Pay-TV providers narrowed subscriber losses in Q3 to 120,000 -- the fewest since Q1 2018 -- vs. a pro forma net loss of about 945,000 in 2019's third quarter, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. The top publicly reporting vMVPDs -- Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, AT&T TV Now and fubuTV -- added just over a million subscribers, up from 815,000 net adds. LRG President Bruce Leichtman credited the return of live sports (see 2011170001). Leichtman said it’s time to recognize vMVPDs as a “key segment of the live pay-TV industry.” Hulu + Live TV is the fifth-largest pay-TV service in the U.S., and YouTube TV has over 3 million subscribers, including a million net additions this year, he noted. The top seven cable companies shed 375,000 video subscribers in Q3 vs. 410,000 a year ago, while satellite services lost 775,000, led by DirecTV with 690,000, down from 1.1 million in Q3 2019. Among phone providers, Verizon Fios lost 62,000 video subscribers, Frontier lost 42,000 and AT&T U-verse/AT&T TV gained 100,000.

Dish Network's amended complaint acknowledges Terrier Media sequenced its Northwest and Cox TV stations so the Cox stations would be governed by the Northwest retransmission consent agreement, and Dish is asserting contract and tort claims to escape the terms of its own agreements since it prefers the Cox retrans terms, Terrier told the U.S. District Court in Chicago in a motion to dismiss Friday (in Pacer, 20-cv-00570). Dish didn't comment Monday. Terrier previously sought to have Dish's retrans suit dismissed (see 2009100064), and the sides then agreed in October that Dish could file an amended complaint.

Rhapsody said Friday its Powered by Napster audio platform service is the engine behind Sonos' original stations on Sonos Radio and Sonos Radio HD (see 2011120038). It’s an expansion of an existing partnership. The Powered by Napster platform offers licensing and rights holder management, media streaming and download infrastructure, applications, personalization, recommendations, customer billing and royalty administration capabilities, said the company.

The direct-to-consumer (DTC) business has been Disney’s “real bright spot” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, said CEO Bob Chapek in a fiscal Q4 investor call Thursday, a year to the day after the launch of Disney+. The service added 16.2 million paid subscribers in the quarter ended Oct. 3 and had 73.7 million for the year, “far surpassing our expectations,” said Chapek. Disney+, already available in more than 20 countries, will launch Tuesday in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico and arrive in more overseas markets in the next year, said Chapek. Disney will update its global subscriber numbers at its Dec. 10 investor day, he said. The “full suite” of Disney streaming services, including ESPN+ and Hulu, surpassed 120 million paid subs in the quarter, he said. The pending launch of the Star-branded “general entertainment” streaming offering “will enable us to grow our business even further in the years ahead,” he said. Disney narrowed the operating loss in its DTC business by about $170 million from a year earlier, to $580 million, said Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy. “Higher results” at ESPN+ and Hulu drove the improvement, which was “partially offset by costs associated with the ongoing rollout of Disney+,” she said. Disney plans to continue ramping up its investment in DTC, said Chapek. “We will be heavily tilting the scale from linear networks over to our DTC business.” The studio was “very pleased” with the results of Mulan. Though Mulan “met with some controversy” globally after its Disney+ release, the company had “enough very positive results” before that controversy “to know that we've got something here in terms of the premier access strategy,” Chapek said, promising more details at next month’s investor conference. Disney faced a global backlash when Mulan’s closing credits thanked a Chinese government agency accused of human rights abuses in Xinjiang for its help in the production.

Sonos jumped into the premium music streaming business Thursday, announcing an ad-free, high-definition streaming tier. The $7.99 monthly service will have more exclusive content than the free version of Sonos Radio, delivered in lossless 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC. It's supported by all Sonos speakers, a spokesperson emailed. He downplayed concerns that streaming service partners would perceive the Sonos subscription as competition, saying the offering “is complementary.” Sonos has a “commitment to choice,” he said, noting customers can choose from more than 100 streaming services on Sonos.

Altice is now producing News 12 New York, a streaming feed of news stories from its regional cable news channels around the metropolitan New York area, it said Tuesday. 12 New York is available on Tubi and The Weather Channel's Local Now streaming service, and will soon be on Plex and the Vizio SmartCast, it said.

Comscore plans to deploy a measured advertising system for addressable ads in 2021, CEO Bill Livek told investors Monday. He called it an MVPD-connected TV-centric approach. Livek cited “dramatic changes” to media consumption behaviors in 2020, with increased streaming, gaming, e-commerce spending and mobile shopping. “As media content, particularly video, becomes increasingly cross-platform in nature, media buying and selling is shifting away from traditional age and gender demographics in gross rating points to audiences and impression-based measurement.” Q3 revenue was $88 million vs. $94.3 million in the year-ago quarter on "challenging" market conditions, said the company. It's "in advanced discussions" on a "recapitalization transaction with an anchor investor," it said. "The transaction would provide for enhanced commercial relationships to support Comscore's growth initiatives."

MVPDs seeking exemption from the list of top five nonbroadcast networks covered by audio description requirements (see 2011020043) because they don't air at least 50 hours quarterly of prime-time programming that isn't live or near-live or are otherwise exempt have until Dec. 9 to seek one, said Monday's Federal Register.

Starz had its best-ever quarter for over-the-top subscriber growth, said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer on a fiscal Q2 investor call Thursday. The quarter ended Sept. 30. Starz U.S. streaming subs increased to 9.2 million from 7.4 million in Q1 “on the strength of a focused content strategy and the launch of successful new series,” he said. The new shows are “driving subscriber growth,” plus “boosting subscriber retention with record levels of engagement,” he said. Starz had a record-high 13.7 million global streaming subscribers at the end of Q2, reaching its full-year target of 13 million to 15 million subs “a full six months early,” he said. The stock closed 10.5% higher Friday at $7.78.

Though live concerts remain off limits in virtually all global regions, recent surveys show 95% of fans plan return to live events when restrictions are lifted, “the highest point of confidence since the start of the pandemic,” said Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino on a Q3 investor call Thursday. “We are working on a road map to get back to live safely,” encouraged by progress on COVID-19 testing and vaccines. “We still expect shows at scale next summer, but recognize that some exact timeline of this return will vary by region.” The company developed a social-distancing seat-mapping tool and “time entry” technology for managing “everything from venue access to box office interactions,” he said.