Warner Bros. Discovery's joint streaming service combining HBO Max and Discovery+ will launch in spring 2023 rather than the summer, CEO David Zaslav said last week as the company announced Q3 results. The programmer at the same time will focus less on being streaming-primary, he said. He said the strategy of focusing on subscriber numbers at the expense of theatrical and linear TV results "and spend[ing] money with abandon, while making a fraction in return in the service of growing sub numbers, has ultimately proven to be deeply flawed." Discovery said ad revenue was down 11% globally year over year, partly due to macroeconomic conditions. Shares closed Friday at $10.41, down 13%.

Citing macroeconomic headwinds, Paramount Global is cutting costs and anticipating a Q3 decline in advertising revenue to continue in Q4. In a call with analysts Wednesday as the company announced Q3 financial results, CEO Bob Bakish and Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra said cost-cutting steps underway include reorganizing the Showtime networks, focusing marketing resources and spending on segments with high growth potential, and streamlining its ad sales. Bakish said Paramount+ added 4.6 million new subscribers in the quarter, for a total subscriber base of 46 million. He said year-over-year Paramount+ revenue was up 95%, and total sub base for its various direct-to-consumer services is close to 67 million. He said Paramount+ became available in Italy during the quarter, with Germany, Austria and Switzerland following later this year. Bakish said the Sky Showtime joint venture with Comcast launched during the quarter in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and involving Paramount and NBCUniversal content is a route for going after smaller markets. Chopra said Paramount+ and Pluto TV combined had ad revenue growth of 4%, and would have done better if not for the economy. "Growth will reaccelerate" once the digital ad marketplace rebounds, he said. Chopra said Paramount expects "healthy" streaming subscriber growth in Q4 due to content and new market launches. He said it expects to exceed its full-year direct-to-consumer subscriber growth expectation of 75 million globally. Bakish said it would likely see in Q4 the same 2% overall decline in ad revenues it did in Q3. Revenue for the quarter was $6.92 billion, up 5% year over year. Paramount closed Wednesday at $16.79, down 12.42%.

Spanish-language movie producer Carlos Vasallo turned down use of YouTube's copyright management tools but is now trying to force the service to provide a nonexistent version of Content ID tailored to his preferences, defendants Google and YouTube told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Monday in an answer to an amended copyright infringement complaint by Vasallo's Athos Overseas. The defendants in docket 1:21-cv-21698 said Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbors protect them from infringement claims. They said by not requesting the removal from YouTube of allegedly infringing content, Vasallo and Athos failed to mitigate damages. Counsel for the plaintiffs didn't comment Tuesday.

Amazon expanded the menu for Prime members, announcing Tuesday they have access via Amazon Music to 100 million songs -- up from 2 million -- in shuffle mode, ad-free and at no additional cost to their membership. The company raised the price of a Prime membership in February to $14.99 a month from $12.99, or $139 a year, from $119. Users can shuffle play any artist, album or playlist, plus stream a selection of All-Access playlists on demand, it said. Prime members can also access what Amazon said is the largest catalog of “ad-free top podcasts," plus ones premiering globally exclusively on Amazon Music. The streaming audio service added a Podcast Previews feature, allowing listeners to sample a “soundbite” from a podcast episode to make it easier to discover new content. Amazon Music Unlimited ($8.99 a month) steps up users to on-demand access to albums, playlists and over 100 million songs in HD, along with songs in Ultra HD and spatial audio.

A 14-day blackout of 13 local Nexstar stations in 10 markets and of its NewsNation cable news network on Verizon FiOS is over, with the sides reaching a multiyear distribution agreement, they said Friday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that Nevada's Video Service Law (VSL) doesn't allow Reno to seek a private right of action as it tries to get video franchise fees from streaming services Netflix and Hulu. In the opinion (docket 21-16560), Judges Susan Graber, Michelle Friedland and Lucy Koh said they wouldn't address the parties' disagreement over the meaning of "video service provider" under VSL "because it is clear that Reno lacks a cause of action under both the VSL and the Declaratory Judgment Act." Oral argument was in September (see 2209190055).

Pivotal Research Group raised Netflix to a “buy” from “sell,” analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote investors Wednesday. PRG increased its subscriber forecast from 5.5 million to 15 million on what it believes will be a successful conversion of “effective pirates” to paying subscribers, plus short-term subscriber benefits of launching its ad-supported service next week. Wlodarczak is concerned about “consumer churn” down to $7 ad-supported tiers, “particularly in a recession,” though that isn’t likely to be an issue until second-half 2023, he said. The analyst views competitor price hikes as “fundamentally positive.” Despite growing competition in the streaming video space, Netflix “provides the most unique and powerful streaming experience globally” and has the opportunity to accelerate subscriber growth over the next year, he said. Wlodarczak expects co-CEO Reed Hastings to “look to sell” the streaming service as early as 2024.

The FCC should reexamine its proportional allocation of indirect full-time equivalents in the assessment of regulatory fees, said NAB comments responding to the agency’s notice of inquiry in docket 22-301. “Rather than assuming the work performed by all the noncore bureaus and offices of the Commission is so cross-cutting that it cannot be meaningfully disaggregated,” the FCC should examine whether those functions correspond to the way indirect costs are allocated, NAB said. The FCC's current division between indirect and direct FTEs is “too general to be a reasonably accurate proxy for the assignment of Commission work,” the Satellite Industry Association said. “Splitting all FTEs into direct and indirect FTEs based on whether they are assigned to a ‘core’ or ‘non-core’ bureau is an oversimplification.” The agency could assign indirect FTEs for noncore offices to the bureaus they largely support, or create a hybrid, “intersectional FTE,” the SIA said. NAB also called for the FCC to reexamine the Media Bureau FTEs working on broadband matters. “Regulatees in the other core bureaus also benefit from the Commission’s broadband work,” said NAB. “It would be inconsistent with the Commission’s methodology to not require such regulatees to share in the cost.” ACA Connects said the FCC should be cautious about altering the regulatory fee system. The system isn’t perfect, but it works, said the MVPD group. “As part of such an evaluation, the Commission should be guided by a bureaucratic Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm.”

An item on tentative noncommercial educational FM station selections was an order, and was approved by the full FCC (see 2210260031).

An online survey to collect data for an FCC content vendor diversity report could be “simple, easy, and non-burdensome,” said Fuse in a call with Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Media Bureau staff Monday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 22-209 (see 2207260003). Fuse demonstrated a prototype survey portal for the bureau during the call, the filing said. The sample survey has drop-down menus to record licensees and distributors and a box to sign certifying under penalty of perjury that “every content vendor listed in response to this survey has been contacted by my organization by email or certified mail with the following message: 'The Federal Communications Commission requests that you complete the Content Vendor Diversity Report Survey.'” Even if some vendors wouldn’t respond or responded incorrectly “the resulting information nevertheless would be better than what the Commission has today in this area (i.e., nothing),” the filing said.