ABI Research estimates more than 460 companies are in the hunt for the consumer and enterprise pieces of the virtual reality prize, the company said Tuesday in its inaugural “ecosystem tracker” report for the VR and 360-degree video markets. Broad market appeal for both consumer and enterprise VR will see the global market exceed $60 billion by 2021, and it's that projected market growth that will continue “to attract a wide variety of players,” ABI said. Apps, software, content distribution and “core technology” are “the most common business model,” accounting for more than 60 percent of the companies involved in VR, “roughly split evenly” between consumer and enterprise, it said. “VR is not 3D,” ABI said. “With first-generation hardware sales lower than expected, some industry professionals suggest parallels between VR and 3D, but the wealth of companies active in this space and deep-seeded belief in VR stand in marked contrast to the short-lived heyday of 3D.”

Imax and Warner Home Entertainment will develop and release three “premium” interactive virtual-reality “experiences” over the next three years under a “co-financing and production agreement,” the companies announced. One such experience a year will be developed, based on Warner’s “most highly anticipated upcoming blockbuster films,” including Justice League, Aquaman and a third project to be named later, they said. All the projects will debut at Imax VR Centres for “an exclusive window” before being released to other VR platforms, including in-home and mobile offerings, they said. Imax officially opened its “flagship” Imax VR Centre in Los Angeles Jan. 6 and plans to have a total of six “pilot locations” up and running throughout the world by midyear (see 1702240002).

Drake set a U.S. record for number of streams from a single album in one week, said Nielsen Monday. The rapper eclipsed his own record with 385 million streams of More Life, surpassing the previous record of 245 million streams set by his Views album, Nielsen said: More Life has sold 225,000 digital albums.

German disc replicator Sonopress recently joined the DVD Copy Control Association and Kaleidescape was one of six companies to withdraw, DVD CCA told DOJ and the FTC in simultaneous “written notifications” Feb. 24. That’s according to a notice published in Monday’s Federal Register by Patricia Brink, director-civil enforcement, in DOJ’s Antitrust Division. The change-of-membership notifications were required to extend DVD CCA members antitrust protections under the 1993 National Cooperative Research and Production Act, Brink’s notice said. Other companies withdrawing from DVD CCA, which licenses the DVD format’s Content Scramble System (CSS), were Azend Group, Datapulse Technology, DVS Korea, ESS Technology and Quanta Storage, the notice said. Kaleidescape nearly three years ago reached a settlement in the decade-long breach of license complaint brought by DVD CCA over Kaleidescape’s movie servers that import CSS-protected DVDs (see 1406040035). Kaleidescape representatives didn’t comment Monday on the DOJ notice.

Raycom Media said it reached a deal with AT&T U-Verse to restore its stations to U-Verse's lineup in 23 markets. Raycom CEO Pat LaPlatney said “we apologize to our viewers for this inconvenience, and appreciate their patience during the impasse.” In the past three years, the company successfully negotiated retransmission consent agreements with 99.5 percent of operators without service interruption, Raycom said in a Sunday news release. It previously said U-Verse service is far more prone to blackouts since AT&T bought DirecTV in 2015 (see 1703160002). On that Raycom assertion, an AT&T spokesman responded Monday that "no one providing a service to their customers ever wants to take it away. Broadcaster blackouts are a miserable symptom of a decrepit, twenty-five year old 'Cable Act.'" The telco-TV provider separately confirmed it reached a retrans deal with Raycom and said it looks "forward to a productive future relationship with Raycom that meets our customers’ greater expectations."

Ericsson and the FandangoNow on-demand video service are among five new Digital Entertainment Group member companies, the DEG announced Thursday.

The media industry needs a unified approach to digital media piracy, and ongoing consolidation of pay TV, telco and content owners might finally be the trigger that accomplishes that, said Irdeto Senior Vice President-Global Sales Bengt Jonsson in a blog post Thursday. Irdeto said over-the-top operators aren't feeling quite the same pains from piracy that studios are since OTT revenue comes from subscriptions, but piracy will hurt them in the long run because their original content also is a target. It called MovieLabs' Enhanced Content Protection specification of best practices "a great step in the right direction," and said there needs to be more effort across all platforms.

Consumers are in the “drivers’ seat” today, said 30-plus-year NPD veteran and newly tapped CEO Karyn Schoenbart in an email Thursday. Schoenbart, most recently chief operating officer, was named CEO Wednesday (see the personals section of the March 23 issue of this publication), succeeding Tod Johnson, who became executive chairman. With consumer priorities and shopping behavior evolving, NPD will continue to meet market needs, Schoenbart said. She cited the developing consumer preference for “experiences over things,” that’s leading to a proliferation of shopping alternatives. “The good news is that there is also a wealth of data available to help marketers understand and anticipate trends,” she said. On how NPD will adjust its tracking methodology to keep up with changing consumer buying habits, Schoenbart pointed to the NPD’s "Checkout Tracking" service that monitors the same consumers over time based on information from “millions of receipts” from both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. Checkout Tracking shows how shopping habits are changing over time and also allows NPD clients to “dig into how habits differ by demographic,” she said. That’s allowing NPD to understand the differences in shopping behavior between millennials and baby boomers, for instance. “It’s also key to understanding the shopping cadence, particularly during key times of year, like holiday,” she said. The tracking service complements NPD’s core data, she said. On possible acquisitions ahead in an industry that’s seen several mergers and acquisitions in recent years, Schoenbart said NPD is generally focused on organic growth but will look to acquisitions “when there is an opportunity to fill in gaps and strengthen our existing portfolio.” She gave as an example NPD’s recent purchase of Nielsen’s U.S. book business and videogames research provider Eedar to “broaden and deepen our expertise.” NPD provides sales tracking and analytics for more than 20 industries in addition to consumer electronics.

Intel inked a deal with Turner Sports, CBS Sports and the NCAA for a multiyear partnership to provide its virtual reality technology to NCAA Division I Men’s basketball championship games, it announced Wednesday. It will live-stream in VR through premium ticket options via an NCAA app. Intel 360 replay technology will be featured during CBS Sports and Turner Sports coverage of the games on CBS.

That TV programmers are starting an advanced audience measurement platform "is a very positive development for the industry" and for comScore, wrote that company's Chief Financial Officer David Chemerow. The “OpenAP” open audience platform unveiled last week by Fox Networks Group, Time Warner's Turner and Viacom (see 1703150057) shows "the industry will move swiftly in the direction of advanced currencies," Chemerow wrote Wednesday. "This announcement also provides validation that the industry is increasingly accepting of the notion of multiple currencies for transacting on TV/video inventory." Representatives for the programmers didn't comment further Wednesday.