Weekly Digest from the West
Jean-Baptiste Piron
Cultural Attaché I Attaché culturel I Québec Office Los Angeles
-Quibi Says It Reached 1.7 Million Downloads in First Week, in Debut Muted by Coronavirus: Quibi, the mobile-only streaming service from Jeffrey Katzenberg, said it hit 1.7 million installations within the first week of launch — higher than third-party estimates. According to analysts, the big-budget, short-form video streamer has had a relatively tepid reception in part because of the coronavirus pandemic. Quibi said Monday that it reached 1.75 million downloads. By contrast, according to research firm Apptopia, the Quibi app had been downloaded and installed 1.15 million times as of Sunday, April 12. The service launched with a 90-day free trial. Downloads have been fairly evenly split between iOS and Android devices, with about 87% of the installs from the U.S. and 6% from Canada, according to Apptopia data. Quibi’s app is available worldwide but the startup, led by Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, is focusing its marketing and customer-acquisition efforts on North America. Quibi’s debut comes at an inopportune time: The service is designed to be watched only on mobile devices, in episodic chunks of less than 10 minutes while people are out and about. The COVID-19 crisis has left millions stuck indoors, and Quibi has frustrated some because it can’t be streamed to a connected TV set. “Quibi was likely hoping for a better launch…. the coronavirus has definitely had an impact,” Adam Blacker, VP of insights and global alliances for Apptopia, wrote in a blog post. “It’s clear from using the app that it’s best used while commuting to work, which is not happening for many people right now.” In an interview Monday on CNBC, Whitman said the company was “delighted” by the response to Quibi’s launch and that it beat internal forecasts. She said 80% of users who started a watching a show finished watching at least the first episode. “It turns out people have in-between moments at home,” Whitman said in the interview. “We don’t actually think [the coronavirus crisis] hurt us.” Whitman has previously said that Quibi’s product road map included plans to add a feature to cast shows from smartphones to TVs. On Monday, she said the company is accelerating those development plans in light of widespread at-home quarantines. It’s important to note that number of downloads doesn’t necessarily translate into active users. Some people who installed Quibi probably did not actually watch much — or even anything — on the app. According to Apptopia, Quibi users spent about 1.3 million hours in the app over the first seven days. That translates into an average of 10 minutes per day per app downloaded; again, however, it’s likely that some number of those who installed Quibi didn’t spend any significant amount of time streaming video.
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/quibi-1-million-downloads-first-week-1234578362/
-Amazon beats Netflix to releasing the quintessential community watching app: In the age of self-isolation, it's difficult to hang out the same way we used to. Zoom parties can't replicate actually watching the latest streaming sensation with all your friends — but something else just might. Demand for a wide-scale community streaming app is growing, and Amazon has risen to the challenge with a new feature on Twitch: Watch Parties. Your move, Netflix. Watch Parties lets streamers and their viewers watch selected movies and shows on Amazon Prime together (as long as everyone has a subscription), adding in streaming reactions from the host and a chatroom for everyone else. While it's only available to U.S. Twitch Partners at the moment, but Amazon plans to roll the feature out to everyone in America in the near future. If this feels like opportune timing, you're not wrong. Twitch and its parent company, Amazon, are aware that millions of people need new ways to connect online. The company added that it plans to expand the new feature worldwide. "We appreciate all the feedback we’ve received so far, and have heard the need to make Watch Parties available to our global community," Twitch said in a blog post. "During this time of uncertainty, we know how valuable shared experiences like Watch Parties are to our community. This is why we’ve decided to open the beta to all Twitch Partners in the United States with an active Prime membership and will make it available to all creators in the United States who are Amazon Prime members in the coming weeks.?Twitch has actually been testing out Watch Parties since October 2019 with a "small group of creators," but this official announcement seems timed to beat rivals like Netflix or Disney and squash smaller, third-party services. The expansion of the feature follows the recent surge in popularity of Netflix Party, a third-party extension that allows friends to watch Netflix in sync with each other. Like Twitch, the extension provides a chatroom in the sidebar.
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/twitch-watch-parties-amazon-netflix
-Sling TV Introduces Happy Hour Across America with Free Content Every Night: Sling TV will be celebrating happy hour by unlocking free primetime TV from 5pm to midnight every night. You can sign up for Sling TV for free, with no credit card required to watch the free content. Sling developed Happy Hour Across America to bring back a sense of normalcy and shared experience through the tradition of primetime TV. As the COVID-19 crisis has unfolded, TV news consumption on Sling TV has increased 164%. But viewers have also leaned into TV as an evening escape, switching from news to entertainment programming around 6 p.m. ET and peaking at 10 p.m. ET across Sling TV’s services. “Since we can’t serve you a beverage or basket of hot wings, we’re introducing a new kind of happy hour – TV ‘on the house’ every night,” said Warren Schlichting, group president, SLING TV. “Much like a real happy hour, TV is often a shared experience. So grab your favorite refreshment, tune in with your friends and family, and get those group chats ready.”
-Convergence: OTT Revenue Will Grow Despite COVID-19: Canadian research firm Convergence Research Group expects over-the-top revenue to grow 29% in 2020, with overall streaming service revenue to nearly double by 2022. While the COVID-19 pandemic has squelched nearly every business sector in the country, streaming video has held its own. In its annual North American Couch Potato report, Convergence estimated that domestic OTT access revenue rose by 35% in 2019 to $22 billion, and is expected to rise another 29% to $28.5 billion in 2020. Fueling the growth is the surge in the number of OTT offerings from direct-to-consumer services like Disney+, Apple TV+, and upcoming offerings from NBC (Peacock) and AT&T (HBO Max). Convergence based its estimates on 77 OTT services (more than 50 providers), led by Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. The researcher predicts OTT access revenue will increase 55% to $44.2 billion in 2022. “Our forecasts assume the coronavirus will not be as major a disruptive force beyond 2020,” Convergence wrote in the report. Convergence sees at least some of that OTT growth coming at the expense of traditional pay TV. The researcher estimated that U.S. pay TV subscribers declined by 6.358 million, more than the 4.034 million lost in 2018. Convergence sees that trend continuing, with 2020 pay TV customer declines expected to be 7.097 million in 2020 and 7.475 million in 2022. Convergence also estimated that at the end of 2019 45.42 million U.S. households did not have a pay TV subscription, up from 38.22 million in 2018. For 2020, the company estimates 53.35 million won’t have a cable, telco or satellite pay TV subscription, rising to 69.63 million by 2022.
https://www.multichannel.com/news/convergence-ott-revenue-will-grow-despite-covid-19
-During the Pandemic, Universal Will Release New Movies for Immediate Streaming: In a major move to entertain home-bound audiences, Universal Pictures announced today that it will make new releases available to stream the same day they’re released theatrically. Historically, studios wait at least 90 days after a film’s release before making it available on streaming platforms. Universal has decided to eschew that tradition in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, which has already closed movie theaters in New York City, Ohio, and right here in Los Angeles. While several high-profile films have pushed back their opening dates, in the hopes that theaters will reopen and audiences will return to communal viewing, Universal’s plan means you won’t have to wait to watch Emma., The Invisible Man, Trolls World Tour, or The Hunt. “Rather than delaying these films or releasing them into a challenged distribution landscape, we wanted to provide an option for people to view these titles in the home that is both accessible and affordable,” NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell told the Los Angeles Times. “We hope and believe that people will still go to the movies in theaters where available, but we understand that for people in different areas of the world that is increasingly becoming less possible.” Currently, all cinemas in L.A. are closed down through at least March 31. Earlier today, Regal Cinemas, the nation’s second-largest movie chain, announced that it would close all 542 of its theaters across 42 states starting Tuesday, March 17. Starting Friday, the new Universal Pictures releases will begin appearing on several streaming platforms including Comcast On-Demand, Google Play, iTunes, Amazon Prime, and Fandango Now. It’s expected that the films will be made available for 48-hour “rental” at $19.99.
https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/new-releases-streaming-universal-pictures-coronavirus/
-Hollywood and hygiene: Sanitary conditions in the age of coronavirus: When it comes to working on sets, Deborah Jones, a draper decorating television shows and films for the past 19 years, says there’s no debate: the bathroom facilities are the worst. “I have worked on so many shows without a sufficient number of bathrooms, or toilets in the bathrooms, places to wash hands, get drinking water or dispose of trash,” she said. Jones, 50, a member of the IATSE Local 44 crafts union, recalled the “abysmal” toilet facilities during one shoot in the San Fernando Valley. There wasn’t a door and it had a trough for a sink. “I was told to drive down the street and use the one at Ralphs supermarket,” she said. On another shoot, the 100-person crew had to share a “three-hole honey-wagon.” Then there was the time working in a warehouse and the “kitchen” had no hot water and the sink was backed up and unusable for two weeks. For the entertainment industry, the coronavirus crisis has provided an unwelcome lesson in the hidden perils of working in the kind of high-touch, densely populated environments required of movie-and-TV-making. At the same time, the highly infectious virus has shed light on one of Hollywood’s dirtiest secrets: the often questionable sanitary conditions that have long existed on sets. Until now, lackadaisical hygiene has largely been accepted as part of the job. While production was shut down in an effort to slow the virus’ spread, the global pandemic has stirred debate on established cleanliness practices, raising broader questions and concerns about the definition of safe work spaces in Hollywood, particularly among production crews who are often the most exposed.
-Google Will Now Allow To Easily Connect With Telehealth Services During the Global Pandemic: Finding virtual health care options is now easier than before through the latest changes in Google search results. Julie Black, Director of Product Management, Google Health, announced in a blog post that seeing the growing demand for better healthcare service during the COVID-19, it is working to make telehealth services easier to search. The changes are expected to be rolled out next week. Health care providers who are offering their services virtually will be able to add a link of the virtual care website on their Google My Business Profile. The link will then be shown in search results as well as Google Maps, so people can easily contact them. If the health care providers have a dedicated online page which contains information regarding COVID-19, the link of the page will automatically appear directly in a search result. The image below shows how the changes might look like in Google search results. Also, when a term directly related to "care" is searched, widely-available telehealth services will be shown in a search result in a standalone card. The card will have a link to the platform where virtual care information will be available like the appointment fee if there is no health insurance.
-MLS will host a virtual tournament using FIFA 20, continuing industry-wide trend: Major League Soccer is the latest sports organization to move its games to a virtual format, launching a month-long tournament starring both professional athletes and EA Sports’ FIFA 20 Global Series esports players. The tournament, called the eMLS Tournament Special, will pit 16 MLS teams against each other, pairing an actual member of the team with an esports player for two-on-two matches, according to Polygon. The tournament will operate in a single-elimination format, meaning that when players lose, they’re immediately out. MLS will air five matches over the course of a month, with games airing on FS1 and Fox Deportes, the league’s broadcast partners. Fox Sports commentators Stu Holden, Rachel Bonnetta, and Rodolfo Landeros will lend their voices to the tournament. MLS isn’t the first league to use virtual tournaments to emulate a feeling of normalcy for fans at home. The NBA, MLS, Formula One, and NASCAR have also hosted virtual tournaments and races. Some have been quite successful; for example, iRacing events surpassed 1 million viewers when those races aired on March 29th and April 5th on Fox Sports. Other games have been less successful, however: NBA’s 2K tournament saw a high of 387,000 viewers when the tournament kicked off at 7:30PM ET on April 3rd on ESPN, and it hovered around 350,000 viewers. These are far from the normal viewership numbers that ESPN puts up, but both the network and leagues are looking to fill programming space. For leagues like the NBA, that includes finding new ways of getting healthy players to compete in televised events. On Sunday, the network aired a special HORSE competition between a number of NBA, WNBA, and alumni players, who all took turns competing in a skills shot competition from their individual homes. The Disney-owned network even decided to air a marathon of esports coverage — 12 hours total — on April 5th, turning to NBA 2K, Madden NFL 20, and Rocket League tournaments.
-Peacock Set to Go Live on Comcast This Month, ‘Significant Amount’ of Originals Delayed to 2021: NBCUniversal’s Peacock is ready to start rolling out to Comcast cable customers starting this week as scheduled — but most of Peacock’s original series will not be hitting the streaming service until 2021. On April 15, Comcast will launch an “early preview” of Peacock Premium ad-supported tier, available for no extra cost to some 31.5 million of the operator’s TV and broadband customers across the U.S. The streaming service will begin rolling out Tuesday to subscribers with Xfinity X1 and Flex, the video service for broadband-only customers, with Peacock slated to be fully available across Comcast’s footprint by April 30. At launch, Peacock Premium includes more than 15,000 hours of movies and shows, including library titles like “Parks and Recreation,” “Law & Order: SVU,” and “Two and a Half Men”; movies including “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park” and “Shrek”; and exclusive early access to content from NBC’s late-night shows. But the bulk of Peacock’s originals slate will be delayed until 2021, given the shutdown of productions with the coronavirus pandemic, said Matt Strauss, chairman of Peacock and NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises. For this month’s early preview, Peacock includes kids’ originals: animated series “Where’s Waldo?” and “Cleopatra in Space” from DreamWorks Animation as well as new episodes of “Curious George.”
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/peacock-launch-comcast-originals-delayed-2021-1234580051/
-AT&T is giving three months of FirstNet service to nurses and physicians for free: AT&T is providing three months of free wireless service on the FirstNet network to physicians and nurses dealing with the coronavirus response in the US, the company announced. Nurses and physicians in the US and US territories who are already on FirstNet mobile responder plans will get the three-month credit applied automatically to a line of service for a smartphone or tablet. Beginning today, new subscribers also will be eligible for the credit. Nurses and physicians can also get a $200 activation credit for a FirstNet-ready smartphone on a new FirstNet mobile responder plan. Actor John Krasinski mentioned the deal on the Sunday episode of his new YouTube series Some Good News. He and former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz also surprised a group of nurses at a Boston hospital with a visit to Fenway Park during the episode. AT&T helped build out the FirstNet network in a public-private partnership with the US government. A key feature is that it prioritizes first responders’ calls and traffic over the network, using preemption to block some consumer traffic (except 911 calls). The difference between FirstNet and other first-responder networks is that it’s built on physically separate hardware from AT&T’s own network, giving first responders “their own separate, nationwide broadband network.” But as FierceWireless explains, other carriers — like Verizon — have taken issue with that, claiming that since only AT&T has full interoperability with FirstNet, other carriers’ traffic may not be prioritized in an emergency situation. AT&T, on the other hand, has said that traffic to any FirstNet device gets prioritized regardless of which network it comes from.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/13/21218900/at-t-firstnet-free-nurses-physicians-coronavirus
-Tubi Kids Begins Rolling Out on Android: The free streaming service Tubi has just announced that it has started to roll out Tubi Kids on Android. Tubi Kids will be available to all Android users in the coming days, expanding its current availability on Roku, Fire TV and Comcast Xfinity. “We’re excited to expand the Tubi Kids library to Android’s billions of active devices so that more kids and families will have free and effortless access to thousands of hours of content,” said Michael Ahiakpor, Chief Product Officer, Tubi. “Collaborating with one of the most widely used operating brands is key in our mission to democratize content and provide value to our customers.” With Tubi Kids, viewers will have access to over 1200 age appropriate movies and TV shows, totaling over 5,000 hours of content. The content is completely free and has its own section, made just for families. Tubi Kids gives parents peace of mind as their kids enjoy content, without needing supervision. Tubi Kids includes hit movies including Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of TinTin, Norm of the North, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, alongside series with iconic characters including Sonic the Hedgehog, Strawberry Shortcake, Paddington Bear, The Wiggles and many more – all completely free. Tubi Kids will soon be available on all major streaming devices.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/tubi-kids-begins-rolling-out-on-android/
-The 4th industrial revolution is key to getting the global economy, and our lives, back on track: Preventive measures implemented by countries worldwide to halt the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak are forcing us to make fundamental changes to how we live, from work to play, business to education, policymaking to legislation. How long these measures will remain in place is hard to say, but it is widely feared they could be here for quite some time and will likely have a permanent impact on our lives. While we must take every sensible precaution, we cannot indefinitely pause all economic and social activities. One way or another, life must go on, which is why it is now critical to find innovative ways to circumvent this pandemic or any other potential disruption. We often hear that the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is a force for disruption, posing a threat to the livelihood of people and the economic prosperity of society. However, current circumstances are portraying a very different picture, where 4IR technologies are presenting solutions to restore many parts of our daily lives, helping us overcome unprecedented challenges. For example, technology and digital connectivity are allowing many people to work remotely and meet virtually, while education systems are offering children distance learning from the safety of their homes through webinars. Moreover, while we have been buying products on e-commerce platforms for many years now, this trend has recently been overtaken by online shopping for household essentials — which may very well become the norm in our post-pandemic world. Not only does the 4IR allow us to get on with our lives, but big data is also enabling us to triangulate the spread of the coronavirus, providing vital information that helps governments and healthcare systems react effectively and rapidly to contain the outbreak. Furthermore, 3D printing is also being used to ramp up production of essential medical supplies at short notice and that might be difficult to source through traditional supply chains, such as surgical masks, ventilator components, and diagnostic kits.
-Netflix Worth More Than Disney After Streamer’s Stock Hits All-Time High: Netflix — for now — is worth more than Disney after the streaming company’s shares hit an all-time high Wednesday. Netflix’s stock, extending its three-day rally, closed up 3.2%, to $426.75 per share. That gives Netflix a current market capitalization of $187.3 billion, putting it just over Disney’s $186.6 billion, after the media conglomerate’s stock finished down 2.5% amid a broader market decline Wednesday. Previously, Netflix’s all-time high closing stock price was $418.97 on July 9, 2018. Investors clearly are expecting Netflix to benefit from the COVID-19 crisis, with millions of people under stay-at-home orders — and looking for a diversion. Netflix is scheduled to report first quarter 2020 earnings next Tuesday, April 21, after market close. It previously forecast total paid net adds of 7.0 million worldwide. Many analysts expect Netflix to gain more than that. Pivotal Research Group now expects Netflix to net 8.45 million new subscribers for Q1. In a note Wednesday, analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak raised his price target on the stock from $425 to $490 per share. “We believe the unfortunate COVID-19 situation is cementing NFLX’s global [direct-to-consumer] dominance partly driven by the incremental content spend that is enabled by their massive and growing subscriber base,” Wlodarczak wrote.
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/netflix-shares-all-time-highs-disney-market-cap-1234581167/
-Leaked pics reveal Google smart debit card to rival Apple’s: Would you pay with a “Google Card?” TechCrunch has obtained imagery that shows Google is developing its own physical and virtual debit cards. The Google card and associated checking account will allow users to buy things with a card, mobile phone or online. It connects to a Google app with new features that let users easily monitor purchases, check their balance or lock their account. The card will be co-branded with different bank partners, including CITI and Stanford Federal Credit Union. A source provided TechCrunch with the images seen here, as well as proof that they came from Google. Another source confirmed that Google has recently worked on a payments card that its team hopes will become the foundation of its Google Pay app — and help it rival Apple Pay and the Apple Card. Currently, Google Pay only allows online and peer-to-peer payments by connecting a traditionally issued payment card. A “Google Pay Card” would vastly expand the app’s use cases, and Google’s potential as a fintech giant.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/17/google-card/
-Facebook Gaming is launching a weekly e-sports tournament with pro athletes for COVID-19 relief: Facebook Gaming and Greenlit Content announced today that they were partnering to launch the #PlayApartTogether tournament, an e-sports event featuring professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, MLB, and PGA roughing it out in a variety of games. The tournament, which will be streamed exclusively on Facebook Gaming, will kick off with a first stream on Friday, April 17 from 8 p.m. EST to 11 p.m. EST. The winner of each week will win $25,000 to donate to the charity of their choice to support COVID-19 relief efforts. Many are turning to games to stay connected while maintaining social isolation, with platforms like Twitch and Facebook Gaming hosting livestream tournaments and events to both foster community and raise money. There's plenty of community use as well, with gamers meeting up in games like Animal Crossing to recreate milestones that they're missing in real life or just hang out with their friends. Competitors in the #PlayApartTogether tournament will duke it out over games like "Fortnite," "Rocket League," "NBA 2K20," and "FIFA 20," among others. Viewers will be able to track participants, brackets, and standings throughout the tournament using Facebook Gaming's recently launched tournaments tool. During each tournament stream, viewers will also be able to donate money to the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 fundraiser for the WHO via Facebook donation tools. The list of competitors includes: Andre Drummond, Dwight Howard, and JaVale McGee from the NBA; Justin Herbert, Christian McCaffrey, Joe Burrow, and Jarvis Landry of the NFL; the WWE’s Ron "The Truth" Killings; Alex Bregman and Lance McCullers of the MLB; PGA golfer Bryson DeChambeau; and influencer Jen Selter. ? Gaming has become a natural respite for many of us, so offering the chance to hook up with fellow gamers online, watch some great talent take part in live matches, and raise money to hlep ease the burden on our heroic frontline healthcare workers felt like the perfect way to address lots of pressing issues at once, in a fun and social way," Greenlit Content's John Benyamine said.