Latest in AVOD

In an all-stock deal struck designed for the current high-inflation economic environment facing streaming consumers, Crackle parent Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is acquiring Redbox. The value of the deal is about $375 million, most of which is the assumption of Redbox debt. Founded in the heyday of DVDs two…

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings finally acknowledged what most people outside of the company have been saying for years: In order to keep growing, the company will need to incorporate ads. The executive offered his view on the subject Tuesday after Chief Product Officer Greg Peters addressed the spread in pricing among…

IMDb TV, Amazon's free, ad-supported video on demand streaming service, is rebranding to Amazon Freevee, beginning April 27. The rebranding had been in the works for awhile, with the idea for the new moniker to share the Amazon branding of its parent company. Originally launched as Freedive in January 2019, IMDb TV…

As viewership of YouTube in the living room continues to grow, the company is getting into the ad-supported longform game, adding 4,000 library TV episodes and 1,500 movies. The move will give the Google-owned video power more of a profile in the burgeoning AVOD marketplace. Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Disney and…

Fox Corp.’s Tubi had 3.6 billion hours streamed in 2021, a 40% increase over 2020, as overall viewing migrates from subscription to free and ad-supported services. That’s one of the main findings in an annual report released by Tubi and highlighted by Fox executives during the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings…

A few days after WarnerMedia said HBO and HBO Max ended 2021 with 73.8 million global subscribers, ad sales president JP Colaco said consumers had been enticed to “sign up in droves” for its cheaper, ad-supported tier. In an online appearance at the TV of Tomorrow Show, the exec declined to provide a breakout of how…

The Tokyo Olympics turned in a muted performance in the ratings overall, but they were enough to lift broadcast TV’s share of total viewing in July, according to Nielsen’s latest edition of The Gauge. The monthly snapshot found that broadcast was at 24% of all viewing, up 1% from June, but streaming commanded 28%…

The El Rey Network, which is getting set to make a rare transition from cable TV to free streaming, has set a deal for crucial real estate on the Roku Channel. Starting tomorrow, the Robert Rodriguez-founded network, will start streaming as a 24-7 linear offering on the Roku Channel, one of more than 190 on the free…

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, parent of ad-supported streaming services like Crackle, reported disappointing second-quarter results but showed sharp gains in advertising and licensing revenue. Total revenue came in at $22.1 million, up 64% from $13.5 million in the year-ago quarter but down from $23.2…

EXCLUSIVE: Pluto TV, which was founded in 2014, has become a $1 billion-a-year business a year ahead of schedule. The free streaming service’s parent company, ViacomCBS, confirmed the annual revenue milestone during its second-quarter earnings call with analysts. CEO Bob Bakish had previously signaled the…

Smart-TV maker Vizio reported second-quarter revenue above Wall Street forecasts, but challenges on the hardware side kept the bottom line from meeting expectations. Revenue of $401.2 million was up only 2% but ahead of analysts’ consensus outlook for $385.9 million. Net losses of $14 million in the period were a bit…

UPDATED with closing stock price. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, taking advantage of all-time high prices for its shares, plans to raise $75 million from a sale of its stock. In a typical reaction when a company sells equity and dilutes existing holders of a stock, investors reacted coolly to the news and…