Updated wireless emergency alert/emergency alert service rules approved 4-0 by FCC commissioners Thursday (see 2106170063) explain more fully than the draft order why the commission declined to take up a New York City Emergency Management request, per our comparison of the draft with the approved order. NYCEM asked the FCC to require government entities that originate WEAs to file mandatory false alert reports as part of a pact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The commission said now that while the update sets up a voluntary system for reporting false alerts, doing so seems consistent with requirements in last year's National Defense Authorization Act, so the agency declined to take up NYCEM's request.
Cable TV usage in May with 39% of TV viewing, reported Nielsen. Broadcast had 25% of usage and streaming 26%, led by Netflix (6%), YouTube (6%), Hulu (3%), Amazon Prime Video (2%) and Disney+ (1%). Eight percent of streaming was from other high-bandwidth video sources. The “other” category, with 9% of viewing, includes VOD, gaming, DVDs and streaming through a cable set-top box. Streaming usage across all TV homes climbed to 26% of all time spent on TV. As people begin to "dive back into their pre-pandemic activities," consumers will continue to sample and explore viewing options, said Brian Fuhrer, senior vice president-product strategy. "As production ramps back up, new content will enter the space, driving additional traction."
There’s no ad-supported Disney+ offering in Disney’s future, CEO Bob Chapek told a virtual Credit Suisse investor conference Monday. “We're always reevaluating how we go to market across the world, but we've got no such plans now to do that,” he said: “We're happy with the models that we've got,” but “we won't limit ourselves and say no to anything.” On Chapek’s previously announced intentions to debut new Disney+ content on the service weekly, the plan is to “hit that cadence this year,” he said. “Something new can be a new movie, a new piece of content or something new added to the library,” plus a new season of episodic TV, he said. Chapek wouldn’t comment on when the timing will be right to shift ESPN to an a la carte offering. “We bought flexibility into every new media rights deal that we've done in terms of sports rights,” he said. The “speed of the transition” will depend on how fast “consumer behavior” evolves, he said. “When full content migration to such a platform makes sense, we'll be prepared to do that.”
Roberts Radio CEO Steve Roberts pushed back on arguments that geotargeted radio broadcasting could lead to “redlining.” His argument came in a call with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks on Wednesday, said a filing posted Monday in docket 20-401 (see 2103120065). Roberts seeks approval to use the technology on an experimental basis for 90 days for WRBJ(FM) Brandon, Mississippi. “WRBJ-FM is 100% Black owned” and serves “a predominantly Black community,” the filing said. The tech will be helpful to the community, Roberts said. “It is important to allow his company to receive a 90-day experimental authorization to test the technology on a Black owned station serving the Black community.”
FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel restated her opposition to resurrecting the fairness doctrine and her support for “free speech, viewpoint diversity, and independent journalism” in letters to House Commerce Committee Republicans released Friday. Ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and other Republicans wrote Rosenworcel in February asking her to commit to not bringing back the doctrine and to denounce letters Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney, both D-Calif., sent providers asking them to justify carrying Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network (see 2102240064). This doctrine “only applied to radio and television broadcasters that relied on scarce public spectrum,” which means it “legally applied only to a small subset of what we consider news and content today,” Rosenworcel said. “In recent times we have seen the effects of division in this country in ways that I never imagined that I would see in my lifetime,” including “the harms of misinformation and disinformation. Others have expressed concern that their viewpoint may be absent from media outlets and that some sources may amplify falsehoods and do genuine harm to individuals and communities.” Those are “issues that need thoughtful discussion in a modern way,” she said. “I welcome efforts to have this dialogue. I also remain mindful of the limitations of a doctrine from the 1940s and recognize any effort to update it will require action from Congress. Furthermore, any work to do so would be constrained by the First Amendment.”
Apple TV+ leads over-the-top streaming services in monthly active churn at 15.6%, Verimatrix Product Management Director Sebastian Braun told a Parks Associates webinar. NBCUniversal’s Peacock (not including the free tier) was second at 9.5%, followed by Showtime (8.8%), Starz (8.4%), HBO Max (6.7%), CBS All Access (5.9%), Hulu (5.2%), Disney+ (4.3%) and Netflix (2.5%), he said Wednesday. Apple didn't comment Thursday. The average Netflix subscription is 48 months, Parks' Liam Gaughan told the virtual event. “Content is king,” said Braun, saying services with lower churn are those that own, produce and distribute content. Calling churn “unavoidable,” Braun noted consumers subscribe to an average of about five services, vs. three on Jan. 1, 2020. Parks data showed 26% of subscribers quit a service to cut expenses, the same as those ending a subscription because they finished watching a series. One trend to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic was trial-hopping, said Matt Smith, Symphony MediaAI vice president-business development. He cited a “big swath of users” binge-watching every show of a particular series during a trial, then “jumping off the platform.”
Advertising software company Viant is licensing TiVo’s linear TV viewership data feed, said the Xperi subsidiary Wednesday.
About 46% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to four or more over-the-top video services, and 82% have at least one, up from 76% in the year-ago quarter, said a Q1 Parks Associates survey. Services are using different growth strategies, including external partnerships, to expand their reach and improve retention, said President Elizabeth Parks Wednesday.
All four FCC commissioners will speak at the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment’s June 24 virtual meeting, said an agenda in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Commissioner Nathan Simington’s remarks will be prerecorded; others will speak live. All working groups will also deliver a report “on activities and deliberations during the 2019-2021 two-year charter,” it said. ACDDE WGs are Access to Capital, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity in the Tech Sector.
E-commerce fulfillment provider Ruby Has is forming the DTC Consortium as an “industry alliance and think tank” dedicated to the direct-to-consumer space, said the company Tuesday. More than 100 companies “from every corner of the industry have joined pre-launch as founding members,” it said, listing e-commerce companies Avalara and Nanoleaf. The consortium’s website says a partial list of founding members will be announced by month's end. Consortium representatives didn’t respond to questions about whether the new group intends to compete with the D2C Alliance, the Digital Entertainment Group affiliate that’s geared more to over-the-top streaming than e-commerce.