Macquarie Securities is modeling Pandora paid subscription churn for 2017 at 4-5 percent, parallel to other paid music streaming services, Amy Yong wrote investors Friday. The analyst is projecting 2017 paid subscriptions for Pandora’s $4.99-per-month Plus service at 4.8 million and at 1.1 million for its $9.99-per-month Premium service that launches this month. That’s at the low end of Pandora’s expectations of 6 million to 9 million paid subscribers. Pandora is an “outperform,” as recently named Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra (see the personals section of the Feb. 28 issue of this publication) “could bring financial discipline and a fresh perspective,” the analyst wrote.

It's unlikely Facebook, Google and other tech companies can stop or even slow the spread of fake news because their business models "enable the economic engine that powers fake news, and the demand for a social media site's version of the truth is probably quite low," wrote American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Jamison in a Thursday blog post. Many bloggers and writers of false stories, he said, are paid -- some up to $10,000 a month -- based on the number of views of the articles they write and costs are low to spread such stories, while the payoff in media attention is high. "The internet makes the fake news economic engine possible," said Jamison, who was on the FCC transition team. He cited a 2016 Pew Research Center study that said most consumers don't trust the news they find on social media. Fighting fake news means creating an economic engine that gives consumers more value and is more powerful than the one that drives fake news, Jamison said.

The Hearst carriage disruption is evidence "the system is broken," said Dish Network Executive Vice President-Marketing, Programming and Media Sales Warren Schlichting in a video Thursday aimed at Hearst viewers. Dish said Hearst "won't budge" from its March 1 offer that would "double the price of their channels and make Hearst the highest paid local broadcaster on Dish." Dish also said it offered to accept the same contractual terms that ended a Hearst carriage disruption on DirecTV in January (see 1701030046). Thirty Hearst stations were no longer being carried on Dish as of earlier this month (see 1703030011). Earlier this week, Hearst's WBAL-TV Baltimore and other stations said they offered Dish a retransmission consent extension "in hopes of concluding a fair agreement that reflects the current marketplace." TV Freedom said there have been two weeks over the past three months in which Dish didn't see a disruption in carriage, and it has been involved in 58 percent of retrans impasses since January 2015.

Amalgamated Bank will ask fellow shareholders at Amazon and Netflix to vote for resolutions at the companies’ next annual meetings that would direct their boards to issue reports on 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets, said the green group As You Sow on Wednesday in its annual Proxy Preview summary of forthcoming shareholder actions. Amalgamated wants Amazon shareholders to demand a report that evaluates the “feasibility” of the company achieving by 2030 “net-zero” emissions of greenhouse gases from all aspects of the business, including its supply chain, As You Sow said. The Netflix proposal says much the same thing, the green group said. Amalgamated chose those companies because “they represent a variety of strategic options and challenges for meeting the targets,” it said. “These companies to date have not published sustainability reports that could inform shareholders on their strategies in this area generally. They also are highly visible and have corporate leaders accessible to the public and to many young consumers who will carry the greatest burden of a disrupted climate.” Amazon’s annual meeting is in May, and Netflix’s is in June, the green group said. Amazon and Netflix representatives didn’t comment Thursday.

The global market for smart augmented reality glasses is projected to grow from 150,000 unit shipments in 2016 to 22.8 million annually by 2022, revenue rising from $138.6 million in 2016 to $19.7 billion, Tractica reported Friday. A “more compelling” headset technology to assisted reality is mixed reality, enabling interactions with holographic objects to provide a more immersive experience, said the researcher. “The market for smart glasses will have different entry points with devices like [Microsoft’s] HoloLens and Magic Leap at the top, modular devices like ODG’s R9 and Occipital Bridge in the middle, and assisted-reality glasses at the lower end,” said analyst Aditya Kaul.

New York Supreme Court Judge Peter Sherwood signed off on a stipulation that has Univision programming remaining on Charter Communications for now while the two companies continue their contract fight in the Manhattan court, said an order filed Wednesday. The companies submitted the proposed stipulation Tuesday (see 1703010002).

Seventy percent of corporate executives said their leaders and boards are "concerned" or "very concerned" about threats from leaks or fake news, said a Korn Ferry news release on a survey of 781 respondents in February. “The threat of reputational damage due to leaks or fake news is on the rise," said Richard Marshall, global managing director-corporate affairs. About half the respondents said the threat of leaks or fake news has increased in recent years, and 19 percent said their companies have been affected by fake news over the past year. False information about their company is the "biggest threat," followed by product misinformation and false information about their leaders, said the executive search and organizational advisory firm. Thirty-eight percent said their companies have changed or are changing their email policies, and 51 percent said they're being careful about content in their emails.

Charter Communications and Univision tentatively worked out terms for Univision's programming to remain on Charter during their contract fight in New York Supreme Court, said a stipulation and proposed order filed Tuesday in the Manhattan court. Univision would continue to provide its signals through the determinations of motions for summary judgment, with the multichannel video programming distributor having a March 17 deadline for answering Univision's declaratory judgment claim and filing its own. The court granted Charter a temporary restraining order last month stopping a blackout (see 1702020072). The stipulation also says Charter will withdraw without prejudice its pending motion to dismiss some counts in Univision's claim (see 1610310062), to be refiled after determination of summary judgment motions due May 25 on liability. Charter within a week of its entry would post a $50 million bond covering March 1 through whenever the summary judgment motions are decided. The companies disagree which legacy programming contract, Charter's or Time Warner Cable's, survived Charter buying TWC in 2016 (see 1607080022). Fox News network is pursuing a similar complaint (see 1607200065).

More than 60 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses that spend $25,000 or more annually on advertising and marketing expect to increase such spending this year and possibly go into more digital platforms, said BIA/Kelsey in a Monday news release. Celine Matthiessen, vice president-analysis and insights, said the businesses "are benefiting from the lower costs of digital media and the opportunity to do more of the implementation themselves." She said the firms are reinvesting their savings into ad and marketing plans, potentially expanding into mobile and social digital services, along with traditional media advertising. BIA/Kelsey said the top advertising platforms used by the businesses are direct mail, internet yellow pages, Facebook, website video, community sponsorships, email, giveaways, cable and magazines.

President Donald Trump's feelings toward the news media are immaterial; what matters is that he respects the First Amendment and "acts with dignity," said News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern in a blog post Friday which NMA emailed a notification about on Monday. NMA said that a Trump tweet calling the media the "enemy of the American people" employed rhetoric "usually reserved for terrorists."