Disney to pay at least $500 million for YouTube video maker
By Brian Stelter, CNN
Highlighting Web video's growing value to big media, The Walt Disney Company on Monday said it would acquire Maker Studios for an initial sum of $500 million.
Maker Studios is a leading producer and distributor of short, entertaining videos on YouTube, many of which are geared toward millennials. Its vast array of online channels total 5.5 billion YouTube views per month, according to Maker, which makes it one of the most successful online video companies of its kind.
In effect, Maker has helped create a whole new universe of shows, made for the Web rather than television, and now Disney can learn from them. This is especially important because key Disney demographics — like teenagers — are flocking to YouTube and other online video destinations.
Read more of Brian's article online here.
Apple eyes partnerships in bid to reinvent TV
By Brian Stelter, CNN
The computing giant's next foray into TV could come in partnership with Comcast, the largest television and broadband provider in the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night.
The Journal said that the two companies are holding talks that could result in Comcast delivering an Apple-branded TV service the same way it delivers phone calls and cable video-on-demand. These are called "managed services," and are set apart from the broadband connections that bring Netflix (NFLX), YouTube and other websites to customers. The arrangement would allow Apple to be confident that its video offerings won't sputter the way some other streams do.
Read more of Brian's article online here.
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Brian Stelter is the host of "Reliable Sources" and the senior media correspondent for CNN Worldwide. Before he joined CNN in November 2013, Stelter was a media reporter for The New York Times. He is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Top of the Morning."
Here's his biography. You can read his stories on this blog and at CNNMoney.com/Media/.
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