Roku bought distribution rights for Quibi's portfolio, the buyer announced Friday, as expected (see 2101040057). Founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg in 2018 and headed by former HP CEO Meg Whitman, Quibi shut in October (see report, Oct. 23 issue), six months after launching in the early days of the pandemic. Quibi subscriptions were $5 monthly with ads and $8 without. Roku will make the content available for free, with ads, within its Roku Channel.
Comscore is getting a $204 million cash infusion from Charter Communications, Qurate Retail and a Cerberus Capital Management affiliate in exchange for stock, it said Thursday evening. It said the funding will go in part to retiring debt. Charter will provide more access to consumer-level data sets.
Broadband and video subscribers of Charter Communications' Spectrum get an extended free trial of NBCUniversal's Peacock Premium streaming service, the companies said Thursday, announcing a multiyear distribution agreement. They said Charter is distributing the Peacock app via its Spectrum Guide platform.
Roku reached 51.2 million active accounts Dec. 31, up about 14 million for the year, it said Wednesday. Users streamed about 17 billion hours in Q4, bringing the total to 58.7 billion in 2020, a 55% year-on-year jump. The company said a third of U.S. households have left traditional pay-TV services.
ViacomCBS is adding 14 more networks to Hulu + Live TV in a multiyear deal, it said Monday, including BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and TV Land. It includes continued carriage of CBS stations, CBS Sports Network, CW, Showtime and others.
Cable One is rolling out an IP-based TV service, Sparklight TV, with cloud-based video programming starting in select markets early this year and across its footprint by year-end, it said Tuesday. It said the move from linear video to IPTV will free up network capacity to expand beyond its current gigabit broadband offering and open the door to 10 Gbps. It said Sparklight TV will include VOD, program restart and DVR capabilities.
Quibi didn't comment Monday on a Sunday report that it's in talks to sell its catalog to Roku. The short-form video service shut down in October after six months (see report in this publication, Oct. 23). Roku has been pushing into content with its ad-supported Roku Channel that offers movies and TV shows from others. A deal with Quibi would give Roku exclusive programming. A spokesperson emailed that Roku doesn’t comment on market speculation.
Charter Communications President-Chief Operating Officer John Bickham will transition to vice chairman sometime in the second half of next year at the request of Charter CEO Tom Rutledge, the company said Monday, announcing an amended employment agreement with Bickham. It said his employment will terminate at the end of 2022 when the agreement expires.
GCI Liberty and Liberty Broadband consummated their transaction that has GCI becoming part of a Liberty subsidiary (see 2008310050), GCI said in an FCC International Bureau notice of consummation filed Tuesday.
Stay-at-home viewing raised the profile of ad-supported VOD, a Parks Associates virtual conference was told last week. Acquisitions in AVOD including Pluto TV by ViacomCBS in 2019 (see 1903040002), Xumo by Comcast in February (see 2002250059) and Tubi by Fox in April (see 2004200070) raised the profile of the category, said Parks analyst Steve Nason. NBCUniversal further disrupted this space, launching the hybrid Peacock service first through its affiliate Comcast and with Cox customers, then broadly in July. Parks believes AVOD will continue to gain on subscription VOD services as they offer more exclusive content and other benefits. Among U.S. broadband households viewing AVOD in Q3, 9% watched Pluto TV, 8% The Roku Channel, 7% Tubi TV and 6% Peacock. Tubi got more engagement before the pandemic, said Vice President-Business Development Andrea Clarke-Hall. “The pandemic accelerated what was already happening.” Stefan Van Engen, Xumo senior vice president-content programming and partnerships, said fewer commercials and better overall user experience drive engagement. Ad targeting helps, said Henry Embleton, head-ad products and revenue at hybrid AVOD-SVOD anime streamer Crunchyroll.