Netflix

Netflix plans move into news

Netflix

Netflix could be expanding into current affairs, the company’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has said.

Until now, the on-demand service has focused mainly on film and television content with a long shelf life.

However, speaking in Netflix’s Q3 2015 earnings interview, Sarandos said the company could be following its competitor HBO into producing more timely content.

In 2013, HBO teamed up with co-founder and CEO of Vice Shane Smith to produce documentary series Vice for the US cable network. The show’s fourth season is due to air next year.

BBC to launch iPlayer for children

The BBC is to launch a children’s iPlayer app which will be available for kids on Apple and Android devices.

The new service, with the working title "iPlay," will be an on-demand partner to CBBC and CBeebies.

There were over 500 million downloads of children’s content on iPlayer from January to June 2015, the BBC revealed, while 75% of children have access to a tablet.

The new app will give children a personalised menu of their favourite programmes including Blue Peter and Bing.  

Amazon Prime is the first to offer offline downloads

The online provider is the first subscription service to offer these video downloads to Android and iOS devices.

In a statement Amazon announced that: ‘unlike other subscription streaming services such as Netflix, Prime members can enjoy movies and TV shows as part of their membership even when they don’t have an internet connection available.’

This is available for members in the US, UK, Germany and Austria.

AMC Networks' Josh Sapan on deal-making

AMC Networks President and CEO Josh Sapan lays claim to having the world’s largest collection of antique lightning rods. "They’re architectural and a form of industrial art. I just got captivated by them," he explains.

One or two of them can be found lying around his office on Penn Plaza, a few blocks from the Empire State Building, alongside examples of another passion. This is his collection of panoramic photographs of people and places from the last century.