To comply with the Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035) passed in December (see 1912190068), the FCC Media Bureau is proposing rules for retransmission consent talks between MVPD buying groups and large station groups. Comments are due 15 days after Federal Register publication, replies in 25 days, said a public notice Friday.
If Roku doesn't reach an agreement with Fox to redistribute its channels, it will be "forced to remove FOX channels from the Roku platform because we can't distribute content without an agreement," blogged Roku Friday. That was hours ahead of the 11:59 p.m. deadline when its distribution agreement with Fox was set to expire. Saying it doesn't want that to happen, Roku said it "tried for months" to get Fox to sign an agreement -- "and we offered FOX an extension but they declined." Vizio reminded football fans Friday that its TVs support Apple AirPlay 2 and Chromecast built-in, providing streaming for cord-cutters and viewers who might be blocked from watching the Super Bowl due to retransmission fee conflicts (see 2001290047). Vizio SmartCast TV owners could watch by pulling up the Fox Sports or Fox Now apps on a smartphone or tablet, selecting the game and tapping the Chromecast or AirPlay button to stream to sets, it emailed.
Traditional pay-TV offerings will evolve to become “indistinguishable from a pure” over-the-top package of services, said ABI Research analyst Michael Inouye. Though cord cutting is often seen as “a consequence of expanding OTT consumption,” the market dynamics “are more complex,” Inouye said Tuesday, noting the pay-TV industry embraced OTT “as a complement and value-additive.” The OTT video market will top $200 billion by 2024, 90 percent fueled by subscription and advertising revenue, ABI said. The remainder will include digital purchases, electronic sell-through, rentals and transactional video on demand, Inouye emailed us. Disney Plus and Apple Plus, with aggressive pricing and packaging, plus continued expansion by long-term players in the subscription VOD market, are pushing the segment to new highs, ABI said. There are 700 million-plus OTT SVOD subscriptions and 1 billion for pay TV market.
MGM -- reportedly in talks with Netflix and Apple about being acquired -- might be a bad fit for either, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Monday. MGM's content library and production experience would be big assets for either buyer, but a deal could be a financial stretch for Netflix, and Apple/MGM could mean culture clashes between tech management and Hollywood moguls, he said.
Claiming Dish Network keeps carrying 13 of its TV stations even after the Jan. 18 expiration of a retransmission consent agreement, Terrier is suing for copyright infringement. In a complaint (docket 20-cv-00583, in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Terrier -- which in the suit said it's doing business now as Cox Media Group -- said the 13 stations were part of its 2019 takeover of Northwest Broadcasting. It said Dish received a temporary restraining order from a Cook County, Illinois, Circuit Court stopping Terrier from withdrawing its signals (see 2001210056), but that order doesn't prevent it from seeking damages from copyright infringement. Terrier is seeking unspecified compensatory damages or maximum statutory damages. Dish didn't comment Monday.
NBC Olympics and Snap are continuing their Olympic partnership, connecting U.S. Snapchat users to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with customized content, they said Friday. NBC will release more than 70 episodes over four daily shows, three times the content of the 2018 Games. It will create two daily highlight shows for the messaging app that will be updated in “near-real time.”
Comcast's accelerating video subscriber losses (see 2001230008), increasing average revenue per unit being paid to video programmers and more people now subscribing to a single service than to a triple-play package in 2019 point to a more-difficult pay TV ecosphere this year, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Thursday. He said the video sub losses are likely to pick up speed further due to proliferating over-the-top services, including Comcast's Peacock service.
AT&T and a group of Sinclair broadcast sidecars disagree on the effect U.S. District Court dismissal of a the telco's complaint against a negotiator handling retransmission consent talks for a group of the sidecar stations has on the broadcasters' appeal of an FCC ruling they violated good-faith rules. AT&T had claimed breach of contract and a trade secrets violation (see 2001170038). The court decision "actually reinforces the core, undisputed fact supporting those violations" that no single offer made to AT&T would have resulted in carriage of the stations, the MVPD said in a docket 19-168 filing posted Friday. It said the court order was incorrect, but it doesn't touch on the central issue of whether the sidecars violated their good-faith negotiation obligations. No, the court decision that the sidecars were part of a single joint negotiation "fatally undermines the central premise" of the Media Bureau order, the stations said.
U.S. videogame content sales rose 2 percent in 2019 to $35.4 billion, as mobile and subscription spending helped offset "physical content and PC digital content" declines, reported the Entertainment Software Association and NPD Group on Thursday. NPD analyst Mat Piscatella cited "expanded reach and accessibility of content across a variety of platforms including console, PC, mobile and virtual reality.” ESA and NPD didn't comment on whether there's a 2020 forecast.
Sonos upset customers with plans to no longer support older products. Users blasted the company. “Your system requires attention” messages went to customers Tuesday, alerting them to the end-of-software-update status of the original Zone Players, Connect, Connect:Amp, the first-generation Play:5, CR200 and Bridge, which launched at varying dates 2006-2009. Products will no longer be supported as of May. Boycottsonos.com appeared, spelling out the manufacturer’s plans. Many took to Twitter. One user emailed CEO Patrick Spence and encouraged others to do same. Its 2018 annual report acknowledged the risk it faces with hardware outliving its useful life in the digital age, saying in the “near to intermediate term” it could discontinue support for older versions of products, “resulting in customer dissatisfaction that could negatively affect our business and operating results.” The company didn't comment Wednesday.