Lucas Shaw

Apparently, Verizon has been securing streaming rights from television network owners in preparation for the nationwide launch of a live online TV service. The telecommunications company plans to start selling a package with dozens of channels this summer. The live, over-the-internet TV service would be a first for Verizon -- separate from go90, a YouTube-like streaming-video service aimed at teens -- and also independent of its FiOS home TV offer, apparently. Verizon’s preparations highlight the growing pressure to provide a cheaper, smaller package of TV networks to viewers who are turned off by a glut of programming available on traditional cable packages. Dish Network Corp. introduced a similar service, Sling TV, two years ago, and AT&T’s DirecTV Now came out late in 2016.

Maker Studios will lay off about 10 percent of its staff of 380, according to individuals familiar with the large network of online video channels. Maker is making the staffing changes after its acquisition by the Walt Disney in a deal worth $500 million (and as much as $950 million).

Staffing changes are commonplace after a deal that size, especially for a company with as much overhead as Maker. Maker's nearly 400 staffers span production, advertising sales, technology, merchandising and other sectors.

“Maker's business is constantly evolving, and we routinely reassess our internal resources and make strategic adjustments, reducing staff in some areas while actively hiring in others,” Maker said. It shares many synergies with Disney, which can help the network's reach overseas and consumer products division while using Maker's beach head on YouTube to promote its own stars and movies.

Verance, a technology company that works with studios to prevent content theft, has identified six types of pirates, and suggested ways Hollywood can thwart their illicit activity.

Verance determined the types based on a consumer survey intended to figure out why so many people watch pirated copies of movies and TV shows. The types range from No Big Deals to Library Builders, with the former the biggest category.

So what is Hollywood to do? Verance recommends that it make legitimate copies of movies easier to find and cheaper. People do not want to pay $10-15 to buy a movie using iTunes or Hollywood's own clunky service when they can find it online for nothing (or close to it).

Convenience trumps cost, according to Verance, and that is one area in which the company argues its “curtailment and conversion technologies” can help.

The report's central argument, that Hollywood can deter people from pirating movies and TV shows, is important to an industry that acknowledges it has lost the public relations battle. Most people believe piracy is acceptable, and stream or download copies of movies they want to see.

Comcast and AT&T have already pledged $112 billion for two acquisitions in the past few months, and this is only the beginning of a feverish few years of dealmaking, according to a new report by Ernst & Young.

This is the second report in as many weeks projecting billions of dollars will change hands as media conglomerates try to outflank competitors and new rivals by getting bigger.

With the rise of YouTube, Netflix and Hulu, traditional media and cable companies are consolidating to dictate terms as best they can. Comcast and AT&T want to provide video and Internet services -- without paying an arm and a leg for those videos.

“Size matters,” Tom Connolly, Global Leader of Media & Entertainment, Transaction Advisory Services at Ernst & Young, told TheWrap. “These companies want to do what they can to maximize geographic reach and customer reach for when they are negotiating.”

Time Warner, Disney and Comcast want to own as many different producers of content as they can, so that the people who own the pipes must deal with them if they want high-quality product.

Executives remain optimistic about the future, according to the report, but these deals could cost people their jobs. Companies will reduce the size of their work force, eliminating redundancies as they acquire companies that perform some of the same functions.

Amazon is serving kids a side of education with their daily dose of TV shows.

The Seattle-based tech giant launched its first slate of children's series with shows from Emmy winner Drew Hodges, “Blue's Clues” co-creator Angela Santomero and Emmy nominee JJ Johnson.

The shows fit into a broader curriculum, a term Amazon executives use frequently that underscores their focus on educating and entertaining at the same time. “Creative Galaxy” chronicles Artie, an alien artist who lives in the eponymous realm of ingenuity and ends each show by urging kids to do something creative. “Tumble Leaf” follows a fox who goes off on an adventure each day.

“In all of these shows, you see these characters exploring and learning, and in all the shows we are asking kids to be active,” Tara Sorensen, Amazon Studios’ head of kids’ programming, told TheWrap. “It's not just about the story on the screen but how we can extend that learning.”

Netflix and Amazon are spending more money on original series every year, and that could hurt the TV industry's bottom line, said Ben Silverman, Chairman of Electus.

The arrival of Netflix and Amazon created a huge secondary market for TV shows, much like syndication did years ago, awarding TV producers millions in new revenue. Now that those companies make series of their own, some fear they will not spend as much on other people's shows.

“The real concern is about cannibalization of the backends of TV shows,” Silverman said. “Most of Beverly Hills is built on the backends of TV shows and movies. That is a concern as everyone moves into originals and exclusive content.”

Avi Lerner wants the US government to be more proactive in its fight against piracy, but does not have much faith in President Barack Obama to act on it.

“We've got a major problem with [President] Obama, who is scared of Google,” Lerner said.

Hollywood continues to fret over the theft of their intellectual property, especially in countries like Spain, Italy, China and Russia. Yet recent legal efforts have failed, and politicians have shifted their focus to persuading the American public that piracy is bad. Many applaud those efforts, including Lerner.

“Most of the people in the world, especially young children, don't think they have to pay to see a movie,” Lerner said. “They don't understand that by doing this, we are losing millions and billions of dollars.”

Hollywood's fight against piracy has entered a new phase, one in which movie studios and TV producers are trying to make money off of what they once deemed stolen content.

Google now offers content identification software to help entertainment companies locate videos infringing upon copyrights so that they can either take them down or monetize them. Yet in recent years, a number of different technology companies have cropped up offering their own technology and services to brands, media companies and advertisers.

A few other companies, including the Venice (CA)-based ZEFR, already possess proprietary technology that helps them identify videos related to existing intellectual property.

BroadbandTV, based in Vancouver and run by CEO Shahrzad Rafati, works with clients and content creators across various sectors as well, including the NBA and A&E. It possesses more than 16,000 partners and clients.

Content identification in management is only one part of Broadband's business, but, as Rafati told TheWrap, its VISO NOVI technology is core to its identity. “What makes BroadbandTV unique is technology built from 2007 in terms of audio and video fingerprinting for our rights management engine,” Rafati said.

The Senate Finance Committee has revived a package of tax credits that includes Section 181, a lucrative federal tax incentive for the film and TV industry.

The committee renewed a package of more than 60 different enticements, commonly known as the Extenders Bill, and dispatched it to the full Senate. Attorneys said that the bill faces an uphill climb because of a credit for win energy -- not because of Section 181.

The package expired at the end of 2013, and this new bill would apply retroactively to Jan 1, 2014. It would run through the end of 2015, at which point committee chairman Ron Wyden (above) hopes to be rid of it forever. The legislation permits producers to deduct some of their expenses before they see any profit. If it expires, they will not be able to do that. It is even more helpful to television as it lets them deduct for each episode.