Netflix “came pretty close” to its Q3 forecast of 2.5 million net paid additions (see 2010200056) “to land within 300,000 members on a member base of roughly 195 million,” said Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann Tuesday evening. “It's super difficult to forecast with perfect precision given all the unknowns,” he said. “Retention trends in our business are healthy.” The company is forecasting slower first-half 2021 growth due to the tough comparisons, said Neumann. “We grew by 26 million members in the first two quarters of 2020. That's more than twice the level of growth we had in 2019.” Since the COVID-19 shutdowns, Netflix has completed work on more than 50 productions, “and we expect another 150 before the year is over," said co-CEO Ted Sarandos. “All that ramp-up puts us back to nearly fully operational in most parts of the world.” Consumers’ desire to watch films at home has been growing during lockdowns, “and we've been satisfying it,” he said. “I think at some point theaters are going to reopen and people are going to go back out to the theaters. I hope so.” People crave “the social interaction to go out and see a film with an audience,” he said. “I don't doubt that is going to come back in some capacities.” Theaters just reopened in Japan at 100% capacity, and people are "looking at the impact of that around the world," he said. The stock closed down 6.9% Wednesday at $489.05.

Lenbrook’s BluOS multiroom music platform is a launch partner for Tidal Connect, said the audio company. Following Tuesday's software update, BluOS-enabled products from NAD Electronics, Bluesound, Dali and Monitor Audio can access Tidal’s casting technology, which lets users stream music directly to connected devices in lossless audio quality. BluOS customers who are subscribers to Tidal’s HiFi tier are able to use the Tidal app as a controller.

MLB teamed with T-Mobile on a 5G-enabled event for a “bird’s-eye view," they said Monday. T-Mobile wireless 5G BatterCams mounted on players and coaches' caps will let customers feel what it’s like to be in the batter’s box, they said. An immersive view will be provided by 360-degree 5G cameras. The livestream will air before Tuesday's Game 1 of the World Series. The livestream will air before game one of the World Series on MLB.TV, MLB.com, Twitch, @MLB on Twitter, the Official MLB Facebook page, MLB VR on Oculus and T-Mobile’s Beyond the Bases page, they said.

Nielsen will start measuring YouTube viewership to help media buyers and sellers “better understand and verify audiences,” said the service Thursday. The initial phase will be enabled in the first half of 2021, beginning with YouTube TV and extending to the YouTube app on connected TVs in the U.S. shortly thereafter, it said. “TV is becoming more digital.” With more than three-quarters of U.S. homes owning at least one connected device and streaming accounting for 25% of total TV usage, the ratings tracker said “it's more important than ever to account for audiences across all platforms.”

SiriusXM is a standard feature in all BMW models sold in the U.S. beginning in model year 2021, said SiriusXM Wednesday. This extends the companies’ relationship through 2026 and also includes all Rolls-Royce models and BMW motorcycles. SiriusXM will be standard in Mini vehicles starting with 2022 models. BMW owners will receive a 12-month subscription to SiriusXM's All Access package with purchase or lease of a new vehicle.

Six TV makers with a majority share of the North American market joined in a “breakthrough agreement” with CTA, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy to develop and promote an “updated test method” for measuring TV energy use, they said Wednesday. They also agreed to work toward establishing “voluntary energy commitments” for new TVs sold in the U.S. and Canada, based on lab testing of a cross section of TVs using the new method. Voluntary programs can “adapt more quickly and flexibly than traditional regulation to accommodate rapid changes in technology and consumer demands," said CTA, NRDC, ACEEE and “manufacturer signatories” Funai, Hisense, LG, Samsung, TCL and Vizio. They agreed to develop a new test method “that better enables accurate, consistent evaluation of automatic brightness control, motion detection dimming, screen-average luminance and standby power of internet-connected TVs.” The agreement is "a promising step toward modernizing the approach to TV energy efficiency,” said Doug Johnson, CTA vice president-technology policy, in a statement. "By working together, we hope to develop an updated test method that better reflects the actual amount of electricity used by new televisions and find ways to bring down their national energy consumption,” said Noah Horowitz, NRDC senior scientist. How to measure TV energy use by up-to-date standards became a hotbed of contention three years ago when EPA announced it would deny Energy Star Version 8.0 certification to TVs found not to be comparably energy efficient when tested “with content that reflects a variety of typical viewing experiences” see 1709250043).

NCTA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) and various antitrust and economic scholars support Comcast's petition for writ of certiorari as it seeks to undo a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversal of a lower court's dismissal of antitrust claims against Comcast (see 2002260020). In Supreme Court docket 20-319 amicus briefs Tuesday, they urged the court to hear Comcast's appeal. Businesses should be able to refuse to deal with others if there's a rational, pro-competitive purpose, and the subjective balancing test adopted by the 7th Circuit would cost businesses certainty and have them face costly antitrust litigation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said. It and the other amicus filers said multiple other circuit courts have said refusals to deal with middlemen are predominantly pro-competitive. NCTA said the 7th Circuit decision starts out noting the pro-competitive benefits of advertising interconnects but then turns and expresses doubt about their legality, "interjecting irrelevant and mistaken dicta that underscore the decision’s clear legal errors." There are situations that might justify penalization of a monopolist's unilateral refusal to deal, but "this case is not one of them," seven antitrust and economic academics said. The 7th's decision is "out of step" with generally accepted academic views of the best route for antitrust enforcement, as it seems to accept at face value Viamedia's arguments that Comcast had a duty to deal with it. WLF said SCOTUS' 1985 Aspen Skiing decision, that ending a joint venture without a legitimate business reason could be a case of illegal monopolization, should be overruled, as it "remains an evergreen source of mischief for the lower courts."

Disney Music Group debuted a “dedicated destination” on Apple Music Friday with a collection of more than 30 playlists, plus “classic soundtracks” from the Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars franchises. Disney said it will feature Halloween themes at launch but will update the offering regularly.

Maine's law requiring prorating of refunds for canceled cable TV service alters the rates Charter Communications charges, at least for those subscribers who cancel partway through the month, U.S. District Judge Jon Levy of Portland said in an order last week (in Pacer, docket 20-cv-00168) denying motion by state Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) to dismiss Charter's suit challenging the law (see 2006030036). Levy said state arguments that the law is for customer service, and thus is permitted under the Cable Act, unlike rate regulation, would open the door to states regulating cable service rates under the guise of customer service requirements. The AG's Office didn't comment Friday.

MPA “vastly overstates the scope and breadth” of the exclusion order Philips seeks at the International Trade Commission on Hisense, LG and TCL smart TVs and Dell, HP and Lenovo PCs for allegedly infringing high-bandwidth digital content protection patents (see 2010060047), posted Philips Thursday (login required) in docket 337-3492. “Requested relief would not implicate all digital video-capable devices using any HDCP technology.” Philips conceded exclusion might hinder lawful distribution of 4K content to wider audiences. ITC action would affect only branded devices with “HDCP 2+," not the older HDCP 1.4 version, said Philips. “Conspicuously for an industry group representing content producers,” MPA “altogether fails to differentiate” between the two versions, it said. HDCP 1.4 “enables the secure distribution” of 1080p and 720p digital HD content, and HDCP 2+ does so for ultra HD, it said. It’s false that content producers would lose copyright protection of their content if an exclusion order is issued, the company said. Copyright owners “at worst” might lose the ability to distribute their 4K content to “as many potential consumers,” it said: There would be “no hindrance to such content owners distributing the very same content at a marginally lower resolution” in 720p or 1080p. Though 4K smart TVs and computing devices “may be common on the market now,” native “luxury content” for viewing 4K on those products “is not widely available,” it said. “UHD content still has not been widely distributed or adopted by content producers and consumers.” MPA didn’t respond to questions.