Chinese live-streamers often use the opportunity to hawk their products, many aimed at young viewers. China does have rules--no bananas, for example, apparently because of the sexual innuendo that fruit seems to prompt.

According to August 2016 research by Trusted Media Brands (formerly Reader's Digest Association), almost one-fifth of US media decision-makers are planning to invest in live stream video ads by the end of the year. But, lots--overwhelmingly, most-- agencies and in-house creators are not that interested--yet. I

Sky TV, the big European pay TV operator will launch Now TV, an online streaming service, in Spain. If it works there, it is likely to go wide through all of Europe

Two new YouTube videos show folks getting high, and then attempting to build Ikea furniture. Some major pacing problems! (MediaPost watched: Better video idea than results.)

Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post's editor-in-chief, announced Thursday that she's leaving to head a new health, wellbeing and productivity startup called Thrive Global. The Huffington Post was sold to AOL in 2011 for $315 million; AOL itself was recently acquired by Verizon for $4.4 billion

Microsoft just bought interactive game streaming service Beam. “Beam’s model takes the mostly passive interaction that streaming fans may be used to from services like Twitch and YouTube, and adds the ability for viewers to interact with the streamer via crowdsourced controls,” TechCrunch explains. “Players interacting through Beam can direct the play of the person streaming.”

Amazon says it will present a docu-series on Playboy founder Hugh Hefner in 2017. Hefner,  now 90, has been the subject of at least two other documentaries, but his personal life, seemingly an open book in some respects, has plenty of missing pages. 

Disney is paying $1 billion in exchange for a third stake in streaming video company BAM Tech. Long term, the entertainment giant plans to “launch what it calls an ESPN-branded subscription streaming service that … won’t include ESPN,” Recode reports. “The deal values BAM Tech, backed by Major League Baseball, at $3 billion.”

On August 31, Amazon will stream its version of The Tick and two other pilots on Twitch for 24 hours, and ecommerce giant said this week. That is roughly two weeks after the shows’ Amazon premiere on August 19, Engadget notes. “That may sound like an odd move when Amazon-owned Twitch is still primarily known for gaming, but it makes sense considering the service's broadening horizons,” it writes.

Amazon Video routinely shows subscribers pilots as a way, it says, of determining which of them should be green-lit. Now, it will also show previews on its gaming outlet, Twitch, which is trying to expand its programming.  On August 31, three pilots will be streamed to Twitch for 24 hour  including “The Tick” and “I Love Dick.”