A blackout of Tegna stations for Dish customers in 53 markets is “another example of broadcast conglomerates prioritizing profit over people,” said the American TV Alliance in a release (see 2110060038). “This weekend, millions of football fans across the country will be disappointed when they settle in to watch the game and realize it’s unavailable,” said ATVA. "DISH is purposefully misleading customers and inconvenienced its own subscribers by proactively removing TEGNA stations before the deadline," emailed a Tegna spokesperson. "Rather than using service disruptions as a business strategy, we call upon DISH to return to the negotiating table and work with us to restore our channels." Dish didn't comment, but issued a release on the blackout Wednesday. "We made a fair offer to keep Tegna stations available to our customers, but Tegna rejected it, forcing the removal of its channels," said Dish in the release. "Tegna is looking to sell its stations to the highest bidder and is simply trying to exploit DISH customers as a way to get the maximum price and further fatten their wallets."
Dish Network and Tegna blamed each other for a possible blackout of stations in 52 markets on Dish that was to have started Wednesday night. Claiming Tegna “prioritizes greed,” Dish said Tuesday it's “demanding a massive increase to nearly a billion dollars in fees for its programming.” Tegna emailed that it started alerting Dish subscribers about the possible blackout “due to Dish's refusal to reach a fair, market-based agreement to continue carriage of those stations.” Tegna said it's “committed to reaching a fair, market-based agreement with DISH based on the competitive terms we’ve used to reach deals with numerous other providers.”
MoviePass is barred from misrepresenting its business and data security practices, the FTC said Tuesday in a settlement over allegations the company blocked subscribers from using the service as advertised. Commissioners approved the nonmonetary settlement 4-1, with Commissioner Noah Phillips dissenting without statement. The company faces penalties up to $43,792 per violation per day. Per June's proposed settlement, MoviePass “deceptively marketed its ‘one movie per day’ service, then deployed deceptive tactics aimed at preventing subscribers from using the service as advertised.” The company didn’t comment Tuesday.
A pending blackout of Comcast's NBCUniversal channels on YouTube TV (see 2109270053) was averted with a carriage deal with no price increase for subscribers, YouTube said Saturday.
Regional sports networks went dark on Comcast and Dish Network over carriage license terms. MSG Networks said Friday the Comcast blackout was primarily in New Jersey and Connecticut and the cable company was "try[ing] to force us to accept terms they’d never agree to for their own regional sports networks." Comcast didn't comment. Dish emailed late that it's not carrying AT&T SportsNet and Root Sports and is pushing for RSNs to be available a la carte to subscribers in negotiations with parent AT&T. The telco didn't comment.
ViacomCBS closed on its purchase of the Chilean broadcast network Chilevision from AT&T's WarnerMedia, said the buyer Thursday. The deal was announced in April (see 2104050031). Transaction terms were not disclosed.
Consumer adoption of smart TVs jumped to 56% of U.S. broadband homes during this pandemic, with smart speaker adoption reaching 53%, reported Parks Associates Wednesday. Both had “significant growth since 2019,” it said. “TVs are now consumers’ most common video centerpiece in the home,” said analyst Paul Erickson. Tech “powerhouses” are “vying to own this point of entertainment aggregation -- and all the data that goes with it -- by controlling the platform itself,” he said. “Smart TVs are now seen as a key anchor device for ecosystem penetration into today’s broadband households.”
Recommendations for including age-based content ratings for streaming content from the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board are “a small step” toward addressing “widespread inconsistencies” in program ratings, said the Parents Television Council Tuesday. The industry-run board, which is led by NCTA, NAB and MPAA, “quite simply, needs to do more,” said PTC President Tim Winter. The guidelines recommend including ratings and descriptors for streamed content, displaying the ratings at the start of playback and as the content plays. “Video streaming services should at a minimum strive to replicate the ratings experience available for programming that is shown on television,” the best practices say. The guidelines were released earlier this month, and Winter also faulted the board for inadequately promoting them. Ratings for streaming won’t help unless they're consistently applied and paired with parental controls that are effective, Winter said: “We’ve proven they’re not.” The board didn't comment. PTC has been critical of the ratings board in the past (see 1910150054).
With its NBCUniversal carriage agreement expiring Thursday, YouTube TV told subscribers that absent a renewal NBCU content will no longer be part of its streaming lineup and monthly YouTube TV pricing will drop from $64.99 to $54.99. It blogged Sunday that it's seeking rates for NBCU that similar-sized networks charge. NBCU didn't comment Monday.
Ninety-six percent of Apple TV+ users have an Apple device, said Kagan Friday. A March survey showed iPhones were the most commonly used Apple device among the streaming service’s users, at 84%. Amazon Prime Video and Netflix were the most commonly used subscription VOD services among Apple TV+ users surveyed; Disney+ (66%) and Hulu (60%) were also popular. Most (81%) Apple TV+ customers subscribe to five or more SVOD services vs. 33% of all SVOD users. Some 71% of SVOD users stream at least once per week, 85% for Apple TV+ subscribers. Smart TVs were the most widely used device for viewing SVOD among Apple TV+ users at 76%; 71% of that group also streamed on a tablet vs. 47% of all SVOD users.