U.S. consumer spending on mobile games increased 5% in Q2 from the year-earlier quarter, said NPD, citing data from Sensor Tower, which tracks mobile app store sales activity. “Multiplayer gaming on mobile continues to be a standout.” It's “showing signs of a continuing lift from the surge of new players who flocked to the category beginning in the second quarter of 2020,” Sensor Tower analyst Randy Nelson reported Thursday. “We see no indication that spending or usage has diminished as consumers have begun their return to life in a post-vaccine world.” Netflix plans an initial push into the category (see 2107210035).
The push for Olympics eyeballs, with opening ceremonies Friday, has Hulu pitching its virtual MVPD service. Like Roku, which added an Olympics hub and a dedicated tab to its homepage Tuesday (see 2107200042), Hulu allows personalizing events by sport, it emailed Wednesday. Hulu promoted watching the Tokyo Games “live on the networks of NBCUniversal.”
Emergency alerts must be “visually and aurally accessible,” said an FCC Enforcement Bureau advisory public notice Wednesday. Emergency alert system messages must be displayed at the top of the screen, in fonts and colors “readily readable and understandable” and the audio portion “must play in full at least once” during the message, the PN said. “The Enforcement Bureau may, at its discretion, treat each failure to transmit accessible EAS messages as a separate violation for purposes of calculating the proposed forfeiture amount.” A nationwide test of EAS and wireless emergency alerts is planned for Aug. 11 (see 2105040068). Consumers who witness inaccessible alerts should report that, the PN said.
Roku partnered with NBCUniversal on a home screen experience designed to give customers “easy access” to the media company’s 5,500 hours of streaming coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics via the Roku platform, the companies said Tuesday. The experience is designed to help viewers organize viewing of the games, delayed by a year due to COVID-19, by channel and sport, said the companies. Roku is creating a path to NBCU’s streaming coverage of the games directly from the home screen, with the Olympics “hub” accessible from the left side of the screen, third only to the Roku home screen and its free Roku Channel content.
Netflix had 1.54 million paid net additions in Q2, beating the guidance of 1 million in its April 20 forecast, it reported Tuesday. COVID-19 “has created some lumpiness in our membership growth (higher growth in 2020, slower growth this year), which is working its way through,” said its shareholder letter. Asia Pacific generated about two-thirds of the global paid net adds growth in the quarter, it said.
Nexstar's NewsNation cable network is nearly tripling the amount of news, analysis and talk, going from 19 to 55 hours weekly starting Sept. 27, it said Monday.
Connected TV (CTV) is one of the fastest growing segments of the advertising market, Canaccord wrote investors Monday, citing strong advance commitments from the upfront marketplace. Legacy media companies with ad-based VOD platforms are bundling premium CTV ad placements with linear TV inventory for large advertisers, it noted. CTV advertising demand has caught up with supply growth for the first time in several years, resulting over recent months in low-double-digit growth in cost per thousand impressions, it said. Independent measurement and verification have become increasingly important for premium digital video advertising, with only about 70% of video placements viewable, it said. That makes DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science “a critical part of the advertising tech stack.”
The Tokyo Olympics look to be among the least-watched recent Summer Games, reported Zeta Friday. The marketing tech company canvassed 2,000 U.S. adult consumers, finding 45% aren't looking forward to the event and 17% undecided if they will tune in. Generation Z and younger millennials had the highest interest. Among women, 48%, said they were interested in watching, compared with 41% of men.
The comment and reply deadline for updating the 2018 quadrennial review is extended one month, to Sept. 2 and Oct. 1, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice Friday on docket 18-349. It cited a request by Common Cause, Free Press, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and NAB (see 2107130055).
Cinedigm “successfully completed” moving from a “legacy” digital cinema equipment business to “high-growth independent streaming,” CEO Chris McGurk told a call for fiscal Q4 ended March 31. There’s a “huge potential market for our portfolio of enthusiast streaming channels,” said McGurk Wednesday. “This strategy and our channels are perfectly complementary to the big general entertainment subscription services like Disney+ and Netflix.” Cinedigm will soon launch the Elvis Presley Channel as an ad-supported VOD and linear streaming service in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises, said Cinedigm Networks President Erick Opeka. Cinedigm distributes 16 “enthusiast” streaming channels through 31 platforms, including TCL, Roku and Vizio, said Opeka.