Binge viewing is becoming a norm, with nearly nine in 10 adult broadband users binge viewing at least occasionally, though younger adults partake far more frequently, The Diffusion Group said in a news release Wednesday. TDG said heavy bingers, who binge-watch -- or view multiple episodes of a series back to back -- daily, comprise 14 percent of adult broadband users; 51 percent are medium bingers, who binge monthly but not daily; 21 percent of adult broadband users binge less than once a month; and 14 percent don't at all. TDG said 58 percent of heavy bingers are between the ages of 18 and 34, while 56 percent of light or non-bingers are ages 45 and up.

Virtual-reality technology looks poised to gain “widespread adoption” in the next five years, reaching a global installed base of 256 million users and generating revenue of more than $60 billion in 2022, ABI Research said in a Wednesday report. The consumer market is expected to account for most of that revenue, but commercial and enterprise space will expand its share, reaching more than 40 percent of the market by 2022, up from 26 percent in 2015, it said. VR content availability “remains an issue, but healthy strides were made in the past year, particularly in Asia-Pacific and China with location-based VR,” said the company. Though the VR consumer space “often garners the largest share of attention the market potential is much wider and we’ve already seen very promising interest in verticals,” including retail, healthcare, automotive, education and engineering, it said. VR experiences still vary “quite widely,” but further technology advancements “are on the horizon,” including eye-tracking, foveated rendering and increasingly higher-resolution screens, it said.

Pandora is “not where we want to be” on a focused advertising model, said Chief Financial Officer and interim CEO (see 1708010035) Naveen Chopra on an investor conference webcast Wednesday. Being able to target listeners more effectively is a “lever” the company wants to invest in to increase revenue, he said. It “learned the hard way that we do need to be more intelligent and more targeted,” Chopra said. The company increased ad loads “substantially” late last year, producing a “negative impact” on user engagement, leading it to “dial back some of that insertion,” he said. The music streamer wants to determine the appropriate ad load “for any individual listener,” Chopra said. That could differ depending on platform, music or surroundings. Chopra repeated the company’s commitment to subscriptions, saying growth in Apple Music and Spotify shows “a large number of users want access to music on demand.” Broader growth initiatives include expanding content to podcasts, talk radio, news, weather and sports, said Chopra. “There’s a sizable portion of listening” in non-music-based terrestrial radio and digital, he said.

Disney envisions the ESPN-branded livestreaming service that debuts next year as becoming “a dynamic sports marketplace that will grow and be increasingly customizable,” said CEO Bob Iger on an earnings call, while also optimistic about his company's relationship with Netflix despite pulling some movies from the streaming service. The $1 billion investment Disney made a year ago to buy 33 percent of BAMTech gave the company “a good perspective on just how strong and high quality” an ESPN livestreaming service offering can be, said Iger. Amid “trends we're seeing,” including the “dramatic” increase in “app-based media consumption,” Disney seized the “opportunity," he said. Paying $1.58 billion more to now have 75 percent of BAMTech, as Disney announced Tuesday it will do (see 1708080065), “gives us immediate access to the team and the technology we need to deliver the highest-quality direct-to-consumer experience, which ultimately gives us much greater control of our own destiny in a rapidly changing market,” said Iger later that day. He wouldn’t comment directly on the ESPN brand’s “potential pricing power going forward,” when asked whether there’s an opportunity with the new livestreaming service to show linear ESPN is undervalued within MVPD bundles. Iger conceded ESPN “suffered a bit from the overall impact of digital technology and new forms of media consumption.” On pulling films from Netflix starting in 2019 to feed content to the Disney-branded service debuting that year, it applies for now to Disney and Pixar titles, said Iger, not Marvel and Lucasfilm. There has been “talk” inside Disney about launching “proprietary” Marvel or Star Wars over-the-top offerings, “but we're mindful of the volume of product that would go into those services, and we want to be careful,” he said. Disney has “had a great relationship" with Netflix, and he hopes that continues. Netflix licensed a "number" of ABC shows, and "we hope they'll continue to,” he said. That company didn’t comment Wednesday. Disney shares closed down 3.9 percent Wednesday at $102.83.

FCC rules for channel sharing outside the context of the incentive auction will have an effective date of Aug. 10, the day they're to be published in the Federal Register, the agency said. The rules (see 1703230073) received information collection approval from the Office of Management and Budget, it said. Expansion of video description requirements (see 1707120055) also will be published Thursday, and will take effect 30 days later.

Spotify launched on Xbox One in 34 global markets Tuesday, said an Xbox blog post by Spotify. It said Xbox gamers have been telling the music streaming service “they’d like to be able to soundtrack their own gaming sessions using Spotify.”

Pay-TV platform beIN Media Group signed a deal with CBS for multiplatform licensing of CBS and CW programming, it said in a news release Tuesday. It said the deal covers rights to some CBS and CW series, making them available to beIN subscribers on the same date as U.S. broadcasts, and lets beIN stack CBS content on its on-demand platform.

CBS is in “the early stages” of developing a “24/7" livestreaming sports channel in the mold of its CBSN online news service, part of its over-the-top strategy, said CEO Leslie Moonves on a Monday earnings call. The new channel, which will debut later this year, “does not yet have a name,” but “we think sports fans are looking for something like this,” he said. CBSN “has been a terrific growth engine," with streams up 38 percent in Q2, he said. “We're now broadening its reach by making it available on CBS All Access, and for the first time as a stand-alone channel in skinny bundles.” On Monday's announcement that CBS All Access will expand internationally starting in 2018's first half, the plan is to debut the service first in Canada “and then follow that up with additional countries on multiple continents shortly thereafter,” said Moonves. “Over time, we will add content from across our corporation to make our service more and more attractive. We are very aware of the international success that other streaming companies have had. We now see a huge opportunity for CBS to go direct to consumer on a much bigger scale worldwide.” CBS All Access and Showtime's over-the-top service are on pace to exceed 4 million subscribers combined in 2017, said Moonves. “We're more than halfway to our goal of 8 million subs by 2020, which is obviously quite conservative now. These services are just starting to hit their stride with much more and bigger programming to come.” Showtime OTT will beam the Aug. 26 pay-per-view matchup between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor direct to consumers, said Moonves. “This is the first time we've made a boxing or pay-per-view event available in this way."

A San Francisco woman, who last week sued Disney and its advertising partners for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting and tracking her child's activities and personal data through a mobile gaming app without parental consent, filed a similar class-action-status-seeking lawsuit against Viacom and its partners Monday. Amanda Rushing alleged in the Disney and Viacom complaints (both in Pacer) that both companies "exfiltrated" her child's personal information while the youngster was playing smart phone app games. She alleged the companies were going to use it "for future commercial exploitation." The lawsuits said the companies and their ad tech partners collected persistent identifiers, which are unique numbers tied to a specific mobile device and user, that enabled them to track user activity over multiple apps, platforms and different devices. The suits said getting the "persistent identifiers associated with children exposes them to the behavioral advertising (as well as other privacy violations) that COPPA was designed to prevent." Disney said in a statement it has a "robust" COPPA compliance program and maintains "strict data collection and use policies for Disney apps created for children and families." It said the suit is based on a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the law. Viacom didn't comment.

Netflix in its first acquisition bought comic book company Millarworld with the intent of turning its various franchises into films, series and children's programming. Millarworld will continue to publish under the Netflix label, Netflix said in a Monday announcement.