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Viacom acquires youth-focused AwesomenessTV
AwesomenessTV, an online video company owned by Comcast, Dreamworks, Hearst and Verizon, began as a YouTube channel aimed squarely at millennials and teens. It expanded into more traditional media and was the driving force behind DreamWorksTV on YouTube. Now, Nickelodeon-owner Viacom has acquired the company; CNBC reports the purchase price to be $300 million.
FTC complaint blasts Disney, Google over child influencer videos
It's sketchy enough when companies send free products to YouTube stars in return for positive coverage, but it's worse when those videos are explicitly aimed at kids. How is a young child supposed to tell the difference between genuine enthusiasm and someone compelled to say good things in return for gifts? That's what a handful of consumer watchdog groups plan to solve. Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Center for Digital Democracy and Public Citizen have filed a complaint asking the FTC to stop the practice of aiming influencer videos at kids. Companies like Disney and DreamWorks (via Maker Studios and AwesomenessTV) are allegedly being "unfair and deceptive" by targeting these pseudo-ads at the preteen crowd. Google, meanwhile, purportedly "encourages and benefits" from distributing these videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids.
Verizon team-up will create a mobile video service for teens
Apparently, Verizon doesn't believe its go90 video service is hip enough. It just bought a minority stake in AwesomenessTV, and plans to work with the DreamWorks-owned firm to create a "premium" short-form mobile video service as part of go90. Verizon isn't saying what the content will entail, but it isn't shy about who it's targeting -- the carrier likes that AwesomenessTV caters to "Gen Z and millennials" (read: teens and twentysomethings), and it wants in on the action. The project doesn't have a launch date, but it'll unsurprisingly be exclusive to Verizon's US-based platforms.
YouTube's making 'TV' series and movies with its most popular creators
For many people, Netflix, Amazon Prime and those pirates episodes of Game of Thrones have all but replaced TV. YouTube's another big draw for "cord cutting millennials," but since its videos are all user-submitted, it's almost powerless to stop its stars being poached by TV networks and movie studios. For instance, Fred: The Movie was a flop, but YouTube must have been terrified to see one of its biggest stars wander off so easily. That's why the site is now setting up TV-style production deals with some of its most popular creators, as well as entering movie production partnership with AwesomenessTV.
