Frontier fulfilled its obligation to negotiate for retransmission of Gray Television station signals, as it made multiple offers Gray could have accepted, the FCC Media Bureau said Wednesday in an order denying the broadcaster's retransmission consent complaint against the telco (see 2012230005). The bureau accepted Frontier's assertion the MVPD's changing negotiation position reflected it learning one of the stations' locally produced programming was available for free online. Gray didn't comment.

NFL Network and NFL RedZone will join Hulu + Live TV by Aug. 1, they said Tuesday. A priority at NFL Media is “broadening the distribution platforms for NFL content,” said Chief Operating Officer Hans Schroeder. Terms weren't disclosed.

Sony began taking preorders Monday for some of the 2021 Bravia LED and OLED TVs it launched at CES and gave approximate preorder dates for others. All new Sony models run on the company’s new Cognitive Processor XR, which is designed to “replicate the way human brains think and respond,” said the company.

Vizio added the Spanish-language EstrellaTV and Estrella News network apps to its SmartCast smart TVs, said the vendor Monday. EstrellaTV encompasses 15 owned or operated stations and more than 30 broadcast affiliates, claiming a catalog of more than 20,000 hours of programming.

Roku completed the purchase of Nielsen’s Advanced Video Advertising business, announced last month (see 2103020047), including its video automatic content recognition and dynamic ad insertion (DAI) technologies, which will accelerate Roku’s launch of end-to-end DAI with TV programmers. Combining technologies will allow Roku to deliver benefits of TV streaming advertising to traditional TV, it said. Nielsen and Roku also formed a long-term strategic partnership to integrate complementary Nielsen ad and content measurement products into Roku's platform.

Without global footprints and subscriber bases, streaming subscription VOD and ad-based VOD services will have a tough time profitably scaling up, MoffettNathanson's Michael Nathanson wrote investors Wednesday. He said media companies pivoting to streaming models will be particularly challenged if they rely on a U.S.-centric focus. He said the big business opportunities seem to lie in advertising's shift from linear to digital and the large addressable markets internationally.

Broadcast networks dispute Nielsen data showing viewership plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic, but traditional pay-TV data seems to back up Nielsen's position, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Tuesday. He said third-party data points to empty sports stadiums and the TV production shutdown hitting the traditional TV industry "much harder than it would like to admit."

Roku updated its operating system, adding features that let customers get to content faster and customize the user experience, said the company Tuesday. Roku OS 10 improves network and input configurations and performance, it said, and adds support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit.

FuboTV bought exclusive livestreaming rights for English and Spanish commentary to the South American Football Confederation’s Qatar World Cup 2022 qualifying matches, it said Thursday. Rights include the remaining 70 matches, scheduled to begin in June; additional match windows are scheduled through 2021 and into 2022, it said. Re-air and highlight rights are included.

Discovery+ launched on Comcast’s Xfinity Flex streaming player and will roll out to its X1 app in coming weeks, the companies said Thursday. Discovery+ is $4.99 per month with ads, $6.99 for the commercial-free version. Content includes episodes from HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Own, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. The service also offers nonfiction content from A&E, The History Channel and Lifetime and natural history programming from the BBC.