hayu – the all-reality subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service from NBCUniversal International is now available in Canada, following its rollout in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The service features titles like Keeping Up with the Kardashians, The Real Housewives and Million Dollar Listing, among 6,000 episodes of reality content. hayu also offers users the ability to download shows to view on the go without access to the internet.
Media Technology Monitor (MTM) has looked into what Canadians are watching online, finding that action/drama is the most popular streaming genre with English-speaking Canadians, with comedy close behind. Other key insights from Genre Preferences for Online Viewing indicate men are more interested in watching sports and news content online than women. However, men and women don’t differ much in their viewing of action/drama and comedy. The research also found that comedy is the most popular genre on YouTube, while Netflix draws viewers in with its dramas.
Facebook has revealed a security breach affecting almost 50 million accounts. Guy Rosen, the social network’s VP of Product Management, indicated in a blog post last Friday that the breach was discovered by the company’s engineering team on Sept. 25. Attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted the “View As” feature which lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. Toronto law firm Charney Lawyers PC has commenced a national privacy breach class action.
Refinery29 Canada will launch in October with former Chatelaine editor-in-chief Carley Fortune at its helm. The American digital media lifestyle brand, boasting over 1.3 million Twitter followers, will produce its Canadian edition from Toronto. Canada and France are two of the fashion and culture site’s strongest markets.
Apple Music has overtaken Spotify in three key streaming music markets – the U.S., Canada, and Japan. Longtime Apple analyst Gene Munster and Will Thompson have authored report iOS Ownership Advantage: Music Case Study. It says Apple Music has 21 million subscribers in North America, one million more than Spotify, due to high iOS ownership. Estimating that 95 per cent of Apple Music subscribers use iOS, the company has converted potential customers into paying customers 2.5 times faster than Spotify. Munster claims that’s in part because iPhone owners have more disposable income than Android owners. He also found that Apple Music still has room to grow with just six per cent of the 780 million iPhone users around the world paying subscribers. Over the past two years, Apple Music has grown paid subscriptions 137 per cent, while Spotify experienced 93 per cent growth and Pandora 45 per cent.
Idagio, the Berlin-based classical music streaming service, has raised more than $11.75 million U.S. for its North American expansion. The company already has subscribers in more than 130 countries. Subscriptions start at $9.99/month. Idagio has also formed a partnership with Sonos speakers to allow subscribers to stream music directly from the app to Sonos devices.
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