J. Walter Thompson Worldwide unveiled its “Donate the Bars” project, which turns the black bars appearing on either side of vertical videos on YouTube into free ad space for charities. Working with partners Mashable House, GoodAmplified and Studio 71, J. Walter Thompson has enlisted popular YouTube creators Matt Santoro, Cody Simpson, Alli Simpson and Monica Church to participate “Donate the Bars.” One in six videos uploaded to YouTube don’t conform to the platform’s 16:9 aspect ratio, leaving black bars on either side of the image. 

Snapchat has added news video purveyor NowThis to its Discover pages. That makes 21 publishers at Discover and this story from Re/Code makes it seem others are just standing in line to get in. 

To meet user demand, messaging app Wire just began rolling out video calls. “It has consistently been our most requested feature,” Janus Friis -- Skype cofounder and executive chairman of Wire -- tells Venture Beat. “In addition, Wire is also rolling out end-to-end encryption for messaging,” VB notes.

The BBC and ITV have begun discussing the possibility of forming a subscription video service, says The Guardian. The paper says the service would be a repository of archived content rather than a lot of new content. 

Time Inc. and StyleHaul have announced a multiyear partnership. The joint effort combines Time Inc.’s content with the access and scale of StyleHaul’s millennial influencer network. 

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen has launched Nom, a video site for live streaming on cooking/kitchen/food topics.  

Digital media publisher Mic.com just acquired Hyper -- a mobile app that aggregates video content from across the Web. “The thinking behind Hyper … is that there is ever more high-quality video being produced each day, but it’s hard for consumers to find,”The Wall Street Journal reports. “And the way many people do discover video -- via streams in social networks -- can be overwhelming or poorly timed.”

An Amazon Video job posting asks for a "senior software development manager" to build a VR experience at Amazon. Hulu and Netflix are on the same track. 

Amazon.com's new "Style Code Live," will be shown at 9 p.m. EST and appear nightly, featuring fashion and style news/tips with live call-ins and a roster of goods available from--you guessed it--Amazon.com. 

The Summer Olympics from Brazil will feature the ability to download some events in virtual reality and Japanese audiences will see 130 hours in 8K. (Japan plans all 8K for its 2020 games and wants to experiment.)