Yahoo kills off Screen video service less than four years after launch

According to Variety, Yahoo plans to move videos from its former streaming service to other sections of their website.

Yahoo has opted to quietly shutter its Yahoo Screen operation, a streaming content service meant to do battle with Netflix and Hulu, after just over two years of operation.

“At Yahoo, we’re constantly reviewing and iterating on our products as we strive to create the best user experience”, the Yahoo spokeswoman said. The news was first reported by Variety.

Yahoo Screen launched in Y 2011 and offered up original series, short clips and licensed content. The tech giant has closed the curtains on the Screen hub.

But the originals effort has been a casualty of the beleaguered company’s efforts to streamline. Perhaps that won’t really matter soon, though, as the company announced last month it was going to attempt to sell all of its assets and liabilities, other than its stake in Alibaba, in what it called a “reverse spinoff”. The ambitious originals initiative led to Yahoo declaring a US$42 million writedown late past year. CFO Ken Goldman said at the time that he “couldn’t see a way to make money over time” on originals such as Community. The company’s music programming, including full concerts streamed through a deal with Live Nation, now falls under music. Part of that may be due to Yahoo’s laser focus on its own portal – the content aspired to compete with television but was nearly entirely browser-bound, minus a few buggy apps (one on the Xbox, one on the Apple TV, and one on Chromecast). Katie Couric was also hired as a Yahoo-only news anchor; her daily news reports will remain available on Yahoo’s main site.