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,

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)