Interactive TV Headlines Round-Up 9/1/15 (IV): Hulu, LiveRail, ICM, Liberty Global, Maker Studios, Blip, Meerkat, Al Roker Entertainment, Metrological, MPP Global, Netflix, NeuLion,

August 31, 2015

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been busy working on TVOT NYC 2015 (December 3rd at the SVA Theatre in New York City--purchase your Super-Early-Bird tickets here!), we are covering stories in this issue in headlines/round-up format:

Hulu Swims against the Binge-Watching Tide: Will Release All Original Programming at a Rate of One Episode per Week
Hulu Launches Programmatic Buying, Powered by Oracle and Facebook's LiveRail
New Report on OTT Services: Hulu Seeing Heavy Cancellations, Sling TV Now in Top 10
James Murdoch: Hulu Plus Close to 10 Million Subscribers
YouTube Star, Hannah Hart, in Multi-Year Deal with Female-Focused MCN, Kin Community
Talent Agency, ICM, Taps Jonathan Perelman, Ex-VP of BuzzFeed's Video Arm, to Lead its Digital Initiatives
UK Broadcaster, ITV, Acquires Minority Stake in "Mommy-Vlogger" YouTube MCN, Channel Mum
CEO Mike Fries: The Amount of Money Liberty Global Spends on Linear Channel Carriage Will Decline, as Budget Shifts to Online/VOD
Liberty Global's Advanced-TV (i.e. TiVo and Horizon) Subscriber Base Now Close to 4 Million
Chief Content Officer, Erin McPherson, and SVP of Marketing, Jeremy Welt, Exit Disney-Owned MCN, Maker Studios
Maker Studios Shuts Down Pioneering Online Video Service, Blip, which it Acquired in 2013
Report: Maker Studios Misses Disney Acquisition Deal's Earnout Targets
Matchstick Abandons its Firefox OS-Powered Chromecast Competitor, Promises to Reimburse Kickstarter Backers
Reality-TV Star ("The Gastineau Girls"), Brittny Gastineau, Launches Series on Live Social-Broadcasting Platform, Meerkat; Entitled "Sincerely Britt," Bettencourt Creative-Produced Series Will Consist of 15-Minute Episodes
Al Roker Entertainment Launches Meerkat Shows
Metrological Launches TV App Store Management Tools that "Enable Pay-TV Operators to Customize App Store Line-Ups Based on Live Events and Household Viewing Habits, as well as Integrate App Billing and Transactions"
Metrological Says that the RDK App Emulator it Developed in Cooperation with RDK Management Has Tested and Certified 250+ Apps (June 10th)
German IPTV Operator, DNS:NET, Selects Metrological's Application Platform to Launch and Manage its TV App Store (June 8th)
Microsoft Xbox One to Offer Subscription-Free OTA DVR in 2016
MoffettNathanson: Cordcutting "Accelerate[d] Markedly" in Q2, with US Pay-TV Sector Losing 560,000 Subscribers
MPEG LA Announces "Call for Patents to Organize Joint License for MPEG-DASH"
MPP Global: Operators and Content Owners Favor "Hybrid OTT" Business Model
MPP Global Teams with IPTV/OTT Specialist, PerceptionTV, to Offer Identity Management, CRM and Commerce Services (May 13th)
MPP Global Poll Finds Operators and Broadcasters "Believe that Pricing, Models and Multiscreen Are the Top Strategic Priorities for Targeting Millennials" (April 14th)
NBCUniversal Invests $200 Million Each in BuzzFeed and Vox Media
Netflix Raises Subscription Price in Europe for New Customers
Netflix Partners with Softbank for September 2nd Japan Launch
Netflix to Offer 475 Hours of Original Programming this Year
Telecom Italia to Add Netflix App to its TIMvision Set-Top Box
nScreenMedia: Environmental Pre-Processing of Video Can Help Traditional Video Codecs Improve Performance by 12-30%
MLBAM Replaces NeuLion as NHL's Streaming-Video Partner
NeuLion Says Loss of NHL Account Will Not Have "Any Material Effect on 2015 Revenues"
Univision Deportes Taps NeuLion to Power 2015 Gold Cup Live and On-Demand Streaming
NeuLion Signs New Multi-Year Streaming Deal with Tennis Channel (June 22nd)
Hisense to Integrate Support for NeuLion DivX HEVC UHD Playback into its 4K TV's (May 27th)
Sky NZ Taps NeuLion to Power Fan Pass Digital Sports Service (April 29th)
Pegasys Integrates DivX HEVC SDK (April 30th)
Millicom Selects NeuLion to Power TigoSports App OTT Service for Tigo Bolivia (April 14th)
NeuLion Renews License Agreement with LG to Integrate DivX HEVC 4K into LG UHD TV's (April 13th)
World Surf League Taps NeuLion to Power Interactive OTT Streaming (April 13th)
Broadcom UHD Solutions DivX Certified for HEVC UHD (April 13th)