There’s “much work to be done” in Warner Bros. Discovery’s plans to roll out HBO Max and Discovery+ as a “new combined offering under a single brand,” said Jean-Briac Perrette, president-CEO, global streaming and games, on a Q2 earnings call Thursday. “We are determined to get it right, which will take a bit of time,” he said. His team has developed a clear road map to migrate HBO Max and Discovery+ “onto one tech stack” that overcomes the “shortcomings” of both services, he said. HBO Max “has a competitive feature set, but has had performance and customer issues,” while Discovery+ “has best-in-class performance and consumer ratings, but more limited features,” he said. The combined service will launch in the U.S. next summer, and Latin America will follow later in 2023. European markets with HBO Max will launch in early 2024, with “key Asia Pacific territories” coming later in 2024, he said. “This idea of expensive films going direct to streaming, we cannot find an economic case for it,” said CEO David Zaslav on the decision to cancel this year’s HBO Max release of the $90 million feature film Batgirl. “We’ve been out in the town talking about our commitment to the theatrical exhibition and the theatrical window,” said Zaslav. “Our focus will be on theatrical, and when we bring the theatrical films to HBO Max, we find they have substantially more value.”

Increased VOD service competition is leading to an ongoing decline in average daily playtime per user per service, NPAW said in a streaming video industry report Thursday. Playtime was down 11% in the first half of 2022 vs. the same six-month span in 2021, and that came after a 9% drop between 2021 and 2020, it said. In North America, average daily playtime per user per service went from 90 minutes in first half of 2021 to 75 minutes in that time frame this year. Linear TV consumption per user per service was down 18% in 1H of 2022 vs. 1H 2021, with the drop particularly pronounced in Latin America and the Pacific, it said. In North America, the average daily linear TV playtime per user per service went from 76 minutes to 72 minutes, it said. The streaming linear TV decline also seems to be the result of increased competition, it said. It said such events as the Winter Olympics and the closing of the season for some major sports leagues juiced streaming sports viewing. H1 2022 saw a 12% jump in average daily playtime per user per service for VOD over the same period last year, while linear consumption was up 13%, it said.

U.S. District Judge John Bailey in Wheeling, West Virginia, granted class-action status to a Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint against DirecTV. In a docket 5:17-CV-179 order Monday, Bailey said the plaintiffs’ claims "are easily susceptible to resolution on a classwide basis" and if any damages issues require individual inquiry, the damage issues can be bifurcated. The complaint claims DirecTV is vicariously liable for actions of telemarketing firm AC1, which was selling DirecTV subscriptions. Per the order, the class is anyone in the U.S. who had a telephone number on the Do-Not-Call Registry and who received more than one telemarketing call within any 12-month period at any time from AC1 to promote the sale of DirecTV. DirecTV didn't comment Tuesday.

Despite its “precipitous share decline," FuboTV is “focusing on the right things within its control,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Tuesday. The virtual MVPD's subscriber growth is continuing “at a rapid pace,” it raised prices to cushion itself against rising content costs, and marketing spend is “trending in the right direction” as the company focuses on “the lifetime value of customers acquired, rather than growing its subscribers at any cost." But factors outside the company’s control are likely to limit near-term growth, said the analyst, slashing Wedbush’s 12-month price target from $9 to $6. Shares were trading at $2.61 midday Tuesday. FuboTV’s full-year guidance of $220 million-$225 million is “at risk” due to macroeconomic headwinds, said Pachter, saying the company's average revenue per user target of $15-$20 could be “years away.” FuboTV reports Q2 earnings Thursday.

Pivotal Research Group snipped $5 off its target price for Spotify, to $105, while reiterating a “hold” rating on the stock, analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote investors Thursday. Wlodarczak sees “material user growth” left for the streaming audio company but said many investors question whether Spotify “will ever be able to generate significant lasting profitability,” given the power of music labels and that its "two main competitors are not necessarily focused on profitable growth.” Additional risks are possible content cost inflation; 90% of Spotify’s largest cost item -- music programming -- controlled by three or four players; “controversial podcast content could translate into lost subscribers or music"; recession; and “streaming growth could slow sooner than we anticipate.”

To help YouTube creators moderate comments on their content, the video hosting platform blogged Tuesday that it has given creators a new optional comments setting, "increase strictness," to help catch more spam or potentially inappropriate comments. It said those comments are held for review in YouTube Studio, giving creators the chance to approve, remove or report them. It said it has updated YouTube Studio so comments potentially considered more hurtful are put in a separate, hidden section of the held for review tab, letting creators ignore them completely if they choose. It said it also has started putting out channel guidelines letting creators communicate what is and isn't allowed in their comments section.

Wedbush expects Roku to announce 800,000 net active account additions for Q2, an increase of 1.3% sequentially, when the streaming media platform company announces quarterly results Thursday, said analyst Michael Pachter in a Tuesday investor note. That would be the lowest sequential or annual account growth for Q2 since 2016, owing to supply chain disruptions and lower TV demand, Pachter said. Despite lower overall viewership as people spend more time outside the home, plus cuts to streaming subscriptions, Q2 advertising budgets continued to migrate toward streaming platforms, he said. In Q1 the top 10 broadcast TV advertisers spent about 80% more on Roku than in the year-ago quarter and 7% less on legacy TV, a trend he expects to carry through the year. “There is significant room left for domestic growth since streaming platforms currently capture around 46% of U.S. audience TV viewing time, but only receive 18% of advertisers’ TV ad budgets, said the analyst. Roku continues to invest heavily in global expansion, while securing partnerships to bolster its ad-supported Roku Channel offering, Pachter noted: “While Roku’s share price has been penalized for its reduced profitability, we think Roku’s investments are prudent and will pay off over the long-term.” Shares fell 7.9% Tuesday to close at $79.87.

The Fox Nation direct-to-consumer subscription VOD service is now available on FuboTV, Fox National President Jason Klarman announced Thursday. The $5.99 monthly SVOD service includes Fox’s original news and entertainment series plus prime-time shows on demand the next day. Subscribers can access Fox Nation on the FuboTV app on smart TVs, smartphones, tablets and the web.

Household penetration of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services has doubled in the past year, Comcast Advertising said Thursday. Six in 10 households with connected TVs are using FAST services exclusively or in addition to other services "without the costs or logins required for linear TV or paid streaming," it emailed, saying FAST gives consumers streaming video with “linear-style channels” that encourage a lean-back experience and content discovery “that mimics traditional TV viewing." Comcast said the average Xumo user spends about 104 minutes within the Comcast-owned platform once she has entered. Many consumers may be landing on FAST channels without realizing it, since many are programmed directly into the channel guide by TV manufacturers, Comcast said. Some 70% of Xumo users are cord cutters, using the service as a complement to subscription VOD services, the company said. Comcast Advertising President James Rooke called FAST services a “valuable complement to traditional TV and other [advertising-based] VOD streaming options as part of a holistic multi-screen media plan.”

There appears to be conditional acceptance among Netflix subscribers in the U.S. of the company’s plans to explore launching a lower-priced ad-supported VOD tier, reported Simon-Kucher Thursday. The marketing consultant canvassed 1,000 U.S. consumers in April and May, and among Netflix subscribers in that group, more than three-quarters said they would keep their accounts if Netflix introduces an AVOD tier, said the consultant. For 14% of the sample, acceptance of Netflix’s move into advertising was conditioned on the expectation of no price increases for at least a year, it said. Netflix plans to debut its AVOD offering in early 2023, starting in countries with more "mature" ad markets, said the company this week (see 2207200001).