Netflix signs Vine star Cameron Dallas for new reality show

While you might be aware of Vine, Twitter’s six-second social video service, you might not be familiar with its most popular users. With 9.4 million followers and over two billion loops, Cameron Dallas is undoubtedly a Vine star, but he’s joining the ever-increasing roster of internet-famous personalities making the jump to TV, having just signed a new reality show deal with Netflix.

Variety reports that the unscripted series will “follow Dallas and his close circle of friends and family as he looks to take his career to the next level.” Maybe think of it as the internet equivalent of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Dallas has already appeared in high-school drama The Outfield alongside Vine celebrity Nash Grier and teen comedy Expelled, which both topped iTunes movie charts following their release.

It’s not the first time Netflix has commissioned a new show from an internet video star. In January, the streaming giant signed an eight-show deal with YouTube personality Miranda Sings (played by Colleen Ballinger), which will premiere later this year. Netflix is keen to tap into the massive online followings these social media stars have, luring them away from original content deals with YouTube to boost sign-ups from younger demographics.

You think you know… Coming soon @netflix pic.twitter.com/1KlFbV7DEQ

— Cameron Dallas (@camerondallas) June 22, 2016

Source: Variety

Dish drops NFL channels after deal expires

Tribune stations went dark on Dish Network earlier this week, making it difficult for some customers to watch the NBA and NHL championship matchups. The TV provider is dealing with another sports-related dispute too, and this time it’s with the NFL. Dish subscribers won’t be privy to the league-owned NFL Network and NFL RedZone for the time being as contract negotiations stalled before the previous deal expired last night. The NFL pointed out that this is the first time a television provider has blacked out its channels and set up a website to let eager football fans in on other options for watching its content.

It will be interesting to see if the NFL pushing fans to other cable and satellite operators gets a deal done. As the league points out, the football faithful stand to miss out on training camp and preseason coverage in the immediate future, with the full regular season on the line as well. Dish and the NFL have worked out agreements in the past, but only time will tell if they can come to terms this time around.

“As the only network 100% dedicated to coverage of America’s most popular sports league, NFL Network is committed to serving the millions of NFL fans by reaching fair distribution agreements with the pay-TV industry,” the league said in a statement.

“Our contract with NFL Network has expired,” Dish explained in a statement to Engadget. “We remain open to a fair offer that allows us to carry this content at an appropriate value to our customers.”

Via: Reuters, Daily Dot

Source: NFL

The ‘Skylanders’ TV show will debut on Netflix this fall

Netflix has snatched up another TV show that children will be begging their parents to stream. A new deal with Activision Blizzard will ensure Skylanders Academy, the first TV show based on the toys-to-life video game franchise, will premiere on Netflix this fall. It’s not yet clear if the series will be shown elsewhere at a later date. Regardless, it’s a major coup for Netflix as it seeks to build a broader, more attractive slate of shows for kids. Previous deals include a long-running partnership with DreamWorks, which has produced series based on Madagascar, Turbo and Voltron.

Skylanders has been around since 2011 and arguably pioneered the toys-to-life genre. Others have followed — the most notable being Disney Infinity, which is now being wound down, and Lego Dimensions, which is gearing up for a second wave of pop culture-related characters and level packs. Skylanders has endured by adding new ideas every year — the next instalment, Imaginators, will allow players to build their own Skylanders heroes from scratch. During its E3 press conference, Sony even announced that Crash Bandicoot will be joining the game’s cast of colorful characters.

The Skylanders TV show will focus on the game’s most recognizable characters. Justin Long is voicing Spyro, while Ashley Tisdale takes on Stealth Elf and Jonathan Banks breathes life into Eruptor. Eric Rogers, who worked on Futurama, is taking the helm as showrunner. Thirteen episodes are scheduled for the fall, followed by a second season in late 2017.

Hulu VR viewing comes to your Oculus Rift

You no longer have to don a Gear VR headset to watch Hulu in virtual reality. The streaming service has introduced an Oculus Rift app that brings the immersive experience to your PC. The Rift version not only takes advantage of the extra power of a computer (it’s “polished, sharper and highly responsive”), but introduces themed viewing rooms for shows. When you watch 12 Monkeys, it’ll plunk you in the sci-fi series’ Temporal Facility — a bit gimmicky, to be sure, but less illusion-breaking than a virtual living room. Here’s hoping that other shows get a similar treatment, and that HTC Vive owners get their turn.

Source: Hulu

BBC to put major new drama series on iPlayer before it airs on TV

While the BBC is increasingly choosing to air new programmes on iPlayer before they appear on TV, the broadcaster has typically restricted output to low-risk shows and specials. However, with its new supernatural drama, The Living And The Dead, the Beeb has decided it’s time to change that mindset — it’ll debut all six episodes this Friday (June 17th), two weeks before they start being broadcast on TV.

The show, created by Life on Mars duo Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, will become the first primetime BBC drama to delay traditional broadcasts in favour of a “binge-watch” model utilised by Netflix and Amazon. Earlier this month, New Blood became the first drama series to make select episodes available online first, but Peter Kay’s Car Share was the earliest BBC programme to premiere exclusively on iPlayer.

Speaking at a press screening on Tuesday evening, Controller of BBC One Charlotte Moore said: “Part of my mission at the BBC is to grow iPlayer into the future, and I will be exploring more premieres like this. But it’s fantastic to be doing this with The Living And The Dead.”

It shows that the BBC is working hard to change iPlayer from the catch-up service it once was into a portal capable of rivaling other streaming giants. The Living And The Dead “box-set” will be available online from June 17th, with weekly episodes appearing on BBC One at 9pm from June 28th.

Source: AOL UK

Sky Movies will become Sky Cinema next month

Sky isn’t just a household name in the UK, but in several other European countries too. In those regions, however, Sky Movies as a brand doesn’t exist. Instead, it’s called Sky Cinema in those parts, and come July 8th, that’s what it’ll be known as in the UK as well. Big deal, right? Well, the new name isn’t the only change. For starters, instead of debuting four new movies a week, a fresh film will be added to the roster every day. Sky Cinema will also devote more space to original content and foreign flicks in the future, with a new international release dropping on the service every Wednesday.

Sky’s on-demand library is now more popular than its linear channels, and this too will be growing as Sky Movies becomes Sky Cinema. For starters, the catalogue will increase from 1,000 to roughly 1,200 movies just throughout July. Themed events and transient “pop-up channels” that show back-to-back Harry Potter titles, for example, are to become more regular under Sky Cinema. On the technical side, Sky is implementing what it calls “better HD” on the Cinema service, which apparently carries one-third more pixels, as well as higher dynamic-range audio across the on-demand library.

Most importantly, upon the launch of Sky Cinema, HD movie channels will no longer command an added premium, so anyone with the right bundle (including Virgin Media patrons) will get the best resolution at no extra cost. Film discovery is also set to improve in subtle ways, and Sky subscribers will be able to skip back to the beginning of movies being shown on the linear channels from the EPG for the first time. Unfortunately, not a great deal of news for owners of a shiny new Sky Q box, though 4K flicks will be available at some point later this year.

‘Mr. Robot’ promo has you hacking a fake ATM

If you were planning a real-world promo for Mr. Robot, a TV show that’s all about hacking and the culture that goes with it, what would you do? Invite fans to do some hacking of their own, apparently. As part of the run-up to the series’ second season, New York City retailer Story has remade its store with a hacking-inspired game as its centerpiece. Clues littered around the store offer codes that let you ‘hack’ an Evil Corp ATM for real cash — if you’re astute, you can get as much as $50. It’s not the same as a real ATM hack (thankfully), but it’s very much in the spirit of Mr. Robot’s stick-it-to-authority ethos.

There’s more. You’ll also find an interactive version of Elliot’s desk that shows videos whenever you touch real-world objects, and there are nods to Fsociety’s home base that include real arcade cabinets and a Skee-Ball machine. Yes, it’s all there to convince you to watch the show and buy related merch. However, this may be one of the few physical promos that’s worth checking out for its own sake — especially since you might walk out of the store with more money than you had going in.

Via: Co.Create

Source: Story