Paramount Global management is pulling the right levers toward 2024 growth, such as cutting costs in its linear TV business and focusing on streaming average revenue per user, Deutsche Bank's Bryan Kraft said in a note Thursday. The company announced Q4 2023 earnings after the market's close Wednesday. Kraft also applauded management's focus on "leveraging Paramount's best content to the nth degree." The carriage agreement between Paramount and Charter Communications likely expires this year, and a deal that includes Paramount+ access for Charter cable's subscribers -- similar to the Charter/Disney agreement (see 2309110034) -- could boost Paramount+ subscriber count, Kraft said. In addition, it could help Paramount+'s churn and advertising revenue. Paramount said Paramount+ in Q4 reached 67.5 million subscribers and should be profitable domestically in 2025. It said streaming revenue, at $1.87 billion in Q4, rose from $1.4 billion the same quarter a year prior. A soft advertising market globally hurt TV revenue -- $5.2 billion for the quarter, down $700 million year over year -- Paramount said.

Fox News, ESPN and MSNBC are exempt from FCC audio description rules governing the top-five national nonbroadcast networks, the FCC Media Bureau said in an order in Thursday's Daily Digest. The three provide less than 50 hours per quarter of prime-time programming that isn't live or near-live, the bureau said. Effective July 1, the top-five national nonbroadcast networks subject to the audio description requirements will be: HGTV, Hallmark, TLC, TNT and TBS, it added.

Streaming-related revenue will surpass pay-TV subscription revenue in the U.S. this year, Ampere Analysis blogged Monday. That tipping point comes as streaming continues growing and traditional pay TV declines. In addition, the value of pay TV in 2028 is expected to be half of the value of its 2017 peak, Ampere said. Streaming subs overtook pay-TV subs in 2016 in the U.S., but streaming has far lower average revenue per user, meaning streaming revenue is only now catching up, it said. Ampere said streaming revenue benefited recently from password-sharing crackdowns and hybrid advertising tiers.

Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming business "made the turn," generating a $100 million profit in 2023, Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said Friday as the company announced Q4 2023 financial results. This "will be a pivotal year for Max," he said, pointing to relaunches and rebranding in European and Latin American markets in the next few months. Wiedenfels said Max finished Q4 at close to 98 million subscribers, with more than 1 million international subs added in Q4 more than offsetting smaller U.S. declines. CEO David Zaslav said Max's ad-supported offering, available in the U.S. only, will debut in more than 40 markets globally by year's end. Asked about the forthcoming sports streaming joint venture with ESPN and Fox (see 2402070006), Zaslav said it should "coexist" with its cable networks. "We don't see a lot of people unsubscribing to cable in order to get this," he said. The target audience are cord-nevers, Zaslav added. Q4 revenue was $10.3 billion, down from $11 billion the same quarter a year ago. Wiedenfels said network revenue was off 8% in Q4 due to a soft U.S. linear advertising market. In addition, he said Q1 is showing improvement, with domestic ad sales rising. The company said TV revenue was down "significantly" due in large part to the impact of the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes.

California's 2nd Appellate District Court upheld a lower court's dismissal of a Lancaster, California, suit seeking video service provider franchise fees from Netflix and Hulu (see 2112230003). In an opinion last week, a three-judge panel said the state's Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act lets local governments sue a franchise holder for unpaid franchise fees, but it doesn't authorize their seeking franchise fees from non-franchise holders. The state Public Utilities Commission and not Lancaster is responsible for enforcing issues related to the issuance of a video service franchise, the appellate court said. Deciding were Judges Luis Lavin, Lee Smalley Edmon and Anne Egerton, with Lavin writing the decision.

Walmart is buying smart TV maker Vizio for $2.3 billion, the companies announced Tuesday. They said the deal would serve as a boost to the retailer's media business by connecting Vizio's advertising solutions business to Walmart's reach. Walmart Chief Revenue Officer Seth Dallaire said the deal "enables a profitable advertising business that is rapidly scaling. Our media business, Walmart Connect, is helping brands create meaningful connections with the millions of customers who shop with us each week.” In an X post, LightShed Management's Rich Greenfield said Walmart "is taking its advertising business, Walmart Connect, very seriously (advertising was mentioned 47 times over calendar 2023’s four earnings calls)." Later he posted, "Advertising, and specifically the TV advertising market is poised for meaningful disruption, with Walmart now chasing Amazon which has just turned on ads within Prime Video." The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

ACA Connects is applauding a DOJ antitrust investigation into the ESPN/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming joint venture (see 2402070006). "This is exactly what should happen," ACA said Thursday. "It’s anticompetitive for the biggest media players to join forces while locking out traditional linear video providers, including our Members from offering the same packages at the same prices. Fans deserve a level playing field in the sports media landscape without the threat of these giants controlling the marketplace and jacking up prices.” Bloomberg reported the investigation.

The proposed $150,000 fine for Mission Broadcasting's alleged retransmission consent negotiation violations (see 2401120069) is unreasonably large, and the violation finding is wrong, Mission said Tuesday. In a docket 22-443 response to the FCC Media Bureau's notice of apparent liability, Mission said the NAL focuses on Nexstar-proposed language for inclusion in an agreement to settle litigation with Comcast, not for a retrans consent agreement. It said the proposed forfeiture is in excess of the bureau's delegated authority and should be $7,500 at most. In addition, Nexstar said the NAL "is procedurally improper, prejudicial, and unsupported by the facts or the law." It added that the NAL claims it doesn't address allegations against Nexstar, but Comcast's allegations concerned Nexstar's conduct as Mission's negotiating representative for WPIX New York. Nexstar said the bureau "impermissibly prejudges" allegations against it that supposedly remain under investigation. Treating the settlement proposal that was quickly rejected as a continuing violation over a period of days is unreasonable and not factually supported, Nexstar said.

The FCC on Friday posted a Disability Advisory Committee report, approved last month and written by the Audio Description File Transmittal to IP Video Programming Working Group (see 2401300051). Members of the WG discussed the report in detail at last month's DAC meeting. The report said it’s “not intended to be an exhaustive discussion of issues related to the distribution of already-described programming, but instead provides a high-level overview of the current ecosystem and highlights technical, human, and organizational process challenges and opportunities to address them.” The report was posted in docket 12-107.

Thirty-three percent of U.S. viewers share passwords or the cost of at least one streaming service, Horowitz Research said in its annual state of media report. In addition, 49% of that one-third worry about a password-sharing crackdown, it said. The data comes from 1,531 online samples of adults who have a role in decisions about TV and internet services in the home, plus a sample of 400 antenna owners.