Pandora shareholders approved SiriusXM’s $3.5 billion all-stock buyout (see 1809240030), said Pandora Tuesday. Owners of about 75 percent of Pandora stock voted 97 yes at a special meeting, and the transaction is now expected to close soon, said the streaming media company. Pandora CEO Roger Lynch will leave at the closing, as will General Counsel Steve Bene, Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra and Chief Human Resources Officer Kristen Robinson. SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer will head the combined entity, Pandora said. Some analysts wrongly predicted Pandora shareholders would reject the deal as "inadequate" (see 1809250021). SiriusXM reports 2018 results Wednesday before the markets open.

Broadcasters and networks are supporting NAB/NCTA's election cycle notification proposal (see 1812100051). Meredith said in an FCC docket 17-317 posting Monday that sending election notices only in a change of election would reduce hundreds of letters to "handfuls" and minimize "'gotcha' gamesmanship" since the status quo would remain absent affirmative broadcaster choice. Meredith said certified mail is expensive and slow, and the proposal should apply to all MVPDs, including direct broadcast satellite, since two rules regimes would be confusing. The ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC TV affiliates associations and their networks said the current system often "devolved into gamesmanship" with arguments about technicalities of who hadn't fulfilled obligations, and the compromise could make "such useless sparring a thing of the past." Nexstar and Ion Media backed it (see here and here).

Nexstar officials "just aren't being reasonable," demanding rate increases far beyond what TDS has paid other broadcasters, TDS CEO Jim Butman said Thursday in a video update to its ongoing retransmission consent dispute with Nexstar (see 1901160042). Butman urged subscribers to contact the FCC and provided directions on filing a complaint via the electronic comment filing system. He said starting with February bills, subscribers will see credits for lost Nexstar programming. TDS said there's "no end in sight" to the blackout that began Dec. 31. Nexstar didn't comment Friday.

The success Netflix had with You, picked up from Lifetime, points to big challenges cable and broadcast networks will face over the next couple of years from the growing number of streaming services with little or no ads, TVRev analyst Alan Wolk blogged Wednesday. Those traditional networks also will struggle with that, "for many of them, viewers have no idea what they stand for, what type of programming they can expect to find there, and so they never even make it into the consideration set," he said. Small cable networks especially will be challenged to capture viewers' attention, he said. Those competitive pressures will mean the subscription VOD services will face a lot of churn as they run a lot of ads and promotions. Lifetime parent A+E didn't comment Thursday.

Google's YouTube TV is going nationwide with its rollout Wednesday to 95 additional markets and plans to fill remaining holes in its availability footprint "shortly," YouTube blogged.

Hulu is cutting its advertising-supported subscription VOD service from $7.99 a month to $5.99 while increasing its Live TV vMVPD service from $39.99 monthly to $44.99, it said Wednesday. It said its ad-free SVOD service will remain at $11.99 a month. It said the new pricing takes effect beginning Feb. 26 for new subscribers; existing ones will see the pricing in their billing cycles after that.

The current Nexstar/TDS blackout (see 1901160042) reaffirms a broken retransmission consent market, and Congress when looking at the looming Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization "should consider Nexstar’s behavior -- and commonsense reform to protect the public from such behavior," American Cable Association President Matt Polka blogged Tuesday. He said consideration of Nexstar buying Tribune should include "a full examination of Nexstar’s conduct." Nexstar didn't comment Wednesday.

Viacom will pay $340 million for streaming service Pluto TV, it said Tuesday evening. It said Pluto will operate as an independent subsidiary and the deal is expected to close in Q1. It said the Pluto deal will expand its presence in next-generation distribution platforms, give it access to Pluto's 12 million monthly users and help expand its advanced advertising business, while access to Viacom's content library will help accelerate its global growth and solidify it as top player in the free streaming video market.

TVEyes won't display or make available Fox News Channel or Fox Business Channel video clips under a settlement reached with Fox News, the parties said in a docket 13-cv-05315 proposed stipulation and order (in Pacer) filed Friday with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The Supreme Court last month denied TVEyes' ask of a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the company's copyright fight with Fox (see 1812030024).

Netflix's price increases on new and existing U.S. customers (see 1901170053) “will obviously impact the rate of net addition growth” in subscriptions for 2019's first half, said CEO Reed Hastings in an earnings interview. But the company “commensurately” also expects average selling prices to improve, “and that’s what we think will drive an acceleration in revenue growth over the course of 2019,” he said. It’s also instrumental in driving operating margin “higher sequentially” each quarter “to enable us to hit that 13 percent target for the full year,” compared with 5.2 percent in 2018's Q4, he said Thursday. Hastings estimates roughly a billion hours of TV content is being consumed daily in the U.S., and Netflix is “winning about 10 percent of it,” he said. “We’re excited” for the 2019 launch of Disney's direct-to-consumer service (see 1901180026), he said. “Maybe they grow over a couple of years to 50 million hours a day, but that’s out of the billion, and so we compete so broadly with all of these different providers,” including new services entering the market, he said. “That’s why we don’t get so focused on any one competitor.” Shares plunged nearly 5 percent early Friday before closing 4 percent lower at $339.10. Analysts said investors were unhappy with the company's Q4 operating-margin performance, its conservative Q1 U.S. subscriber forecast and that it missed its $4.2 billion Q4 revenue target, albeit barely. MoffettNathanson nevertheless told investors Friday it gives the company's "future U.S. pricing narrative" high grades. Netflix "continues to excel in content procurement and discovery," compared with "the feeble efforts by some traditional media companies" to build "attractive" and competitive streaming offerings, it said.