in a redesign of its omni-entertainment app. You’ll now see image and headline previews of the content inside Discover channels and Live stories on the Stories page, instead of just logos for the publishers or events they capture. The Discover page now features a Pinterest-style mason grid of tiles, while the… Read More
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Warcraft director Duncan Jones: “I wanted to make a great film”
Oh God, another video game movie? Well, Duncan Jones knows the track record here. “I would struggle to think of any other video game movie that can be described as a great movie,” he told me. “That’s what I wanted to do … I wanted to make a great film that just happened to be based on a video game.” Jones (son of David Bowie) is the director of the… Read More
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Refinery29 launches in Germany
Refinery29, the fast-growing media company focused on women, has today announced its expansion into Germany. Refinery29.de will be the first non-English property owned by Refinery29, and the second-local edition following the launch of Refinery29 in the UK. Refinery29 launched back in 2005 with a hard focus on hyper-local fashion news. Since, it has built out numerous verticals to become a… Read More
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Netflix is making its first original series out of India
Netflix has been keen to stress its new global focus since it launched into more than 100 new countries in January. That approach is not just about being available worldwide, it includes programming that is localized to international audiences too and, along that trail, Netflix just announced plans for its first original series from India. Read More
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New Warcraft featurette shows off the movie’s Easter eggs and real sets
The Warcraft movie, a fantasy action film based on the popular video game franchise, is coming out next week. To whet your appetite, here’s a new behind-the-scenes featurette from Universal Pictures. The video focuses on Easter eggs on the set for Stormwind Market, suggesting that if you’re a regular World of Warcraft player, you’ll see lots of familiar elements from the game… Read More
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Tribune Publishing rebrands as tronc, terrible puns ensue
Tribune Publishing, owner of newspapers including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, just announced that starting on June 20 it will rebrand as tronc*, Inc. — short for “tribune online content.” The company is pitching this as part of its broader move to digital, which also includes the development of troncX*, a “content curation and monetization engine”… Read More
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Facebook kills off Notify news app
Facebook’s attempt at a real-time, notification-based news app is shutting down. Today Facebook sent an alert to users telling them “Thanks for using Notify. We’re transitioning parts of Notify into other Facebook products, and the app will no longer be supported.” Facebook launched Notify in November, allowing users to select from over 70 publishers that they wanted… Read More
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Medium acquires Superfeedr, a real-time API that supercharges your feeds
Medium has acquired a small startup called Superfeedr, an API to turbocharge the way you handle RSS, Atom and JSON feeds. For a company like Medium, Superfeedr can generate feeds with a ton of items and push them in real time to PubSubHubbub-compliant services. According to Superfeedr’s <a href="https://super Read More
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