Though Warner Music Group’s digital revenue increased 15% in fiscal Q4, ended Sept. 30 from the year-earlier quarter, total revenue declined 1%, said CEO Steve Cooper on a Monday investors call. WMG had a 45% revenue decline “in areas of our business that are most aligned with touring and live appearances, and therefore most disrupted by COVID,” he said. The pandemic “reinforced the importance of technology across every aspect of our business, from how we sign talent to how we market music to how we pay royalties,” said Cooper. WMG sees subscription streaming as “just the beginning” of a new “golden age” in music, one “of many avenues for long-term growth,” he said. Music revenue from social media is growing faster than that of subscription streaming, and gaming “is among the fastest-growing sectors of digital media,” he said.

Nearly a month after departing SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer said a long-term contract renewal with Howard Stern was near (see 2010220019), Meyer’s successor said it lacks a pact. “We’re excited to continue working with Howard,” incoming CEO Jennifer Witz told CNBC Friday. “We don’t have anything specific to announce today, but I’m really encouraged and confident that we’ll have something to say soon.” Witz becomes CEO Jan. 1, when Meyer shifts to vice chairman. Stern's contract expires Dec. 31. The day after Meyer spoke about an imminent deal, Stern shot down speculation that an agreement was near.

BuzzFeed is buying HuffPost, making Verizon a minority partner in BuzzFeed, Verizon Media announced Thursday. Through the content and ad partnership, Verizon and BuzzFeed will syndicate content across platforms, Verizon said. “Our media network will have more users, spending significantly more time with our content than any of our peers,” said BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti.

CNBC and MSNBC will continue to be simulcast on SiriusXM, the satellite radio company and NBCUniversal News Group announced Wednesday. Today Show Radio Channel also will continue on SiriusXM, they said. The agreement also has SiriusXM acting as exclusive advertising representative and ad tech platform for various NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC podcasts, they said.

Roku had “significant growth” in election-related news viewing, it said Wednesday. “In the not-too-distant future, the majority of voters -- and for that matter the majority of consumers -- will no longer be reachable on traditional pay TV,” said Alison Levin, vice president-global ad revenue and marketing solutions. Campaigns have adapted to the technology and trend shifts as major brands did during the 2020 election season, she said. On Election Day, an estimated 12 million viewers streamed their news on the Roku platform for free, more than half tuning directly to The Roku Channel’s live news offerings from networks. Total streaming hours of The Roku Channel’s live linear programming increased more than 500% on Election Day vs. the prior day, a record.

HBO Max, Apple TV+ and Disney+ “rearranged the top ten list” of video streaming services in September, Parks Associates reported Wednesday. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu held for now the top three spots, said analyst Steve Nason. Disney+ is No. 4, where it’s been for nearly a year after launching with 10 million users, showing "how difficult it will be for any service to break into the ‘Big 3,’" said Nason: "Partnerships are essential.” HBO Max, ranked sixth, will get a boost from being on Amazon Fire TV devices (see 2011160026), he said. NBCUniversal’s Peacock is starting to make inroads in paid subscriptions, though most of its users are in the free, ad-supported tier. Sling TV and MLB.TV dropped off the list; at No. 5, ESPN+ is the only sports-based service in the top 10. Seven through 10 are Apple TV+, CBS All Access, Showtime and Starz.

Sports was temporary wind in the sails in Q3 for MVPDs, but expect those losses to widen in Q4, nScreenMedia's Colin Dixon blogged Monday. Sports and especially the NFL seem to have slowed subscriber hemorrhaging, as MVPDs lost 1.1 million subscriptions -- "a big improvement" from deeper losses in Q1 and Q2, the analyst said. VMVPDs added 1.6 million. MLB and NFL ratings, while strong when they first resumed play, later dropped, and Q4 won't bring any additional major sports franchises, he said.

Cinedigm “dramatically expanded” its streaming business this year by establishing “a key strategic advantage in connected TV streaming” through deals with Samsung, Roku and Vizio, said CEO Chris McGurk on a fiscal Q2 investor call Monday. Cinedigm’s free, ad-supported linear and on-demand portfolio has 26 channels “launched or under contract,” up from six in the year-earlier quarter, he said. The company is on pace to beat its goal of a 30-channel portfolio a year ahead of schedule, he said. Viewership and subscription numbers “skyrocketed” during the pandemic, he said. Its streaming channels are attracting more than 15.2 million monthly viewers, up 238% from a year earlier, he said. November is expected to “easily exceed” 16 million monthly viewers, he said.

Pay-TV providers narrowed subscriber losses in Q3 to 120,000 -- the fewest since Q1 2018 -- vs. a pro forma net loss of about 945,000 in 2019's third quarter, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. The top publicly reporting vMVPDs -- Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, AT&T TV Now and fubuTV -- added just over a million subscribers, up from 815,000 net adds. LRG President Bruce Leichtman credited the return of live sports (see 2011170001). Leichtman said it’s time to recognize vMVPDs as a “key segment of the live pay-TV industry.” Hulu + Live TV is the fifth-largest pay-TV service in the U.S., and YouTube TV has over 3 million subscribers, including a million net additions this year, he noted. The top seven cable companies shed 375,000 video subscribers in Q3 vs. 410,000 a year ago, while satellite services lost 775,000, led by DirecTV with 690,000, down from 1.1 million in Q3 2019. Among phone providers, Verizon Fios lost 62,000 video subscribers, Frontier lost 42,000 and AT&T U-verse/AT&T TV gained 100,000.

Dish Network's amended complaint acknowledges Terrier Media sequenced its Northwest and Cox TV stations so the Cox stations would be governed by the Northwest retransmission consent agreement, and Dish is asserting contract and tort claims to escape the terms of its own agreements since it prefers the Cox retrans terms, Terrier told the U.S. District Court in Chicago in a motion to dismiss Friday (in Pacer, 20-cv-00570). Dish didn't comment Monday. Terrier previously sought to have Dish's retrans suit dismissed (see 2009100064), and the sides then agreed in October that Dish could file an amended complaint.