Fox won't make a counteroffer for Sky and said Wednesday it instead will accept Comcast's offer for its 39 percent of the company. It said Comcast's bid for Sky values Fox's minority stake at more than $15 billion. Comcast and Fox were in a bidding war until Sky's independent committee accepted a Comcast auction bid made over the weekend (see 1809240056).
SiriusXM stock's 10.3 percent fall Monday led Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter Tuesday to forecast shareholders will reject the $3.5 billion takeover (see 1809240047). “Given that the exchange ratio is fixed,” the implied deal price was just above $9 a share, nearly 1 percent below Pandora’s closing Friday, the analyst wrote investors. The companies didn’t comment. Sirius “could have easily divested a large cash component," said its Chief Financial Officer David Frear when asked on a Monday conference call why the deal was structured as all-stock. “The trouble with a cash component is you’re reducing the equity upside for Pandora shareholders.” Pachter rates the deal a win-win nonetheless for both partners. In light of Pandora’s “history of losses” and the “intense competitive environment” in the streaming-music space, Dougherty's Steven Frankel rates the “offer as fair” for Pandora shareholders. Frankel doesn't expect “competing bids.” Pandora can walk if it pays Sirius $105 million in termination fees, said an SEC filing Monday. That “was an important component for our board,” said Pandora CEO Roger Lynch.
Roku began rolling out an OS 8.2 update for Roku TVs it expects to be complete in November, said the company Monday. The company will enable use of Google Assistant to voice control Roku streaming devices and is bringing Spotify and Pandora Premium support to Roku devices.
Cable ISPs will likely follow the lead of cellular carriers in zero rating their video service, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Friday. Some large cable operators have introduced a form of zero-rating, like Comcast's Stream TV that doesn't count against their monthly data cap, though Comcast claims it's not zero-rated since it uses cable-TV bandwidth rather than data bandwidth, he said. He said big cable operators are likely concerned about looming competition with last-mile 5G, since data caps aren't likely to be part of those services, so pressure will be on cable to not charge for exceeding data caps in competitive markets. Comcast didn't comment.
Total U.S. revenue from recorded music jumped 10 percent in 2018's first half to $4.6 billion, from the same 2017 period, said RIAA’s midyear report Thursday. With streaming music generating 75 percent of industry revenue, “overall market trends in the first half of 2018 continued to reflect the music industry’s rapid transition from unit based physical and digital sales towards streaming music sources,” said the association. Revenue from streaming music grew 28 percent to $3.4 billion, it said. “Paid subscriptions have become the biggest format for music by revenue.” Growth of 33 percent brought total subscription revenue to $2.5 billion, so while 75 percent of industry revenue came from streaming, 75 percent of that came from paid subscriptions, it said. In physical formats, the industry shipped 18.6 million CDs in the first half, a 47 percent year-over-year decline, and CD dollar shipments declined 42 percent to $246 million, said RIAA. Vinyl saw an upsurge, rising 13 percent in units to 8.1 million and 13 percent in dollars to just under $200 million, the group said.
The American Cable Association, NAB and NCTA are talking about a compromise position on FCC must-carry/retransmission consent election notifications procedures rules, an informed person told us Tuesday. Those talks have been productive and the parties believe they can come to a solution that addresses what's an otherwise clunky system. Representatives of the three groups last week met with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey to discuss that possible compromise position, recounted a docket 17-317 posting Tuesday. The groups said the possible compromise would have stations retain their status from a previous election and would be required to send notice to a cable operator only if the stations desired to change their status. They said the broadcaster’s notice would be sent to an email address listed on a cable operator’s online public file or in the FCC Cable Operations and Licensing System. They said the default election provision would remain unchanged. The elections issue was part of the cable electronic notifications NPRM adopted in December (see 1712140054).
Meredith said it agreed to sell Time magazine to Salesforce CEO Marc and Lynne Benioff for $190 million. The deal is expected to close in 30 days, isn't related to Salesforce and the Benioffs will keep the magazine's editorial leadership intact, said a news release. Meredith plans to use proceeds to pay down debt.
Hulu services clearly don't fall under the video service provider fees authorized by Missouri's 2007 Video Services Provider Act, said the company in a docket 18-cv-01495-SNLJ motion (in Pacer) last week in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to dismiss Creve Coeur's lawsuit against Hulu and Netflix (see 1809100020). Hulu said municipalities can collect fees only from providers authorized by the Public Service Commission, but the PSC hasn't required Hulu to get such authorization. It said the act expressly exempts internet content providers like it. The city's outside counsel didn't comment Monday.
U.S. broadband households at the end of 2017 spent nearly three hours weekly watching video on a wireless device, a 55 percent bump from 2015, Parks Associates reported Friday. Live broadcast viewing on TV fell to 44 percent of total video consumption from over 60 percent in early 2012. Meanwhile, Comcast summarized viewing data associated with its Xfinity on Campus service Thursday, saying “live” is the preferred method of viewing for college students at 44 percent of total video consumption, followed by VOD (37 percent) and DVR (19 percent). Students using the service prefer viewing on laptops vs. mobile devices with prime time on Thursday and Sunday the most-watched periods, said Mike Gatzke, vice president-video subscription services at Comcast Cable.
Spotify’s monthly average user total could reach half a billion by 2023, said Macquarie analyst Amy Yong. It's “the dominant global streaming player with continued sub[scriber] growth and eventual operating leverage” and is set to renew label agreements and expand to India, Russia and Africa, she wrote to investors Thursday night.