Several activist groups urged AT&T to remove One America News Network from its DirecTV lineup. In a letter Monday, Free Press, Common Cause, Media Matters for America, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and 12 others said they were "deeply disturbed to learn that AT&T helped establish and fund OAN, a purveyor of racial bigotry, conspiracy theories and calls for anti-democratic violence that endanger lives." AT&T emailed that it “has never had a financial interest in OAN’s success and does not ‘fund’ OAN. CNN is the only news network we fund because it’s a part of AT&T." It said OAN founder Robert Herring "pressured us for months to carry OAN," when it acquired DirectTV in 2015, "We declined to do so and in response, Herring Networks sued. Only as a result of the settlement of that lawsuit did DIRECTV consent to a commercial carriage agreement with OAN. DIRECTV does not dictate or control programming on the channels it carries, and any suggestion otherwise is wrong. The decision of whether to renew the carriage agreement upon its expiration will be up to DIRECTV, which is now a separate company outside of AT&T.”
On the contrary, Dish Network is the one that delayed and obstructed negotiations with Tegna, refusing to engage with its proposal, the broadcaster told the FCC Friday in a docket 21-413 answer and good-faith negotiations cross complaint in response to the MVPD's October complaint (see 2110180033). Dish's negotiation tactics "have made it a leader in retransmission consent disputes, with more than 200 'blackouts' in the past year alone," Tegna said. Dish said Tegna's answer and cross-complaint "is meritless and riddled with mischaracterizations and falsehoods," omitting that the TV-station owner didn't respond to Dish's proposal for close to six weeks before doing so three days before the agreement's expiration. It said Tegna communications "have been inconsistent, dilatory, and its offers repeatedly unreasonable."
ViacomCBS streaming audiences are growing rapidly, but so are its streaming content expenses, the company said Thursday, announcing Q3 results. CEO Bob Bakish said streaming content expenses will be double in 2021 what they were in 2020, and continue to grow to $5 billion by 2024. Overall revenue rose 13% year over year, to $6.6 billion. Streaming revenue topped $1 billion in the quarter for the first time, with a 62% increase. Global streaming subscribers exceeded 46 million, adding 4.3 million in the quarter. Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra said pay subscriber additions will be higher in Q4, due to demand for Paramount+ content. Bakish said a deal announced with T-Mobile, where every T-Mobile postpaid customer gets a free year of Paramount+ Essential, is part of the strategy of exposing consumers to Paramount+ as its content is ramped up. He said Pluto TV's lunch in Italy last week was part of the that service's international expansion, and Paramount+ will launch next year in the U.K. and Germany and be in 45 markets globally by end of 2022. ViacomCBS stock closed at $35.90, down 4.4%.
FuboTV's gaming platform launched Wednesday in Iowa, said Fubo Gaming. The company has market access agreements in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey and Arizona and expects to announce additional markets through 2022, subject to regulatory approvals. Legalized U.S. sports betting revenue is expected to grow from $2.1 billion this year to $10.1 billion in 2028, said the company, citing Gabelli and Census Bureau statistics.
Penguin Random House's acquisition of ViacomCBS' Simon & Schuster would give Penguin, already the world's largest book publisher, "outsized influence" over what's published in the U.S. and what authors are paid, DOJ said Tuesday in a Clayton Act antitrust complaint (docket 21-cv-02886) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to block the transaction. ViacomCBS said in an SEC filing the Simon & Schuster purchase agreement includes commitments by Penguin to defend any litigation that would prevent the deal, as well as a termination fee to ViacomCBS if the transaction doesn't close for regulatory reasons. ViacomCBS, named as a defendant in the suit, said the Justice allegations "are without merit and [it] intend[s] to defend against them vigorously." The $2.2 billion purchase was announced a year ago.
Podcast listening has become mainstream in the U.S. in “surprisingly rapid fashion,” with more than half of digital audio listeners accessing podcasts this year, said eMarketer. Some 40% of internet users in the U.S., 117.8 million, listen monthly, followed by Sweden, home to Spotify, at 34.6%. The analytics firm cited the “enormous” library of U.S.-supplied podcast content.
ViacomCBS is buying a majority of Spanish-language content company Fox TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico from Disney and the founding family, it said Thursday. Viacom said it will run Fox TeleColombia as "a collaborative partnership" with the founding family (see personals section of this issue). It said the deal gives it access to Fox TeleColombia studio operations in Columbia and Mexico and the company's content library, with the content to be used on the Paramount+ and Pluto TV streaming services and on Viacom linear networks globally. ViacomCBS also is buying AT&T's Chilevision (see 2104050031).
After COVID-19 “choppiness” in the first half, Spotify grew monthly active users by 19% year on year to 381 million in Q3, said CEO Daniel Ek on a Wednesday quarterly call. Revenue grew 27% to $2.9 billion, led by premium subscriber revenue, said a shareholder letter. Ek said linear radio has 46% share of U.S. audio listening, “despite consumption shifting steadily away from it.” Shares closed 8.3% higher at $273.13.
About 71% of U.S. TV households have a live pay-TV service, down from 82% five years ago and 87% a decade ago, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. Thirty-seven percent of TVs in use have a traditional pay-TV provider’s set-top box, down from 58% in 2016. Live pay-TV viewing skews older, with 77% of viewers over 45 years old having a pay-TV service vs. 64% 18-44, LRG said. Forty-one percent of adults who moved in the past year don’t have a pay-TV service, higher than in previous years; 30% of nonsubscribers had a pay-TV service within the past three years; and 34% never had one. Just over a third of renters don’t have a pay-TV service, vs. a quarter of homeowners, LRG said. A quarter of adults agree it's OK to use a friend’s log-in passwords to watch live TV; 40% for ages 18-34. The September-October survey had 1,200 online respondents and about 800 via phone.
The top 10 films showing at North American theaters last weekend had sales of $92.8 million, 1.5% above the same weekend in 2019, led by Dune at $40.1 million, Colliers analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Monday. He noted a “clear sign of shift to premium viewing experiences,” with Dolby, Imax and house brands generating half of the weekend’s domestic box office; Imax pulled in $9 million. Imax said it set a new global October record at $100 million, surpassing the previous record of $84 million in 2013, with one weekend left.