Social media and mobile will play a bigger role in the online version of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this year after giving the three-week event a big boost in fan traffic last year. The March Madness games, broadcast through a partnership between CBS (CBS) and Time Warner ‘s (TWX) Turner Broadcasting System, will include ties to social media video sites Vine and Instagram, a unit of Facebook (FB), along with tablets from Amazon (AMZN)
Alibaba Group is planning to list its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, according to several news reports, in what likely would be one of the largest-ever IPOs in the U.S. in the amount raised. Alibaba is the largest e-commerce provider in China, described as Amazon.com (AMZN), eBay (EBAY), PayPal and Google (GOOG) all wrapped into one. Analysts say an Alibaba IPO could raise about $20 billion and give the company a market valuation of $100
With its upcoming price increase, Amazon (AMZN) Prime Instant Video will be more expensive than Netflix’s (NFLX) market-leading service, taking pressure off Netflix to offer a lower-priced service. Amazon Prime will work out to $8.25 a month compared with Netflix’s standard streaming video plan of $7.99 a month. But Amazon bundles other services with Prime, including free two-day shipping on many items, e-book borrowing access, and a rumored music streaming service. To help justify the price increase, from $79 to $99 a year, Amazon (AMZN) is bucking up the content offerings on its streaming video service, including many exclusives. Just this year, Amazon signed deals with entertainment companies to be the exclusive streaming provider for cult TV drama “Veronica Mars,” critically acclaimed drama “Orphan Black,” MTV series “Teen Wolf,” FX period drama “The Americans,” and the upcoming CBS mystery thriller “Extant” starring Halle Berry. Variety reported Tuesday that Amazon has decided…