Mansha Daswani

SAN JOSE/IRVINE: Chinese tech giant LeEco, which operates a video streaming platform as well as manufactures consumer-electronics devices, is buying U.S. smart TV brand VIZIO for $2 billion.

LOS ANGELES: Apple Music has signed up as the global home of Carpool Karaoke, a new series from CBS Television Studios based on a popular segment from The Late Late Show with James Corden.

BASKING RIDGE/SUNNYVALE: Verizon is acquiring Yahoo's operating business for $4.83 billion in cash and is set to integrate the venture with AOL.

SANTA MONICA: Independent studio Lionsgate is acquiring Starz in a cash and stock deal worth $4.4 billion.

STAMFORD: NBCUniversal's networks and digital platforms will devote 6,755 hours to coverage of the Olympic Games from Rio this August, with 260.5 hours on NBC alone.

Key findings of Nielsen’s Total Audience Report for Q1 2016 include that SVOD and DVR penetration are now equal at 50 percent of U.S. TV households. Live and DVR/time-shifted TV has 226 million adult users per month, Nielsen says, just behind radio usage at 240 million users per month. Adults spend 4 hours and 31 minutes on live TV per day, down by 1 percent on Q1 2015. Live, DVR and time-shifted viewing is down to 6 hours and 37 minutes.

SANTA MONICA/LOS ANGELES: The film franchise Step Up, which grossed $650 million at the global box office, is getting a series spin-off on the YouTube Red subscription platform.

LONDON: Via a new pact with technology outfit Mirriad, clients of Havas Media Group can digitally integrate a brand into video content from leading producers, with a deal already in place with VICELAND.

Parks Associates is urging media companies to develop advertising campaigns that are "integrated and nondisruptive to the viewing experience" for internet video watchers, releasing new data that shows that ad-blocking cost the digital publishing industries some $41.4 billion worldwide in 2015.

CANNES: Vice is gearing up to bring its TV, digital and mobile services to more than 50 additional markets as it steps up its global expansion plans.