Tag Archives: request

Amazon Seen Prepping Cable-TV-Like Web Service, Live Content

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) is moving closer to launching a live TV streaming service to complement its Prime video service, which offers movies and on-demand content, analysts speculate in the wake of media companies’ earnings calls. In the pay-TV industry, “virtual MVPD” (multi-channel video programming distributor) is a term for a cable-TV-like service delivered via the Internet. “Amazon appears most likely to launch a virtual MVPD in 2016,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves said in a research report. “Amazon was hinted at multiple times throughout the quarter as being in negotiations with content providers in the hopes of launching a video product in the future.” AMC Networks ( AMCX ) referred to ongoing “experimentation” at Amazon on its Q4 earnings call on Feb. 25. Walt Disney ( DIS ), meanwhile, mentioned Amazon while discussing ESPN’s streaming strategy on Feb. 17. Satellite TV broadcaster Dish Network ( DISH ) has more than 500,000 subscribers to its “Sling” Web TV service, launched in early 2015, analysts estimate. However, Sling does not offer live content from the four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC). Bloomberg reported in October that Amazon was in talks with Comcast ’s ( CMCSA ) NBCUniversal, CBS ( CBS ) and others. Amazon’s challenge would be aggregating content licensed from major programming networks. Apple ( AAPL ) reportedly has, for now, broken off talks with the broadcast networks for a Web TV service. If Amazon’s offers live content, it would set itself apart from Netflix ( NFLX ) and Hulu, both of which do not. Amazon, like Netflix, has already moved into producing original content. One Amazon strategy could be licensing content for current seasons of popular programming now available mainly from pay-TV companies. Federal regulators are probing the influence of cable TV companies over content deals, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. In a report in mid-February, Jefferies noted that Amazon’s Prime video service offers the most content from CBS, including “Vegas.” Its on-demand shows, though, are from prior broadcast seasons. “Relative to Netflix and Hulu, Amazon Prime carries significantly less network programming,” said the Jefferies report. “Overall, the platform only carries nine fall shows aired between 2012 and 2015, six of which aired on CBS.” Amazon in 2015  licensed season-one episodes from NBCUniversal’s hit, “Mr. Robot,” which airs on the USA Network. Amazon also signed content deals with AMC Networks and Time Warner ( TWX ) for six seasons of HBO’s “Sex and the City.”

No Growing Pains For Lending Tree After Revenue Guidance: Analyst

LendingTree ( TREE ) is going to have no problem growing, says RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney, reacting after the company  posted better-than-expected Q4 revenue and gave better-than-expected Q1 sales guidance. LendingTree, an online loan marketplace that lets consumers shop and compare different options from lenders, said early Thursday that revenue rose 78% from the year-earlier quarter to $78.3 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast $77.2 million. Earnings per share ex items of 65 cents, though, slightly missed Wall Street expectations of 66 cents. Still, LendingTree stock rose 22% Thursday on the report. Shares fell 2.3% Friday to 83.48. “We view LendingTree as a leading online consumer finance marketplace,” Mahaney wrote. “We are positive on shares, and it is our second top pick among small caps.” For Q1, the company forecast revenue of $85 million to $87 million, up 67% to 71% from the year-earlier quarter. Wall Street had modeled $77 million. LendingTree executives also upped their 2016 sales outlook to $370-$380 million, the midpoint up 48%. The company also said that it repurchased $40 million of its shares during Q4.  

Apple Shareholders Show Support For Company’s Privacy Stance

Apple ( AAPL ) investors showed their support for Apple CEO Tim Cook and his strong stance on iPhone privacy on Friday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Shareholders at the meeting, held at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, gave Cook a standing ovation, and several attendees took the floor to voice their support for the company in its legal battle with the FBI, according to media reports. “We are staunch advocates about our customers’ privacy and personal safety,” Cook said. “We do these things because they are the right thing to do.” Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, rose during the meeting to praise the company. “It’s wrong for the government to force a company to write code” that weakens security, she said. The issue is about “our safety and government overreach,” she said, according to Silicon Beat . The Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow Push Coalition thanked Cook for his efforts to fight a court order that would force Apple to hack its iPhone software, Bloomberg reported . “We oppose the unprecedented government overreach,” Jackson said. He invoked an era in U.S. history when law enforcement spied on civil rights leaders. On Thursday , Apple filed a legal motion asking a federal court in California to throw out an order it issued last week that the company help the FBI unlock an encrypted iPhone in a criminal probe. In its court filing, Apple said that the order “creates an unprecedented burden on Apple and violates Apple’s First Amendment rights against compelled speech.” The FBI wants Apple to create a special version of its iOS software that defeats the operating system’s security protections. On Feb. 16, U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym ordered Apple to provide “reasonable technical assistance” to the FBI to unlock an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, one of the killers in the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2. The radicalized Muslim couple, described in press reports as supporters of terror group ISIS, later died in a gun battle with police. The FBI says that it wants to check his iPhone for evidence of possible accomplices and links to terrorist groups. At Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate, the five remaining candidates were unified in their opinion that Apple should help the FBI in the case. The two Democratic candidates have refused to pick a side but have urged the parties to find a middle ground. The privacy vs. security debate has divided the nation. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found more support for Apple’s stance, but Pew Research Center and IBD/TIPP polls showed more support for the FBI’s stance.