Alibaba is preparing to launch an online video streaming service in China. “The service will be called ‘TBO’, or Tmall Box Office, with content bought from China and other countries, as well as in-house productions,” Reuters reports. “TBO will launch into a competitive online video market in China.” 

With $300 million in debt, it appears Relativity Studios thinks it can help itself as positioning Relativity as a Netflix-in-the-making rather than an old-school movie studio, says the New York Post's Claire Atkinson. The company seems to be denying that scenario.

Not very early, of course. The third season of the dramedy, originally meant to hit Netflix at midnight on Friday, was released a few hours earlier. It debuted on Thursday at 9 p.m Eastern. 

"Sponsored" content; "promoted" content. AdAge checks out how publishers let readers/viewers know something is a native ad. One constant: They don't call them ads. 

Reuters, citing "the unprecedented shift to digital publishing and online news consumption," is making some of its original news content— text, pictures, video and multimedia packages—available for free to publishers, the company announced.

YouTube's fans picked its top ten ads, and they're all good. They also contain at least eight lessons about what to do, and two trends to ignore. 

The new RTL Digital Hub will be led by Marcel Reichart, EVP of digital development and partnerships at RTL parent company, Bertelsmann.  Its properties include the massive StyleHaul and BroadbandTV and the SpotXchange ad platform. 

Don’t call it an agency, but CNN is starting up an in-house ad production studio. In the spirit of native advertising, the move “reflects marketers’ growing desire for articles and videos that feel like editorial work,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “About a dozen staffers (made up of journalists, filmmakers and designers) will help launch the new unit, called Courageous.” 

Marketers are using new creative strategies compared to those employed in classic 30-second TV commercials. Advertisers can't assume viewers are hearing the ads.

The launches, in countries with lower connectivity rates, boost Netflix’s subscriber numbers but endangers its profit. Netflix aims to operate in 200 countries by the end of next year. But it's an expensive goal.