Antitrust agencies won't challenge what Comcast told us is a joint venture with AT&T's Warner Brothers. The FTC released early termination notices Tuesday for purchase of NewCo (see here and here). AT&T early this year announced the JV of its Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with Comcast's Universal Pictures Home Entertainment to distribute DVDs in North America for new releases, library titles and TV content.
U.S. demand for digital news and entertainment continues to increase across "several key categories" during COVID-19, said Comscore Monday. It’s tracking an “aggregate” of digital visits to 40 top news sites, and found March 16-22 was “the highest week of news visits this year, by far.” Visits were up 18% from the prior week and 68% compared with Feb. 17-23.
The FCC is considering a Media Bureau reorganization that would consolidate its Engineering Division with its Industry Analysis Division, a spokesperson said Monday. That proposed reorganization went on circulation last week.
The Movies Anywhere app is now available on LG smart TVs with webOS dating to 2017, said LG Friday. It's the first TV maker to offer the streaming app, which boasts access to 7,900 digital movies from studios including Sony Pictures, Universal, Disney and Warner. The app enables consumers to sync their accounts including Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Xfinity, Google Play and YouTube, Microsoft Movies and TV, FandangoNOW and Verizon Fios TV, it said.
TV antenna usage in U.S. broadband households rose to 25% in 2019, from 15% last year, and is expected to grow more as COVID-19 keeps consumers at home, reported Parks Associates Thursday. Households that watch over-the-air channels watch more video overall than average broadband households, it said. “Local broadcast channels are the most preferred channel types, and news is the most preferred broadcast content,” said analyst Steve Nason. Antenna usage is growing as households look to meet those needs; shelter-in-place orders are expected to boost those numbers as households “look for inexpensive content options to offset lost wages.” Some 78% of households surveyed in Q3 watch live TV channels, he said. About half of antenna users don’t subscriber to a pay-TV service, traditional or over the-top.
Americans, many working from home, have watched more TV in recent weeks amid COVID-19, said Comscore Wednesday. Viewing of seven cable news networks increased 73% March 16-20 vs. the same week in 2019, it said, with daytime viewing up 103% and “early fringe” viewing (4-7:30 p.m.) up 82%. Financial news networks had a 160% bump in early fringe viewership; a 140% increase in daytime. Viewing of the big four broadcast networks increased nearly 19 percent in the period, driven by daytime (31%) and early fringe (35%) slots. Daytime viewing of children’s programming grew 31%.
COVID-19 could have "a material adverse impact" on company operations over the near to medium term, Comcast said in an SEC filing Tuesday. The impact led to the closing of theme parks, delayed theatrical distribution of films, and disrupted creation and availability of film advertising during TV programming. The pandemic's effects on Sky come atop what had already been a declining economy and ad market in Europe, Comcast said. It said the pandemic also likely will affect its cable residential and business services customer base due to economic stresses. The company said the scope of the virus-related business hit "will generally depend on the extent of governmental measures affecting day to day life and the length of time that such measures remain in place." S&P said the effect of the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games -- for which Comcast's NBC had the U.S. rights -- will be spread across the company's broadcast and cable networks and TV stations, since most outlets were to air games. It said total revenue from the 2016 Rio games was $1.6 billion, including nearly $1.2 billion in ads. It said NBC indicated earlier this month it had received more than $1.25 billion in commitments, selling about 90% of the inventory for national ads, and those results were about 6% above 2016 games. The debt ratings firm said other effects on Comcast include filling its summer programing schedules for its networks and stations. The beta launch of its Peacock streaming service, to come July 15 and be tied to the Olympic programming, also could suffer, S&P wrote.
Virtual entertainment company FaceBank's buy of vMVPD fuboTV (see personals section, this issue) should conclude in Q1, FaceBank said Monday. It will adopt the fuboTV name. In an SEC filing, FaceBank said it secured a $100 million loan for the deal.
Ad-supported over-the-top video might be able to tap into the $70 billion TV advertising market thanks to live sports' mass cancellations due to COVID-19 and advertisers that had depended on those events to reach viewers, nScreen Media analyst Colin Dixon blogged Wednesday. He said the longer pandemic issues go on, the more time advertisers will have to see if advertising on OTT works.
Hulu went live on Xfinity Flex Thursday and will roll out to the X1 voice remote “soon,” said Comcast. Users can say, “Hulu” into the remote to launch the app or request a program by title without toggling or switching inputs.