Bloom in Tech

To keep showing the 25-year-old TV series 'Friends' for another year, Netflix agreed to pay WarnerMedia $100 million for one year. Crazy as it sounds, that could be a good deal for the streaming giant. I explain why in this episode. Give it a listen, won't you?

Nov. 27 is Giving Tuesday, when hundreds of non-profits in 55 countries get a chance to double the value of donations with matching funds. It's also the day that NewsMatch holds what it now calls Giving Newsday, with $3 million in matching foundation funds to augment donations to 155 non-profit news organizations (donations made through the end of the year will be matched). The non-profits – generally doing in-depth investigative work that for-profits no longer can afford – range from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Pro Publica to magazines such as Mother Jones and Washington Monthly, to Public Radio International and tiny operations in Wyoming, Hawaii and North Dakota. I talked with Pro Publica's president and a top exec at Giving Tuesday's founding organization, 92Y, about giving instead of just buying. 'Tis the season. Give a listen, won't you?

Esports are growing fast, for a lot of reasons. This weekend's DreamHack Atlanta festival shows some of those reasons why, partnering with Subnation and big brands such as Red Hat and Twitch to bring music, art, experiential activations, street culture and more to the gamer championships. It turns a tournament into an experience. I also talk about (and share a recording of) this week's esports panel at the VRTL Summit held at the Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood, featuring top esports executives such as the commissioner of Activision-Blizzard's Overwatch League. There's lots happening here. Give a listen.

The race for primacy the streaming video business is getting more and more crowded, and the basis for deciding who has "won" is ripe for a rewrite. Can CBS All Access outrun HBO, which needs to compete against numerous corporate siblings for viewers, all while Disney, Apple, Walmart and others join the fray? What matters most? Subscribers? Revenues? Profits? It's the bear chasing the business.

Amid all his complaints, criticism and even craziness, Donald Trump's attacks on the media have hardly hurt the beast. Instead, many major media companies are reporting rising profits, revenues, subscribers and viewers. Is Trump's constant three-ring circus actually raising the value of the media companies he professes to hate, and making engaged audiences more willing to pay for authoritative news sources they can trust? My Election Eve pondering suggests it just may be so. What do you think? Let me know.

The head of the nation's largest group of local TV stations, CEO Chris Ripley of Sinclair Broadcast Group, took the stage at the recent NAB NY conference to talk about how ATSC 3.0 will supercharge local broadcasting; the "antiquated" TV viewing experience; what the company might try to buy next; how Sinclair hopes to STIRR the streaming video pot; why the Tennis Channel is perfectly positioned for a sports gambling future; and why Sinclair won't compete directly in the "sea of blood" with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other tech giants. His interviewer, Rick Howe, dodged some juicy subjects, but there's plenty here from one of the most influential people in the broadcasting business. Give a listen.

Last night's Streamy Awards say the smart video series "73 Questions" recognized for its cinematography (it's one long take where 73 questions are lobbed at a celebrity). In accepting the award, both series creator Joe Sabian and producer Marina Cukeric gave a shoutout to their director of photography Vincent Peone. I interviewed Peone exactly 11 months ago about "73 Questions" and his work as a director, both in commercials for Big Block, and for other projects of many kinds. When I posted the episode originally, it was only one service, SoundCloud, and now is on 10, thanks to Anchor's syndication. Give a listen. He's an interesting guy and now "73 Questions" is a Streamy winner, which is pretty cool.

Snap's been in the news a lot lately, not all of it for good, but for plenty of good reasons. Some are saying the Snapchat parent is ripe for buyout, perhaps by Amazon, which just did a partnership for in-app product information with Snap. But there are some positives for the struggling company too. One of those is a still huge and loyal audience of Millennials and Gen Z fans, who keep attracting the interest of media companies. I also talk in this podcast with Ocean MacAdams, President of Thrillist, which just launched a travel channel on Snapchat. He still sees lots of positives about Snapchat. Let me know what you think. Should Snap stay independent, or look for a buyer as its stock price keeps falling?

On the day Apple rolls out its next generation of cellphones, I offer some thoughts on where mobile is heading, fast. Apple's new smartphones are bigger than ever, and highly capable. It's a major signpost of where we're heading, with phones that can do pretty much anything a low-end computer can do, and then some. But it's not just Apple driving this direction, and it's not just big screens. At last week's Mobile World Congress Americas, the super-fast next-generation network technologies being rolled out in the United States and elsewhere around the world. Who are the companies that will take advantage of these new technologies to create transformative new experiences in games, augmented reality and many other areas? Let me know your thoughts.