Arkansas' Video Service Act (VSA), like comparable laws in other states, doesn't apply to Netflix and Hulu because they don't provide "video service" and thus don't owe franchise fees, Dish Network told the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. In a docket 21-3435 amicus brief backing the streaming services, Dish said the lower court was correct in saying even if they did provide video programming, it falls in the "public internet" exception in the VSA. Counsel for Ashdown, Arkansas, which is appealing the lower court's decision (see 2112230003), didn't comment. DirecTV filed a similar brief this week (see 2203150067).
Former President Donald Trump joined criticism of DirecTV dropping One America News (OAN) (see 2203140015). "It is far bigger and more popular than anyone knows, and importantly, it represents the voice of a very large group of people!!" he said in a statement Monday. Though AT&T spinoff DirectTV is dropping OAN, Trump seemingly conflated it with CNN owner WarnerMedia and criticized Warner -- which AT&T is in the process of selling -- for the OAN move. DirecTV didn't comment Tuesday.
Netflix scheduled the release of its first-quarter results for April 19, after the markets close at 4 p.m. EDT, said the company Tuesday. It's forecasting Q1 global streaming paid net additions of 2.5 million, which would be down nearly 70% sequentially from Q4 and 37% fewer than in Q1 2021. Analysts said Netflix lost about $50 billion of its market value in the 24 hours after its Jan. 20 earnings announcement in which it said it finished Q4 falling nearly 3% short of its projected global net additions (see 2201210003).
Facing suits seeking franchise fee payments for its streaming service, DirecTV told the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals it agrees with a lower court's rejection of similar litigation against Netflix and Hulu. In a docket 21-3435 amicus brief Tuesday, DirecTV said the Arkansas Video Service Act, on which the city of Ashdown's suit relies, doesn't support the Arkansas community's claims against Netflix and Hulu. Ashdown, which didn't comment, is appealing the lower court decision (see 2112230003).
Acceding to political pressure and canceling carriage of conservative One America News (OAN) "sets a dangerous precedent" and DirecTV "should stand fast against such pressure to stifle dissenting and alternative opinions," the West Virginia and Ohio attorneys general wrote DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow Friday. "The Fourth Estate must have ample room to cover the government and politics of the day, without newsrooms constantly looking over their shoulder," Patrick Morrissey and Dave Yost said. The letter follows a similar one last week from six other Republican AGs (see 2203110025). OAN sued DirecTV, AT&T and its chairman, William Kennard, in San Diego County Superior Court last week, alleging breach of contract. OAN said it signed an advertising agreement with AT&T Services -- covering traditional advertising and programmatic targeted advertising -- that runs until 2024 on the assumption DirecTV would renew its carriage of the network beyond the 2022 expiration. It said AT&T also violated a nondisparagement clause in its carriage agreement with OAN when various WarnerMedia programs did coverage critical of OAN. AT&T said the allegations "are completely without merit, particularly as they relate to AT&T and our independent Chairman.” DirecTV said the lawsuit allegations "are baseless, and we are confident that we have fully complied with both the law and our agreement.”
The next semiannual disclosures by U.S.-based foreign media outlets are due April 12, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice Friday. The agency will transmit by May 8 a report to Congress that summarizes the submissions, the PN said.
DirecTV's decision to drop One America News from its lineup is "an unwise business decision" that masks "viewpoint discrimination with neutral corporate-speak," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and five other Republican state attorneys general said in a letter Thursday to DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow. Not reversing course means millions of subscriber cancellations, as President Donald "Trump and other leading figures have already called for," said Paxton. Louisiana's Jeff Landry, Mississippi's Lynn Fitch, Missouri's Eric Schmitt, Montana's Austin Knudsen and South Carolina's Alan Wilson co-signed the letter. DirecTV didn't comment Friday.
Discovery shareholders signed off on buying AT&T's WarnerMedia, Discovery said Friday. It said the approval was one of the last big hurdles, and the deal and creation of Warner Bros. Discovery should happen in Q2. The transaction was announced in May (see 2105160003).
SiriusXM signed a multiyear deal with reVolver that gives the SXM Media revenue organization exclusive global ad sales rights to reVolver's podcast lineup, said SiriusXM Thursday. The agreement also gives SiriusXM’s podcast subsidiary Stitcher authorization to distribute all reVolver content across all podcast platforms, it said. SiriusXM billed reVolver as the top multicultural audio-on-demand content creator and publisher in the U.S.
Netflix has no plans to introduce an ad-supported tier as Disney+ intends to do this year in the U.S. (see 2203080004), Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann told a Morgan Stanley investment conference Tuesday. “It's not like we have religion against advertising,” said Neumann. “We think we have a great model in the subscription business." Netflix will “never say never” to an ad-supported tier, he said. “It's hard for us to kind of ignore that others are doing it, but it now doesn't make sense for us.” Netflix hopes mobile gaming will be "a big part of our business in a decade," but "it's not going to be a big part of our business in the next 12 months," said the CFO. Netflix went from "saying we wanted to get in the games business to launching a games business globally inside of 12 months and having it work on Android and iOS and around the world," he said.