SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz is unfazed by Google creating services and capabilities for Ford customers beginning in 2023 (see report, Feb. 2 issue of this publication), she said Tuesday on a Q4 call, her first with investors as chief. “We’ve always had a clear competitive advantage in the car.” The satellite radio platform continues “strengthening our OEM relationships,” said Witz. Reversing declining Pandora ad-supported listener hours remains a problem, as it was before SiriusXM’s 2019 acquisition of the music-streaming service, conceded Witz. Listener hours fell 7% last year to 12.5 billion. “We’re clearly focused on decline in listenership,” the CEO said. “We’re continuing to find ways to work at that,” including “improving engagement across connected devices and in the car,” she said. “It has been harder than we expected.” The “valuation” of the SXM-7 satellite is underway after it “suffered damage during in-orbit testing that resulted in the failure of certain payloads,” said new Chief Financial Officer Sean Sullivan. Though the “full extent of the damage to the satellite is not yet known, we do not expect our service to be impacted,” he said. SXM-7 launched successfully aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December, he said. The SXM-3 and SXM-4 satellites “are expected to support our service for several years,” said Sullivan. SXM-5 “remains available as an in-orbit spare.” he said. Development of SXM-8 is “well underway, and we expect it to be launched later this year,” he said. SiriusXM bought a $225 million insurance policy on SXM-7 for its “first year of in-orbit operations,” he said. “We have notified the underwriters of a potential claim.”

Mike Fidler had no “preconceptions” about how long he would stay when he became UHD Alliance president in summer 2017 and didn’t foresee then taking on “a long-term role,” he told us now. The Sony and Pioneer veteran stepped down last week (see personals section, Jan. 28 issue). UHDA won’t seek a replacement, Chairman Michael Zink, Warner Bros. vice president-technology, emailed the board last Tuesday. Zink is adding the president title. Fidler thinks most of what UHDA “set out to do” under his watch, “we really met,” he told us. “We were able to complete the initiatives we put focus on, including Filmmaker Mode and the work we were doing on interoperability.” Fidler regrets that COVID-19 inhibited UHDA from “getting out in front of people," as “with something like Filmmaker Mode, it would have been advantageous to be able to really effectively promote it by seeing it, demonstrating it. That was very difficult, if not impossible." Fidler in hindsight “thought we could get more traction with manufacturers and retailers” on the Ultra HD Premium logo: “That’s a disappointment.” The group's website lists 32 current members, including Amazon and Qualcomm. Founders including Disney and Netflix are gone, while AT&T bought DirecTV and Warner after UHDA's formation and doesn't now belong to the organization.

Movie pricing for Kaleidescape’s new rental option (see 2101280046) is “generally around" $7.95 per title, “though premium VOD can be higher,” emailed CEO Tayloe Stansbury Thursday. “Of the 12,000 titles available in our movie store in the US, 8,000 are available for rental (5,500 available for rental in Canada).” Kaleidescape’s main rationale for offering the rental option was that “sometimes a customer is interested in a movie, but not enough to purchase a perpetual playback license,” he said. “They get the rental in the same high-bitrate format as a purchase, and if they love it and want to keep it, half the rental price is applied to purchase.” Most movies in the Kaleidescape store cost $15-$20 to buy, with some priced at $25 and $35. Rental viewing is for a 48-hour window, and the purchase option is available within 30 days of the rental transaction. PVOD movie titles “will sometimes be made available early for rental only,” and that was another rationale for the offering, he said.

Viewers watched an estimated 2.3 billion minutes of Wonder Woman 1984 during its first two days of streaming availability, emailed Nielsen Friday, giving its first public release of viewership data for HBO Max content. Nielsen releases subscription VOD viewership data publicly on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney+. After Wonder Woman, top SVOD programs for the week of Dec. 21-27 were Disney+'s Soul at 1.7 billion minutes, The Office (192 episodes, Netflix) at 1.4 billion and Bridgerton (eight episodes, Netflix) at 1.2 billion.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr will also speak at the Feb.11 meeting of the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (see 2101270061).

Kaleidescape communicated to dealers this week a new movie rental option on its Strato devices for viewing feature films at the same full resolution as purchased titles, we learned. Once customers download a rental movie, Kaleidescape will give them 30 days to start watching it, with a 48-hour viewing window. A rented movie can be downloaded to only one home at a time and watched on only one player at a time, dealers were told. If a customer decides to buy the rented movie within 30 days of the rental transaction, half the rental price will be applied toward the purchase. Kaleidescape didn't comment.

COVID-19 juiced up the cord-cutting trend, with 31% of Americans now cord cutters and 41% of those making the decision in the past year, What If Media Group reported Wednesday. It surveyed 23,000 consumers online in December. It said 52% of current cable customers are considering cutting the cord, with 31% planning to do so “imminently” or “in the new year.” It said 66.6% of households subscribe to one or two streaming services, and 17% subscribe to three. And 58% have a $15 cap for how much they're willing to spend monthly on streaming; 36% had password access to a friend or family member's streaming service; and 51% don't consider that as stealing.

Comcast will drop its "roommate"/"living with AT&T commercial" and drop or modify its "best in-home WiFi experience" claim, the National Advertising Review Board said Wednesday. NARB said AT&T challenged the ad, with Comcast appealing and AT&T cross-appealing. The appellate body for the Better Business Bureau’s advertising self-regulatory programs said Comcast indicated it will “take NARB’s recommendations under consideration in future advertising.” Comcast didn't comment.

The FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment meets virtually Feb. 11, said a public notice Wednesday. The meeting will feature remarks from acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, and reports from the Access to Capital, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity in the Tech Sector working groups.

Cowen forecast 24% Q4 revenue growth to $828 million for Vimeo parent IAC, after the video platform’s announcement Monday it raised $300 million in equity funding. In a Tuesday investor note, analyst John Blackledge attributed expected stronger financial results to investments and the impact of COVID-19 to multiple business segments. IAC said last month it plans to spin off Vimeo as an independent company this year, which Blackledge pegged for Q2. He forecast strong Q4 revenue growth for Vimeo at 53% driven by strong growth in subscribers and average revenue per user. IAC reports Q4 Feb. 3.