Episodes
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This week, we discuss all the latest NFL streaming news, including Amazon's exclusive NFL Wild Card playoff game, which reached an all-time high of 24.6M viewers, details from FOX on their 1080p upscaled 4k HDR stream and their plans to make the stream available on Tubi. We also detail the network shutdown of Limelight Networks as part of Edgio's bankruptcy, what it means for the CDN industry, and the thousands of employees who have worked at the company over the past 23 years. Finally, we cover some news about Apple TV+, Altice, and the launch of a new video distribution patent pool by Access Advance.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, I discuss the Disney and Fubo deal, what it means for subscribers and the impact of Venu Sports no longer launching in the market. I detail the deal terms and what's being misreported, separating facts from guesses. I also discuss viewership numbers from Netflix's debut of WWEโs Monday Night Raw, final global viewership numbers for Netflix's NFL games on Christmas and complete NFL season viewership data on Peacock. Finally, I highlight Diamond Sports Group's emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, DAZN's plans to acquire Foxtel, MSG Networks blackout dispute with Altice and TV news from the CES show.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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Missing episodes?
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For this special podcast episode, we review Netflix's streaming of the NFL games on Christmas, detailing some tech details related to the stream quality, latency, player functionality, reported user feedback, and viewership statistics for the U.S. market. We compare the 27 million peak viewers in the U.S. stat to previous NFL games across broadcast, Prime Video and Peacock and why viewership was down compared to broadcast. We also discuss why Netflix's success on Christmas wasnโt just a big day for the company individually but for the entire industry.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we detail the news of more layoffs by streaming vendors and what it means for the industry going into the new year as everyone looks to be more operationally efficient in their spending. We also cover the latest price increase by YouTube TV, pushing the service to $82.99 a month, FIFA's broadcast deal with DAZN, and Amazon's latest TNF viewership numbers of 18.48 million viewers, making it the most-watched TNF on Prime. Finally, we discuss WBD's plans to create a new corporate structure that separates linear networks from streaming and studios, which is expected to be completed by mid-2025.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we detail Akamai's successful $125 million bid for customer contracts from Edgio's security and content delivery businesses as part of Edgio's bankruptcy auction. We discuss Akamai's projected $89-$111 million in revenue over the next five quarters from the contracts and what the deal means for the broader CDN market. We also debunk some reported comments associated with the news and the impact on Microsoft's Azure CDN. Finally, we discuss news involving the Venu Sports and Fubo dispute, Netflix's commercial distribution agreement with EverPass Media for its NFL games on Christmas and quick highlights of some OTT and broadcast announcements.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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In regulatory filings, more details have emerged in Bending Spoons plans to acquire Brightcove, including some terms for employees who stay on with the new company, the number of aggregate shares of company common stock tied to RSU awards, the exact number of Brightcove employees, a disclosure of a "material weakness in internal control over financial reporting,โ and other company details. In this special podcast episode, we discuss all the numbers and provide insights into what the deal could mean for Brightcove's future.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we detail all the misinformation after Netflix's live boxing event, the danger of not checking sources, and who you trust for news. We discuss the current state of Netflix's business and how the company is playing the long game - chess over checkers. We also highlight the latest content news from JioCinema, MLB, Sling TV, Disney, Amazon, NBA and Hulu. Finally, we focus on the latest broadcast TV news, which includes Comcast's decision to spin out its NBCU cable assets and DirecTV abandoning its acquisition of Dish assets.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we detail all the important numbers from Q3 earnings tied to profitability, capex spending, MAUs and subscriber additions tied to streaming services from Paramount, Tubi, AMC Networks and Vizio, along with infrastructure players Vimeo, Brightcove, Akamai, Fastly and Cloudflare. We also discuss the latest content news from UFC, The Tennis Channel, Netflix, Sky and FOX and highlight CDN Medianova's round of funding. Finally, we break down the impact of the Fed's interest rates on your job and your employers' ability to borrow capital and expand their workforce, invest in R&D and launch new products and services versus not being able to afford interest payments and doing layoffs.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, I recap all the streaming subscriber and pay TV numbers from Q3 earnings and profit and loss financials from Roku, Fubo, Peacock, YouTube, Sky, Verizon and others. I also highlight cloud services revenue from Amazon, Microsoft and Google, with AWS hitting a record $100 billion in revenue for the past 12 months. I discuss why Instagram lowers video quality for unpopular videos and disagree with their statement that people interact with videos based on their content, not their quality. I detail the report that Disney's exclusive NFL game on ESPN+ peaked at only 1.8M viewers and Roku's decision to stop reporting quarterly updates on streaming households and, by extension, ARPU, beginning with Roku's Q1 2025 earnings results.
- Peacock added 3M subscribers, but ๐น๐ผ๐๐ $๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐
- Fubo's Sports FAST channel ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ณ๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐ in Q3
- Verizon, Comcast and Charter ๐น๐ผ๐๐ ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ณ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ ๐ง๐ฉ subs in Q3
- AWS hit $๐ญ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ for the past 12 months
- As Amazon builds out for AI, it ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ $๐ฎ๐ฎ.๐ฒ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ , up 81% YoY
- The average Roku household streams ๐ฐ.๐ญ ๐ต๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐
- Since 2020, Meta's Reality Labs unit has an operating ๐น๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ $๐ฑ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
- ๐ฏ๐ฑ% ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ spent on YouTube watching the Olympics was on TV screens
- Sky UK had an ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐น๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ยฃ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ , nearly doubling its 2022 loss of ยฃ111M
- Samsung says it has ๐ด๐ด๐ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ for its Samsung TV Plus FAST service
- Fubo had a ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐น๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ $๐ฑ๐ฐ.๐ณ๐ in Q3, up from a net loss of $25.8M in Q2Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we discuss the key takeaways from Netflix's earnings tied to its upcoming first-party ad tech platform, subscriber gains in the quarter, and its latest reported engagement metric of two hours a day per paid membership. We also cover the latest news from the messy world of RSNs, including the new report that Peacock will begin offering NBC-owned RSNs in early 2025 and the terrible launch of the Gotham Sports App by YES Network and MSG Networks. In basketball news, we detail the new player features coming to the NBA League Pass for the 2024-25 season that will allow users to watch up to four games simultaneously with multiview, and we highlight WNBA Playoffs viewership stats from ESPN. Finally, we discuss how using AI to generate a podcast equals poor results since it is not authentic, wonโt resonate with listeners and doesn't build a relationship with the audience.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we discuss DirecTVโs plan to launch a FAST platform and how it might benefit its brand even as it joins a crowded market of FAST services. We also highlight why itโs smart for Apple to make Apple TV+ content available to as many viewers as possible via its deal with Prime Video, which will go live as a Prime Video channel later this month. We provide some of the new details released by ESPN's president about their ESPN app due to launch in 2025, which will offer multiview, sports betting capabilities, fantasy data, advanced stats, and ticketing and merchandise. Finally, we discuss the merger of JW Player and Connatix, which shared no details on the deal, making it unclear what the short or long-term value might be for the combined entity.
Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor: Integrated Digital SolutionsPodcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we discuss what could happen to DTC services Sling TV and DIRECTV STREAM if the planned deal for EchoStar to sell Dish to DirecTV gets approved. We also highlight the news that Skydance is in talks with the NFL to purchase the NFL Network and the latest on Diamond Sports Group's decision to release all but one of its MLB contracts in the hopes of getting approval for its bankruptcy reorganization plan. We detail Paramount Globalโs decision to drop Nielsen as its main viewer measurement currency in certain instances, with Paramount saying that in some cases, Nielsen's fees already exceed the total advertising revenue of the network being measured.
We detail the misconceptions about Netflix and Amazonโs advertising businesses and discuss why Prime Video is expected to add more ad inventory to Prime Video while not changing its plans to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers. Finally, we give out some numbers tied to the news that Comcast will deploy Qwiltโs open caching platform inside its network at hundreds of locations over the rollout, with the first locations going live in the next 1-2 months.
Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor: Integrated Digital SolutionsPodcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we recap news from IBC about using cloud-based compute services for video workflows, encoding optimization, AV1/codec adoption, live encoding use cases, and AI's potential impact on encoding platforms. We also give updates on the Venu/Fubo lawsuit, price increases for NBA League Pass, the upgraded Roku Ultra device, Google rebranding their FAST channels, and some viewership numbers from Peacock. Finally, we discuss some interesting statements from Netflix regarding their ad tier, the NFL games on Christmas and how they view one-off sporting events versus full seasons.
Companies mentioned include Akamai, Amagi, AOM, ATEME, AWS, Bitmovin, Brightcove, CDN77, Disney+ Hotstar, Dolby, Edgio, Harmonic, iSIZE, Neilsen, Netflix, NETINT, NVIDIA, THEO Technologies, Visionular, WaveOne, YouTube.
Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor: Integrated Digital SolutionsPodcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, I break down news related to the start of the NFL season, including audience figures from NBC Sports, ESPN, and Amazon, as well as my testing of NFL streaming on Peacock, YouTube TV, Fubo, YouTube TV, Paramount+, Sling TV, and FOX Sports. I also review the most recent information regarding the Venu Sports injunction appeal expedited hearing, for which the opening brief is due this week. The specifics of the distribution agreements between Disney and DirecTV, as well as WBD and Charter, are also discussed. In conclusion, I address Edgio's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, how the procedure works, and the potential results for the company and its business lines. I also address several misunderstandings around the filing, what it means overall for the CDN industry and what the outcome could be.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we detail the latest updates surrounding the Paramount and Skydance merger, the Fubo and Venu Sports pretrial conference on September 12 and the NBA asking New Yorkโs Supreme Court to dismiss Warner Bros. Discoveryโs matching rights lawsuit against the league. We highlight the report that Amazon no longer plans to invest $115 million into Bally Sports, Diamond Sports Group agreeing to honor its legacy TV agreements with most of its NBA and NHL partners and Disney's decision to close all its TV Everywhere apps later this month. Finally, we break out the new multiview options for NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers, Twitch's plans to raise the cost of new Tier 1 and gift subscriptions and why Netflixโs stock price hit a three-year high in August.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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Michelle Noon, founder and managing partner of private equity firm Clearhaven Partners, joined me for a detailed conversation on the current state of the financing market tied to valuations, interest rates, and balance sheets. Michelle discusses how operators and investors balance growth versus profitability, the importance of recurring revenue with high predictability, the true cost of debt and how the market is now rewarding companies for generating cash flow.
Michelle discusses how management teams are now being forced to focus on managing their capital structures at the potential expense of business operations and how this can impact focus and business results. Finally, Michelle lays out a perspective on valuation multiples based on various business factors, touches on how she sees the investments in AI playing out and explains why Clearhaven invested in SundaySky, Wowza and recently acquired Zixi.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week we discuss the latest temporary injunction against Venu Sports and what it may mean for Disney, FOX, WBD and Fubo. We also cover the latest pricing increase from YouTubeโs NFL Sunday Ticket and new Sling TV and Verizon bundling options. We detail the layoffs at Paramount and the closing of Paramount Television Studios and how many in the media continue defining the "success" of streaming services while neglecting their financials. Finally, we highlight some Olympic viewing numbers across NBCU digital platforms and Disneyโs new hire for their chief product and technology officer for entertainment and ESPN.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we recap the key points from Q2 earnings involving media companies and vendors, highlighting DTC subscriber additions and losses, profit and loss, cord-cutting, WBD and Paramount writing down the value of their TV businesses, and highlight how media stocks have performed over the past 12 months. We also explain crucial financial terms like GAAP, non-GAAP, EBITDA, OIBDA, and EPS, making it easier to understand how these companies report their finances to Wall Street.
On the vendor side, we detail how security and compute revenue now represent 66% of Akamaiโs total revenue, Fastly cutting full-year guidance and laying off 11% of the company, Brightcove and Kalturaโs revenue growth being flat and the challenges some vendors are having in growing their media businesses while continuing their efforts to keep costs down.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we detail the key data and numbers from Roku, Comcast, Charter, Fubo, Vimeo, Harmonic, and Alphabet's Q2 earnings. We also discuss the most recent developments in content news, including Venu's pricing, the NBA agreement that permits Disney to air alternate broadcasts, the $4.7 billion antitrust conviction against the NFL that was overturned, and Diamond Sports' agreement to bring its RSNs back to Comcast's cable TV subscribers.
We also detail Netflixโs news that it is seeking to raise $1.8 billion in a new debt offering, Disneyโs price increases, Dolby suing Roku, Amazon suing Nokia, Gcore raising $60 million in series A funding, and Dolby acquiring THEO Technologies.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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This week, we detail all of the numbers you need to know from Netflix's Q2 earnings and discuss why Netflix's ad business is not struggling like some in the media suggest. We also highlight interesting comments from Netflix about their upcoming live events, their lack of need to bundle with other services and how fast their ad business is growing.
We also review all the headlines related to European football, such as the partnership between CBS Sports and Serie A, the acquisition of Ligue 1 by DAZN and beIN, and FIFA's Club World Cup rights auction. We also dissect the data from FOX Sports, which released information on streaming viewership for the UEFA EURO 2024 Finals independently of pay TV for the first time. Lastly, we showcase the newest streaming services and packages from Verizon, Optimum, and MAX.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
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