MEDIA

By Jonathan Easton Disney has launched adult-oriented Star, the first major expansion to Disney+ since the SVOD’s launch in November 2019. Available across Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the new hub launches as a dedicated brand within Disney+. It comes with a catalogue of thousands of hours of movies and shows from Disney General Entertainment Content, including Disney Television Studios (ABC Signature and 20th Television), FX Productions, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and others. The expansion should help to allay common criticisms that the platform has failed to deliver...

By Jonathan Easton Eurosport has seen “significant growth” in viewership thanks to the ongoing Australian Open tennis grand slam tournament. Eurosport said that linear viewership was up by double digits in its top 11 markets, with Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 registering a 41 per cent and 28 per cent increase respectively. Poland saw the greatest uplift of 276 per cent thanks to the emergence of up-and-coming teenager Iga Swiatek. Romania, Germany and Spain all saw significant growth, with each of the countries seeing success from their native players. The...

By Jonathan Easton TiVo has announced the renewal of its long-term relationship with Vodafone across Europe and Africa. The new multi-year agreements will provide Vodafone access to TiVo’s products and a licence to its patent portfolio. In particular, the deal will allow Vodafone to utilise TiVo’s solutions and services on its VTV platform, including the company’s Conversational Voice functionality and its search and personalised recommendations. Vodafone currently has more than 300 million mobile customers, over 27 million fixed broadband customers and more than 22 million TV customers across its markets....

Jonathan Easton Synamedia has launched its new business insights solution, Clarissa. Claiming to be the first of its kind, Clarissa promises to take a holistic view of pay TV and OTT businesses, and reveal critical behavioral and consumption insights. Synamedia said that Clarissa will provide less data-savvy business managers with clear insights to meet KPIs. The solution provides users with siloed data sets across its four applications – viewing quality, user experience, content consumption, and advertising insights – and allows users to change any element of the service to immediately...

By Jonathan Easton Amazon will produce Fire TV products in India, the company announced. This is the first Amazon manufacturing line in India, and it will be operated in partnership with Foxconn’s Indian subsidiary Cloud Networks Technology. In particular, the production line will be focused on producing “hundreds of thousands” of Fire TV sticks annually to meet a growing consumer base in India. Production will start in India “later this year,” Amazon said. The company added that it will “continuously evaluate scaling capacity to additional marketplaces/cities depending on the domestic...

Jonathan Easton A group of Serie A clubs have moved to block the €1.7 billion(US$2.05billion) deal to sell a stake in the league’s newly created media business. The deal, agreed in November 2020 after months of speculation, sold a 10 per cent stake in Serie A’s newly created media rights business to a consortium led by CVC Capital Partners and Advent International. While initially being called “a true turning point for the whole Italian soccer industry” by Serie A CEO Paolo Dal Pino, the deal is reportedly set to miss...

By Jonathan Easton Sports rights prices are set to continue to fall in value in a post-pandemic world, a new report predicts. According to new research from Ampere, the “tough time” of sports rights holders “isn’t over yet” as broadcasters and operators continue to battle declining ad revenue and cord-cutting. The report notes that the rise of online figures and a lack of competition has led to a number of sports leagues rights deals falling in value. It specifically cites the collapsed Ligue 1 deal with Mediapro in France, and...