SiriusXM bought 99% Invisible, the podcast company owned by Roman Mars, said SiriusXM Monday. Mars and his production team will continue operating 99% Invisible podcasts as part of SiriusXM subsidiary Stitcher, it said. SiriusXM reports Q1 results Wednesday.
Roku community members blasted Roku Monday in its dispute with Google over what Roku called “unfair terms” for YouTube TV. Some users received an email from Roku warning of the possibility “that Google may take away your access to the YouTube TV channel,” saying recent negotiations “have broken down because Roku cannot accept Google’s unfair terms as we believe they could harm our users.” Roku cited Google’s “unfair and anticompetitive requirements to manipulate your search results, impact the usage of your data and ultimately cost you more.” It urged customers to “contact Google and urge them to reach an agreement.” Roku employee Mary told the community the company isn't removing the YouTube TV channel “at this time," it's "just making customers like you aware of this possibility.” Google has been “working with Roku in good faith to reach an agreement that benefits our viewers and their customers," said a Google spokesperson. "Unfortunately, Roku often engages in these types of tactics in their negotiations.” Google is “disappointed that they chose to make baseless claims while we continue our ongoing negotiations.” Google has tried to ensure a “high quality and consistent experience for our viewers” and has made “no requests to access user data or interfere with search results.” It hopes the companies can resolve the issue “for the sake of our mutual users.”
DSP Concepts launched TalkTogether, adding full-duplex voice capability to its Audio Weaver platform. It's an alternative to third-party, black-box voice solutions, allowing for customized engineering designs. TalkTogether works for near-field to far-field voice calls “in the new hybrid global workplace," said the company Friday. The technology can be applied to Zoom calls, has wind suppression and speaker tracking, and is certified for Alexa.
The FCC Media Bureau's recent request for comment on Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act compliance doesn’t propose rule changes and thus couldn’t lead to new Calm Act rules without an NPRM, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford Wednesday. The FCC move came after a letter from Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. (see 2104200001). “The speed with which this request was generated” suggests “this could be an area where the FCC could become active in enforcing the current rules,” said Oxenford.
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.