Hulu Bundles Up With Showtime’s Standalone Video Service

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by Sahil Patel

Showtime’s standalone video service is coming to Hulu.

The two companies have formed a partnership that will give Hulu subscribers the opportunity to access Showtime’s service through their Hulu (formerly “Plus”) subscription account. Those who sign up will get a 30-day free access pass to Showtime, after which Showtime will cost $8.99 per month for Hulu subscribers. (If this sounds like a new type of pay-TV bundle for internet-TV customers, you’re not far off.)

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This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

‘Rock Band 4’: ‘The Response Has Been Phenomenal’

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“We are blown away by the passion people have for this franchise,” said Greg LoPiccolo, creative lead at Harmonix. “We had this hope that people were still into it and when we went out and asked, people got excited.”

Now that Rock Band 4 is well and truly on its way, the company has been a presence at major gaming events as of late, and the same was of course true at E3. With a full outdoor stage and a line of attendees queuing up to rock out on the stage to an audience, Harmonix has given fans of the fun party game exactly what they’ve wanted in the franchise’s revival.

“The flagship feature is the new freestyle guitar solo,” said LoPiccolo. “Guitar players can actually craft their own guitar solos on the fly.”

 

Harmonix took the stage set-up at E3 to the legendary Mayan Theater at night for a preview party, showing just how fun it is to not just play but watch the game being played.Â

You really can’t get more rock n’ roll than this.

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Android Cost-Per-Install Rises Over iOS

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After spending what seems like an eternity in the catch-up game, the Android platform managed to finally overtake iOS a couple of months ago in terms of revenue. However, it appears that the CPI (cost per install) is picking up the pace as well.

A new report from GamesIndustry International indicates that, according to data provided by Fiksu, the CPI for Android has managed to increase over iOS, with the average cost on Android being $1.82 and Apple’s format sitting at 50 cents less, at $1.32.

“There’s definitely opportunity to reach a continually growing user base on Android, but it’s going to come at a cost,” said Fiksu’s Glen Kiladis. “Android games cost for the month of May were nearly 40 percent higher than iOS costs, a trend that can also be observed on a broader scale outside of just games. In fact, Android costs were up 72 percent since March, while iOS costs were relatively flat compared to just two months prior.”

He continued, “As we’ve mentioned before, these indexes include both incent and non-incent spending. As a result, iOS games costs are often times lower than Android games costs as a result of increased spending on IOS on lower-cost incentivized networks. Nonetheless, this is the highest Android games costs have been during the past year.

“When looking at year over year trends, Android costs were up 31 percent while iOS costs were down 25 percent. In May of 2014, costs on both platforms were hovering around the $1.50 mark.

“These higher costs on Android are not unexpected. In our broader Fiksu Indexes, we’ve observed a pattern of increasing costs across the board. However, as advertisers consistently employ higher-value targeting and more precise audience segmentation data, we expect that loyalty rates will also go up.”

It’ll be interesting to see how this shapes up over the next year…

Facebook Reveals Vision For Mobile Ads

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With both its main social and Messenger apps doing well on the mobile front, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Facebook wants to roll out an effective ad program for mobile advertisers. But what exactly does it have in mind Well, thanks to a new video, Facebook has just provided an idea.

Re/code recently reported that the company rolled out the video during its visit to Cannes Lions, with product head Chris Cox presenting it this afternoon. With it, there’s a format provided, one that shows full-screen imagery, videos and product shots that offer full 360-degree rotation with a swipe across the screen. In short, it provides companies the opportunity to create a mini-version of their own website on Facebook’s application, keeping them on the app while moving them towards its specific set-up. The video is below.

Facebook has used this sort of set-up before with traditional content, including stories that could be found within its News Feed. That managed to draw out a number of strong advertising partners, including BuzzFeed and the New York Times, through hosted content that kept users on the Facebook site, rather than diverting them to a secondary link back to the advertiser’s page. The difference, however, is that video advertising seems to work better from a retailer’s perspective, although other companies can obviously take part as well.

Considering that 94 percent of the company’s overall revenue comes from advertising, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Facebook is focusing more on the video front. The question now, though, is just how effective it will be for companies in the long run. There are half a billion people who interact with the site from a mobile standpoint, although a right campaign to draw them in with still has yet to be found.

Hopefully we’ll see more of Facebook’s business plans with video soon, as well as what kind of partners will be on board for it. It does look innovative, but looks are one thing. Effectiveness is another.

Image source

Mobile Ad Spending Will Continue To Grow

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We’ve spoken in the past about what kind of growth ad spending will go through over the next few years, including mobile exceeding desktop. However, a series of new charts have broken down just what kind of increases the industry is in for over the next few years.

DigiDay has reported how the state of mobile ad spending is looking, with information provided by MwC Outlook Report, Magna Global, Mary Meeker and eMarketer. Each chart breaks down specifics when it comes to certain spending, such as how much is being spent specifically on mobile versus desktop, and so on.

First up, as you can see, there was a time that desktop was getting more spending than mobile — last year, in fact. However, as the years continue onward, mobile will be taking more of a focus, and by 2018, it’ll overlap it by a few million dollars. By 2019, however, there will be a stark difference, with no indications of slowing down.

By 2017, it’s easy to see where most of global ad spending will be going. 37 percent will be devoted to television, while desktop will take 19.5 percent. Mobile will be close behind with 13 percent, although these numbers, again, could easily change in the following years. Surprising enough, newspaper still has a decent grasp with 11.8 percent, while magazines, radio and outdoor follow closely behind.

While television ad spending looks unstoppable in the previous chart, there are signs that it’s slowing down, as indicated by the above chart. Mobile will slowly increase over the next few years, while television will see a somewhat similar point, around the $180-$200 billion range.

As for which companies will lead the charge on mobile ad spending, Google will continue to be unstoppable over the next few years, with a large revenue share. However, Facebook will be close behind, at about halfway of what Google is spending, followed by Twitter, Pandora and Yahoo! with much lower numbers.

As for this somewhat complicated final chart, it shows a mobile monetization gap, with Americans spending 24 percent of their time using mobile devices, but only eight percent of ad dollars going into the format. That creates a noticeable gap of $25 billion, according to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report.

More details on the report can be found here.

‘Terminator Genisys’ Brings VR To YouTube

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Variety has reported that The Terminator, who will be making his return in the forthcoming Terminator Genisys film on July 1st, is the primary focus in a new virtual reality-oriented project now available on YouTube. The film, produced by Lilly Singh (aka Superwoman), is a 360-degree video experience, showing what happens when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s unstoppable robot goes nuts in YouTube’s studio. The video works in conjunction with Google’s Cardboard virtual reality viewer, and can be seen below.