TV-for-phone start-up raises $1 billion
NEW YORK — Former Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg has raised $1 billion in initial funding for his NewTV start-up seeking to tailor television to smartphone lifestyles, pulling in Hollywood’s biggest studios. Disney, 21st Century Fox, MGM, Sony Pictures and Warner are among the investors in NewTV, a working name for the new company, Katzenberg’s WndrCo company announced Tuesday. NewTV, being nurtured into existence at WndrCo, envisions high-quality shows being custom-designed to be consumed in “bite-sized” formats of 10 minutes or less on people’s mobile phones. No other platform has so far managed to monetize the format, other than through advertising, with the market flooded by free content dominated by the likes of Facebook and YouTube. To develop a platform optimized for cell-phone use, NewTV has partnered with China’s online sales giant, Alibaba. NewTV’s target launch is Christmas 2019, Whitman told CNBC. — AFP
