About a fifth of U.S. broadband homes subscribed to a virtual MVPD by the end of Q3, about double the penetration of two years ago and up five points from 2020, reported Parks Associates Monday. “Many households who cut the traditional pay-TV cord or never subscribed in the first place are looking for a live and more linear video viewing experience via online options, which is driving vMVPD service uptake,” said analyst Paul Erickson. “These services also promise less costly investment and more content flexibility, which increases the appeal among today’s video viewers,” who are accustomed to benefits of over-the-top solutions, he said.
Ensuring there's no disruption of subscribers' broadband as they transition from the emergency broadband benefit program to the affordable connectivity program is critical, NCTA President Michael Powell told FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, per a docket 21-450 posting Friday. Rather than making EBB-enrolled households opt into ACP, the FCC should default to EBB customers remaining in ACP unless they are no longer eligible or choose to opt out, Powell said. Many ACP implementation issues won't be solved before its Dec. 31 start, especially as the commission likely won't adopt final rules by then, he warned.
FuboTV signed an exclusive multiyear deal with The Professional Fighters League for the league’s PFL Challenger Series, the companies said Thursday. Viewers can interact with the live competition through fuboTV's predictive, free-to-play games. Fubo Sportsbook will be the exclusive gambling sponsor of the PFL Challenger Series, they said.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' approach in deciding the Cable Act preempts states and localities from levying cable regulatory fees on non-cable services provided using cable networks (see 210526003) violates the federalism protection in the Constitution, said the International Municipal Lawyers Association and League of Oregon Cities in a Supreme Court docket 21-661 amicus brief this week.The 6th Circuit acknowledged the Cable Act doesn't expressly preempt such a fee but then said it implicitly did, ignoring the law's words and provisions Congress included to protect local authority to regulate non-cable communications services, they said. They supported petitioners Eugene, Oregon; the District of Columbia; Fairfax County, Virginia; and others.
ViacomCBS and South Korea's CJ ENM agreed to co-produce original series and films plus license and distribute content across their streaming services. They said Tuesday that ViacomCBS' Paramount+ will enter the Asian market next year by debuting in South Korea in a bundle with TVING, CJ ENM's streaming service. Paramount and CJ ENM/Studio Dragon will co-develop and co-produce English-language scripted series based on CJ ENM/Studio Dragon's titles for exhibition on Paramount+ and co-finance new Korean series for Paramount+ global distribution. Paramount+ will license Korean-language series from CJ EMN's library, they said, and Pluto TV will launch a CJ ENM-branded channel on Dec. 14 of Korean content for U.S. audiences.
Pay-TV and virtual MVPD subscribers can expect a rough 2022 in the form of price increases and carriage disputes, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. He said distributors are no longer eating some of the costs of programming license fee hikes but passing it all along to subs. He said programmers increasingly focused on direct-to-consumer offerings will also help accelerate the withering away of the traditional programming bundle.
Citing the heavy workload stemming from earlier assigned cases, the FCC is asking the Supreme Court for a Jan. 5 deadline to file a response to an appeal of a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the Cable Act preempts states and localities from levying cable regulatory fees on non-cable services provided using cable networks (see 2111010048), per a motion Tuesday. The agency's response to the petition for writ of certiorari filed by Eugene and other localities is due Dec. 6.
ViacomCBS has closed on buying a majority stake in Disney's Spanish language content producer Fox TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico, it said Tuesday. The deal was announced last month (see 2110280007).
U.S. District Judge Brooke Jackson in Denver shot down Charter Communications' bid for dismissal of a lawsuit by music labels claiming Charter abetted copyright infringement by some of its broadband subscribers. In an order Monday (docket 21-cv-02020, in Pacer), Jackson said he had "no reason to rule differently on the motion to dismiss in the present case" than his April 2020 order denying a Charter motion to dismiss a related copyright infringement suit (see 2004160002). Charter didn't comment.
Major pay-TV providers lost about 650,000 net video subscribers in 3Q vs. a 90,000 loss in the year-ago quarter, said Leichtman Research Group Thursday. The top pay-TV providers account for about 77 million subscribers, 41.9 million for the top seven cable companies, 7.5 million for the top publicly reporting virtual MVPDs. Top cable providers had a net loss of about 700,000 video subs, vs. a loss of 380,000 in 3Q 2020; Comcast shed 407,000, bringing its base to 18.5 million. Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 635,000 vs. a loss of 780,000. All traditional pay-TV companies lost customers, but vMVPDs Hulu+Live TV (300,000), Sling TV (117,000) and fuboTV (262,884) gained, LRG said, though growth slowed to 680,000 from 1.1 million. Annual net losses were similar to a year ago, said LRG President Bruce Leichtman, saying top pay-TV providers shed about 5.1 million subs over the past year vs. losing some 4.8 million.