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YouTube Launches 4K Plus and New Features for Sports Fans on YouTube TV

Published

2 years ago

June 29, 2021

youtube launches 4k plus and new features for sports fans on youtube tv

YouTube TV subscribers can now elevate their watching experience by adding on the new 4K Plus package, which includes 4K, downloads, unlimited streams, and more. YouTube hopes to excite sports fans with this upgrade, considering that some of the updates were inspired by frequent requests from the community.

Screen Shot 2021 06 29 at 10.45.10 AM uXufHOR — YouTube Blog

YouTube saw 65% increase in watch time on TV screens of its sports videos (excluding live content) in 2020, which led to YouTube refreshing its Sports Platform – a hub for sports related news, statistics, and locally trending content. This summer, which is packed with major sports events, YouTube is seeking to elevate the live streaming experience of sports events as well.

As reported by YouTube:

“We’re excited to share more innovative features we’re bringing to YouTube TV – from new experiences to help you feel like you’re actually there, to navigation tools that help you quickly find your favorite events.”

The main hope for the 4K Plus package is to help people feel like they are actually present at the event. To aid that mission, YouTube is enabling 4K Plus subscribers to follow the action in 4K resolution, with unlimited number of streams, as well as 5.1 Dolby audio capabilities for all YouTube TV members – the last one being a direct answer to the highest request by users who wish to enhance their viewing experience with surround-sound audio. These additional features can help YouTube deliver a more theater-like experience, giving them a unique advantage over its competitors who are less focused on live event streaming.

YouTube TV has been a focus point for YouTube ever since it launched in 2017, and the reason for it is simple – over the last decade people have wanted more control over what, how, where, and when they watch video. In fact, in 2019, Google reported that YouTube was reaching more 18- to 49- year-olds than all cable networks combined as well as 86% of those who have either cut cable out of their lives or never even subscribed to begin with.

Now, YouTube wants to extend the level of control to its sports fans by enabling them to jump to the key moments while catching up on the live stream or watching the DVR recording later on, a feature already made available for news segments. YouTube is also adding a Medal count for event participants next to other relevant statistics, enabling viewers to get a better grasp on the overall performance of the countries going against each other. Users will also be able to search for any sport to add to their unlimited DVR space:

“Sports superfans can search for an entire league, just their favorite team, or record individual games or even tournaments. We’ve also recently added key plays directly to search on mobile, so if you want to find all the 3-pointers in your library, you can find them with one click.”

The updates are all about monetizing a passionate and active group of subscribers of YouTube TV. Most sports were paused or at least limited during the pandemic, leading people to revisit their favorite past events and building up a strong appetite for when live events would return. Sports fans are known for their passion, and now that their favorite events are returning with a fresh start, they become the perfect target audience for ads on TV as sports are rarely watched on smaller screens at home.

In fact, connected TV viewing rose in popularity during the pandemic as people sought for entertainment that enabled them to stay at home. This new pattern resulted in YouTube providing more tools for marketers who embraced the opportunity to run TV campaigns on lower budgets as well as adding ‘living room impressions’ to its analytics. This means brands and creators alike have an opportunity to reach more people and tailor their strategies to bring in more revenue.

4K Plus will be available for $19.99 a month, with first time subscribers who already have a YouTube TV account getting a free trial for 30-days and a special price of $9.99 a month for the first year.

Read the full details on the offer on YouTube Official Blog.

Socialmediatoday.com

SOCIAL

TikTok spends $1.5B on Tokopedia JV to get around Jakarta social e-commerce ban

Published

5 hours ago

December 11, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

TikTok spends $1.5B on Tokopedia JV to get around Jakarta social e-commerce ban

Just two months ago, ByteDance-owned TikTok abruptly closed its shopping platform in Indonesia to comply with surprise regulations from the Southeast Asian country’s government. Jakarta ordered social media companies like TikTok and Facebook to stop selling goods on their platforms, demanding a separation of social media and e-commerce services.

TikTok now seems to have found a way to revive its e-commerce dreams in Indonesia by spending billions to start a joint venture with Indonesian tech giant GoTo. On Monday, the two companies announced that TikTok Shop will now be available on GoTo’s Tokopedia platform.

“Tokopedia and TikTok Shop Indonesia’s businesses will be combined under the existing PT Tokopedia entity in which TikTok will take a controlling stake. The shopping features within the TikTok app in Indonesia will be operated and maintained by the enlarged entity,” TikTok said in a statement Monday.

TikTok will invest over $1.5 billion into Tokopedia, taking a 75% stake in the platform. GoTo will remain an ecosystem partner to Tokopedia and receive an “ongoing revenue stream from Tokopedia commensurate with its scale and growth,” but will not be required to continue funding the platform. Further funding from TikTok also won’t reduce GoTo’s remaining 25% stake.

Getting back into the Indonesian ecommerce market will be a win for TikTok. Indonesia, which is the platform’s largest market outside of the U.S., is key to Tiktok’s online shopping aspirations. In June, CEO Shou Zi Chew pledged to “invest billions in Indonesia and Southeast Asia over the next few years.”

ByteDance wants to replicate its Chinese e-commerce successaround the globe. Last year, consumers spent in China 1.41 trillion yuan ($196 billion) on products sold on Douyin, the version of TikTok for the Chinese market, The Information reported in January. ByteDance, through TikTok, is expanding its online shopping services in both Southeast Asia and the U.S. Yet the company is struggling to win over American consumers: The Information reported in August that U.S. shoppers are spending just $4 million a day, equivalent to $1.4 billion over a whole year, on goods sold on the social media platform. (TikTok officially launched TikTok Shop in the U.S. in September, though sellers have complained about a flood of low-quality products on the platform).

Before Indonesia imposed its ban in September, the country’s president, Joko Widodo, complained that social media platforms were threatening local micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. Government officials also accused TikTok of engaging in predatory pricing.

GoTo’s deal with TikTok means the Indonesian tech giant is giving up its majority ownership of Tokopedia . Tokopedia started in 2008 and grew to be one of Indonesia’s largest e-commerce platforms. The company merged with ride-hailing startup GoJek in 2021, becoming GoTo Group. The company debuted on Jakarta’s stock exchange in April last year.

Yet the company has struggled to wow investors since then. GoTo has yet to make a profit since becoming a public company. The tech firm reported 2.4 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($147 million) in net losses last quarter, significantly less than the 6.7 trillion rupiah ($428 million) it lost this time last year.

Investors do not appear to be thrilled by the news of GoTo’s TikTok partnership. Shares fell by over 19% by 2:30pm Indonesia time on Monday, erasing gains made late last week as rumors began to build of the new partnership.

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How to Train ChatGPT to Write in Your Brand’s Tone of Voice [Infographic]

Published

12 hours ago

December 11, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

Are you looking for ways to improve your ChatGPT output? Want to train it to write in a more unique tone of voice, in order to better suit your branding?

The Creative Marketer shares his ChatGPT prompt tips in this infographic. To enact these, add “Write like [INSERT CHARACTER]” at the start of your ChatGPT instructions.

TCM breaks things down into the following categories:

Innocent
Sage
Explorer
Ruler
Creator
Caregiver
Lover
Hero
Everyman
Magician
Jester
Outlaw

Check out the infographic for more information.

A version of this post was first published on the Red Website Design blog.

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Elon Musk reinstates far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on X

Published

18 hours ago

December 10, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been reinstated on X, formerly known as Twitter, by company owner Elon Musk – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Joe Buglewicz

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, on Sunday reinstated far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the social media platform, a year after vowing never to let him return.

Jones, who claimed that a December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that killed 20 children and six educators was a hoax, was banned from the platform — then still known as Twitter — in 2018 for violating its “abusive behavior policy.”

He was also sued by families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting and ordered by a judge in the case to pay up more than a billion dollars in damages last year.

Musk had himself promised never to let the Infowars host back on the social media platform, which he bought last year for $44 billion.

But following a poll Musk conducted on X asking whether Jones should be reinstated, to which some two million users responded, he flipped that decision.

“I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?” the SpaceX founder said on X.

But Shannon Watts, founder of the group Moms Demand Action group which pushes for tighter gun laws, said that “defamation is not free speech.”

Musk’s decision comes the same week that the Sandy Hook families commemorate the 11th anniversary of the December 14 shooting, which Jones alleged was staged to allow the government to crack down on gun rights.

Jones’ followers harassed the bereaved families for years, accusing parents of murdered children of being “crisis actors” whose children had never existed.

It also came a week after Musk had responded to advertisers pulling out of X because of far-right posts and hate speech, including an apparent endorsement by Musk himself of an anti-Semitic tweet.

Asked whether he would respond to the advertising exodus, Musk said in an interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin that the advertisers could “go f*** yourself.”

Jones, who has a million followers on X, returned to the site with his first post re-tweeting Andrew Tate, the controversial former kickboxer facing rape and human trafficking charges in Romania, in which he hailed Jones’ “triumphant return”

US media reported that as of Sunday, the account of Jones’ controversial show Infowars was still banned.

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