TOP NEWS
*Daimler AG confirmed that Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are engaged in with a consortium of Germancarmakers comprising the Mercedes-Benz parent, Audi AG and BMW Group to acquireminority stakes in the HERE digital mapping service, The Wall Street Journal reports.In an interview, Thomas Weber, a Daimler board member in charge of research anddevelopment, reportedly said the consortium is talking to the tech giants alongwith many auto makers, while adding that they have yet to reach a decision.Additionally, Weber said the consortium requires the services of a cloudprovider to handle the data created by HERE and its users.
*Yahoo! Inc. will livestream 180 games of Major League Baseball's regular season as part of astreaming agreement, Multichannel Newsreports.The season will reportedly feature at least one appearance by each of the MLB's30 teams. Free access to the games will be blacked out in local markets.
Internet & OTT
*
*Facebook Inc.'sWhatsApp completed the end-to-end encryption for all communication on itsplatform and across all mobile platforms. According to an official blog post, WhatsAppcompleted the encryptionin partnership with Open Whisper Systems. More than a billion monthly activeusers across the world are now using the Signal Protocol for end-to-endencryption.
*Twitter Inc.won exclusivestreaming rights for the National Football League's Thursday Night Footballduring the 2016 NFL regular season. Under the deal, Twitter will stream the 10Thursday Night Football games broadcast by NBC (US) and CBS (US), which will also be simulcast onNFL Network (US),securing the league's "Tri-Cast" distribution model of broadcast,cable and digital, according to an official news release. The NFL and Twitter will now provide free,live streaming video of Thursday Night Football without authentication to themore than 800 million registered and non-registered users worldwide on theTwitter platform on mobile phones, tablets, PCs and connected TVs. Also, thepartnership includes in-game highlights from Thursday Night Football, as wellas pre-game Periscope broadcasts from players and teams.
*Jim Wilkinson is stepping down as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s senior vice president forinternational corporate affairs, Re/code reports.Wilkinson, who is leaving after a period of two years, will be launching a newinternational communications company. anotherAlibaba executive Jennifer Kuperman has reportedly been tapped to succeedWilkinson.
Multichannel
*The New York State Public Service Commission extended the deadline for itsdecision regarding AlticeNV's proposed acquisition of Cablevision Systems Corp., Multichannel News reports.The agency, which had previously set an April 29 deadline, is now expected todecide about the proposed transaction on May 20. Altice, meanwhile, said in astatement that the new deadline will not delay the final closing of the mergerdeal, which is expected to happen by the end of the second quarter. The dealstill reportedly requires the approval of the FCC.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher openingfor the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng was up 0.15% to 20,206.67. The Nikkei225 fell 0.11% to 15,715.36.
In Europe as of midday, the FTSE 100 rose 0.48% to 6,120.70,and the Euronext 100 climbed 0.34% to 843.12.
On the macro front
The Gallup U.S. job creation index, the EIA petroleum statusreport and the FOMC minutes are due out today.
Featured news
The Daily DoseEurope: Apple sued by French regulator; Orange acquires stake in Africane-commerce firm: A French regulator launched a court case againstApple Inc. over itscontracts with local mobile operators, while Orange will acquire a €75 million equity stake ine-commerce platform Africa Internet Group.
The PressPass: Disney's CEO replacement edged out of contention as speculationmounts: Reports indicated that Walt Disney Co. COO Thomas Staggs was edged out of CEOcontention, leading to his resignation, and observers are speculating as far asNew York and Silicon Valley for the next heir-apparent.
Q&A:EarthTV CEO: '360-degree videos will be bigger than virtualreality': At the annual MIPTV conference in France, SNL Kagan satdown with Nikolaus Lohmann, co-CEO of earthTV, a Berlin-headquartered digitalproduction technology company, to talk about the impact of 360-degree videosand VR on the TV and video industry.
LatAm videospotlight: Mexico's Televisa bags BBC Worldwide content for OTT serviceblim: In this monthly feature, SNL Kagan provides a roundup of newsrelated to over-the-top, video-on-demand and other online video initiatives indifferent Latin American markets.
CAPITALLetters: Broadcast auction: The known unknowns: After six years ofspeculating about the FCC's 600 MHz Broadcast Incentive Auction, we seem toknow a bit less about a lot more.
Featured research
WirelessInvestor: Swaps, consolidations mark busy Q4 for 2015 spectrumdeals: In addition to T-Mobile US Inc.'s push to round up more 700 MHz A blockspectrum and the major carriers' interest in swapping license blocks to improveoperating efficiencies, the rural telcos also stepped up deal activity.
Economics ofInternet: State of Australian online video: Subscription:Australians have embraced subscription-based video-on-demand services with thehelp of high rates of broadband penetration and a healthy appetite fortelevision consumption.
BroadcastInvestor: Databook: Radio Station Deals: Edition published in PDFand Excel in April 2016.
Economics ofInternet: STARZ on a growing list of TV network-backed OTTservices: Hoping to take advantage of a changing video market,several networks have launched over-the-top video services in the past year.This list now includes Starz(US), which launched a stand-alone video offering on April 5.
MultichannelTrends: Mapping multichannel penetration by state, region andplatform: Mapping out the pay TV universe in the U.S. reveals a gapof more than 30 percentage points between the least and mostmultichannel-penetrated states, with the heavily urbanized East Coast showingthe highest penetration levels. A breakout by platform underscores cable'spredominance across the nation.