As part of a multiyear partnership renewal, the National Football League will increase its in-game highlight clips available on YouTube, and for the first time, offer full-length games via the video service. “Under the expanded pact, the NFL will post a total of 96 games to its official YouTube channel, comprising three of the most memorable games for each of the 32 clubs, prior to the start of the 2016-17 season,” explains Variety. While YouTube will not feature any live NFL game broadcasts, Twitter recently signed an agreement with the NFL to distribute 10 Thursday night games online next season, “with rights to splash the broadcast feeds from CBS and NBC across multiple devices.” Continue reading YouTube to Feature Classic NFL Matchups for the First Time

Google announced yesterday that it plans to introduce NFL “in-game highlight videos to the top of its search results as part of an expanded partnership with the league,” reports Bloomberg. “Videos will be embedded along with related news and information into boxes that will appear at the top of Google search results while games are in progress.” The partnership is part of Google’s larger strategy to keep eyeballs on its own sites and services, such as YouTube, rather than send people to other websites. Google, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook all have deals to offer NFL content via their services. Continue reading Partnership to Add In-Game NFL Highlights to Google Search

Activision Blizzard announced at the Digital Content NewFronts in NYC that it would start publishing daily live programming via Facebook next month in an effort to attract more e-sports gamers and generate more advertising revenue. Activision Blizzard is currently seeking sponsors for the daily match highlights, stats, commentary and interviews it plans to publish live on its Facebook page for Major League Gaming. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Facebook will provide Activision Blizzard with data on viewership and help it build an audience for the video, some of which will be exclusive to the social network and at times featured on Facebook’s own sports page.” Continue reading NewFronts: Activision Blizzard Goes Social with Live Content

Apple has invested $1 billion in Didi Chuxing — the largest ride-hailing service in China and an Uber rival. The deal is a major strategic investment by the Cupertino-based tech giant, which generally invests quietly in smaller startups. Its last significant investment was the purchase of Beats for $3 billion in 2014. A move in China, where the company’s sales have sharply declined, is notable. “Apple is attempting to reinvigorate flagging iPhone sales in China, the company’s second-largest market, and just last month Apple shuttered its iBooks and iTunes movie stores in the country,” reports The New York Times. Continue reading Apple Invests $1 Billion in Chinese Ride-Hailing Service Didi

Facebook’s upcoming “360 Photos” feature will allow users to upload panoramas taken on smartphones and cameras and convert them into enhanced 360-degree images with panning functionality for their News Feeds and the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR, essentially enabling consumers to publish VR content without the need for special equipment. “Facebook is also releasing Gear VR usage stats for the first time, saying Gear VR has 1 million monthly users, and those who use it spend 25 minutes per day on the device,” reports TechCrunch. “That could encourage developers to build for the platform.” Continue reading Facebook Helps You Morph Flat Panoramas into ‘360 Photos’

Uber has agreed with a union to launch the Independent Drivers Guild for its 35,000 drivers in New York. The association will be affiliated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, and will afford Uber drivers “some limited benefits and protections,” but “would stop short of unionization,” reports The New York Times. While Uber drivers have formed various groups across the U.S., this is the first officially recognized by Uber. “The agreement is Uber’s latest attempt to assuage mounting concerns from regulators and drivers’ groups about the company’s labor model, which treats drivers as independent contractors,” notes NYT. Continue reading Uber Agrees to Forming Independent Drivers Guild in New York

While Facebook continues its push into mobile, it may be surprising to learn that its popular mobile messaging service WhatsApp has released a desktop app for both Windows and Mac. “Like WhatsApp Web, our desktop app is simply an extension of your phone: the app mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device,” explains the WhatsApp Blog. The ability to continue conversations that users “start on their phone even if they switch devices,” suggests Re/code, will prove “useful, and something that Google and Apple also allow with Hangouts and iMessage respectively.” Facebook paid $19 billion for WhatsApp two years ago. The service currently has about one billion users. Continue reading Facebook’s WhatsApp Unveils Desktop App for Mac, Windows

Apple is now offering its Apple Music subscription service to college and university students at a 50 percent discount ($4.99 per month). Apple will verify student status via Unidays, which provides discounts across major retailers and brands. The new offer brings Apple’s “music service in line with Spotify and Tidal, both of which already offer $4.99 student subscriptions,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Google Play Music offers no discount for students, just the industry-standard $9.99 a month. All four rival services do offer family plans, where multiple users can share a subscription at a starting price of $14.99 a month.” Continue reading Apple Music Now Available to College Students at Half Price

Ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft are planning to suspend their operations in Austin, Texas after voters rejected the Proposition 1 ballot measure over the weekend. The initiative would have allowed the two services to set their own regulations, and essentially bypass a city ordinance that requires fingerprint background checks for drivers, which the companies argued were “burdensome and unnecessary,” reports Re/code. Lyft and Uber are pausing operations in Austin as a result of the loss, and suggest they may need to take the same action in other markets with similar laws. Continue reading Ballot Measure Rejected, Uber and Lyft Pulling Out of Austin

According to Microsoft’s 178-page annual Security Intelligence Report, the world is experiencing a dramatic increase in vulnerabilities and malware involving Internet services and computers. Microsoft’s anti-malware software sees more than 10 million attacks on identities daily. “Microsoft says around 50 percent of these attacks can be traced back to Asia, and 20 percent to Latin America, although such attacks do not always succeed,” notes Digital Trends, adding that “one of the most popular phishing methods is pretending to be an online service, like eBay, Facebook, Amazon, or Google.” The greater concern may be that, on average, it takes about 240 days to detect most breaches. Continue reading Microsoft’s Latest Security Report Warns of Increased Threats

Amazon’s stock jumped more than 12 percent yesterday after the company announced Q1 earnings of $29.1 billion (a 29 percent increase over last year’s revenue for the same period). The company’s $1.07 per share profit easily beat Wall Street expectations of 58 cents per share. AWS cloud computing increased 64 percent over last year, posting revenue of about $2.6 billion. According to Re/code, “The quarterly results mark the first time since 2012 that Amazon has turned a profit in four straight quarters — a scary proposition for competitors who can no longer say that Amazon is completely sacrificing profitability for growth.” Continue reading Amazon Stock Jumps After Q1 Earnings Surpass Expectations

During Samsung’s developer conference in San Francisco yesterday, the company’s head of R&D for software and services Injong Rhee announced that plans are underway to go beyond the Gear VR headset. “The company is working on a standalone virtual reality headset that will incorporate positional tracking similar to the technologies now available on higher-end headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive,” reports Variety. While Samsung explores wireless VR devices and hand and gesture tracking, the company officially announced its VR Upload SDK, and plans to release its Gear 360 camera this week. Continue reading Samsung Teases Standalone VR Headset at Developer Event

In the wake of last year’s $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T’s quarterly profit jumped 17 percent. The telecom lost some wireless and video subscribers, but reports that 3 million subscribers have signed up for its new unlimited wireless data plan. “AT&T has been pushing its nationwide DirecTV satellite service and de-emphasizing its old U-verse service that operates in a 21-state footprint,” notes The Wall Street Journal. “In the fourth quarter, more people left U-verse than joined DirecTV. That pattern continued in the first quarter.” However, chief financial officer John Stephens explained that the company expects to increase its number of video customers for the year. Continue reading Following DirecTV Purchase, AT&T Experiences Solid Quarter

Time Warner’s Turner plans to launch a standalone on-demand service called FilmStruck by next fall. While official launch date, pricing information or additional details have yet to be announced, Re/code reports that many titles will come from the Criterion Collection. Managed by the team behind Turner Classic Movies, the service will offer an “eclectic mix of contemporary and classic art house, indie, foreign and cult films.” Turner will join a growing collection of programmers — including CBS, ESPN, HBO, NBCUniversal, Showtime and Starz — that now offers content directly to consumers via the Internet. Continue reading Turner to Offer Indies and Cult Classics via Web Video Service

ETC@USC has rescheduled its panel discussion — “Audience Intelligence at the Frontier: The AI Revolution & What it Means for Hollywood” — originally slated for April 27. We will post additional details once the new date has been confirmed. Yves Bergquist, co-founder & CEO of Novamente, and director of ETC’s new Data & Analytics project will moderate the panel. Industry insiders will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence and cognitive computing on Hollywood. The free event is sponsored by Cloudera. Continue reading ETC Panel to Examine AI Revolution and Impact on Hollywood