- Linear TV isn’t dead, but streaming is eating up nearly one-fifth of total US TV watching, Nielsen finds (Tech Crunch)
- BBC Studios is expanding its drama deal with Chinese video platform Youku (The Hollywood Reporter)
- …Meanwhile, young activist Greta Thunberg is getting her own documentary series with BBC Studios’ science unit (Variety)
- Hear that? Spotify is starting to roll out its standalone kids app internationally (Engadget)
- And the Oscar goes to…Toy Story 4 for Best Animated Feature! (The Hollywood Reporter)
- …Meanwhile, Hair Love snapped up the Best Animated Short award (New York Times)
- Looking to cut costs, Mattel is closing two factories in Asia and one in North America (Wall Street Journal)
- Cocomelon, one of the top kids channels on YouTube, is expanding into merch for the first time (Bloomberg)
- Quality over quantity? Consumers want Disney+ to match Netflix’s output, but Disney has its own strategy (The Verge)
- …Meanwhile, Netflix listened to the mob and will allow viewers turn off autoplay (AdWeek)
- ViacomCBS is considering combining all its streaming services into one ad-supported platform (Digital TV Europe)
- It may seem counter-intuitive, but movies with a theatrical release are more likely to get streamed (Variety)
- The predictions of Hulu’s death were premature: Disney plans to roll the streamer out internationally in 2021 (Tech Crunch)
- How Roku is becoming the “Facebook of TV,” pushing publishers towards its channels offering (Digiday)
- More kids than ever have smartphones…which could be an advertising bonanza (Bloomberg)
- …Meanwhile, YouTube is turning kids into budding little shoppers (eMarketer)
- Listen here: Riding an increase in podcast users, Spotify has grown to 124 million paid subscribers (The Hollywood Reporter)
- Snapchat, meanwhile, has reached 218 million users, but was hit by big Q4 losses (Tech Crunch)
- The UK is joining Canada in expressing displeasure that Netflix does not pay any corporation tax (BBC News)
- It seems everyone is integrating voice assistant tech…but how much of it is just a novelty? (The Drum)
- Don’t think outside of the box—think with the box! A new toy is reinventing packaging (Fast Company)
- Disney has picked up Hamilton for theaters and Disney+ (Vanity Fair)
- Facebook’s Messenger Kids is getting a privacy makeover (The Verge)
- YouTube is becoming slightly more transparent and reported its ad revenue for the first time (Variety)
- There’s been a rise in kids taking part in online activism…but their parents are still scared of the internet (Guardian)
- We’ve heard this one before: The gaming industry is promising to improve its diversity (BBC News)
- Kids are watching fewer ads than ever…and marketers are finding sneaky ways to reach them (The Atlantic)
- Brexit isn’t just hitting producers—international broadcasters are also fleeing the country (Digital TV Europe)
- Who cares if he didn’t get an Oscar nod? Adam Sandler is back doing what he does best, making four new movies for Netflix (New York Times)
- Nintendo is raking in the mobile dough, earning US$1 billion in revenue from its phone games (Digital Trends)
- Keep an eye on Nigeria, Africa’s unofficial tech capital (Tech Crunch)
- Amazon Prime has reached 150 million paid members, but Amazon didn’t say how many of those are watching its content (Variety)
- …Meanwhile, the company released its transparency report, revealing a dip in governments demanding user data (Tech Crunch)
- Cartoon Network is launching a digital series for Black History Month (Broadcasting & Cable)
- An inside look at how VFX artists built Disney’s The Lion King remake (Engadget)
- The animation directors behind Oscar-nominated films on how they created their characters (The Hollywood Reporter)
- WarnerMedia is investing in HBO Max, and pivoting other networks to focus on unscripted content (Variety)
- Schools in Finland are teaching kids how to fight back against fake news (The Guardian)
- Snapchat is getting into mobile TV with short emoji-focused toons (TechCrunch)
- HBO Max is a big swing for WarnerMedia, which took a US$1.2-billion hit in Q4 (The Verge)
- …Meanwhile, Apple Services grew 17% in 2019, but the TV+ revenue was “immaterial” (TVB Europe)
- The latest entrant to the streaming wars is…Procter & Gamble? (Variety)
- Is the BBC bad at engaging young audiences online? And how can it get better? (The Guardian)
- The future is OTT—and it’s set to surpass US$200 billion by 2024 (Digital TV Europe)
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