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BBC’s Tony Hall: FAANG needs regulation

BBC director general Tony Hall is calling for the taxation and regulation of “global giants” in order to equal the playing field for traditional broadcasters. The exec, who will speak at the RTS Conference in London on Tuesday (18 September), will note that “Britain needs to do more to support the broader PSB ecology.” “It […]

IDC: Amazon leads streaming device market in Q2

Sales of digital media adapters like Amazon Fire TV and Google Chromecast grew by 26.8% year-on-year in the second quarter, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Smart Home Device Tracker. Amazon’s line of Fire TV products led the market in Q2 2018 with close to 5 million units shipped worldwide, according to the research. Google’s Chromecast […]

Vodafone Spain offering Google Home assistant

Vodafone Espana is incorporating the Google Home personal assistant as part of its connected home offering. All Vodafone One customers will be able to use the voice-controlled assistant to manage connected home applications. New and existing Vodafone One customers will be able to use the Google Home Mini without additional cost, while subscribers to other […]

Vewd hires Google’s former head of product for Android TV

Smart TV software provider Vewd has appointed Sascha Prüter, former head of product for Google’s Android TV, as chief product officer. At Google, Prüter led product and engineering efforts for Android TV and worked directly with smart TV manufacturers, OTT providers and pay TV operators to help establish the platform globally. In his new role […]

Netflix appoints Facebook’s VP of communications

Netflix has appointed Facebook’s vice-president of communications, Rachel Whetstone, as its chief communications officer. Commenting on the appointment, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings described Whetstone as a “proven communications leader and a strong addition to the Netflix team”. “Her deep knowledge and international expertise will be invaluable as we bring Netflix and its expanding line-up of […]

Vewd OS for Android TV debuts

Technology outfit Vewd has debuted an Android TV operator tier launcher. Vewd OS for Android TV operator tier will provide a homescreen managed from the Vewd cloud, along with an OTT application environment and EPG. Vewd said that its homescreen experience for Android TV operator tier is designed to designed to provide a cinematic, video-first […]

Sky chief calls for new regulator to hold internet giants to account

Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch has joined the chorus of media company executives calling for regulatory intervention to create a level playing field with internet giants such as Google and Facebook. In an article published by The Times, Darroch said that it was “simply wrong” that huge international tech companies were not expected to meet the […]

Parks: 40% of US homes own streaming media players

Almost 40% of US broadband households owned streaming media players at the beginning of 2018, according to Parks Associates. The research firm said that Roku maintained its lead in the market, holding a steady 37% of the market. Amazon ranked second, increasing its share of the US streaming media player market by 4% since last […]

Vevo phasing out own platform in favour of YouTube

Music streaming service Vevo is to phase out its owned and operated platforms in favour of focusing on YouTube. The streaming outfit said that would focus on distributing its catalogue of music videos and original content to reach its growing audience of YouTube and would explore ways to work other platforms to further expand its […]

YouTube reveals royal wedding streaming numbers

The live-stream of last weekend’s UK royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was viewed 11.2 million times on YouTube while live, according to the streaming platform. At peak viewership, during the couple’s exchange of vows, some 1.29 million people watched the even simultaneously, making the wedding the fifth most popular event ever streamed […]