As virtual MVPDs continue to poach customers from traditional pay TV, the need to address one of their most appealing differentiators -- no-contract subscriptions -- continues to challenge the segment, said Parks Associates analyst Paul Erickson at the company’s virtual Future of Video conference last week. “There’s a higher level of churn than in traditional pay-TV services,” a factor that’s “likely to persist,” said Erickson, asking panelists what strategies vMVPDs could adopt to stem customer defections. Nic Wilson, TiVo head-customer success, said one possibility is to bundle over-the-top subscriptions like T-Mobile’s subscriber retention tack: “Find those services so that if they cancel your service, they’re not just canceling video." Erickson said the user experience is important to reduce subscriber churn, whether it’s superior content aggregation or a smarter, more personalized experience where relevant content is surfaced to subscribers. That can help retain customers in an environment where “people are bombarded by choice.” Michael Ribero, ViacomCBS’ Paramount+ vice president-global marketing, said an vMVPD service has “got to work like regular TV.” To ask someone from the traditional pay-TV world to come over to a vMVPD service means there can be no change in quality of service from pay TV, “which worked 99.9% of the time,” Ribero said. “I can’t say that always happens in the virtual world.” Customers particularly aren’t forgiving of a subpar sports experience, Ribero said. “If you have any sort of buffering or any sort of lapse, there’s no amount of customer service, there’s no amount of rebate -- people hate you and they want to leave.” The vMVPD experience should replicate the immediacy of over-the-air and MVPD TV viewing: “Being able to turn on [the TV], and something is just on,” Ribero said, would counter OTT viewers’ increasing “discovery fatigue.” It’s also important to let customers know that a vMVPD service is a complement to Netflix and Hulu, not a competitor, as consumers try to make sense of the myriad content options, he said. Ribero said it may be time for the industry to change the way it measures churn to reflect the different needs of the OTT model. A football fan who returns to a football package season after season doesn’t fit an old churn measurement model, he said: “Is that a win or not?” The ability to do “subscription management” based on channels within a bundle would give vMVPDs a “value-add” over other services, said Greg Riker, head-business development and sales, Americas, for Comcast's Metrological. An AI-based algorithm that understands subscribers' viewing interests could serve suggestions to swap channels for one more closely aligned with their interests. That would be a way to drive value for the service, he said.

The domestic box office recovery has begun, with Godzilla vs. Kong driving the best North American opening weekend of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a five-day box office of $48.5 million, Colliers analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Monday. The film played on over 3,000 screens and was included with HBO Max subscriptions for no extra charge. Imax generated 9.3% of the domestic box office. Attendance demonstrated “strong consumer demand for the format,” as over 1,000 Imax shows, or more than 25% of the weekend's show times, were sold out, said the analyst. It also earned $71 million in international markets.

The Supreme Court “spoke clearly” in favor of deference to the FCC, said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in a release Friday about Thursday's Prometheus decision on media ownership (see 2104010067). “We can now move forward confidently to address media ownership in future Quadrennial Reviews in a manner that is data-driven and otherwise fully consistent with our duty to promote and ensure competition, localism, and diversity in the public interest,” Starks said. “Nothing in the Court’s holding upsets our long-established ruling that media ownership decisions must take into account how diversity will be affected.” Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also emphasized deference to the FCC in her statement Thursday.

Dish Network and NBC regional sports networks faulted each other for a blackout of the RSNs on Dish and its Sling TV. Dish said Thursday it dropped the RSNs and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) due to rising rates. The "fundamentally broken" RSN model "requires nearly all customers to pay for RSNs when only a small percentage of customers actually watch them," said Dish TV Group President Brian Neylon. "As the cost of these channels continues to escalate, we no longer think it makes sense to include them in our TV lineup." Dish said the blackout is affecting viewers in 10 states and the District of Columbia. An NBC RSN spokesperson said it "offered to continue distribution on fair market terms," but the terms were declined. MASN didn't comment.

FuboTV will carry Chicago Cubs games, it said Wednesday, signing an agreement with Marquee Sports Network. Fans can stream Cubs games, pregame and postgame shows, exclusive content and original programming on Android and iOS smartphone and tablets; Amazon Fire TV; Android TV and smart TVs; Apple TV and the Apple TV app; Chromecast; Hisense and Samsung smart TVs; the Roku platform; and Xbox consoles.

Comments on the FCC NPRM on changes to wireless emergency alerts and increased oversight of state emergency communication committees (see 2103170070) are due April 20 in docket 15-94, replies May 4, said Tuesday’s Federal Register. Comments on the accompanying notice of inquiry on emergency alerting for streaming services are due May 14, replies June 14.

Twelve companies joined the Digital Entertainment Group: AMC Networks, Azure, Breaker, Cinedigm, Movies Anywhere, Pixelogic, Respeecher, ScreenHits TV, SmithGeiger, Starz, Verizon Business Group and Vuulr. All but Breaker, Movies Anywhere, Pixelogic and Respeecher also plan to join the D2C Alliance Council, DEG’s initiative to promote direct-to-consumer content delivery, said the group Monday.

Vizio went public Thursday when it priced its 12.25-million-share initial public offering at $21, valuing the company at close to $4 billion. Shares slumped nearly 17% to $17.50 when trading began around 1 p.m. EDT on the New York Stock Exchange as VZIO. It has been less than four weeks since the March 1 filing of Vizio’s S-1 registration statement. The SEC declared the registration and IPO effective Wednesday. Chairman-CEO William Wang will control a majority of the shares and about 92% of voting power. Contract manufacturers AmTran and Foxconn and LCD panel maker Innolux are among top outside shareholders. “Consumers are more and more moving to the connected TV space," Vizio Chief Financial Officer Adam Townsend told Yahoo Finance Thursday. "They expect to have the apps that they want, their subscription services, as well as free streaming content available all in one place, and we’re delivering against that.” The IPO will bring Vizio “into the next chapter of its evolution,” he said. The company didn't respond to our questions. Shares closed down 9.1% at $19.10.

Studios have fallen into “lockstep pursuit down the subscription streaming dream,” said CEO John Calkins from transactional over-the-top video platform company Row8. The current direct-to-consumer trend, driven by theater closures during the pandemic, “is a profit deal” for media companies, said Wedbush's Michael Pachter. Also speaking Wednesday at the virtual Digital Entertainment Group Expo, the analyst compared the rush to D2C services to the Steve Martin movie, The Jerk: “It’s all about giving away a bunch of crap and hoping people will pay for it.” Calkins said “everybody’s feeling like they’ve got a shot at that brass ring.” He questioned whether the model is valid or sustainable long term. When the “newness of subscription streaming wears off,” there could be a “day of reckoning,” he said. Pachter said most TV content doesn’t have to be viewed live, aside from sports and certain shows where immediacy is important. The analyst believes virtual MVPD services such as YouTube Red or fuboTV “will take over, and cable is doomed.” Pachter blamed the cable industry for allowing Netflix deals, saying it “cut its own throat.” Consumers “have been trained that you can just watch anything you want on demand,” he said. “People are pissed” when they have to wait a week to watch the next episode of a show like WandaVision from broadcast TV “because we’ve all been trained to expect to binge it.” NCTA didn’t comment Thursday. Calkins noted “some stall” in vMVPD subscriptions and that prices keep “creeping up,” making the streaming model not much different from traditional pay-TV. On what will drive success for vMVPDs, Pachter said content owners should “get religion and decide they can’t afford to give content away” and “just withhold it from all these people.” Also at the event, Pachter took aim at AT&T (see 2103250063).

Qobuz is the first music streaming service to deliver 24-bit high-resolution audio content for playback on Sonos speakers compatible with the S2 operating system and controller app, said the companies Wednesday. Qobuz was available to Sonos customers in 16-bit FLAC streaming since 2013.