Netflix placed first and Amazon Prime Video second in U.S. over-the-top viewership for 2019 through October, reported Parks Associates Thursday. MLB.TV dropped from sixth to eighth and Sling TV held on as the top U.S. vMVPD. Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus launched after the time period. Other top-10 streamers were subscription VOD service Hulu in third, followed by HBO Now, CBS All Access, Starz, Showtime and ESPN Plus. “Competition in live streaming services is intensifying as several big brand names are competing for a small but growing slice of the OTT subscription base,” said Brett Sappington. Services will continue to grow as long as consumers subscribe to multiple offerings, the analyst said. Seventy-one percent of U.S. broadband homes have at least one OTT entertainment product, the research firm found.

Viacom and CBS closed Wednesday to become ViacomCBS, as expected (see 1911250005). ViacomCBS "will create and deliver premium content for its own platforms and for others, while providing innovative solutions for advertisers and distributors globally," said CEO Bob Bakish.

Lifetime Entertainment withdrew its 2015 FCC petition for a declaratory ruling clarifying Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions on calls made to cable TV subscribers, per a docket 02-278 posting Monday. Lifetime had sought clarification TCPA restrictions didn't cover calls providing information about cable TV programing intended to reach the cable operator's subscribers who can watch that programming without having to pay any additional charges. It had called those calls "purely informational," not commercial or advertising.

Viacom's buy of CBS is expected to be effective after the market closes Dec. 4, they said Monday. ViacomCBS will trade on Nasdaq on Dec. 5 under VIACA and VIAC.

Viewers of the 2015 Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao boxing match "essentially got what they paid for -- a full-length regulation fight between two boxing legends," the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday, affirming (in Pacer, docket 17-56366) a lower court's dismissal of putative class actions brought by pay-per-view customers against plaintiffs including the fighters and HBO. The court said Pacquiao's shoulder injury didn't prevent him from going a full 12 rounds; plaintiffs argued they were fraudulently induced to buy pay-per-view packages since the injury had been undisclosed (see 1804110003). Deciding were Judges Sidney Thomas, Ronald Gilman and Jacqueline Nguyen, with Nguyen penning the decision.

VidAngel's motions seeking a new trial or to alter an earlier verdict lack substance and don't come close to meeting the standards for a new trial or showing the jury verdict was obviously unreasonable in its statutory awards, Disney said Monday in a docket 16-cv-04109 oppositions (see here and here, in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. It said most of the alleged errors that supposedly justify a new trial are objections to evidence or rulings on jury instructions. In its motion (in Pacer) to amend or alter the judgment, VidAngel said Disney received statutory damages awards without proving it had lost profits or suffered any actual damages when it "inflamed the jury with unsupported speculation that VidAngel threatened the very existence of the movie industry." Its motion (in Pacer) for a new trial listed what it said were 17 separate court errors or other evidence necessitating a new trial. Disney was awarded $62.4 million in its copyright violation complaint against VidAngel (see 1906180003)

Sony now owns Game Show Network (GSN), having purchased AT&T's 42 percent minority stake for about $500 million, it said Monday. It said Mark Feldman will remain CEO-president and GSN will continue to be carried on AT&T's DirecTV.

In a proposed settlement of Disney's lawsuit against Redbox for reselling codes to allow streaming of movies that clearly are marked not for sale or transfer (see 1712010053), Redbox would stop the practice, according to a proposed stipulated consent judgment and permanent injunction (docket 17-cv-08655) (in Pacer) filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Comcast's trying to put the Altitude Sports and Entertainment regional sports network out of business so it has more control of sports programming in the Denver designated market area, the RSN said in an antitrust complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver. Altitude holds telecast rights for the NBA Denver Nuggets and NHL Colorado Avalanche, among others. It said Comcast, by far the largest MVPD in the Denver area, last year began offering rates far less than what it traditionally paid Altitude and moved it to smaller tier. Comcast's own affiliated RSNs "would not survive were they forced to accept such terms," it said, saying it has remained blacked out since Sept. 1 to Comcast subscribers after their existing contract expired. “This is a meritless lawsuit in an intensely competitive market where Comcast has no competitive regional sports network and Altitude has multiple distribution alternatives," Comcast said. "Instead of pursuing baseless litigation, Altitude should engage in responsible commercial negotiations that would allow Comcast to distribute its programming to those customers who want it without driving up costs for customers who do not. Since at this point Altitude has rejected all reasonable offers, we have provided our customers with a credit until we reach an agreement. We will vigorously defend ourselves against Altitude’s claims.”

It may be time to examine eliminating anti-payola rules, said FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in remarks Thursday, released Friday, before the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, two months after announcing his investigation into the issue (see 1910100036). “It should not be lost on me or anyone else observing the industry that this is another area where the cutting edge high-technology companies operate without similar restrictions,” he said. O’Rielly said he's still seeking information from record companies about the practice. “If it’s true that the big labels have effectively rooted out this practice through implementing their own safeguards, then I’ll look forward to learning how those processes work,” he said. “There are some legitimate questions involving fairness, competitive effects, industry trends, and the like generated by accusations of payola,” O’Rielly said. “It is not necessarily a victimless crime.” O’Rielly also announced proposals he would like to see the FCC consider in its media modernization efforts, including giving stations an opportunity to supplement issues/program lists at license renewal, allowing Class A's to file such lists annually rather than quarterly, and creating overnight processing for “pro forma” broadcast transactions. “If a problem is identified, which is unlikely, opponents can always file a petition for reconsideration,” O’Rielly said. The FCC should also eliminate or relax the broadcast telephone conversation rule and do away with “Zombie Proceedings” that have been long stalled at the agency. Zombies that he said should be eliminated include some rules proposed under former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, such as revamped set-top box rules, classifying over-the-top platforms as MVPDs, and repealing network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity programming rules. O’Rielly also said he expects the Senate to soon approve bigger punishments and more options for pirate radio enforcement, and he has started to see an increase in broadcast news and sports offerings as a result of the relaxed kidvid rules. “We were able to get to this point because everyone walked away from the bargaining table with a little less than they wanted but enough of what they fundamentally needed to make things work,” he said.