Verizon Media’s NewFronts presentation focused on the original content it’s producing — and put Verizon’s 2017 acquisition of Yahoo on full display.
“We’re focused more than ever on transforming powerful intentions into real connections, performance and quality through data insights and content, deepening the connection between brands and consumers,” K. Guru Gowrapan (above), Verizon Media’s CEO, said in a statement.
Onstage, Gowrapan took viewers through the number of original films and series Verizon Media is producing, including the upcoming 5B. Actress and activist Julianne Moore, who’s producing 5B, came onstage as well to share details about the film — a feature-length documentary about a small group of doctors and nurses working in an HIV/AIDS care unit at San Francisco General Hospital. Verizon Media is distributing 5B later this year.
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As for Yahoo (which Verizon bought for $4.8 billion), Verizon Media’s producing Hypezilla, a new shoppable series that uses augmented reality tech to give viewers the ability to try on showcased products. Hypezilla recently debuted and is airing weekly on Yahoo Play, Yahoo’s all-in-one mobile app that wraps in news, entertainment, and gaming. Yahoo Play currently offers more than 20 original series, with 10 more in development.
Yahoo Finance, the media giant’s money-focused hub, is also putting out a slate of new video and podcast programming, Verizon Media revealed yesterday. The new video series, My Three Cents, debuts May 8 and is hosted by Yahoo financial reporter Jen Rogers. She’ll sit down with influential figures like This Is Us star Chrissy Metz and The Office actress Ellie Kemper to discuss the role money plays in their lives.
As for upcoming podcasts, there’s three. Ballots and Dollars, hosted by Yahoo columnist Rick Newman, premieres later this month and tracks political, financial, and economic issues ahead of the 2020 presidential race. The Art of the Exit, hosted by entrepreneur Alex Sugg, chronicles history’s greatest heists. And Illegal Tender, hosted by senior Yahoo writer Ethan Wolff-Mann, dives into the suspicious 2016 death of American Energy Partners founder Aubrey Mcclendon. (No release date has been announced for the latter two.)
Verizon Media’s also aiming to produce content that integrates next-gen wireless network 5G. The company announced it’s launched a platform called the XR Partner Program that’s meant to give news organizations access to Verizon’s 5G Labs and the Verizon Media RYOT 5G Studio in Los Angeles. Basically, partners including USA Today, Reuters, The Associated Press, TIME, and NowThis will work with Verizon and Yahoo News to develop content designed for 5G and XR (aka extended reality, a catch-all term for virtual reality, augmented reality, and the like).
“Through the Yahoo News XR Partner Program, we want to accelerate the development of extended reality content from our trusted news partners and offer our audiences the best-in-class next-generation journalism,” Alex Wallace, Verizon Media’s general manager of news, entertainment, and studios said in a statement.
On top of all that, Verizon’s presentation dropped a surprising stat: though it may sometimes seem like Google’s Gmail holds dominion over all the email lands, 25% of people in the U.S. still use Yahoo Mail.
You can check out the rest of Tubefilter‘s interviews from our ‘Insights from the 2019 Digital Content NewFronts’ video series right here:
