20-24 Apr: Your guide to what’s happened this week in the media, entertainment and technology industry.

Quibi to add TV-Casting feature in May

According to Variety, Quibi has announced its plans to add the ability to cast content to compatible TVs.

The mobile-first streamer made the decision to fast track the feature due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, the report claims.

The company also confirmed the official figures for downloads of the new service, which went live earlier this month. Founder Jeffrey Katzenberg announced the app has been downloaded “more than 2.7 million times in first two weeks” after launch.

BBC Studios strikes deal with China’s ByteDance

ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, has entered a deal with BBC Studios, The Hollywood Reported revealed.

The agreement will see a selection of factual content stream over the Chinese video giant’s growing long-form video channel Xigua.

The deal includes BBC Studios’ acclaimed documentary series Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet, as well as exclusive China rights to new factual series: Hubble: The Wonders of Space Revealed and Primates.

Snap stock jumps after beating expectation

Snap shares surged over 19% after it released Q1 results beating scaled back revenue expectations by $32 million, TechCrunch reported.

It also grew daily active users 20% yearly to 229 million. Snap depends on ad revenue, and marketers are pulling back their spending. The results were positively received, but Snap is reportedly expected to take a bigger hit this quarter.

Netflix adds record 15.8 million subscribers

Netflix added 15.8 million paying customers in the first quarter. The Financial Times reported this is more than double the predicted target.

In its quarterly shareholder letter, Netflix explained that membership growth had “temporarily accelerated due to home confinement” but warned that viewership will likely decline after people go back to work.

T-Mobile opens up network coverage to Sprint customers

T-Mobile has started the integration of Sprint, after completing the acquisition at the start of April, according to Cnet.

The company announced it will redeploy Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum already on its network to help expand its 5G coverage from next month in New York.

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