Yahoo Shutters Yahoo Screen Video Service Portal
- Tuesday, January 5th, 2016
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Yahoo has shut down Yahoo Screen, the streaming video service the company launched almost three years ago to bring together both syndicated content and original shows that the troubled tech giant had helped produce.
As reported by Variety, the service is no longer listed on Yahoos home page, and trying to navigate to it directly results in being redirected to the portals home page. According to ComScore, traffic to Yahoo Screen has dropped 25 per cent since it debuted in February 2013.
Yahoo Screen represented an ambitious attempt by Yahoo to compete with YouTube, Netflix and Hulu, with high-profile deals with media companies like BuzzFeed and Comedy Central to syndicate content, as well as being the first ever video service to provide a free global livestream of an NFL game.
The company also hired veteran news anchor Katie Couric to host live news coverage and interviews, and produced original shows like Other Space, Sin City Saints and a new season of cancelled NBC sitcom Community, which was highlighted by Ken Goldman, CFO of Yahoo, as bringing in disappointingly low ad revenues during an October 2015 earnings call.
October 2015 also saw the company devalue its video business by $42m (£29m) largely due to the expenses of producing original content which failed to attract a significant audience. However, while the company has shuttered the Yahoo Screen portal, the existing content will continue to be accessible through the companys digital magazines, which it is positioning as specialist channels for subjects like food and fashion.
The abandonment of the Yahoo Screen project is the latest sign of trouble for Yahoo and embattled CEO Marissa Mayer, with a multi-year strategy aimed at turning the company around failing to prove successful, and rumours circulating that the firm will sell off much of its core business.