Facebook delivered more than 3,000 online political ads linked to the Russian Internet Research Agency to Congress, which is investigating the role that materials played in interfering with last year's U.S. elections, blogged Vice President-Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan Monday. "All of these ads violated our policies because they came from inauthentic accounts," said Kaplan, outlining steps the company is taking to prevent similar future problems, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced (see 1709250058). Facebook is building new tools to provide more advertising transparency and will strengthen automated and manual review, such as adding 1,000 people to its global review teams over the next year and investing more in machine learning, said Kaplan. He added the company will tighten restrictions on ad content and will update policies for more documentation from advertisers that want to run federal election-related ads. "Potential advertisers will have to confirm the business or organization they represent before they can buy ads. As Mark said, we won’t catch everyone immediately, but we can make it harder to try to interfere," said Kaplan. Facebook also will try to establish industry standards and best practices with other companies and governments, he said.
Over-the-top streaming service Clikia will begin offering virtual MVPD service in October via its Clikia app, it said Thursday. It didn't say what channels it will carry, but said that announcement was "imminent."
Disney Channel's various children's streaming content apps were consolidated into its DisneyNow app, the company said Thursday. DisneyNow contains content from Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior and Radio Disney, it said. It said DisneyNow is available on iOS, tvOS, Android, Kindle and Roku, with Fire TV, Android TV and web versions coming next year.
Amazon's Fire TV puts pressure on Apple and Google, IHS reported. The device “is notably slower in graphics/gaming performance than the PowerVR GPU-equipped 2nd-gen Fire TV that it replaces,” said analyst Paul Erickson Thursday. Gaming performance may not have been enough of a demand driver to warrant the investment in performance in the third-generation Fire TV, he said, maybe a “troubling market dynamic” for Apple’s latest streaming media player. That company is positioning high-quality gaming as one of premium features of the latest Apple TV, he said. The updated Fire TV (see 1709270069) brings “needed upgrades in capability” as a streaming device, necessary as Google and Roku raised performance, said Erickson. Support for 4K and high dynamic range are considered “baseline” for a player above entry level, he said.
Combined global shipments of headsets for augmented and virtual reality will rise at a 56.1 percent compound annual growth rate the next five years, reaching 81.2 million units by the end of 2021, IDC said in a Thursday report. VR headsets will have more than 90 percent of the market until 2019, but in the final two years of the forecast, IDC expects AR headsets “to experience exponential growth,” capturing 25 percent share by 2021, it said. “AR headset shipments today are a fraction of where we expect them to be in the next five years, both in terms of volume and functionality," said IDC. They’re also “on track” to generate more than $30 billion in global revenue by 2021, almost twice that of VR headsets, since most AR models will carry much higher average selling prices, it said.
Traditional media companies increasingly will offer either direct-to-consumer service with library rights or enhanced stacking rights tied to MVPDs, which in turn will have Netflix increasingly reliant on the lower-margin business of focusing on original content, MoffettNathanson analysts wrote investors Thursday. It said despite FX moving more shows to its FX+ services and NBCUniversal moving some content from Netflix to Hulu, Netflix remains well positioned. Between June 2016 and June 2017, Fox, Disney and Comcast all significantly pulled content off Netflix and likely will continue to move content to their own platforms, it said. Netflix didn't comment.
The FCC Media Bureau is seeking input on whether the Dec. 20, 2018, compliance deadline for navigation devices with accessible user interfaces and program guides and menus should be extended. In a docket 12-108 public notice Thursday, the bureau said the deadline -- covering mid-sized and small MVPDs -- was set when the FCC adopted user interface rules in 2013, and that the order gave the bureau authority to review the marketplace after the 2016 compliance deadline for large MVPDs had passed to see whether smaller operators would be able to comply with the 2018 deadline. It said comments are due Oct. 30, replies Nov. 13.
The FCC shouldn’t limit its initial allocation of the $1.75 billion repacking reimbursement fund to $1 billion, NAB said in a meeting with Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo and IATF staff Tuesday, recounted a filing posted Thursday in docket 16-306. “Failing to do so unnecessarily creates the potential for delay for stations that cannot afford to order equipment and services until they are reimbursed.” The FCC has the full reimbursement fund available, NAB said, and stations have delayed placing orders for repack equipment because of uncertainty they’ll receive enough funds upfront. The agency already knows the cost of the repacking exceeds the reimbursement fund, and capping the upfront allocation at $1 billion would be a departure from original plans, NAB said. "Withholding $175 million, 10 percent of the available funding, is adequate to guard against the possibility of over-allocation while also reducing the possibility that a lack of funding becomes a source of otherwise avoidable delays.”
Vimeo is buying Livestream in its push into live video, Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud blogged Tuesday. Vimeo also announced launch of Vimeo Live live-streaming services. Sud said Livestream's offerings, including live production software and production services, will be integrated into Vimeo's live event workflow.
Regional media licensing seems to be the big reason virtual private network use is high, nScreenMedia Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. Pointing to GlobalWebIndex data, the analyst said a quarter of internet users are monthly VPN users, with the highest density in the Asia-Pacific region, and half of VPN users say they use the technology to access better entertainment content. He said manipulation of regional availability by content rights owners drives that VPN use outside the U.S., and social media could be the content owners' "biggest friend and enemy" -- friend by stimulating interest in new content, and enemy by encouraging audiences to head toward a VPN instead of waiting until local release.