Comscore debuted a “cross-screen" tool for measuring movie audiences “regardless of release windows” and where films are consumed, said the analytics company Monday. The pandemic "has forced us all to throw out conventional wisdom," said Chris Aronson, Paramount president-domestic distribution. "We're confident that people are going to return to theaters in force." He said more consumer choices for content "means we need new solutions to truly understand audience behavior as they engage with content on their terms and their screens.”

S&P downgraded AMC Entertainment to SD from CC on the theater owner’s increasingly precarious cash-poor position amid pandemic-induced shutdowns and audience declines, said the ratings service Friday. Though the $100 million raised in a “debt-for-equity” deal with Mudrick Capital Management gives the chain some “incremental near-term liquidity,” S&P believes that will provide less than a month of additional cash: “We view this transaction as distressed and tantamount to a default because the lender received less than originally promised. ... Monthly cash burn was about $125 million in late 2020, and we have seen no indication that it will materially improve.” The company didn’t comment. The stock closed 17.8% higher Friday at $3.51.

The post-coronavirus world is likely to be more home-focused, “creating more opportunities for consumers to listen to music and watch movies at home, which will ultimately place a stronger emphasis on the quality of home audio products,” said Futuresource analyst Alexandre Jornod Wednesday. The industry research firm expects the trend to drive long-term growth for high-end audio products, “especially as consumers who have experienced high audio quality are usually more likely to upgrade to perfect their listening experience or access the latest tech features.”

Streaming and creating are poised for long-term growth, Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell told investors, referencing podcasts and the rise of creators on TikTok and Instagram, which demonstrate the “democratization of digital content.” The trends that grew during the pandemic will “surely grow after the pandemic,” he said Tuesday. Logitech’s Q3 sales growth -- more than the total growth for the past three years combined -- rode work-at-home and spectator gaming trends, said the CEO. Sales soared 85% year on year to $1.67 billion, and operating income jumped 248% to $448 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31. Darrell said that while meeting with about 60 CEOs this week, the “vast majority” indicated they will adopt hybrid work “as the new norm.” A global trend toward spectator gaming continued, Darrell said, noting that over 1 billion people watched a part of the League of Legends final last quarter, and over 100 million watched the final game live, the same number of viewers as the Super Bowl had last year.

ViacomCBS' Paramount+ streaming service goes live March 4 in the U.S. and Latin America, with launches March 25 in Nordic countries and in mid-2021 in Australia, it said Tuesday. It said its CBS All Access service in Canada will be rebranded to Paramount+ on March 4, with an expanded offering available later in the year.

Netflix had 8.51 million global net subscriber additions in Q4, beating its Oct. 20 forecast by nearly 42%, said the company Tuesday. It finished 2020 with 36.6 million net subscriber adds, well above the previous high of 28.6 million in 2018, and 31% above the company’s 2019 performance. The result was 2.9% off the pace of the 2019 quarter, vs. projections of a 32% year-on-year decline. Netflix surpassed 200 million subscribers for the first time. “The big growth in streaming entertainment has led legacy competitors like Disney, WarnerMedia and Discovery to compete with us in new ways, which we’ve been expecting for many years,” said the quarterly shareholder letter. “This is, in part, why we have been moving so quickly to grow and further strengthen our original content library across a wide range of genres and nations.” Netflix is forecasting 6 million paid net adds for Q1, which would be 62% below the level achieved in the 2020 quarter, when COVID-19 lockdowns sent subscriber growth through the roof. The stock was trending 9.8% higher in after-hours trading to $551.35.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's annual report on "notorious" world markets for counterfeit and pirated goods included for the first time a section exposing the growing role of e-commerce platforms in the import of such goods into the U.S. “The greatest risk of importation of counterfeit and pirated goods, harming both U.S. content creators and U.S. consumers, is posed not by foreign flea markets and dark web sites but by inadequate policies and inadequate action by e-commerce companies that market and sell foreign products to American consumers,” said USTR Thursday. “Combating piracy and counterfeits will require sustained effort by both the federal government and by companies that profit from the sale of such goods.” USTR removed Amazon's Canada and India affiliates from the notorious markets list this year, retained the British, German and French sites, and added Amazon's Italian and Spanish sites. The report praised Amazon for partnering with the federal government's National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center on a joint operation to prevent the import of counterfeit goods into the U.S. When Amazon was first identified as a notorious market, it said the listing was politically motivated. Amazon didn't respond to questions Friday. Online sellers of pirated and counterfeit goods are shifting increasingly to social media to carry out their crimes, said USTR.

It’s a “little-known fact” that Shark Tank adapted the “bubble” strategy the NBA used to finish its 2019-20 playoffs in Orlando to safely shoot episodes for the current season of the ABC series during the pandemic, Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank cast member Mark Cuban told CTA President Gary Shapiro in a prerecorded CES 2021 Q&A. Shark Tank cast and crew “took over” the Venetian in Las Vegas with two protective "pods" in August and September lasting about 10 days each, said Cuban. “It was very strict filming,” he said. Cast members were socially distanced on the set and barred from giving winning contestants their congratulatory hugs, he said. “We went through that entire period" without any positive COVID-19 test results, he said. It helped set a “precedent for shooting shows in Hollywood,” he said. “People want their shows, whether it’s streamed or traditional television. They want to be entertained, particularly now.” Despite the “lull” in production due to the pandemic, “we were able to set a standard” for the safe return of cast and crew to production sets, “even where cases were growing,” he said. “It also helped hundreds of staff and production people keep their jobs.”

Sonos announced new artist channels and genre stations for Sonos Radio and Sonos Radio HD Wednesday. It’s adding stations from D’Angelo, FKA twigs, Bjork and The Chemical Brothers, including select songs and commentary, and new radio shows from Dolly Parton, Brittany Howard, Thom Yorke and Third Man Records. The Sonos Sound System station will launch new shows, including a podcast about music that’s shaping culture, it said. The first artist station to launch, D’Angelo’s Feverish Fantazmagoria, began streaming Wednesday, with others scheduled to come online over the next few weeks. Sonos Radio is included with Sonos subscriptions globally, preloaded in the Sonos app. Sonos Radio HD offers original content that streams ad-free in CD-quality audio, with skip and repeat capability, for $7.99 per month in the U.S. and U.K.

ViacomCBS and Sinclair signed a multiyear affiliation agreement covering 13 Sinclair stations, including WKRC-TV Cincinnati; WPEC West Palm Beach, Florida; WWMT Kalamazoo, Michigan; and WHP-TV Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, ViacomCBS said Wednesday. It said Sinclair’s CBS affiliates will stay locally available to subscribers of the CBS All Access streaming service.