Disney should continue investing in Hulu when it takes majority control of the streaming service since Hulu can be the bridge to Disney's direct-to-consumer future, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Monday. Hulu can help direct consumers to Disney's coming DTC offerings, such as by offering ESPN+ as a Hulu premium add-on when that service launches in 2019, he said. But keeping Hulu going won't be easy, since minority owner Comcast may come to see Disney as a competitor rather than a partner and a big challenge for Disney will be keeping the MVPD and other content providers from pulling their programming from Hulu, he said. Disney didn't comment Tuesday.

AT&T may not stumble integrating Time Warner's HBO as part of buying TW, Needham & Co.'s Laura Martin told Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten. Asked by the TPI head on a podcast if AT&T is "going to be able to work with HBO," the board member of the group replied yes: But "there are going to be big cultural differences. The culture at Time Warner was very much autonomous, autonomy. I think AT&T is a little more buttoned up and centralized." Offsetting that is that AT&T reportedly wants "to give HBO more money to have more series," she continued. "That’s a good idea." She noted HBO spends about $3 billion in the U.S. on content annually, versus Netflix's $12 billion globally. "It’s fair to say Netflix is becoming a dominant member of the content creation community," spending more than CBS, Disney and NBC combined, the analyst said in a taping July 17 emailed Monday night. "By that definition, they are definitely a dominant player in the content creation business. When you look at Emmys, and they just did surpass HBO for the first time I think in seven years. ... So you would hope that if you spend four times as much that you can have just as many Emmys." Netflix was nominated for 112, HBO for 108, Wallsten and Martin said. What "remains to be seen" is whether the streaming video provider can form a culture that encourages high-quality content creation, Martin said. "These cultures that hold on for long periods of time to the most talented people are just really rarefied air in terms of being hands off and hands on simultaneously, and having a lot of creative people around to rub shoulders with and collaborate with. So Netflix has to prove out that it can create and maintain a studio system so people are on the payroll." HBO's spending of $2 billion to $3 billion annually on content is for what it makes in or for the U.S. and sells worldwide, Martin told us Tuesday. The unit was part of TW before the parent's sale to AT&T. Netflix's $12 billion of spending forecast for 2018 includes money for local content in the U.S., France and Latin America, she said. Also Tuesday, AT&T and Netflix didn't comment.

AMC Networks, boosting a February bid, agreed to buy over-the-top programmer RLJ Entertainment in a deal worth about $274 million, with OK of RLJ founder-Chairman Robert Johnson, who with affiliates will own 17 percent. RLJ's Acorn TV, with British and international content, and UMC -- or Urban Movie Channel, the first subscription VOD service for African-Americans -- have about 800,000 subscribers total, AMC said Monday. The companies in 2016 formed a partnership with the bigger cable programmer investing $65 million. The takeover “furthers AMC Networks’ digital strategy by meaningfully accelerating our interests in direct-to-consumer ad-free subscription services that we own and control, in addition to providing us with access to strong IP as we continue to diversify our revenue opportunities," said AMC CEO Josh Sapan.

Disney and 21st Century Fox stockholders approved Disney’s buy of Fox nonbroadcast assets (see 1806270032) Friday, the companies said. The proposals included adopting the agreement to combine and the deal to spin off the new Fox company containing Fox’s regional sports networks, they said. "Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of non-U.S. merger and other regulatory reviews, and other customary closing conditions."

Comcast will likely end up Sky's buyer, but at a significant premium after more bidding by Disney, The Diffusion Group's Rob Silvershein blogged Tuesday. TDG said Disney is unlikely to walk away and build its European streaming presence from scratch, and Comcast's forcing Disney to spend to bid up the Fox entertainment assets points to there not being a backroom deal to split Fox assets. The analyst said Disney likely sees winning the Sky bidding as pushing a big rival out of the European streaming market. The cable operator needs Sky more than Disney does, needing a European footprint, he said: Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' bidding war was a smart gamble since the higher price Disney is paying limits its ability to counter an aggressive Comcast offer for Sky. Disney didn't comment Wednesday.

The merits of DOJ's appeal arguing a district judge rejected fundamental economic principles in approving AT&T buying Time Warner (see 1807180064) are tough to see, blogged American Enterprise Institute Adjunct Scholar Bronwyn Howell Wednesday. She said the economic models DOJ relied on have value only when they mirror the real world, but U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon found them based on implausible assumptions. She said the video distribution market, aswarm with aggregators and content providers, is very different from the traditional reseller market Justice relied on and "does not lend itself to a single one-size-fits-all bargaining approach." No matter how "beautiful" or partially correct it is, it won't help if circumstances the model reflects aren't prevailing ones, Howell wrote.

Regulators have been "perplexing[ly]" silent on hidden fees in ISP bills "even though just about everything to do with these fees is deceptive," CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Wednesday. He said use of such unadvertised add-on fees lets ISPs disguise the true price of services and disguise rate increases while they also put price pressure on competitors. An example of such hidden fees is with Comcast and its broadcast TV, regional sports, set-top box and HD fees and charges, all of which together can add $25 a month to the advertised price of cable or broadband service, he said. Comcast says such fees are fully disclosed to consumers, but "one has to read some truly fine print on their web site" to understand they come atop the advertised pricing, he said. Comcast didn't comment.

An FCC-designated database of reassigned phone numbers, backed with safe harbor protections for those using it, would reduce the unwanted communications consumers get and the time and effort wasted by businesses mistakenly calling or texting those numbers, Comcast told aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr, said a docket 17-59 filing, posted Thursday. The meeting was the latest Comcast support for the reassigned number database proposal (see 1807110022 and 1806080047).

Thirty percent of Netflix subscribers were in the premium tier earlier this year -- viewing on up to four screens with access to Ultra HD content -- up from 21 percent in late 2017, said Parks Associates Thursday. Subscriptions to Netflix’s basic tier, limited to one screen of viewing and standard-definition quality, dropped from 35 percent to 27 percent, reflecting an industry shift, said the researcher. Many over-the-top-subscribing households “have multiple people who want to watch similar content at the same time,” said Parks' Brett Sappington. “Rather than competing for access, consumers are willing to pay extra for the convenience of multiple streams.” Demand for Ultra HD content is “small, but increasing," the analyst added. Netflix said Monday it "over-forecasted" net subscribers for Q2 (see 1807170002).

Sling TV and DirecTV Now subscriber gains, plus new virtual MVPD services like Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV, should drive virtual MVPD revenue from an estimated $2.82 billion this year to more than $7.77 billion by 2022, Kagan said Wednesday. It said the virtual MVPD market, though new, should succeed through its presentation of alternatives to traditional MVPDs. That shift to virtual MVPDs has "significant revenue implications" given the sizably lower average revenue per user rates the virtuals charge, it said. Legacy MVPDs could revisit skinny bundles at competitive prices, using their existing customer relationships to undercut virtual providers, it said.