Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Monday he's unconcerned that the Fox/ESPN/Warner Bros. Discovery streaming joint venture (see 2402070006) could face regulatory challenges. At a Morgan Stanley conference Monday, he said the JV is "pro-consumer" and focused on an audience segment of cord cutters and cord nevers not currently served. The pricing will be "at the higher ranges" of estimates that have floated around and should have 5 million subscribers within five years, said Murdoch. He said over time the streaming platform could add capabilities such as betting.

Fubo will launch a free tier later this year, and it sees the streaming platform turning profitable in 2025. In a call Friday with analysts as Fubo announced its Q4 2023 financial results, CEO David Gandler said the company was in "a duel to the death" with the forthcoming ESPN/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming joint venture (see 2402070006). Fubo fielded numerous analyst questions during the call about its lawsuit against the JV (see 2402210007). Gandler called the JV "just the latest example of the sports cartels' attempt to block and steal Fubo's vision of what a sports streaming bundle should look like, resulting in billions of dollars in damages to our business." The defendants' "pernicious contractual terms and other anticompetitive practices [are] borderline racketeering," he said, adding that those programmers have charged Fubo 30% to 50% more for content than other distributors, while also forcing it to take content it doesn't want. He said the forthcoming free tier will include the nearly 160 free, ad-supported channels the streamer has launched since 2022. Fubo reported Q4 2023 revenue of $401 million, up from $312 million a year earlier, and 1.54 million North American subscribers, an increase from 1.4 million in Q4 2022.

New Jersey's Cable TV Act (CTA) doesn't imply a right of action for municipalities on their own to enforce the law's fee provision, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said last week. The decision was in response to an appeal by Longport and Irvington, which are seeking to charge cable franchise fees to streamers Netflix and Hulu -- an effort a lower court rejected in 2022 on grounds it violates the CTA (see 2205230028). In a docket 22-2139 opinion, a 3rd Circuit panel said there's no evidence the state legislature intended to create a private right of action for municipalities, as it expressly gave all enforcement authority to the state Board of Public Utilities. Deciding were Judges Michael Fisher, Jane Roth and Patty Shwartz, with Roth penning the decision.

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.