Showtime, Vudu, and Crackle Sued by DASH Patent Holders

MPEG LA's DASH Patent Pool may have ceased, but Ideahub and Helios Streaming resort to a lawsuit, claiming defendants refused to engage in licensing discussions.

Blocking Multiple Piracy Websites Can Decrease Levels of Piracy

Blocking is an effective way to curb piracy and direct people to legal alternatives, it turns out. But it only works if many sites are blocked, finds Carnegie Mellon.

Group Nine Acquiring Popsugar, Adding Scale and a New Demographic

Group Nine announced it will acquire Popsugar, which will help it grow reach for advertisers and tap into a new, largely female audience.

Facebook Will Pay $40M Fine for Overstating Video Ad Metrics

At the heart of the suit is Facebook's previous method of calculating watch time, which did not include all views and reported dramatically inflated numbers.

Vice Media Acquiring Women-Focused Refinery29 for $400M

Two leading online publishers are combining, with Vice Media announcing it has acquired Refinery29 in a reported mix of stocks and cash.

Brightcove End-of-Life News for Ooyala OVP Has Customers Panicked

Ooyala customers felt blindsided by Brightcove's decision to shut down the Ooyala OVP, a move that runs counter to what they had recently been told by management.

CBS, Viacom Form ViacomCBS, Merging to Combat Netflix and YouTube

"The streaming wars haven't even started!" With ViacomCBS now accelerating its online video strategy, viewers are going to see even more competition for their attention.

Facebook Open Sources Two Video- and Photo-Matching Tools

With the goal of preventing harmful content, Facebook offers technology that can identify and block photos and videos as quickly as they're uploaded.

Vobile Group Buys Content Identification Tools From Zefr for $90M

The company is getting RightsID, which lets content owners see where their material is being used on major social platforms, and ChannelID, which manages official IP on YouTube.

SVOD Services Correlate With Lower Rates of Video Piracy

Ampere Analysis shows a correlation between large drops in video piracy and the availability of unlimited streaming SVOD services.

Brightcove Reduces and Reorganizes Staff, Denies Disarray

While Brightcove's CMO calls the change minor, an ex-employee says this caps a year of turmoil that started with the appointment of a new CEO.

Piracy Costs the U.S. Economy $29.2B Yearly, 80% From Streaming

Putting a price tag on the impact of digital piracy, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that global online piracy costs the U.S. economy $29.2 billion in lost revenue every year.

VidAngel Gets Potential Death Blow With $62.4M Judgment

A jury hit VidAngel with a $62.4 million fine for violating Hollywood studio copyrights by creating unauthorized reproductions from DVDs.

YouTube Highlights Video Policies Meant to Protect Minors

Following another damaging story about bad behavior on its platform, YouTube put out a blog post highlighting recent moves it made to safeguard minors.

TiVo Will Split Into Two Separate Companies to Maximize Value

One company will control the TV platform and the other TiVo's IP licensing. The separation should be complete in the first half of 2020.

Akamai Finds Widespread SVOD Credential Attacks From Hacking

Entertainment and gaming services are increasingly suffering from credential stuffing attacks, in which hackers attempt to gain access using stolen IDs.

No Content Royalties in Sisvel VP9/AV1 Patent Pools

Sisvel's Video Codec Licensing Platform will employ a "committed volume scheme" rather than a royalty cap, according to CEO Mattia Fogliacco, who did not rule out royalties on software-based encoding

Sisvel Launches Patent Pools for VP9 and AV1

The licenses cover devices such as smartphones, computers, TVs, set-top boxes, and graphics cards, but not encoded content—at least for now.

VidAngel Loses Court Case on DVD Filtering and Streaming

By filtering past adult content and streaming DVD titles online, the service is violating Hollywood studio copyrights, a judge asserts.

Unified Patents Challenges Velos Media Patent

The SEP Video Codec Zone also will provide companies targeted by HEVC IP owners with unique data and tools to negotiate fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licenses