ViacomCBS and Charter Communications renewed distribution agreements allowing continued carriage of ViacomCBS' content and licensing of its streaming services, they said Thursday. They said the deal will expand collaboration on addressable media and advanced advertising.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' partial rejection of a consolidated challenge to the FCC's 2019 local franchise authority order (see 2105260035) wrongly said the order preempts a telecom services fee charged by Eugene, Oregon, when it applies to broadband services provided by cable operators. That's per a petition (in Pacer, docket 19-4161) for rehearing and for rehearing en banc filed Monday by petitioner Eugene. The city said the FCC ignored a 2016 Oregon Supreme Court decision on the fee's validity under the Cable Act, and rehearing is needed to resolve that conflict and to address the 6th Circuit's inversion of "the longstanding presumption against implied federal preemption of state and local taxing authority." The FCC didn't comment.
HITN-TV reached an agreement giving Roku users access to its Edye educational entertainment programming in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries, said the media company Friday. HITN bills Edye as the first Spanish-language premium VOD subscription service for preschoolers and their parents. Users can download the Edye app through the Roku Channel store for viewing more than 70 animated series, it said.
The U.S. pay-TV industry lost more than 18 million subscribers 2014-2020, including 7 million last year, said Parks Associates Thursday. Traditional pay-TV services had about 10 million sub losses in 2020, Parks said, while overall pay-TV subscriptions fell 7 million, as virtual MVPDs gained 3 million subs, said analyst Kristen Hanich. The only pay-TV category with growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, vMVPDs now account for 16% of U.S. pay-TV households, and are expected to increase to 23 million by 2024 vs. 53 million for traditional pay-TV, Hanich said. ISPs and others operating in pay TV are looking for alternatives to traditional pay TV, said the analyst. Cable companies had some success in bundling around Wi-Fi-first mobile virtual network operator services, primarily running on Verizon’s network, Hanich noted. A Q1 Parks survey showed 4% of broadband households subscribed to Comcast Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile or Altice Mobile. With over 110 million residential and small business internet subs, U.S. ISPs can leverage the “massive subscriber base,” Hanich said.
Seventy percent of video watchers use two or three devices for viewing, 10% more than six, Kaltura reported Wednesday. TV was the most popular viewing source for 62% of respondents: Smart TVs were the top way to watch content for 38% of respondents vs. set-top boxes at 25%. And 65% of respondents listed Netflix as their most watched, followed by Amazon Prime Video and Hulu tied for second place, then Disney+, pay TV, YouTube TV, Roku, HBO Max, other and Apple TV.
The FCC Media Bureau OK'd Time Warner Cable's request that its 2003 appeal of a local rate order from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities be dismissed, per a CSB-A-0696 order Tuesday.
Cable operators filing FCC Form 1240 can adjust the non-external portion of their rates by 4.32% in Q1 to account for inflation, the Media Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday.
Altice's throttling back of upload speeds on its hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network puts it in line with other ISPs and the industry, a spokesperson emailed us on Monday. Altice said new customers and customers who change, upgrade or downgrade their service, effective July 12, will get upload speeds 15 to 30 Mbps slower than existing customers. For example, incumbent subscribers to the Optimum Online service have upload speeds of 35 Mbps, while new subscribers will have 5 Mbps. Upload speeds for its 1 Gig service will be 50 Mbps and remain unchanged for incumbent customers but drop to 35 Mbps for new customers. Download speeds will be unchanged. Altice said it offers symmetrical speeds on its fiber network. It said its network "continues to perform very well despite the significant data usage increases during the pandemic, and the speed tiers we offer, ranging from 100Mbps to 1 Gig on HFC and fiber, provide customers with flexibility to choose the best package for their needs." It said it's "hyper focused" on fiber expansion.
The Supreme Court declined to take up Comcast's petition challenging the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' reversal of a lower court's dismissal of Viamedia antitrust claims about Comcast's control of cable TV advertising interconnects (see 2002260020), in a docket 20-319 denial Monday. SCOTUS said Justice Amy Coney Barrett didn't take part in the petition's consideration or decision. Comcast didn't comment.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock over-the-top streaming service will launch a Tokyo Olympics destination July 15, said the company Wednesday. Olympic events will be available to stream free on the advertising-supported Peacock tier. USA men’s basketball coverage will be exclusive to Peacock Premium subscribers, it said. We learned that 4K HDR, though on Peacock's road map, won't be part of its Tokyo Olympics coverage. Peacock didn't comment. NBCUniversal will beam the Tokyo Olympics in 4K HDR to its U.S. “distribution partners,” which will “individually choose how to make the content available to their customers,” said the network this month (see 2106110043). Peacock will be available to more viewers when it launches Thursday on Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets, said NBCUniversal and Amazon Wednesday.