Of U.S. broadcasters, CBS has the most aggressive online strategy and so far hasn't disrupted its traditional revenue streams, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. That strategy at some point will begin to disrupt existing distribution channels, and it's not clear if CBS will come out ahead in the long run, he said.
As a company, TiVo, since its $1.1 billion acquisition by Rovi in September 2016 (see 1609080007), “has moved well beyond” being a supplier of consumer hardware “and is now an innovative entertainment technology company,” said CEO Tom Carson on a Thursday earnings call. “To that point,” 95 percent of TiVo’s Q3 revenue “came from software, services, advertising and licensing,” Carson said. For example, TiVo “processes TV viewership data” for more than 25 million U.S. homes, he said. “We have obtained rights to millions of TV households for anonymous, de-identified third-party use and we’re seeing strong demand for our TV data platform offering,” he said. “We expect this offering to continue to grow” as the company adds more households, he said. TiVo soon will also roll out “an innovative new interactive advertising service,” he said. “This solution will be available to customers that use the TiVo user experience or our search and recommendation product to allow more targeted and personalized promotions. Our continued advancements in data, advertising and search and recommendations are key areas of innovation, which we believe will drive future growth for our software and services business.”
More than 6 percent of North American households access pirated live TV services monthly -- costing communication service providers possibly more than $4 billion in revenue this year, Sandvine said Wednesday. It said premium TV, live sports, news and international content are the main drivers.
Among major U.S. cities, variation in video usage is "surprisingly large," with subscription VOD penetration varying by 20 percentage points between the highest- and lowest-using cities, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Wednesday. Citing Q1 Nielsen data, he said 68 percent of Seattle homes use SVOD, topping the rankings, compared with 48 percent of Cleveland homes at the bottom. He said smart TV ownership varies less, ranging from 37 to 27 percent.
There’s now “enough momentum” in the content industry behind virtual and augmented reality that SMPTE soon will form a “study group” to look at needed standards, Howard Lukk, director-engineering and standards, told a Thursday webinar. “A proposal has been submitted” to start the group, “in review right now,” and that “should complete maybe by the end of next week,” said Lukk. “We should have a project up and running” by Thanksgiving, he said. “We don’t have a date for the first meeting, but it’s going to be looking at VR and AR specifically” from content production to “distribution master,” he said. “We’re not diving into consumer technology or headset and display technologies,” though “of course, we’ll review those things,” he said. The study group will determine whether there are existing standards that can be applied to VR and AR, or “are there standards that are missing,” he said. The study group will release a report of findings, he said. Its formal launch is "coming up shortly," he said. "Stay tuned. I think we’ll probably have an announcement once that project gets up and rolling.”
Vizio sold smart TVs to millions of consumers since 2012 without telling them they risked losing YouTube functionality through an upgrade of the streaming service's application programming interface, alleged a complaint seeking class-action status. The end came this year after YouTube publicized a notice that older TVs with flash-based APIs would no longer run YouTube starting June 26, said the complaint (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Washington. Vizio’s “advice to consumer complainants related to loss of YouTube functionality” is to suggest they buy a new smart TV or purchase an external “streaming device” such as Google Chromecast, it said. The complaint names only Vizio as a defendant, and its representatives didn’t comment Wednesday. Lawyers for plaintiff Cody Brenner, a Pierce County resident, didn’t comment on whether they plan additional complaints against other TV makers.
Comments are due Dec. 1 on an Entertainment Software Association petition asking for extension of the class waiver of advanced communications services accessibility requirements for videogame software, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday. The extension would be for 12 months, until Jan. 1, 2019.
Entities eligible to receive repacking reimbursement need to have bank account information on file with the FCC to receive payments, the Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau said in a reminder public notice Tuesday. It can take more than four weeks for the FCC to validate account information, so broadcasters and MVPDs that haven’t submitted their information should do so “promptly,” the PN said.
Gormally Broadcasting and Charter Communications -- in litigation over retransmission agreement terms for Charter carrying Gormally station signals outside that station's designated market area -- are dueling over a Gormally motion to compel. Charter in a docket 3:16-cv-30152 opposition (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, said Gormally seeking production of documents over Charter paying other TV stations for subscribers outside the station's DMA has no bearing on its and the broadcaster's understanding of their contract. Charter said Gormally's discovery requests would necessitate "a massive and burdensome document collection and review effort" outsized to the $396,000 Gormally seeks. Gormally's motion to compel (in Pacer) last month said seeking whether Charter paid a fee on out-of-DMA subscribers to other stations "is an extremely narrow category of information" that's central to the legal fight.
Conservative groups and those saying they represent the public interest asked DOJ for conditions on AT&T buying Time Warner. In a letter Thursday, Americans for Limited Government, the American Family Association, Consumer Federation of America, Frontiers of Freedom, Public Knowledge, Tea Party Patriots and Writers Guild of America West said they have significant policy disagreements, but they agree in wanting to ensure "free expression is not threatened" by media consolidation, urging "significant conditions" addressing those competitive concerns. They said dangers posed by AT&T/TW include New AT&T favoring its own programming via zero rating, channel placement strategies, cost discrimination or not allowing rival programming on its network. They said the buyer could favor its DirecTV by making programming more costly to competitor Dish Network. The signatories didn't make specific condition suggestions. AT&T said it has "consistently demonstrated how this transaction will benefit consumers. We look forward to closing the transaction by year-end so that we can bring consumers these benefits, including greater competition and innovative services." Meanwhile, TW said in its earnings release Thursday it still expects the deal (see 1710230013) to close by year's end.