Univision channels have gone dark on fuboTV. On Monday, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor blamed Univision for seeking "an unreasonable rate increase." Univision didn't comment Tuesday.

The line between professional/premium video content and user-generated content is eroding, especially thanks to generative AI video creation tools like Google's Veo 2, LightShed Partners' Rich Greenfield blogged Friday. He said the next 12-24 months will see a deluge of GenAI-created video on mobile vertical video platforms such as TikTok, Reels, Shorts and Spotlight, adding to the competition for eyeball time on premium content. GenAI video will also enable higher quality and more personalized advertising on short-form video sites, said Greenfield, and those ads that seem more like content should also lead to increased time spent on platforms, eating away at the entertainment time spent elsewhere.

Legacy media companies "continue to snipe" at one another instead of collaborating against their real streaming competition -- deep-pocket companies where TV is a side business at most, such as Google, Meta, Amazon, TikTok and Nintendo, TVREV's Alan Wolk wrote Friday. It's "sheer stupidity" to shift the focus from the traditional model of carriage and retransmission consent fees in favor of over-the-top, Wolk added. Legacy programmers should focus foremost on a universally agreed upon method for measuring views for advertising purposes and stick to that agreement, he said.

The idea of subjecting streaming services to regulation intended for traditional media services lacks a legal, policy or technological basis, Warner Bros. Discovery executives told FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, according to a docket 24-119 filing posted Friday. In addition, WBD said fracturing of audiences and programming outlets makes it difficult for viewers to find their favorite content, which leads them to purchase additional services. That fracturing also reduces providers' ability to generate subscription and advertising revenue to support high-quality content, it added.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on Wednesday said the agency must address “concerns” about Skydance’s proposed purchase of Paramount’s CBS licenses. In a post on X, Carr, the agency's incoming chair, shared a petition challenging the deal from the Center for American Rights, which has also filed a petition at the FCC calling for action against CBS over a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. “This filing from CAR raises what it describes as significant concerns, including ones that go to CBS's adherence to the public interest standard,” Carr said. This isn’t the first time Carr has suggested that the Paramount deal could face scrutiny from his FCC. “I'm pretty confident that news distortion complaint over the CBS 60 Minutes transcript is something that's likely to rise in the context of the FCC review of that transaction,” Carr said in a November Fox News interview (see 2411190051). This also isn’t the first time Carr has boosted a filing from CAR: In November he posted the group’s complaint accusing NBC of violating the agency’s equal opportunity rules. Along with the petitions against CBS and NBC, CAR also filed an FCC complaint against ABC over its moderation of a 2024 presidential debate.

Opponents of Skydance Media's proposed purchase of Paramount Global raised red flags over the buyer's alleged Chinese government ties and over possible sexual harassment issues. Petitions were filed in a new round of pleadings surrounding the $8 billion deal (see 2411150058). Center for American Rights petitioned the FCC that M&A approval includes conditions that New Paramount commits to addressing issues concerning Tencent Holdings, a Chinese company with alleged close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Tencent is a major Skydance shareholder and CAR wants assurances Skydance will protect New Paramount from foreign influence. CAR also said the agency should condition approval on New Paramount addressing news bias and lack of viewpoint diversity in CBS' news operation and amending hiring and promotion policies that CAR alleges discriminate against white people. LiveVideo.AI petitioned that the agency should deny the transaction based on Jeff Shell's becoming New Paramount's president. Shell was fired from Comcast for inappropriate conduct with a female employee (see 2304240009). "There is a high likelihood that more female employees will be put in harm's way if this merger goes through without proper precautions and safeguards in place," it said.

Paramount Global’s self-preferencing behavior on the Pluto TV streaming platform shows how the proposed Skydance Media/Paramount deal would hurt independent programmers, Fuse Media told the FCC in comments posted Monday in docket 24-275. Fuse said its Shades of Black streaming channel launch saw viewership on Pluto start dropping notably, beginning in late 2022, suggesting Pluto was trying to undermine the channel while promoting proprietary programming aimed at the same African American audience through Pluto's Black Cinema and Black Visionaries channels. Fuse said Skydance CEO David Ellison's plan to use Oracle AI capabilities -- his father, Larry Ellison, is a co-founder of Oracle -- would allow Paramount to further control content acquisition and distribution via Pluto. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the agency's incoming chair, has said a political news distortion complaint against Paramount's CBS could affect the Skydance/Paramount agreement (see 2411190051).

Global streaming subscriber numbers are set to reach 2 billion by 2029, Ampere Analysis wrote Thursday. Paid streaming subscriptions total 1.8 billion today, it said. It forecast a notable slowing of subscriber growth compared with the previous five years, when global subscriptions doubled from 2019 to 2024. It said streamers must invest in marketing and locally relevant content to reengage growth in less-saturated markets, with the Asia-Pacific region a big driver of that growth over the next five years. Ampere said by 2029, streamers will generate $170 billion annually from subscriptions and another $22 billion annually in ad sales.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned arguments from Mission Broadcasting and DirecTV Monday about whether the latter has standing to bring a retransmission consent price fixing case against the broadcaster. DirecTV has accused Mission of conspiring with Nexstar – which operates Mission’s stations and includes Mission’s profits in its SEC filings -- to overcharge the MVPD in retrans negotiations. DirecTV appealed the case after the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a motion from Mission to dismiss the case over DirecTV’s standing. During Monday’s oral argument, Wiley attorney Stephen Obermeier, representing Mission, argued that DirecTV lacked standing to bring the case because it didn’t ultimately reach a retransmission consent agreement with Mission and never paid the prices it said are anticompetitive (see 2407250038). Non-purchasers have historically not been granted standing in antitrust cases because their injuries are speculative, Obermeier told the court. The 2nd Circuit panel questioned that, with one judge suggesting that since DirecTV has reached retrans agreements with Mission previously and because there is only a small pool of MVPDs purchasing retrans rights, it is possible for DirecTV to show that it lost subscribers and income over the failure to reach a contract with Mission. That doesn’t match prior rulings, and ignores that the injury to DirecTV is caused by third parties – customers – electing not to subscribe, Obermeier said. Judge Richard Sullivan pressed DirecTV’s representative, King & Spalding attorney Paul Mezzina, about whether the company’s arguments would mean new entrants lack standing to bring such complaints. For example, if, hypothetically, Sullivan founded a competitor to DirecTV with private equity money, “you're saying that we'd be out of luck because we didn't have prior dealings?” Sullivan asked. Mezzina said that the hypothetical wasn't the case that he needed to win. DOJ also argued in favor of remanding the case Monday, saying that the lower court’s narrow ruling on what constitutes harm in price fixing cases should be reversed.

A Nevada Probate Court commissioner rejected media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's efforts to amend his family trust so that son Lachlan would have total control over Murdoch's media businesses upon the elder Murdoch's death, The New York Times reported Monday. Lachlan Murdoch is chairman of News Corp. and CEO of Fox Corp. The Times reported that the court commissioner said the sought-after trust changes were being pursued in bad faith.