FIFA launched a free streaming service Tuesday, FIFA+, for matches, original content and “global storytelling.” By the end of 2022, FIFA+ will be streaming the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year from 100 member associations across all six confederations, including 11,000 women’s matches, it said. FIFA+ will be available on web and mobile devices at launch, plus connected devices “soon,” in five language editions: English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Six more languages will be added in June, it said.

Of the 215 million American adults who use streaming video subscription services, 25% are using account logins from people who don’t live under their roof, said a Monday Cordcutting.com report. The average “moocher,” defined as someone who uses the account of someone in another household without paying for it, borrows logins for 1.6 accounts, resulting in almost 86 million accounts that aren’t paid for, it said. Streaming platforms are missing out on an estimated $2.3 billion in subscription feeds from those who don’t use their own accounts but would pay for one if they had to, it said. The most borrowed accounts this year are HBO Max and Disney+ at 16% of streamers. Peacock and Paramount+, the newest platforms in the Cordcutting.com analysis, are being borrowed as much as Amazon Prime, it said. Nine in 10 U.S. adults use streaming services, about steady from the 2021 analysis. Some 92% of streamers use Netflix, followed by Amazon Prime at 76%, Hulu (66%), Disney+ (54%), HBO Max (45%), Peacock (36%) and Paramount+ (29%). About 11% of Netflix streamers borrowed other accounts, down from 14% last year, after Netflix began sending security messages about account sharing outside the home, said Cordcutter. Cost is a top reason for sharing logins, it said, saying the cheapest tiers of the seven services included in the study have a combined monthly fee of $54. The 2022 survey was fielded among 790 U.S. adults.

A Nov. 19 complaint alleging Amazon dupes the public by purporting to sell consumers digital movies it owns when it only licenses them temporarily from content owners was transferred Wednesday to U.S. District Court in Seattle and assigned a new docket (2:22-cv-446, in Pacer). The complaint, which seeks class-action status, was originally filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan because lead plaintiff Mary Baron is a Bronx resident. Amazon and the plaintiffs mutually agreed to transfer the case to Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered, and where it was assigned to U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, the docket shows. When Amazon’s licensing agreement with the content owner terminates for whatever reason, Amazon is required to pull the movie from a consumer’s “purchased folder,” which it does “without prior warning, and without providing any type of refund or remuneration,” alleged the complaint. Amazon hasn't filed an answer in the case, and didn’t respond to questions Wednesday seeking comment.

Cincinnati Bell's retransmission consent complaint against Cox Media and one of its local TV stations (see 2204050005) is "patently false" in alleging Cox is demanding it be paid for all broadband-only subscribers, Cox said Tuesday. It said Cincinnati Bell is using "blatant theatrics ... to create business leverage through the regulatory process" rather than actually negotiate.

TiVo integrated YouTube TV into its program guide, making its Stream 4K the only digital media player that brings together multiple streaming services and live TV channel listings into the “familiar functionality of a TV guide,” it said Tuesday. TiVo Stream 4K and TiVo Stream OS users have access to more than 85 streamed channels, including national broadcast affiliates ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN, NFL Network and PBS. Users can also browse screens to search for content on live TV or upcoming on YouTube TV, and they can search for content via voice and text, it said.

Entertainment audiences' consumption patterns are becoming fixed, with a big focus on streaming, but new consumption patterns for news are just starting to form, which is why NBCUniversal is investing heavily in news streaming platforms and product, NBCU News Group Chairman Cesar Conde said Tuesday at an Axios event. Comcast's NBCU and other content producers are moving increasingly to a digital model of distributing content from talent, brands and franchises via all their various platforms, he said. He said MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow is an example of the company's omnichannel digital strategy, with her becoming part of its streaming platforms, podcast and long-form documentaries, he said. "We are doing that with a lot of talent," he said, citing CNBC host Jim Cramer. He predicted increasing use of subscription services by NBCU and other media outlets, and said MSNBC content will be a paywalled part of its Peacock streaming service, though free news options will remain. He said there's a large hunger for news in the Spanish-language space and Telemundo will invest in alternative platforms. General Motors CEO Mary Barra predicted personal autonomous vehicles will be available as early as 2025. Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden said the U.S. and allies are aware of the need for space norms, and space policies to promote them are under discussion by the White House, but there likely won't be big developments this year. Warden also discussed work with AT&T on a 5G-based DOD data network (see 2204050051).

The point of Nevada's Video Service Law was to replace municipal franchise authority with a statewide franchise authority, vesting responsibility for administration and enforcement with the attorney general and secretary of state, meaning Reno has no right of action under the VSL to seek franchise fees from streaming services, appellee Hulu told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a docket 21-16560 answering brief Monday. Reno is challenging a lower court's rejection of its suit seeking franchise fees from Hulu and Netflix (see 2202080088). Even if Reno is allowed to bring its suit, Hulu said, VSL specifically excludes internet-delivered video content from its franchise requirements. Reno didn't comment Tuesday.

Cox Media's WHIO-TV Dayton, Ohio, by demanding Cincinnati Bell's altafiber pay a per-subscriber retransmission consent fee even for broadband-only subs, will halt or scale back construction of a fiber-to-the-home system to 135,000 Dayton households, altafiber said in a docket 12-1 retransmission consent complaint posted Tuesday. Retrans consent fees on broadband subscribers who aren't getting a retransmission forecloses competition and puts altafiber "at a significant competitive disadvantage" as it tries to enter a new market, since that fee isn't being asked of incumbent providers, it said. Cox Media didn't comment.

AppLovin closed on its buy of streaming TV engine Wurl for $430 million in cash and stock, extending AppLovin’s software platform capabilities into the connected TV market, said AppLovin Monday. Combining with Wurl enables AppLovin “to scale our technology beyond mobile with the goal of bringing performance marketing to the CTV market,” said AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi. AppLovin estimates Wurl “enables content companies to distribute streaming video content to more than 300 million TVs and reach 30 million users globally each month,” it said.

Litigation brought by Kenner, Louisiana, seeking franchise fees from Netflix and Hulu (see 2112230003), is being remanded from federal court to state court. U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry of New Orleans in a docket 2:21-cv-00445 order Thursday said the streaming defendants, in opposing the remand, "seek federal court intervention in matters over which the state of Louisiana and its municipalities have traditionally enjoyed wide regulatory latitude -- specifically, utility regulation and gross revenue fees" -- by asking it to interpret the Louisiana Consumer Choice for Television Act. Multiple such franchise fee suits have been remanded to state courts (see 2203240053).