Roku reached 51.2 million active accounts Dec. 31, up about 14 million for the year, it said Wednesday. Users streamed about 17 billion hours in Q4, bringing the total to 58.7 billion in 2020, a 55% year-on-year jump. The company said a third of U.S. households have left traditional pay-TV services.
ViacomCBS is adding 14 more networks to Hulu + Live TV in a multiyear deal, it said Monday, including BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and TV Land. It includes continued carriage of CBS stations, CBS Sports Network, CW, Showtime and others.
Cable One is rolling out an IP-based TV service, Sparklight TV, with cloud-based video programming starting in select markets early this year and across its footprint by year-end, it said Tuesday. It said the move from linear video to IPTV will free up network capacity to expand beyond its current gigabit broadband offering and open the door to 10 Gbps. It said Sparklight TV will include VOD, program restart and DVR capabilities.
Quibi didn't comment Monday on a Sunday report that it's in talks to sell its catalog to Roku. The short-form video service shut down in October after six months (see report in this publication, Oct. 23). Roku has been pushing into content with its ad-supported Roku Channel that offers movies and TV shows from others. A deal with Quibi would give Roku exclusive programming. A spokesperson emailed that Roku doesn’t comment on market speculation.
Charter Communications President-Chief Operating Officer John Bickham will transition to vice chairman sometime in the second half of next year at the request of Charter CEO Tom Rutledge, the company said Monday, announcing an amended employment agreement with Bickham. It said his employment will terminate at the end of 2022 when the agreement expires.
GCI Liberty and Liberty Broadband consummated their transaction that has GCI becoming part of a Liberty subsidiary (see 2008310050), GCI said in an FCC International Bureau notice of consummation filed Tuesday.
Stay-at-home viewing raised the profile of ad-supported VOD, a Parks Associates virtual conference was told last week. Acquisitions in AVOD including Pluto TV by ViacomCBS in 2019 (see 1903040002), Xumo by Comcast in February (see 2002250059) and Tubi by Fox in April (see 2004200070) raised the profile of the category, said Parks analyst Steve Nason. NBCUniversal further disrupted this space, launching the hybrid Peacock service first through its affiliate Comcast and with Cox customers, then broadly in July. Parks believes AVOD will continue to gain on subscription VOD services as they offer more exclusive content and other benefits. Among U.S. broadband households viewing AVOD in Q3, 9% watched Pluto TV, 8% The Roku Channel, 7% Tubi TV and 6% Peacock. Tubi got more engagement before the pandemic, said Vice President-Business Development Andrea Clarke-Hall. “The pandemic accelerated what was already happening.” Stefan Van Engen, Xumo senior vice president-content programming and partnerships, said fewer commercials and better overall user experience drive engagement. Ad targeting helps, said Henry Embleton, head-ad products and revenue at hybrid AVOD-SVOD anime streamer Crunchyroll.
The FCC's read of the Telecom Act LEC test is reasonable, and even if the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable (MDTC) interpretation was also reasonable, the court must defer to the FCC, said a 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion Friday (docket 19-2282). It rejected MDTC's appeal of the agency's finding that vMVPD service AT&T TV Now is effective competition to cable TV, ending basic rate regulation in parts of the state (see 1912230063). The FCC finding that widespread internet availability means the need to buy broadband to access AT&T TV Now isn't an impediment was also reasonable, ruled Judges Sandra Lynch and Patti Saris and written by Saris. MDTC didn't comment. Judge Juan Torruella was on the panel handling the case, but didn't take part in the decision. Oral argument was in October (see 2010080052).
Comcast's FreeWheel agreed to buy software-as-a-service advertising company Beeswax, FreeWheel said Thursday. This expands FreeWheel’s programmatic marketplace capabilities in TV and video ads, including connected TV and set-top box VOD, it said. Terms weren't disclosed. The deal is expected to close next month, pending approvals.
Seven months after launching without two of the leading streaming video platforms (see 2005270033), HBO Max is widely available from most major providers and platforms, arriving on Roku players and TVs Thursday (see 2012160064). That follows availability on PlayStation 5 consoles Wednesday and Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex devices Tuesday. Wonder Woman 1984 debuts Christmas Day. The movie -- the first on HBO Max available in 4K Ultra HD, HDR 10, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos -- will be viewable to HBO Max subscribers for one month at no additional cost, said WarnerMedia. The $14.99-per-month service became available on Amazon Fire TV devices last month (see 2011160026). Existing HBO subscribers on the Roku platform will get HBO Max as an automatic update, and they can log in using existing HBO credentials. Other Roku users can download WarnerMedia’s video service from the Roku channel.