The rise of vMVPDs over the past four years “helped mute the pressure” on TV networks from cord-cutting, but a slowdown in vMVPD subscriptions is clouding the future, BTIG's Rich Greenfield wrote investors Monday: Low retail pricing resulted in negative gross margins given how programmers “force large bundles of their channels on both MVPDs and vMVPDs.” Two of the top four vMVPDs are reversing course: Dish Network's Sling growth “slowed dramatically over the past year” and AT&T's DirecTV Now lost 14 percent of its subscriber base last quarter, the analyst noted. Growth is continuing at Hulu Live and YouTube TV, but Greenfield questioned how Disney’s expected acquisition of much of 21st Century Fox in the next few weeks could affect Hulu Live. Disney has a stake in Hulu, as do Fox and others. “That leaves YouTube TV, which has best-in-class technology, a superior user experience and a deep-pocketed parent that can sustain losses for years-to-come,” Greenfield said of the Google affiliate. Greenfield questioned why distributors don’t partner with YouTube TV. Verizon did so tied to its 5G launch. DirecTV Now reportedly is rolling out a $10 price hike and two new packages that remove AMC, Discovery, Scripps and Viacom-owned networks. DirecTV didn’t comment.

Charter Communications plans a series of citizens broadband radio service-based LTE fixed wireless access network tests around central North Carolina, according to an FCC Office of Engineering and Technology experimental license grant given Monday. Charter said it plans to evaluate such issues as throughput and capacity, data latency and customer acceptability for the upper C-band network using fixed locations and customer premise equipment installed at trial participant homes.

If the FCC wants to simplify its complex leased access rate formula, it should at least modify the rate formula in situations where leased access channels are carried on the basic tier, NCTA told an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, according to a docket 07-42 ex parte posting Friday. It also said the Communications Act Section 612 doesn't require allowing the leasing of time on a program-by-program basis but that's an agency-created regulatory burden and it carriers "outsized costs."

A pair of local fiber cuts led to a Cox Communications blackout in northwest Arkansas, the company told us Thursday. It said service was largely restored later that day.

Hours consuming video declined among U.S. broadband households last year, but consumers watch more internet video on a TV, reported Parks Associates Thursday. Hours consumers watched video on a TV grew last year for the first time since 2014, said Parks, reporting 55 percent of respondents say watching TV or movies at home is a top leisure activity. As over-the-top competition “becomes a battle for the living room, the challenge for device makers and content producers is finding the correct product mix to maximize both profit and utility,” said analyst Billy Nayden. With consumers’ experimentation with OTT waning, they will begin to resist adding “another monthly subscription,” Nayden said, so providers are moving to freemium and advertising-based models in anticipation of a pushback. Last year, some 19 percent of consumers subscribed to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video along with another OTT service, compared with 13 percent in 2017. Consumers watched 25.7 hours of video weekly last year vs. 29.5 hours a week in 2016.

The top cable companies added about 2.9 million broadband subscribers in 2018, while telcos lost 470,000, for the fourth straight year of net broadband losses, Leichtman Research Group reported Thursday of 98.2 million total customers. In 2017, telcos had 620,000 net losses vs. gains of 2.7 million for cable. At the end of 2018, cable had 65 percent share of the broadband market, highest since 2003, led by Comcast with 27.2 million customers and Charter Communications with 25.3 million, and phone companies had 35 percent share, led by AT&T with 15.7 million subscribers.

Regulatory approval for Disney's buy of Fox's entertainment assets should come "soon," Disney CEO Bob Iger said at the company's annual meeting Thursday. He said the ESPN Plus streaming service has more than 2 million subscribers, which "bodes well" for the Disney Plus streaming service launching later this year. He said some Fox businesses -- such as FX and the motion picture operations -- will keep the Fox brand after close. He said Disney Plus will include "the entire Disney motion picture library" plus original content. DOJ last year said it would seek to stop Disney/Fox unless 22 Fox regional sports networks were sold (see 1806270016).

Pay TV’s subscription exodus continued last year, widening to 2.9 million from 1.5 million in 2017, reported Leichtman Research Group Wednesday. Satellite-TV providers suffered the most losses at nearly 2.4 million, shared by DirecTV with a 1.2 million drop and Dish Network TV at 1.1 million. Comcast led cable company declines at 371,000, followed by Charter Communications at 244,000. AT&T U-Verse was the lone gainer among MVPDs, gaining 47,000 subscribers, while Verizon FiOS shed 168,000 and Frontier Communications 123,000. “AT&T’s programming contracts no longer incented them to get a DIRECTV customer rather than a U-verse, or to switch someone from U-verse to DIRECTV, so they went back to focusing on the bundle in the U-verse footprint,” analyst Bruce Leichtman emailed us. VMVPDs gained 641,000 paying customers. Of the top video providers, cable had 47 million subscribers, satellite 29.1 million, telcos 8.9 million and vMVPDs 4 million. Since the industry’s peak in Q1 2012, pay-TV subscriber count has declined by 6 million, with 10 million traditional MVPD subscriber losses offset by about 4 million adds for publicly reporting vMVPD services.

Cablevideo Digital of Argentina and Ziggo of the Netherlands joined CableLabs, said Tuesday's Federal Register.

Pay TV ended 2018 with a 78 percent penetration rate and that's likely to decline due to increased digital adoption and more streaming alternatives, Macquarie's Amy Yong wrote investors Tuesday. She said video subscriber losses likely will be around 3 million through 2020, with cable having about 700,000 and satellite TV losses accelerating with AT&T's focus on DirecTV Now and Dish Network's programming disputes. Broadband reached 82 percent penetration last year "and is likely to inch higher" with cable adding subscribers seeking higher speeds, the analyst wrote: There are indications many would consider switching broadband service from a cable provider to a telecom provider for 5G home broadband.