The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied, without comment, the FCC's request to postpone the April 15 oral argument in a challenge to its cable TV local franchise authority order and put the appeal in abeyance, in a docket 19-4161 order (in Pacer) Friday. The agency didn't comment.
Discovery and monetization are challenges that streaming sports services face in the post-pandemic world, a Brightcove webinar was told Thursday. Even as fans turned to watching shows about sports in the absence of live sports, streamers, too, had a decline in time spent watching sports content, said Brightcove analyst Jim O’Neill. As live sports reemerged in the second half of 2020, more viewers turned to streaming, while traditional sports TV ratings flagged. “Traditional delivery of content, including sports, is being challenged" by desires to cut pay-TV costs and rising adoption of over-the-top video services, he said. The pandemic forced golf's U.S. Open from its familiar June slot to September, where it competed with other professional sports. “Nobody wants to go up against the NFL,” said Amanda Weiner, U.S. Golf Association senior director-digital media and ticketing. USGA's biggest challenge last year was losing the “at-work audience” that would sneak a second screen at work to watch, Weiner said. USGA launched its streaming app on Roku and Apple TV, adding Amazon Fire TV last year, to reach people "where they were," said Weiner. She said more is in the works. Livestreaming has become a critical way for USA Volleyball to reach fans amid spectator restrictions, said Chief Marketing Officer Kassidi Gilgenast. It’s a big change “to get our fans to the small screen,” said Gilgenast. USA Volleyball tried its hand at in-house streaming a few years ago but realized it needed partners, Gilgenast said. By providing a link that takes people directly to a match livestream, "we’re much more likely to convert that user, especially on the social side, to a viewer.”
The number of Americans who watch TV via cable or satellite plunged from 76% in 2015 to 56% this year, said a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults fielded Jan. 25-Feb. 18. Some 27% are cord-cutters, and 17% have never had a pay-TV subscription, it said. Seventy-one percent of those who don’t use cable or satellite TV services say they can access the content they want online; 69% say the cost of pay-TV is too high; 45% say they don’t watch TV often. The drop in pay-TV subscribers reflects the "changing landscape of connectivity and media," said Pew Wednesday, with internet streaming services like Netflix and Hulu growing in popularity, a trend accelerated by the pandemic. Demographics play a role, Pew noted, with 34% of respondents ages 18-29 getting TV through cable or satellite, down 31 points from 2015. Of the 30-49 age group, 46% get TV that way, a 27-point drop. Among those ages 50-64, 66% are pay-TV subscribers, down 14 points for the period; 81% of Americans 65 and older are pay-TV customers, down 5 points. About 53% of nonsubscribers 18-29 don’t have pay TV at home because they don’t watch TV often; for 30-49-year-olds, it's 47%, a third for 50-plus. Nearly 80% of nonsubscribers 50 and older gave cost as the reason, 72% of the 30-49 group and 57% for ages 18-29.
Comments are due March 26, replies April 2, in docket 21-69 on Cable One's planned buy of Hargray, per an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in Monday's Daily Digest. Cable One hopes to close on the $2.2 billion transaction in Q2 (see 2102160014).
Cox unveiled a web-based remote control that, when tied into customers' assistive technologies, lets people with disabilities control their TVs with their eyes. It said Thursday its Accessible Web Remote for Contour works with customers' eye gaze hardware and software, switch controls, and "sip-and-puff" systems. Cox said for the past three years it has worked with disability accessibility organizations to ensure accessible design and development of its offerings.
Cord cutting and cord shifting to virtual MVPDs will continue this year, but the price advantage vMVPDs enjoyed has eroded significantly, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Monday. "Big bundle" vMVPDs like YouTube TV, Hulu Live and fuboTV now cost $65 monthly and could cost more than $70 by year's end, he said. He said the vMVPD industry will likely add 1.5 million new subscribers this year, with cheaper services like Sling TV and Philo gaining share as pay TV likely loses 5 million to 6 million subs.
MVPDs lost 7.2 million subscribers last year, reported Kagan Monday, saying virtual MVPD services “blunted the overall erosion” of consumers with a package of live linear channels, but the 2.7 million new vMVPD subscribers fell far short of offsetting cable, telco and satellite cancellations. MVPD losses slowed in Q4 to 1.5 million, but the full-year decline “underscored that the impacts of the pandemic amplified cord cutting instead of insulating an industry built around home entertainment.” For Q4, the vMVPD segment didn’t hold its momentum, gaining 223,000 subscribers to finish the year with 12.5 million. Some 6.8 million households cut the cord last year, said analyst Tony Lenoir. Fewer than 67% of U.S. households have a traditional pay-TV or vMVPD service with a package of live, linear channels, Kagan said, and fewer than 57% subscribe to traditional pay TV.
Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and ESPN were exempted from the FCC's audio description rules applicable to the top five national nonbroadcast networks (see 2011020043) because they provide less than 50 hours per quarter of prime-time programming that's not live or near-live, per a docket 11-43 Media Bureau order Monday. It said with the granted exemptions, the new list of top five national nonbroadcast networks subject to the audio description requirements will be TLC, HGTV, Hallmark, History and TBS.
ViacomCBS launched its “reimagined” streaming service, Paramount+, Thursday, replacing CBS AllAccess. Consumers can subscribe directly. The $9.99 monthly premium tier has live sports, breaking news and commercial-free, on-demand entertainment including exclusive content and library shows and music with 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision, plus mobile downloads, said ViacomCBS. The ad-supported $5.99 tier, including live CBS programming, is available until June, when new subscribers will be offered an ad-free version for $4.99 minus the live local CBS programming. Viacom CBS told existing subscribers they will be automatically rolled over to Paramount+, and the limited-commercials plan will be discontinued later this year, replaced by the $4.99 service. CBS Sports touted the launch. Roku announced the service, hoping to steer its customers to Paramount+ through its platform. Sixteen original series will be offered this year, said ViacomCBS.
Comcast's peak downstream internet traffic grew 38% last year from 2019 levels, while peak upstream traffic jumped 56%, said the company Tuesday. In the four months spanning lockdowns, Comcast's network had almost two years of traffic growth, it said. Despite a rise in videoconferencing, entertainment dominated network traffic, with video streaming generating 71% of downstream traffic, 70% higher than 2019 levels. Online gaming and related software downloads (10%) and web browsing (8%) were primary drivers of downstream traffic, vs. 5% for videoconferencing. Comcast customers generated more than 1 trillion internet requests daily last year, it said.