Comscore will supply in-game ad platform Anzu with mobile audience measurement capability of display and video, said the companies. The gaming market is bigger than the music and film industries combined, with a worldwide audience topping 3 billion people that’s projected to spend nearly $175 billion in 2020, they said. “With this scope and potential, brand advertisers have started to consider in-game advertising as part of their multi-pronged advertising strategy, which means that third-party measurement and benchmarking is more relevant than ever.”
Video streaming specials kicked into gear this week for Black Friday sales events. Hulu brought back its annual promotion, offering new and eligible returning subscribers its ad-supported plan for $1.99 monthly for one year, savings of $48. AMC+ is trialing on streaming video platforms. Amazon is offering AMC+ with a 30-day free trial, then $8.99 a month. New subscribers on the Roku platform can get AMC+ for $4.99 for three months, redeemable on The Roku Channel Wednesday through Dec. 4, before going up to $8.99 monthly.
Starting Jan. 1, Comcast will extend its 1.2 TB monthly plan, currently in the western and central U.S., across the rest of its footprint, it told us Monday. Customers who exceed that won't be throttled or capped but can either pay overage charges of $10 for 50 GB buckets of data, at a maximum of $100 per month, or subscribe to an unlimited option of $30 a month additional for customers with their own modems, or $11 a month when bundled with lease of a Comcast modem for $14 monthly. Comcast said any January and February overage charges will be credited on customers' bills, and subscribers will get a courtesy overage month for the year. It said the purpose is to put more of the network costs on the shoulders of the heaviest data users: 5% of its users account for 20% of network usage, and median residential data usage is 308 GB.
Netflix users who most enjoy the service’s original content grew from 35% in 2017 to 49% this year, nearly flat with 2019’s 50%, reported S&P's Kagan Friday. Some 48% of users in a survey say they would subscribe to the service even if it offered only original content. Weekly Netflix streamers were more likely to select original TV programs as the content they enjoy most (35%) vs. 23% of Netflix subscribers who watch less than once per week. Four in five users watch Netflix on a TV, either directly via an internet-connected TV or via another streaming device; a third view on a smartphone; and a quarter view on a PC.
Liberty Media launched a special purpose acquisition company, Liberty Media Acquisition Corp., as an indirect subsidiary with the aim of searching for targets in digital and other media, music, communications, telecom and tech, Liberty said Thursday. It said LMAC's SEC filing is in connection with a proposed initial public offering of shares. It said LMAC will be managed by Liberty’s current management team.
U.S. cable and wireline phone providers had the biggest jump in broadband additions last quarter since 2009, reported Leichtman Research Group Wednesday. The top 96% of providers acquired 1.53 million net additional subscribers vs. a pro forma 615,000 a year ago. Cable companies gained 1.3 million, the third consecutive quarter of 1 million-plus additions, vs. 830,000 a year ago; telcos added 210,000 vs. a net loss of 220,000. Cable companies have 72 million broadband subscribers; telcos, 32.9 million.
Traditional video service still has life "in my neck of the woods" in ways it might not on the coasts, said Patty Jo Boyers, president of southeast Missouri-based cable ISP Boycom Vision, on C-SPAN's The Communicators, to be televised this weekend. She said part of Boycom's customer base is elderly poor who can't access over-the-top service. She said cord cutting slowed during the pandemic, and the company had a big increase in broadband customers, due partly to OTT demand. Asked if the FCC is "an ally," Boyers, who's also ACA Connects chairman, said, "Today, yes. In the past, not so much." She said Chairman Ajit Pai's administration "has been refreshing" with its work on reversing onerous regulatory burdens. She said the way U.S. broadband networks handled a deluge of demand during the COVID-19 pandemic was proof of that approach. "We consider [all FCC administrations] allies," though it will sometimes disagree, ACA President Matt Polka said.
Cable operators no longer must maintain records in their online public inspection files on attributable interests in video programming services or their carriage of vertically integrated video programming services on cable systems in which they have an attributable interest, says Wednesday's Federal Register. The FCC attributable interest rule changes were adopted in September (see 2009290052).
Roku is the only major video streaming service without HBO Max, after HBO's announcement Monday the service will be available on Amazon Fire TV devices starting Tuesday. Roku customers had access to HBO Go before the shutdown of that app in July but can’t get HBO through the Roku platform due to ongoing talks (see 2007010059). “We’re in discussions with Roku,” emailed a spokesperson at HBO parent AT&T Monday. Roku didn’t comment. The $14.99 monthly HBO Max service begins rolling out on Amazon Fire TV streaming players, Fire TV Edition smart TVs and Fire tablets Tuesday. Existing HBO subscribers through Amazon’s Prime Video channels will be able to log into the HBO Max app with their Amazon credentials “at no additional cost,” said HBO. The HBO app on Fire TV and Fire tablets will automatically update to become the HBO Max app, and customers will be able to log in using existing HBO credentials. HBO Max customers, regardless of how they subscribe to the platform, can access all of HBO Max via supported Fire TV and Fire tablet devices using existing provider credentials, it said. The agreement includes integration with Alexa for voice search. HBO Max content is also integrated into universal search on Fire TV: Its content will appear in searches such as “Alexa, find dramas” or “Alexa, find Game of Thrones,” for example. Since HBO Max launched in May, 8.6 million customers activated subscriptions.
Amended FCC rules on time frames for notifying subscribers of cable TV service changes due to failed retransmission consent or program carriage talks take effect Thursday, per that day's Federal Register. Commissioners adopted the order 5-0 at their September meeting (see 2009300022).