CNN plans to turn its social video startup, "Great Big Story," into a 24-hour streaming channel -- and it’s pumping $40 million into the effort, Bloomberg reports. “It’ll distribute the streaming channel on the growing number of web-TV services like Dish Network Corp.’s Sling TV or AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV Now,” it writes.

Fast Company profiles Susan Wojcicki and the never-ending challenges she faces as CEO of YouTube. Among other recent issues, “For the previous two months, YouTube had been beset by controversy in the wake of newspaper investigations that discovered brand advertising being paired with videos featuring terrorist and white-supremacist rhetoric,” FC writes. Among other innovations, “YouTube was able to quiet the unrest by installing new machine-learning technology to better identify questionable content.”  

Nearly half of U.S. broadband customers report paying for at least one OTT video service, Multichannel News writing citing a survey from IBB Consulting. “The study, based on a survey of 2,007 U.S. online consumers, found that about one-third subscribe to two OTT services and 18% take three or more,” it reports. “Millennials are the group most likely to take more than three paid OTT services.”

Among other original content efforts, Facebook is reportedly backing a reality show, featuring 50 contestants from 50 states competing for a grand prize of $500,000. “The series hails from 'American Ninja Warrior' producers A. Smith and Co.'s Arthur Smith,” The Hollywood Reporter writes, citing sources. “Production on the series has already begun in Los Angeles [while] a premiere date, episode count and rollout plan has yet to be determined.”

Apple’s first foray into original programming is not winning over critics. Variety’s Maureen Ryan, for one, is not a fan of “Planet of the Apps” -- a “Shark Talk” rip-off that revolves around promising app developers. Says Ryan: “It’s not terrible, but essentially, it’s a bland, tepid, barely competent knock-off of ‘Shark Tank.’”  

As was rumored, Apple TV is indeed adding Amazon’s video app, the companies announced this week. “The app will let users stream original hits like Transparent, Bosch, Mozart in the Jungle, Catastrophe, and more,” The Verge reports. “Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Amazon Video for Apple TV will be released ‘later this year.’”