A group of 20 Democratic Senators led by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) is asking the Federal Communications Commission to refresh the record on its 2014 proposal to define some video-streaming services as MVPDs subject to agency regulation.

They join House Democrats and others who have also called for a new look at an old issue. By contrast, Republicans have told the FCC not to reopen the issue of applying traditional cable operator regulations to streaming services that offer similar channel lineup offerings online.

Nothing came of that 2014 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), but the senators, in an October 18 letter to the FCC, said a refresh was necessary to make sure that unique local broadcast content could be accessed over streaming platforms.

Also Read: FCC Chair ‘Exploring’ Streaming Regulations

“The shift from broadcast, cable and satellite to streaming has profound impact on existing laws, regulations and agreements that have been foundational in support of public safety and access to local news,” the senators wrote. Those foundational agreements are a reference to the must-carry/retransmission consent rules that require multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to negotiate for carriage of that unique broadcast content if broadcasters seek payment, or carry the signals if a broadcaster elects must-carry.

Given that sea change in how consumers see their content, the senators said the FCC needs to “seriously consider” how to prevent the “explosion” of streaming technologies do not undermine “a thriving, locally focused broadcast system that is the envy of the world.”

That consideration, they said, translates to “[refreshing] the aging, unclosed record from the 2014 proceeding by seeking new public comments to provide updated video marketplace information.”

The effort is being applauded by broadcasters.

“We are grateful to Sen. Luján and his Senate colleagues for urging the FCC to examine the impact of streaming on viewer access to local broadcast stations by refreshing the record in the virtual MVPD proceeding,” National Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said.  

The U.S. Trade Representative said the administration is monitoring a number of current and potential foreign government policies that affect the distribution of streamed video content.

That is according to the just-released 2021 report on Foreign Trade Barriers, which is billed as identifying "a range of important challenges and priorities to guide the Biden Administration’s effort to craft trade policy that reflects America’s values and builds back better.”

Also Read: Disney Plus Set to Roll Out Price Increase

The report, issued by the new U.S. Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, is an inventory of "significant foreign barriers to U.S. exports of goods and services, investment, and electronic commerce," including the commerce generated by streaming services.

Among the key streaming barriers highlighted:

Australia: In September of 2020 the Australian government announced that it will require streaming video services to provide a report to the government on their Australian content while it investigates whether to require some minimum Australian content obligations for video-on-demand services above a certain size. Then in November, the government issued a proposal to set the "expectation" that streaming services doing business in the country invest a percentage of their Australian revenue in Australian content, "in the form of commissions, co‐productions, and acquisitions," and if they don't get the hint, as it were, the government would be empowered to regulate to make it so. 

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), whose members include Google and Verizon Media, told USTR in comments last October that it was concerned with the legislation because it applies to "a broad range of technology and Internet services, including U.S.-based social media platforms, user-generated content and live streaming services, and hosting services."

Canada: The U.S. neighbor to the north is also looking into content minimums for streaming services. In September 2020, the Canadian government "signaled its intent to move forward with provisions requiring 'web giants' to contribute to the creation, production, and distribution of Canadian content. 

"The United States will closely monitor whether any new obligations on tech companies or foreign streaming providers are compliant with Canada’s international trade obligations," the report said.

Portugal: The Portuguese government is instituting a 1% annual fee on income from on-demand or streaming video platforms operating in the country. If it is not possible to determine the relevant income of a streaming platform, the fee will be $1.1 million dollars U.S.

Spain: Spanish VOD services must already reserve 30% of their content for European works, (half of which must be in one of the official languages of Spain) and contribute 5% of their earnings to funding of that content. Now, the government is considering expanding the tax to streaming services not residing in country.

Taiwan: The good news is that Taiwan has amended its Copyright Act to combat illicit streaming devices. The bad news, USTR said more comprehensive copyright legislation has been stalled and right holders report that online piracy remains rampant.

Turkey: Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) has adopted a regulation requiring streaming service providers to establish a commercial presence in Turkey and get a broadcasting license. USTR calls those requirements burdensome for streaming services and potentially limiting the ability of foreign firms to operate there. 

Also Read: Pandemic-Powered Streaming Boost Could Be New Normal

“CCIA appreciates the attention to digital trade barriers in the 2021 Report, including those that represent protectionist agendas, as well as USTR’s commitment to engaging foreign governments on digital policies that threaten U.S. exporters," said CCIA president Matt Schruers following the report's release. 

Traffic on the major video streaming sites continues to outperform pre-pandemic levels, up 21% according to Verizon's Look Forward study released Thursday (March 25).

According to the study, 44% of streamers said that discussing streaming and TV content has helped them connect with family and friends during COVID-19.

Also Read: While COVID Hurt Ad-Supported Spending, Streaming Gained

But it looks like that could be the new normal beyond the pandemic. A large majority of those (82%) who currently stream expect to be spending the same amount of time, or perhaps even more, on streaming content this time next year, when presumably the pandemic is under control.

Almost six in 10 respondents (59%) said they have been spending at least three hours a day watching streamed content, and almost half (47%) said they have subscribed to a new streaming service during the pandemic, with 70% saying they have binge-watched at least one show.

A majority of Americans (62%) said they still have a cable or satellite subscription, though 23% said they have cut the cord and 21% of millennials said they have never subscribed to an MVPD service.

Also Read: Netflix Loses Billions on Password Sharing

On the gaming front, 46% of respondents said they bought or downloaded at least one mobile game during the pandemic and 36% did for a computer of console. Almost a third of gamers said they spend more than three hours a week playing games on mobile devices.

When it came to video streaming for work, another new normal, Verizon said use of video conferencing was up a "remarkable" 2872% above pre-pandemic levels, with traffic across VPNs up 91%. That boost, or at least a portion of it, could also be here to stay. Of those who have worked at least partly remotely, 70% said they hope to be working from home at least one or two days a week after the pandemic.

"This shift in worker preference has one major implication: the reliability of networks is even more important today and going forward as workers are increasingly able to work from places other," said Verizon.

The online poll was conducted by Morning Consult March 12 -14, 2021, among a national weighted sample of 3,000 U.S. adults in the United States. The margin of error is plus or minus 2%.

 As we leave 2020 in our wake, let’s further explore the topics in my recent piece “Opportunities for Operators in the New TV Equilibrium.” In that article, I suggested operators have an important role to play as aggregators. However, to succeed they need to evolve their technology and business models while adopting a customer engagement mentality. Let’s dig a little deeper. 

With help from COVID-19, last year was a boon for video streaming. According to GoGlobe, video streaming accounted for 82% of all internet traffic in 2020. The good news is that the market chaos imposed by streaming on the traditional TV space will eventually subside. Those disrupted by the changes are making adjustments to their business models and investing in new infrastructure, while those doing the disrupting are coming to terms with the economic realities of the market.

The first key takeaway for operators is to worry less about the over-the-top SVOD services collectively (market economics will be your friend) and focus on making sure your service is in the top three choices consumers make for video. Let’s assume Netflix will have one of those slots. Your job is to make sure you win one of the remaining two. Here’s how.

Win the Aggregation Game

Content value is measured by the breadth and depth of the catalog with bonus points for exclusive content. The costs of content will unrelentingly increase and everyone will have to pay market rates for studio content and premium sports leagues. To affordably expand the content catalog and control total content costs, operators should look to differentiate against premium SVOD services in three ways:

• Exploit lower cost-content closer to home. Live, local content, especially sports, contributes in two unique ways. First, sports brings avid fans, and avid fans are influencers who bring their friends and can help with lowering churn. Creating “fan circles” is another way operators can start to add value around content.    

• Embrace OTT content and make it yours. Since OTT content will flow over your network no matter what, operators should partner when they can and link out when they have to. The vast majority of SVOD services will not be in the top three and they’ll be looking for operators to boost their distribution. Even without formal agreements, operators can become the app aggregator and leverage live content to be the starting point on the content discovery journey. Having live local TV gives operators a huge advantage over SVOD services or consumer platforms, because even when users go to other apps, they’ll always come home for live content.  

• Curate the niches. While there are plenty of channels on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and other sites covering many topics, they don’t make a compelling TV experience. By curating select OTT content that might be applicable to your local audience, and focusing on the best of the best, you can build on the two points above: local interest (fan base) and affordable (free) OTT content to build a catalog bigger than the biggest SVOD providers.  With such a massive trove of content to pull from, it is easy to rotate interesting content into the experience and use analytics to fine-tune selection.  

Engagement Builds Loyalty

Remember the days when “location, location, location” was the way to win in real estate? In TV’s streaming age, it’s “engagement, engagement, engagement.” Operators need to continuously refresh the user experience and promote popular content to keep the service top of mind. There are two ways to do that:

• Add value to the content. Sports is a key differentiator for operators to create unique value versus typical streaming services. Sports fans are rabid consumers and addicted to watching game or player highlights. Operators, with the benefit of cloud recording technology, can offer personalized highlight reels for sports fans. Have only five minutes for the best game highlights during an Uber ride?  Dial it in. Only care about a player on your fantasy league team?  Show highlights for just that player. 

• Add value to the experience. Several services have announced watch together features. Although it’s not something everyone will use regularly, it’s important for the big game or a play date with grandma. Unlike on-demand services, operators can also apply watch together to live programs (e.g., sports), where emotionally rich content makes watching together all that more satisfying.  

Promote and Merchandise

Content is still king and operators need to continuously remind their subscribers that they are the best place for the best content, and make it easy to buy more.

• Promote through personalization. Promoting content to customers who have already purchased your service reminds them its value, keeps them coming back, and contributes to your digital ad insertion revenue stream.  No eyeballs, no ads.  No ads, no revenue.  

• Merchandise premium packages and content.  Operators need to create a user experience that intelligently promotes content customers can already access, and introduces them to content outside their subscription package.

• Cross-sell other services. As operators, a key economic and retention advantage in your battle with OTT services is that you have multiple lines of business with a wide range of products and services. You also have free and direct access to the most important ad screen in the home. Dropping your own ads promoting faster internet or mobile phone service is as easy as putting a movie poster in the UI.

There’s no doubt the business of pay TV is harder than it has ever been.  But operators still have inherent advantages that others in the market cannot easily replicate.  Occupying that critical position between the customer and the content, operators uniquely fulfill the vital role of super-aggregator of content and customers. 

Matt Cuson is VP of product and marketing at Minvera Networks.

The House and Senate both voted late Monday on a paired-up package of a COVID-19 relief bill and an omnibus government spending bill loaded with billions of dollars for broadband, new small business loan aid for broadcasters and a provision making the theft of video streams a felony for the first time.

Also Read: Hill's Broadband Help Draws Crowd

The House vote was 359 to 53 and the Senate vote 91 to 7.

“The Motion Picture Association and our member studios applaud Congress for passing the coronavirus relief and government funding package, which includes continued support for the film, television and streaming industry and its dedicated workforce," said Motion Picture Association President Charles Rivkin. "Our industry supports 2.5 million jobs and 93,000 small businesses in all 50 states, and we are encouraged that this legislation includes an expanded employee retention credit, a grant for movie theaters and an extension of the federal film, television, and live theatrical incentive. We are also pleased that the package includes the Protect Lawful Streaming Act, which protects creators, innovators, and consumers by ensuring that operators of commercial pirate streaming services face meaningful criminal penalties in appropriate circumstances.”

“Today, as part of the sweeping omnibus bill, we are including $7 billion to assist struggling families better afford their internet service, and to help connect tribal and rural communities and students, faculty and staff of minority colleges and universities," said House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J. and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-Pa.). "We are also making our broadband equipment more secure and improving telehealth. This legislation will provide discounts to struggling families of $50 per month for their internet service so that they do not fall victim to the digital divide and for families on Tribal lands it would be up to $75."

"This package is not perfect, but there are certainly several bipartisan wins that should be celebrated," said House E&C Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and the retiring Walden's successor in that post Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). They said that includes "expanding access to broadband services across U.S. communities" and "assisting smaller, rural providers to rip and replace Huawei equipment and other suspect gear from our networks."

Also Read: Pai Praises Broadband in Bills

The funding includes $98 million to implement the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act, bipartisan legislation enacted in 2020 to create a comprehensive national broadband map. The legislation also includes $3.2 billion for an Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund, $300 million for broadband infrastructure in rural America, and $250 million for the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program.

“Mapping is the sleeper issue of today’s connectivity conversation, and it is great news that Congress made good on its commitment to fund the Broadband DATA Act," said USTelecom President Jonathan Spalter. "Modernizing our national broadband maps to tell us precisely who has (and who still lacks) 21st century broadband will have an outsized impact on helping to solve the access challenges still facing too many in our country.

“The American people are collectively relying on our communications infrastructure more than ever, and the indispensability of broadband to families, businesses, doctors and educators has never been clearer. Congress recognized this and made some very smart and targeted investments to increase broadband access and affordability, to extend network infrastructure in underserved communities, and bolster telehealth. We’ve got more work to do as a nation, but these are bold steps that will yield significant returns and ultimately advance our shared national goal of universal connectivity.”

The legislative double-bill also included $475 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for 2023--CPB is forward funded to try to de-politicize the process. That figure was actually an increase of $10 million.

"America's Public Television Stations are grateful for this increase in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which continues the process of restoring the nearly $100 million in purchasing power public broadcasting has lost in a decade of frozen funding," said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America's Public Television Stations, in a statement. 

Also Read: NAB Praises Broadcaster Aid

“Importantly, this legislation also provides level funding of $20 million in FY 2021 for station interconnection, the backbone of the public broadcasting system, supporting nationwide emergency alerting, providing local stations with national programming, connecting stations with each other, and creating operational efficiencies.

 “And it provides $29.5 million, an increase of $500,000 in FY 2021 for Ready To Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports public television’s essential work -- on-air, online and on-the-ground -- in early childhood education, to help build science, math and literacy skills of children between the ages of two and eight." 

“Low-income Americans, Tribal communities, and communities of color have borne those burdens disproportionately.  That’s why I am pleased that this legislation prioritizes connecting these households," said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Stakrs. "In recent years, many policymakers have focused on rural access as the key to curbing the digital divide.  But we know that tens of millions of Americans do not have broadband simply because they cannot afford it.  No family should have to decide between keeping the lights on or getting the household connected.  I have long called on the FCC to focus on affordability, and I am committed to ensuring that this emergency broadband benefit quickly reaches the families that need it most. 

“The bill also takes important steps towards expanding critical broadband access across Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), other Minority Serving Institutions, and their surrounding communities." 

“By providing $3.2 billion in direct support for broadband connectivity for low-income families, as well new stimulus checks and additional unemployment assistance, Congress will help Americans stay connected for the months ahead to the reliable, robust broadband connectivity that ACA Connects members and others provide," said ACA Connects President Matt Polka.  

 “This new funding can make a significant contribution to the ongoing efforts of our members since the start of the emergency to connect, and keep connected, everyone in their communities. But it is critical that the FCC implements the law by adopting rules that facilitate participation by these smaller broadband providers, who today provide service to some 10 million households in more rural areas, many of which have been severely impacted by the COVID emergency.

Connect America Now called the package and its $7 billion for broadband, including to fund better maps, a down payment on bridging the digital divide.

“Congress has rightfully recognized the broadband gap is as an urgent challenge made more severe by the impact of the pandemic and demonstrated a bipartisan commitment to action," said CAN Executive Director Richard Cullen.

“We welcome this long-overdue legislation," said Joshua Stager, senior counsel for New America's Open Technology Institute. "In particular, the bill’s emergency broadband benefit is a huge step forward. The cost of broadband is far too high, and it’s widening the digital divide at a time when poverty rates are peaking and much of daily life has shifted to the internet. At long last, it appears help is finally on the way to the millions of people who are suffering through the pandemic without connectivity."

“We’re grateful that Congress has come together and passed this much needed relief package which will help many who have been impacted by this pandemic, including the songwriters and composers who have been hit particularly hard," said BMI President Mike O'Neill. "This bill provides important relief for the self-employed, helps creators protect and enforce their rights, and importantly, provides funding for the live music venues which are so important to our songwriters’ livelihoods. We know there are still difficult months ahead, and BMI will continue working on behalf of our community, including advocating for any additional assistance needed to recover from the devastation caused by this pandemic.”

Among the other communications-related bills that made it into the massive package were:

The Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act of 2020, which repealed the congressional mandate that the FCC free up and auction public safety spectrum in the 470 to 512 MHz band (T-band). The bill also cdirects the FCC to end the diversion of 911 fees to other purposes.

The mouthful legislation--Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Business Resources, Opportunities, Access, and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand (ACCESS BROADBAND) Act, which creates the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the White House's chief communications policy advisor. The office's purview includes "broadband access, adoption, and deployment," including outreach to promote all those. It also "establishes coordination requirements between agencies that offer broadband deployment funding programs to ensure Federal funds are spent efficiently and effectively."

The Broadband Interagency Coordination Act, which requires the FCC,NTIA, and the Department of Agriculture to coordinate federal funds broadband subsidy programs to prevent duplicative support and protect taxpayer dollars,

and

The Beat CHINA for 5G Act of 2020, which requires the President to "withdraw or modify federal spectrum assignments in the 3450 to 3550 megahertz band" and says the FCC has to revise its rules on the non-Federal portion of that band to allow for flexible-use services, and to "begin a system of competitive bidding for some or all of the band" by December 31, 2021. 

It appears that by day's end, and with the stroke of the President's pen on the omnibus funding bill, pirating video streams will now be punishable by fines and prison time, rather than simply treated as a misdemeanor.

That is because a bill introduced by Sen. Tom Tillis (R-N.C.)  to that effect that then made it onto the must-pass omnibus bill that keeps the government afloat, according to a copy of the bill.

At one point it was thought the bill would be added to the COVID-19 relief bill, or that there would be one large bill, but it wound up on the $1.4 trillion omnibus bill that would keep the government running past midnight.

Studios, independent producers, and unions have pushed for at least a decade without success to get Congress to make stealing video streams a felony, as it is for illegally copying and distributing copyrighted TV shows and movies. But that was before must-see TV had morphed into "must stream video," as FCC chairman Ajit Pai put it earlier this week, with the COVID-19 pandemic putting an even bigger spotlight on streaming as a way for folks to remotely entertain themselves.

Fox was said to have put a priority on closing the streaming loophole after the company got more into live programming after the sale of its Fox film and TV studios to Disney. 

Also Read: Breaking Windows

Currently, a pirated stream is treated as an illegal performance, which is a misdemeanor, rather than illegal reproduction and distribution, which is a felony. Making it a felony would mean larger penalties, potential prison time, both of which would be a greater deterrent.

The TIllis bill is targeted to large-scale, criminal, for profit, streaming services, not good faith business disputes or noncommercial activities. It does not target individuals who access the pirated streams or unwittingly stream unauthorized copies of copyrighted works.

Also Read: DOJ: Make Unauthorized Streaming a Felony

Co-sponsors of the legislation include Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), and David Perdue (R-Ga.).

The Obama Administration asked Congress to "clarify" that streaming illegal content, as well as downloading it, was a felony, an effort pushed by then White House Intellectual Property Enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinel, but ultimately to no avail. Among the senators supporting that bipartisan legislative effort were Leahy, Coons, and Cornyn.

“The shift toward streaming content online has resulted in criminal streaming services illegally distributing copyrighted material that costs the U.S. economy nearly $30 billion every year, and discourages the production of creative content that Americans enjoy,” said Senator Tillis in a statement. “I am proud this commonsense legislation that was drafted with the input of creators, user groups, and technology companies will become law so we can target criminal organizations and ensure that no individual streamer has to worry about the fear of prosecution. I want to thank Senator Leahy and Representatives Martha Roby and Ben Cline for their early partnership on this important issue.”

“At a time when an unprecedented number of Americans are streaming movies and TV shows, music and books, criminal organizations are exploiting a loophole in copyright law to steal online content at an unprecedented rate and with hardly a consequence,” said Sen. Leahy. “Commercial piracy costs the economy billions of dollars and hurts both the creative community and consumers. This narrow bill closes this loophole by targeting only commercial, for-profit criminal piracy, and I am proud to have supported it.”

BAMTech Media, the technology services and video streaming operation spun out of MLBAM, quietly launched a corporate web site last week as the company pushes toward a bigger deal with The Walt Disney Company that will center on an array of new direct-to-consumer OTT offerings.

BamTECH also has its own logo, as well as presences on a set of social media channels – Twitter (@bamtechmedia), Facebook and LinkedIn.

Dan Rayburn, EVP of StreamingMedia.com and a principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, caught wind of the web site launch last week:

BAMTECH Media launches their new website: https://t.co/WRxIyDZYh9  Disney deal still working through closing. pic.twitter.com/SrQwmLVzbH

— Dan Rayburn (@DanRayburn) September 21, 2017

The presence on the web comes as Disney looks to pay $1.58 billion for an additional 42% stake in BAMTech, following an earlier deal that netted Disney a 33% stake in the OTT specialist, which is now led by CEO Michael Paull.

RELATED: Feds OK Disney’s BAMTech Buy

The BAMTech site offers the typical kind of details and background one would expect, while also listing some stats that speak to the scalability of its platform, noting that in 2016 the company streamed 50,000-plus live events and 100,000-plus hours of content. It also touts having the capacity for more than 450 live simultaneous events, underpinned by TOCs in New York, San Francisco and Amsterdam and datacenters on six continents.

And BAMTech is looking to grow rapidly, based on its dozens of open positions, including several broadcast infrastructure engineering slots, director/VP of business development and content acquisition, Android and Apple platforms engineers, director or eSports marketing, VP of growth/user acquisition, Minor League Baseball Cutter (part-time), senior product manager of Ad Tech, and UX/product designer, to name but just a few.

The streaming wars are on! An accelerated level of intensity is now in play as new and established players jockey for their share of subscribers. For now, consumers are continuing to subscribe to additional OTT services, paying on average $76 per month for video content. As new entrants come on board, though, PwC’s analysis shows consumers will start making choices about which services to keep after the initial promotional offers end.

While market share is available for the taking — the OTT video market is expected to double in size globally between 2019 and 2023 — services that don’t offer exactly what consumers are seeking will fall behind.

How do media companies set themselves up for success in the months and years to come? In this hyper-competitive landscape, viewer experience matters most. To deliver that optimal viewer experience, invest in content that engages consumers and boosts growth while leveraging emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).

Content Is Key

Licensed content has powered streaming services in recent months, especially new entrants seeking to entice potential subscribers. Many services have demonstrated a willingness to pay hefty prices to obtain the rights to popular content with an existing base of loyal viewers.

In fact, PwC research found that 56% of consumers define a good user experience as having easy access to favorite shows. New streaming entrants seeking to gain subscribers will need to combine popular content that consumers already love with nostalgic shows they want to revisit.

However, licensed programming is not the only path to a competitive edge. Original content is just as important, according to PwC’s analysis. Consumers have already told us they want a seemingly endless library of TV shows and movies. Given the limited pool of licensed programming available, original content becomes paramount.

As the cost of licensed content continues to escalate, original programming offers streaming providers a more hands-on approach to building out and diversifying content libraries. It also offers complete control of the format, whether it’s shorter, more bite-sized content that audiences are showing an increased appetite for, or mobile-first content such as vertically shot videos. With original programming, the opportunities for creativity are boundless.

As we continue to analyze viewer preferences over the years, one finding remains constant: content rules. For streaming providers, that means long-term success will hinge on sussing out the optimal balance between original programming and licensed content.

In our hyper-personalized age, consumers want easily accessible content tailored to their specific preferences. Streaming services that leverage AI to recommend personalized content based on consumers’ viewing history are already a step ahead.

In fact, some 20% of consumers told us their streaming services are better at finding content for them to watch than they are themselves. While that is encouraging, it does offer room for improvement with the 80% majority. Meanwhile, one-third of consumers said finding content on streaming platforms needs to be easier.

Certainly, as in all industries, AI will improve with time. Consumers are impatient, though. They expect algorithms that are predictive — not reactive — to allow for positive viewing experiences. And they expect those improvements now.

Streaming services need to invest in the technology to make AI more effective now, rather than waiting for the technology to catch up. The services that perfect the ability to anticipate and recommend personalized content to viewers will stay above the fray while others fall behind.

According to PwC’s annual AI analysis, integration features prominently among the top three data-related challenges:

• Integrating data from across the organization (45%).
• Integrating AI and analytics systems (45%).
• Integrating AI with IoT and other tech systems (43%).

For the improved viewer experience that consumers are demanding, data integration will be job one.

Outside of AI, expect the continued global rollout of 5G to provide new opportunities to reach mobile viewers. Ensuring a service’s infrastructure can handle the increased demands of 5G networks will become essential, especially in the entertainment and media landscape that this new technology promises to transform.

Forward-looking streaming services are well-advised to prioritize emerging technologies as a strategic investment that differentiates them, rather than as an operational cost to be minimized. To attract new customers while retaining the existing subscriber base, bold long-term vision is vital.

A Game Plan for Victory

The streaming wars are complex, presenting media companies with equal parts opportunity and challenge. To win requires bold vision, artful navigation and a relentless focus on consumer needs.

Consumers have been very clear. They want world-class content combined with a superior viewing experience.

By optimizing investment in content — the right mix of licensed and original programming — and capitalizing on emerging technologies, media companies can chart a course for success.

Mark McCaffrey is U.S. technology, media and telecom leader at PwC.

The Meteoric rise enjoyed by Netflix, Hulu and other major direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming platforms is threatening to eclipse traditional television networks entirely. According to a recent forecast from research firm The Diffusion Group, every major TV network will turn away from expensive linear TV bundles and toward a direct-to-consumer streaming model in the next five years.

Traditional media and broadcasters have spent years creating their brands and products, and to support their services, they have set up an extensive web of back-office systems and processes. In spite of their efforts, though, the American Customer Satisfaction Index reports that subscription TV satisfaction has fallen 3.1% from 2017, hitting an 11-year-low score of 62. Traditional broadcast networks need to make bigger changes if they want to reclaim consumers — and it will start with a shift to a direct-to-consumer model.

Spiraling Satisfaction

TV broadcasters haven’t been able to deliver a superlative customer experience for a number of reasons, but one that stands out is the inability to reach international customers. Broadcasters traditionally operate domestically because they’ve purchased licensing rights in their home countries and their systems don’t readily allow for international consumption. Still, expanding reach across borders can be a high-margin opportunity because it allows them to leverage assets they’ve already created — and demand is increasing.

The Pew Research Center reports that more than 200 million expatriates are currently living and working abroad. That’s millions of potential customers who want to stay connected with their homelands through television. They might not be able to take their cable boxes abroad, but they can watch TV online anywhere with just about any device. Unfortunately, while broadcasters are great at TV production, they typically don’t have the technical development resources to distribute and sell their products in multiple geographical locations.

Accepting payments and collecting revenue internationally can also be a technical challenge. Both require multiple payment gateways, extensive knowledge of tax laws and the ability to process different methods of payment. While credit cards might be the most common payment method in the United States, it’s a different story in many other countries.

International customers might write checks, use vouchers, rely on online payments with PayPal or Apple Pay, or even pay in cash. Despite what you might have heard about cash falling out of use, researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco have found that the share of cash in circulation in 41 out of 42 countries actually went up between 2006 and 2016. For broadcasters to win a share of the vast potential revenue around the globe, they must prepare to make big changes.

Overcoming the Obstacles

Whether a traditional media company decides to build new systems on its own or to seek third-party help, catching up with the direct-to-consumer streaming giants will be a challenge.

To start, for each new region, the company should weigh the new cost of operations against the potential revenue brought in by the expanded customer base. It’s important to account for costs such as billing and revenue management systems, demand for new support staff in specific locations, and potential changes in daily operations. Setup costs might apply only initially, but it’s important to pay close attention to cost per product once a new system is up and running.

Traditional media isn’t dead, but it is facing a crisis that can be overcome only with action. Creating direct-to-consumer services is a promising step for broadcasters because it allows them to tap into a global market and compete with existing rivals. It won’t be an easy transition, but there isn’t much choice: To survive into the next decade, these providers must analyze costs and start building profitable systems now. There is little doubt that their future depends on it.

Vijay Sajja is the founder and CEO of Evergent, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of lifecycle management services for cloud video providers.

Having spent more than $1 billion for a salvo of new original shows set to launch next year, Apple is in the process of building out its Culver City, Calif-based marketing team.

Over the weekend, Apple posted an job opening on LinkedIn, looking for a “creative director for original content." Silicon Valley’s largest company is seeking someone to “build and lead a team that will develop global multi-platform marketing campaigns for original programming.

“This department,” the posting adds, “will conceptualize and create the promotional campaigns across media and platforms. You will be required to maintain strong relationships with internal stakeholders and external partners, as well as ensuring that work delivers against Apple standards.”

This follows a week-old Apple postings seeking a “series marketing lead,” and a month-old posting looking for a “series marketing specialist.”

Related: Apple to Spend $1B Annually on Original Programming

A year ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was preparing to spend $1 billion to compete in the streaming original series business—an arms race that is now seemingly unavoidable for large digital companies and which is led by Netflix, which could spend as much as $13 billion on content this year, according to a recent extrapolation of Goldman Sachs data.

With development and production of Apple’s slate now well underway, Macworld published a little roundup last week on the reported portion of the company’s slate.

Projects include a Terry Gilliam-led TV version of the filmmaker’s 1981 cult classic Time Bandits, an adaptation of the bestseller Pachinko, which follows the path of a Korean immigrant family, and a comedy from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia masterminds Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney, just to name a few.

Now valued at more than $1 trillion, Apple is getting into the originals game, seemingly late, against competitors like Amazon—which is almost as big and just as vertically integrated, with a video business that spans production, distribution and devices. 

Teltoo, a startup focused on bringing scale to OTT-delivered live video services, has moved to the U.S. and opened a headquarters in Boulder, Colo.

The company, which will continue to keep its technical team based in Madrid, Spain, said it has also raised a round of funding. The amount has not been disclosed, but the company confirmed that Liberty Global is among Teltoo’s financial backers.

The move to Boulder also follows Teltoo’s involvement in UpRamp’s “Fiterator” program. That initiative, run by the CableLabs-backed startup accelerator, enables its selections to get exposure with cable operators alongside guaranteed commercial deals. In exchange, UpRamp gets a small equity stake (typically in the form of warrants) in the startups selected for the program.

RELATED: Four Startups Picked for CableLabs-Backed UpRamp Program

Teltoo completed the Fiterator program late last year.

Being in Boulder will keep Teltoo close to CableLabs, which is based in nearby Louisville, a growing tech startup community that has found a home in the Denver area, as well as content delivery companies such as CenturyLink (which now owns what used to be Level3 Communications, based in Broomfield), and Fastly, which has a presence in the Mile High City.

“Overall, we saw this was a good place to be,” Teltoo co-founder and CEO (and a former HP employee) Pablo Hesse said.

Teltoo, he said, has started a search for a COO and another sales exec to be based in the Colorado office.

Teltoo is focused on a software-driven, distributed architecture that can scale and improve the performance of live video streaming while also helping service providers conserve bandwidth. Per an earlier discussion with the company, Teltoo’s approach involves a small piece of JavaScript that is installed on the partner’s streaming video player for web browsers, mobile devices and even TV-connected devices. Working in tandem with servers, the platform manages the connections while a live stream is being delivered.

RELATED: Startup Pitches Cable-Friendly P2P Play

Liberty Global and RTVE, Spain’s state broadcaster, are among those that have been working with Teltoo in the early going. 

The Streaming Video Alliance (SVA), a group formed in late 2014 to establish specs and best practices for video streaming, has added some heft to the cause with the addition of Google.

Google, a streaming giant via way of YouTube and its relatively new YouTube TV service, was named as a new member this week during the SVA’s fourth annual meeting in New York hosted by Viacom. Of recent note, Google has also gotten behind AV1, a new royalty-free, next-gen codec that is initially focused on OTT video apps and services.

RELATED: Royalty-Free AV1 Codec Turned Loose

Also new to SVA is Videastream. Other members include Adobe, Amazon Web Services, Arris, Bamtech Media, Beamr, Charter Communications, CenturyLink, Comcast, Conviva, Liberty Global, NBCU, NeuLion, Sky, Verizon, Viacom and Nokia, among others. A big name still absent from SVA’s list is Netflix.

RELATED: Charter, Verizon Among Group to Trial New ‘Open Caching’ Architecture

This week’s SVA meeting included a keynote by Alec Hendry, senior director of technology convergence at Viacom and Dino Covelli, director of emerging streaming technology at Viacom. The agenda also featured the HEVC Licensing Symposium, including players from the HEVC’s various patent pools, and a session focused on the challenges of massive live, synchronized events from Wowza’s Chris Michaels. 

Roku’s business reached a milestone of sorts in Q1 as Platforms revenue exceeded Player-related revenue for the first time.

Q1 2018 revenue at Roku’s fast-growing Platforms division, which includes advertising, subscription revenue sharing and licensing fees from TV makers, jumped 106%, to $75.1 million, while Player-related revenue dipped 3%, to $61.5 million.

Total net revenue rose 36% to $136.6 million, with ARPU climbing 50%, to $15.07.

Active accounts were up 47%, to 20.8 million, while total streaming hours via Roku’s players and integrated Roku TVs reached 5.1 billion in Q1, up 56% versus the year-ago period.

Roku said roughly half of its base of active users have cut the cord or have never had a traditional pay TV subscription.

In its letter to investors, Roku stated a belief that “virtually every TV OEM will eventually need to license a TV OS, as consumers shift to smart TVs with 4K displays, and as OEMs focus on both cutting costs and boosting customer satisfaction.”

Two notable exceptions are Samsung (Tizen) and LG Electronics (webOS). Roku is continuing to focus on the smart TV market as it faces more competition in that area from Google’s Android TV and Amazon’s Fire TV platforms.

RELATED: Amazon, Best Buy Strike Exclusive Smart TV Deal

Roku said it expected retail distribution of Roku TV models to grow in 2018, and also raised its full year 2018 outlook.

Its TV partners include Funai Electric (Sanyo, Magnavox and Philips), RCA, TCL, Element Electronics, Hitachi America, Sharp, and Hisense.

Shares in Roku closed at $36.08 each Wednesday, up 8.94% ($2.96). Shares were up 2.27% in after-hours trading Wednesday night. 

Las Vegas -- AV1, the royalty-free, next-gen video codec from the heavily backed Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), is initially targeting web browsers, including Mozilla’s Firefox and Google Chrome, and a small but growing amount of content.  

But a major move that will deliver widescale adoption major move – support in hardware and chipsets -- is about two years out.  

Hardware support will likely come in 2020, as chip development typically takes two to three years, Matt Frost, head of strategy and partnerships for Chrome Media at Google, one of AOMedia’s members, said here Wednesday as an opening keynoter at the NAB Show's first Streaming Summit.  

AOMedia, which issued the 1.0 release of VP1 earlier this month, has strived to optimize the new codec to make hardware adoption easier, even if seeing it appear in chips won’t happen overnight, he explained.  

RELATED: Royalty-Free AV1 Codec Turned Loose 

He expects AV1’s path to be similar to the one taken by VP9, another royalty-free coded originated by Google that was released in 2013 and initially added to popular browsers like Chrome and Firefox, followed by adoption by Google’s corporate cousin, YouTube, as well as Netflix.  

Frost said small volumes of video in the AV1 format, largely for testing purposes, is already available via YouTube.  

The 1.0 release is the first stage in this important process. “We have the code; it’s frozen,” Frost said.  

AV1 is being billed as a next-gen codec that is 30% more efficient that current-gen codecs such as HEVC and VP9.  

Dan Rayburn, the conference chairman of the NAB Streaming Summit who moderated the discussion, said he views AV1 as a successor to HEVC, rather than a replacement.  

Frost acknowledged that it’s a “pain” to switch to a new codec, and that it’s costly to support multiple formats. But he likewise believes that the value will come from the bit rate efficiencies that will come with AV1. YouTube’s adoption of VP1, he said, enabled faster start times, smoother streaming and, in some cases, a way to bump up the resolution that consumers received on their devices. 

“And to do all of that while saving money,” Frost said, adding later that the APIs and tools for VP9 and AV1 share some helpful similarities and could help ease that transition path.  

As for the bandwidth-saving potential for AV1, Frost noted that Netflix showed off 720p streaming at a mere 207 kbps at the AV1 launch party.  

Still, a big question many have about AV1 is whether it will become the target of lawsuits from other holders of intellectual property.  

Frost said there was a major aim to avoid potential legal entanglements with other patent holders and patent pools, as AV1 does not use any patents that aren’t derived from those involved in the AOMedia organization, which includes Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Netflix, and Facebook among its members.  

AOMedia has also done its due diligence and put “a lot of rigor” into the intellectual review of AV1, Frost said, noting that there was a deep review done internally as well as another level of review with dedicated outside counsel.  

And here’s the just-in-case -- AOMedia and its members have also set up a fund for the defense of AV1 against any possible lawsuits suits that emerge and allege patent infringement.  

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Endeavor has struck a deal to acquire online, multiscreen technology and services company NeuLion for about $250 million in cash.

Under the deal, announced Monday, Endeavor will acquire outstanding common shares of NeuLion for 84 cents each.

The deal is expected to close in Q2 2018, and have NeuLion become a privately held subsidiary of Endeavor, which was known as WME|IMG prior to a name change announced in October 2017.

Endeavor’s companies include WME, IMG and UFC, and a business that spans talent representation, brand marketing, sponsorship and licensing, media sales and distribution and events.

NeuLion’s current crop of streaming customers includes the UFC, NBA, Univision, National Geographic, Sky Sports, Poker Central, Eleven Sports, EFL, ITV, Euroleague Basketball, World Surf League, ITV, RugbyPass.com, Big Ten Network and the NFL, among others.

“We’re excited by the value delivered to our stockholders through this transaction, and we’re looking forward to the dynamic opportunities that being part of the Endeavor family will provide for both our current and new clients,” Roy Reichbach, president and CEO of NeuLion, said in a statement.

“Through our content portfolio, client base, and broader network of rights holders we’ve encountered many different platforms for distributing and monetizing content,” added Ariel Emanuel, Endeavor’s CEO. “NeuLion provides an ideal combination of technology and client services, and we’re excited for the value this brings to our existing partners and the foundation it provides for our future digital growth.”

Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is serving as Endeavor’s legal counsel in the deal, while The Raine Group acted as exclusive financial advisor to Endeavor. NeuLion’s legal advisor is Loeb & Loeb LLP, and its financial advisor is Needham & Company.

Global viewing of over-the-top video content more than doubled last year to 12.6 billion hours, according to a new report by Conviva.

Viewing was done on more than 2.4 billion devices, up 9%, Conviva said. The U.S. accounted for 58% of OTT viewing, followed by Europe with 21%, Asia with 19% and the rest of the world with 2%.

“Conviva has seen the viewing hour growth rate accelerate over the past several years as more consumers move their TV-watching from traditional linear pay TV services to a very wide variety of OTT services offered by both pure play OTT publishers and MVPDs, as well as pay TV providers diversifying their service offerings,” the company said in its Streaming Market Year in Review report. “Conviva expects to see continued accelerated growth over the course of 2018 across both existing and new customers.”

The data in the report is based on Conviva customers, which the company said cover close to 60% of the internet population. The company measures seven out of the top 10 SVOD providers in the U.S., as well as other OTT providers globally.

The number of views initiated in 2017 rose 74% to 38.8 billion, with 54% of those in the U.S.

By December, 64% of traffic on Conviva’s platform came through video apps, compared with 36% from watching video through browsers. That’s the opposite of the year prior. Video app activity grew 160%, while browser video rose 23%.

As many as 1.04 billion unique streaming apps reside on devices in the U.S., with 2.2 apps per device and 2.9 devices per person.

Conviva said the peak in concurrent video connections was 9.75 million, with spikes for both live sports and original content.

In-home devices, such as the Xbox and Roku platforms, showed the highest completion rate for video programming at 46%, with 71% growth in viewing time per device, Conviva said. Streaming video programming was more likely to be interrupted when viewed on a mobile device.

In terms of quality of OTT video, Conviva said that of the 47.1 billion attempts to start watching a video, 38.8 billion were successful. It took an average of 4.84 seconds for a video to start, a 23% improvement from the previous year.

Related: DirecTV Now Customers Suffer Outages, Buffering

Buffering issues improved slightly. While watching a half-hour show, the average viewer spent 0.95% of the time, or less than 18 seconds, waiting for video to rebuffer.

“The OTT market continues to see explosive growth not only in the number of viewers, but the amount of time spent viewing as well,” Conviva said.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced a new AWS Elemental Media Services offering that is made up of five integrated services for its wide range of OTT and multiscreen video streaming partners.

AWS, which will use Media Services to tighten competition with companies such as Microsoft and Google, said its latest offering will lean on an on-demand, pay-as-you-go approach for video processing and storage capacity.

The five services comprising Media Services included three based on existing product lines from AWS Elemental and two new ones that “solve bigger challenges” faced by the market, Keith Wymbs, AWS Elemental’s chief marketing officer, explained in media briefing.

The first three include MediaLive (a live compression engine), MediaPackage (just-in-time packaging technology), and MediaConvert (a file-to-file transcoding engine).

Two total new components include MediaStore (video delivery from storage that is optimized for media), and MediaTailor, a targeted ad insertion platform.

MediaTailor, Wymbs pointed out, has been key to the ad delivery Amazon has been using for its streaming coverage of NFL Thursday Night Football.

All five components that make up Media Services can be integrated with third-party business and control systems, he said.

AWS is launching AWS Elemental Media Services about two years after acquiring Elemental Technologies.

RELATED: Amazon Paid $296M for Elemental Technologies

“We believe this is the first time such a deep set of capabilities for media processing and delivery resides in the cloud for native services,” Wymbs said in a statement. “They can be used by any company in the video ecosystem as a core building block for their, or their customers’, video offerings.”

AWS said more than 50 customers are already on board with AWS Media Services. Examples include corporate cousin Amazon Prime Video (including the Thursday night NFL streaming package); BT; Pac-12 Networks; Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited; Nine of Australia; M2A Media; Cinépolis; Imagica Corp. (a Japan-based post-production company for movies and TV shows); and fuboTV, the sports-focused virtual MVPD.

AWS introduced the new offering in tandem with its re:Invent event in Las Vegas.

Apple TV may be struggling to gain ground in the consumer market against its TV-connected platform rivals, but it’s a big hit with developers in North America, according to a new study from video streaming architecture company Bitmovin.

RELATED: Apple Intros Apple TV 4K

In that region, Apple TV is tops with developer in the category, with 38% adoption, followed by Roku (35%), Chromecast (31%), and Amazon Fire TV (24%).

The breakdown differs by region, as Chromecast has the catbird’s seat in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America and Asia Pacific regions, Bitmovin found in a survey of 380 video developers in more than 50 countries.

RELATED: Red Bull Media House Taps Bitmovin for VOD, Live Streaming

Bitmovin also found that Apple HLS is the dominant video streaming format, though developers are also eyeing a move to MPEG-DASH in the next 12 months.

H.264/AVC is still the dominant video codec among those surveyed, with 95% adoption as of Q2 2017, followed by H.265/HEVC (28%), VP9 (10%), and AV1 (6%).

However, H.265/HEVC fits most prominently into future codec plans (40% of developers plan to use HEVC in the next six months), ahead of planned adoption of VP9 and AV1.

“Whatever the use case, these organizations are definitely ready for the upcoming HEVC support on iOS and Mac,” Bitmovin noted in the study. “Android has had support for HEVC playback in native apps for some time, as well as with set-top boxes in closed loop systems where people control the encoder and the playback device, and Android TVs.”

VP9, the Google-developed royalty-free format, is gaining via its reach on browsers like Chrome (Google), Firefox and Microsoft Edge as well as Android devices. Netflix, Bitmovin pointed out, is also using VP9 for downloadable content.

Bitmovin, a streaming video infrastructure specialist, said it has notched a deal to power live and VOD services from Red Bull Media House across all supported platforms and devices.

Under the deal, Red Bull Media House will use Bitmovin’s platform to underpin live events and quick turnaround VOD offerings, while also being compatible with multiple video codecs, including bandwidth-saving options such as HEVC and Google’s VP9.

Red Bull Media House joins a group of more than 200 Bitmovin customers that also include Sling TV, Ooyala, RTL, ProSieben and The New York Times.

Bitmovin’s video infrastructure includes video players and a framework for measuring the video experience and quality for end-users. Those products can be integrated with partner API layers, explained Bitmovin CEO Stefan Lederer.

Bitmovin said its cloud encoding stack, which runs on Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure as well as on-premises systems, also supports new formats, such as video reality, 360-degree playback and 4K streaming.

The Walt Disney Co. said it plans to begin launching Disney and ESPN branded direct to consumer products.

Disney said it acquired a majority ownership in BAMTech LLC to serve as the technology backbone for the new products.

RELATED: Disney Buys One-Third of BAMTech for $1 Billion

The announcements came as the company announced lower profits in its third quarter.

RELATED: Michael Paull Named CEO of BAMTech

Disney said it will pay $1.58 billion to acquire an additional 42% stake in BAMTech, the technology services and video streaming spin-off of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM).

RELATED: BAMTech CTO: OTT Providers 'Have to Produce Every Day'

The first direct to consumer products will be an ESPN-Branded multi-sport video streaming service that will launch in early 2018. It will be followed by a Disney braded streaming service in 2019.

Read more at B&C.

Guess what? People get irritated when they encounter buffering and other bad streaming experience.

But the negative effects run much deeper than that, accordign to a study that Akamai Technologies outsources to a third-party firm Sensum that included the biometric measurement of reactions of more than 1,200 people as they watched streaming video that was encoded at different resolution levels. 

The study, which employed biometric measurement tools such as facial coding (emotional responses used to evaluate reactions)  and skin conductance, found that negative emotions rise 16% while engagement drops nearly 20% when faced with buffering and other poor streaming experiences.

And when that dreaded swirling ball of buffering appears, happiness drops 14%, and attention drops by 3% and focus dips by 8%, per the study.

A part of the study that relied on traditional survey questions also discovered that 76% of participants would stop using a service if issues such as buffering occurred several times.

Akamai said the study shows that poor quality streaming has a long-lasting impact on brand because it can cause this rise in negative emotions.

On the other end, high-quality, non-buffering streams generated a 10.4% higher emotional engagement than video at lower resolutions did, according to a portion of the study that based findings on galvanic skin response, which measures electrical conductance.

Among the different OTT business models tied to the study, SVOD brands lose the most engagement due to buffering, while transactional VOD services suffer the most negative impact to brand loyalty when a consumer has a low-quality experience. 

“This unique research shows there is no place for low-quality video in any streaming business model,” Ian Munford, director of product marketing, media solutions at Akamai, said in a statement. “The premium online video market is extremely competitive; the battle for revenue share is intense and subscriber acquisition costs are increasing, making differentiators like quality of experience more important than ever. Service providers cannot take risks with streaming experiences that are compromised by low resolution or buffering. They must provide consistent, high-quality experiences to help retain subscribers and reduce acquisition costs.”

Syncbak, the broadcaster-backed company that specializes in streaming live, in-market broadcast TV signals on connected devices, said its streaming platform, SimpleSync, now powers 2.5 million hours of live TV programming on an annual basis.

It said its technology now covers 90% of U.S. homes, and is currently ingesting more than 400 TV stations across 161 markets that represent 51 broadcast groups, and all major broadcast networks, including CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC and the CW. CBS All Access, the network's standalone subscription service that supports live local feeds (represented in the image), are among the apps that rely on Syncbak's technology.

Syncbak's platform, which aims to simplify the workflow for live OTT feeds using a multiplatform, cloud-based architecture, has also been integrated with Nielsen in a way that measures local audiences on connected platforms.

RELATED: Syncbak Syncs Up With Nielsen

Syncbak said the milestone shows that its platform can scale as virtual MVPDs and other forms of online video distributors continue to pursue services that can support live local TV feeds over-the-top.

“Gray is 100% ready to provide our signals to any network app, OVD or vMVPD,” Jason Effinger, chief digital and technology officer, at Gray Television said, noting that SimpleSync gets Gray’s signals to the cloud in one step.

Syncbak’s strategic investors include the National Association of Broadcasters, the Consumer Technology Association, CBS, Gray Television, Morgan Murphy Media and Northwest Television.

Video streaming and advanced advertising specialist Roku is in talks to raise at least $200 million in a new round of funding at a valuation of about $1.5 billion, Fortune reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.

Fortune said Roku received a term sheet this week and that the round will be led by U.S.-based investors not named, but cited a source indicating that they won’t be “standard Silicon Valley firms.”

Roku declined to comment on the report.

RELATED: Roku Raises $45.5M More

Roku has already raised about $210 million, according to CrunchBase. Its investors include Fidelity, 21st Century Fox, Netflix, Menlo Ventures, Hearst, Sky, Menlo Ventures, and Viacom, among others.

RELATED: Roku, Comcast Kick Off Xfinity TV App Beta Trial

Roku, the subject of IPO rumors in recent years, is a top provider of streaming platforms via its array of standalone devices that compete with OTT products from  Google, Apple and Amazon. Roku has complemented that that with platform integrations on smart TVs from companies such as Element Electronics, Hitachi America, Haier America, Sharp, Insignia (Best Buy’s in-house brand), and Hisense, as well as a Roku Powered strategy focused on partnerships with MVPDs and other service providers.

Live online video streaming traffic of today’s Inauguration of President Donald Trump has reached 7.9 Tbps, content delivery network giant Akamai announced Friday at about 12:17 p.m. ET. 

Update (12:38 p.m. ET): Peak traffic has climbed to 8.7 Tbps, Akamai said. 

Update (4:37 p.m. ET):Akamai said it also supported 4.6 million concurrent viewers of the Inauguration during the peak period on behalf of its OTT video customers.  Friday’s live traffic tied to the Inauguration also exceeded the political-facing record of 7.5 Tbps set during Election Day coverage the night of Nov. 8, 2016, the company said. That also compares to the 7.3 Tbps peak achieved during the 2016 Euro soccer tournament, and the 4.5 Tbps high-water mark achieved during the women’s team gymnastic finals at the Summer Games in Rio. 

Illustrating how far the adoption and reach of OTT has come in eight years, live online video streaming traffic from the 2009 Inauguration of President Barack Obama peaked at 1.1 Tbps, Akamai said.

Update (1:41 p.m. ET): According to Fastly, a self-styled “real time” CDN, domestic media saw an immediate 80% spike at 12:01 p.m. ET, when Trump’s Inauguration speech began. That also marked a 232% surge in domestic media traffic overall versus a week ago.  International media also saw a big bump – a 89% rise when Trump was sworn in, and a 217% overall increase compared to a year ago. 

Expanding beyond its focus on cinemas and consumer electronics, THX Ltd. said it’s working with a mix of content creators, service providers and distributors on a new audio and video streaming quality certification program.

THX, the company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1983 and acquired last year by gaming hardware and software company Razer, claimed that the new program will help streaming companies “perfect their encoding and delivery methods” to ensure the highest possible quality of audio and visuals.

RELATED: THX Acquired by Razer

THX has tapped Conviva as its Quality of Experience (QoE) launch partner for the new streaming certification program. Conviva’s role will include the collection of data used to analyze streaming quality and will be combined with THX’s expertise in picture quality, encoding and compression techniques, and content packaging, they said.

“The goal is to establish a universal standard for quality in the streaming world that consumers can trust… just as we’ve done for cinema and consumer electronics,” THX CEO Ty Ahmad-Taylor said in a release.

Conviva’s customers include Crackle, ESPN, Sky, Scripps Networks Interactive, Turner, Disney Movies, BBC, CBS, DirecTV, Yahoo, Vevo, Verizon, Starz and Crunchyroll, among others.

Two online video units of NBC Sports Group and Turner have come together on an expanded  “long-term” partnership to use OTT to deliver live and VOD solutions for major sports leagues, pro team franchises, “emerging leagues,” regional and national sports networks, and others holders of premium sports rights.

The agreement, which also factors in Olympics streaming, teams Playmaker Media, the live and VOD streaming service launched last year by NBC Sports Digital (while naming the International Olympic Committee as its first client, and iStreamPlanet, the OTT company acquired by Turner in 2015.

RELATED: NBC Sports Digital Launches ‘Playmaker Media’

iStreamPlanet, along with Adobe, Akamai and Microsoft, were among the partners Playmaker Media identified when the unit was introduced.

RELATED: It's Still Game On for Live TV Sports

The expanded partnership, which will seemingly compete with companies such as Disney-backed Bam Tech and Neulion, will provide tech and services for and “end-to-end” consumer experience, touching areas such as signal acquisition, content management, rights enforcement, advertising and analytics.

RELATED: Disney Buys One-Third of BAMTech for $1 Billion

Playmaker Media and IStreamPlanet have previously collaborated on events such as the Olympics, including the 2016 summer games in Rio, and the Super Bowl. Playmaker Media streams several events  from the NFL, NHL, NASCAR, the Premiere League and Triple Crown horse racing, while iStreamPlanet’s technology is used, for example, for NBA League Pass, Eleague, and the coming NCAA March Madness and PGA Championship.

“We have a long history of working with iStreamPlanet and have collaborated with them to successfully stream some of the biggest events in sports, including multiple Olympics and Super Bowls, to massive audiences,”  Eric Black, CTO, NBC Sports Group Digital, said in a statement. “This is a natural fit as the assets of each company complement the other, providing the most robust offering for customers. We look forward to better serving the growing marketplace through this partnership.”

iSteamPlanet founder and CEO Mio Babic added: “This deal delivers on a shared core value – that end users should be delighted, and premium sports content should be complemented with compelling, innovative viewing experiences. We are just beginning to scratch the surface on the types of innovative solutions we can provide to our customers, and we will continue to expand the amazing work we are doing across the sports industry.”

Turner CTO Jeremy Legg said the partnership reflects "another step in Turner’s strategy for iStreamPlanet to commercialize solutions and bring them to market in ways that are valuable for consumers and customers."

"We’re excited iStreamPlanet’s industry-leading cloud video streaming platform joined with NBC Sports Digital’s capabilities and success in digital sports streaming business," Legg said. "This will bring a new level of excellence to the market.” 

The search for a CEO of BAMTech, the Disney-backed technology services and video streaming spin-off of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), is underway.

An MLBAM official confirmed a report from Bloomberg that Bob Bowman will step back his day-to-day running of BAMTech as he returns full time to his position as president of business and media at Major League Baseball, where he oversees MLBAM, MLB Network, and the league’s sponsorship and consumer product businesses. Bloomberg said Bowman will remain on the BAMTech board.

The official added that it’s always been part of the plan for BAMTech, a $3.5 billion company, to have its own dedicated CEO and management team.

RELATED: HBO 'Very Happy' with BAMTech Partnership 

MLBAM also confirmed that it has retained search firm Egon Zehnder lead the pursuit of a new CEO. MLBAM is overseeing the process with help from The Walt Disney company, which recently inked a deal to acquire 33% of BAMTech, with an option to acquire a majority stake in the coming years.

RELATED: Discovery Forms Venture With BAMTech in Europe

Live video streaming traffic tied to Tuesday’s U.S. Presidential Election set a record for a single news event on Akamai's platform, the content delivery network company said.

Akamai said live video streaming traffic specific to the election peaked at 7.5 Tbps on its platform shortly before midnight ET on Tuesday.

By way of comparison, Akamai noted that Election Day traffic on Akamai in 2004 peaked at just 21 Gbps, and hit 1.1 Tbps during the 2009 Obama inauguration, and 1.3 Tbps for the Royal Wedding in 2011.

Of more recent note, first 2016 Presidential debate peaked at 4.4 Tbps in September, the company said.

Akamai also estimated a streaming audience size during last night’s election of 3.35 million, up from 1.8 million during the first 2016 Presidential debate on Sept. 26.

"Not only are more people watching online in general, they're watching at higher quality, which contributes to the increasingly higher peaks in traffic that we're observing,” Bill Wheaton, EVP and GM of media at Akamai, said in a statement, pointing out that 2016 has already been a record-setter for streaming thanks to the European soccer finals and the Summer Games in Rio.

New over-the-top services need to be priced carefully or they could lose their target audience, or worse, cannibalize existing pay TV customers, according to new MoffettNathanson research.

In a report issued Thursday, MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett wrote that pricing will be the main component of success for OTT services like Hulu’s pending live TV package. Using data from Altman Vilandrie & Co.’s annual Consumer Video Survey , the analyst shows that penetration rates for OTT services fall sharply as their monthly prices rise.

“Perhaps the clearest takeaway from our work with AV&Co.’s Consumer Video Survey data is this: the demand curve for OTT video is rather steep,” Moffett wrote. “Or to put it more colloquially … people aren’t inclined to spend much on OTT video.”

According to the research, the biggest demand for the upcoming Hulu services seems to be around the $20 per month price point, where about 16% of the 5,000 respondents to the survey said they would take the service. At $40 per month, the level that several reports have said is Hulu’s target price, just 6.5% said they would take the service. At $55 per month, even fewer – about 2% -- would subscribe.

The problem with the lower prices is that Moffett estimates that Hulu’s programming costs will be about $39.70 per month per subscriber. And to make money on the service, even at the $40 price point, Moffett says that the target market – cord cutters and cord-nevers – will have to shift from non-pay TV customers looking to spend more to current subscribers looking to pay less.

For AT&T’s DirecTV Now service scheduled for a fourth-quarter launch, pricing could be a huge issue. While AT&T hasn’t said how much it will charge for the OTT service, it plans to have more than 100 channels of live and on-demand programming, implying a “fat bundle” of services instead of a skinny bundle.  Moffett wrote that because of the volume of programming DirecTV Now is likely to be priced high, possibly around $70 per month, where according to the CVS research, only about 0.9% of respondents would take it. Also troubling is who would take it.

“…the customer who is most likely to find a $70 per month package of programming appealing is not one who is currently paying $0 or $10,” Moffett wrote. “It is someone who is currently paying over $100. And for DirecTV, it is someone who already has DirecTV’s legacy service.”

While a new OTT launch with about 10 million subscribers -- or 9% of 110 million U.S. TV homes – sounds like a winner, Moffett noted, “that success is cold comfort if it’s achieved only by accelerating traditional pay TV subscriber losses by 7.3 million.”     

This story was edited on Oct. 25 to correct the 9% figure in the last paragraph.

Amazon has introduced a new, more powerful version of the Fire TV Stick that’s integrated with a voice remote powered by its Alexa platform that, the company said, can search across more than 90 apps and channels.

Amazon’s new stick, which complements its 4K-capable Fire TV box and sells for $39.99, bakes in a quad-core processor that’s about 30% faster than its predecessor. It’s also outfitted with 802.11ac MIMI WiFi, the ability to stream video at up to 1080p, and the bandwidth-saving HEVC codec.

For consumers who buy and active the new Fire TV Streaming Stick by October 31, Amazon is also throwing in $65 in free content – a month of Sling TV (Dish’s OTT-TV service), two months of Hulu (its hybrid subscription/ad offering), and a $10 credit for rentals from the company’s own Amazon Video service.

Amazon has also teed up a free software update coming later this year that will feature a new on-screen “cinematic” experience that will feature video trailers and screenshots that, it said, will help users navigate and find content. The revised UI will also let users customize which apps show up on the home screen.

Amazon’s new arrival comes ahead of the all-important holiday buying seasons. It also comes on the heel of a revamped device lineup from Roku that includes the $29.99 Roku Express, which supports 1080p video, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and a remote with a private listening feature. Roku’s Streaming Stick sells for $49.99.

According to a recent comScore study, Roku topped the OTT streaming device market, with a 49% share, followed by Google’s Chromecast adapter (22%), Amazon Fire TV devices (16%), and Apple TV (12%). 

Roku has launched a revamped and partially renamed streaming video device lineup as the OTT specialist gears up for the all-important buying season and a competitive field that includes rivals such as Apple, Amazon and Google.

Looking to appeal to different consumer segements, the new lineup factors in a range of pricing and capabilities that aim to run the gamut, including entry-level devices to models that support 4K and HDR and other bells and whistles.

-Roku Express: About 75% smaller while doubling the processing power of the product it’s replacing, this one for TVs with HDMI connectors fetches $29.99, supports 1080p video, WiFi (802.11b/g/n), support for Roku’s mobile app, and an IR remote. Notably, Roku is now providing its private listening feature (integrated with the remote control) across its product line.

-Roku Express+: This $39.99 version includes composite connectors for older TVs.

-Roku Streaming Stick: Of the group, this model is the same one that Roku introduced in April 2016. And the price remains unchanged, at $49.99.

-Roku Premiere: Supports 4K, plus an IR-based remote, and costs $79.99. It’s about 40% smaller than the 4K-capable Roku 4 that was introduced last fall, and includes a new quad-core processor, 802.11ac dual-band WiFi with MIMO, and removes the fan that was part of the Roku 4. The device also supplies access to Roku’s 4K spotlight channel.

-Roku Premiere+: Includes the features of Premiere, but adds support for HDR, RF-based remote with a headphone jack, a microSD card slot for added storage, and Ethernet for wired connectivity. Sells for $99.99.

-Roku Ultra: At $129, it represents the fully-loaded option of Roku’s lot, tacking on a voice-capable remote, headphone jack, and gaming buttons, audio optical out port (to connect to a receiver or soundbar), USB port for local media playback, and a lost remote finder feature.

All of Roku’s new 4K-capable players also feature a dynamic, night listening mode that will dampen the sounds of loud noises.

The new Roku Express, Premiere, Premiere+ and Ultra streaming players will be available for pre-order beginning today from Roku, Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon and other retailers, and are expected to be in stores by Oct. 9. The Roku Express+ will be available exclusively at Walmart, Roku said.

Roku’s players complement integrated Roku TVs from makers such as Hisense, TCL, Sharp, Haier, Insignia (Best Buy), and Hitachi.

About 4 billion hours of content was streamed on Roku devices in the first half of 2016, versus 5.5 billion hours for all of 2015, said Lloyd Klarke, Roku’s director of product management. “It’s a monumental time for television,” said.

Roku is privately held, but has said the company pulled in $300 million in revenues in 2015, a figure that includes player sales, licensing and advertising. Roku has about 10.6 million active accounts, meaning that they have done some streaming in the last 30 days.

Roku is also nearing the launch of an Xfinity TV app that support’s Comcast’s pay TV platform.

According to Parks Associates, Roku was the top-selling streaming media player in 2015, accounting for 30% of units purchased.

The Streaming Video Alliance, a group that counts Comcast and Charter Communications among its backers, and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) said they are collaborating to develop industry-wide guidelines that will formalize metrics and terminologies related to streaming media Quality of Experience (QoE).

The CTA R4 Video Systems Committee has also established the QoE working group, WG 20, to bring visibility and accuracy to over-the-top (OTT) video metrics, they said. That working group will be chaired by Conviva, CTA said.

RELATED: Streaming Video Alliance Names Officers

“With the rapid growth of video streaming, on everything from mobile devices to 4K Ultra HD TVs, the importance of this initiative has never been greater,” said Brian Markwalter, CTA’s SVP, research and standards, in a statement. “Businesses rely on measurements to improve their services, and standardization will help enormously with the interoperability of analytics for improved visibility and accuracy of OTT video metrics. These measurement metrics will help everyone in the streaming video ecosystem move towards a more responsive, high-quality and seamless experience.”

“The Alliance has made great strides in solving important industry issues such as QoE to help advance the future of OTT video. We remain focused on fostering deeper ecosystem collaboration and promoting best practices across the streaming video industry,” added Jason Thibeault, SVA’s executive director. “We look forward to extending our collaboration with the CTA and other industry leaders to formalize guidelines for a uniform methodology every streaming video publisher can use for QoE.”

The SVA was formed in 2014.

Verizon and AT&T/DirecTV are pushing forward with more zero-rated fare on the mobile front as the FCC continues to mull how such policies should (or shouldn’t) apply to its network neutrality rules.

RELATED: Pro Zero-Rating Comments Flood FCC (subscription required)

Verizon Wireless, for example, is now zero-rating live local and primetime NFL games delivered on its mobile network through its exclusive with the league. Games streamed on Verizon’s mobile network don’t count toward the subscriber’s monthly data allowance, with the caveat that they are postpay subs and watching on the carrier’s LTE network.

Verizon’s already been active with zero-rated policies with a FreeBee Data, which focuses on sponsored content.  

AT&T and DirecTV, meanwhile, launched a new app last week that lets users view live and recorded content without eating through their mobile data caps via a “Data Free TV” feature. Of course, that only applies to pay TV subs who get AT&T’s mobile service.

Among other enhancements, the DirecTV app now offers up to 315 live TV channels via WiFi or mobile and access to recorded content on the home DVR and an option to download most shows and movies recorded to the sub’s local DVR.  The catch for those features is that that the customer must be on a “Select” subscription or above and have the Genie HD DVR 44 model and above.

And here’s a video about it:

The Steaming Video Alliance, a cross-industry group formed in 2004 dedicated to best practices and technical requirements for online video, has appointed four new officers, including Joe Inzerillo, EVP and CTO of MLBAM, who is on board as the organization’s president.

Other new officers include:

-Vice President: Richard Brownrigg, VP of Online Products and Technology Design, Liberty Global;

-Secretary: Brian Stevenson, Head of Video Product, Nokia; and

-Treasurer: Yves Boudreau, Technology Strategy TV and Media - Office of the CTO, Ericsson

Those appointments come almost three months after SVA named Jason Thibeault as its first executive director.

The SVA timed the officer announcements amid its first international Quarterly Member Meeting, which is taking place in London at Sky’s headquarters, and arrives as the group tries

“Expanding our quarterly meetings beyond the U.S. is a historic moment for the Alliance and true testament to our commitment in serving the wider global online video industry,” Thibeault said in a statement. “We look forward to further international expansion as the Alliance grows and the continued pursuit of our vision for the future of streaming – remaining focused on fostering industry collaboration that will help define the open architecture for streaming.”

“This is an exciting – yet challenging – time in the streaming industry, particularly in the OTT business, and the Alliance has brought the digital video market a great sense of leadership,” Inzerillo added. “With much work ahead of us, it’s vital that we continue to help formulate and propel the implementation of the organization’s strategic plans and help the Alliance further drive industry collaboration and standards. It’s an honor to be stepping into this new role.”

Members of SVA include a broad range of suppliers, distributors, and programmers, including Arris, , Cedexis, Charter Communications, Ciena, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Concurrent, Conviva, Encompass TV, Ericsson, Fox Networks, Hughes Satellite Systems, IneoQuest, Intel, Irdeto, Level 3 Communications, Liberty Global, Limelight Networks, MediaMelon, MLBAM, Mobolize, Nagra, NBCUniversal, NeuLion, Nice People at Work, Nokia, Nominum, OWNZONES, Qwilt, Sky, System73, Telecom Italia, Telstra, Ustream, ViaPlay, ViaSat Inc., Verimatrix, Verizon, Vubiquity, Wowza Media Systems and Yahoo.

Cloud video infrastructure startup Bitmovin said it has landed a $10.3 million series A round led by Atomico.

Bitmovin said the funds will help it accelerate development of video playback technologies for existing and new platforms, including 360-degree video for virtual reality services and apps.

Also joining the A round are a group of Bitmovin angel backers -- David Helgason, founder of Unity; Chris Kaiser, former VP of Engineering at Netflix and YouTube, and Edward Kozel, a former CTO of Cisco Systems and Deutsche Telekom.

Bitmovin, which provides cloud-powered video encoding services and an HTML5 player for desktop, mobile, smart TV and VR platforms, counts OTT customers around the world such as Toolbox, Bouygues Telecom, Nomads, Flimmit, Technicolor, Genflix, Kronehit (online radio).  

Its tech partners include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft, Irdeto, Wowza Media Systems and ad-tech specialist YuMe.

Its intro-level monthly pricing for cloud encoding ranges from free (capped at 2.5 gigabytes per month with “limited” support, to $29 per month for a “Startup” tier, $59 for its “Business” tier, and $149 for a “Professional” level offering.

Bitmovin also offers a range of “Enterprise” plans that start at $645 per month. The company also has monthly and enterprise plans for its adaptive player based on the number of video views.

Bitmovin, based in Palo Alto, Calif., and Klagenfurt, Austria, is also backed by Dawn Capital, SpeedInvest, and Constantia New Business. It was founded in 2013. 

In today’s environment of cord-cutters and streaming services, cable MSOs are under pressure to offer competitively priced services while providing an enhanced quality of experience.

The pressure is not unfounded – there is a lot at stake for cable companies facing what can be described as an "over-the-top (OTT) double-edged sword.” Internet service has never been more important to cable companies as they watch linear video give way to on demand programming, but meeting customer demand for fast and reliable internet service is ironically what led to the decline of their video revenue stream as it paved the way for OTT service providers such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. 

With OTT not going away, cable companies must look to provide a greater experience in order to stay ahead of what will certainly be the future of television to remain viable. But what steps can MSOs take to provide a greater level of service? 

For one, adoption of virtualization technologies and trends like Head Ends Re-Architected as a Data Center (HERD), which is the adaptation of the telco Central Office Re-Architected as a Data Center (CORD) initiative for the MSO market, will be important. Another differentiator is the continued drive to push the network closer to subscribers with what is described as a Fiber Deep evolution—pushing the fiber closer and closer to the end user to provide better service. 

While cable companies may look different by 2020, whether they begin decoupling programming packages or even aggregating OTT packages as Comcast is planning to do with Netflix, they need to focus on their architecture to support a better experience now and allow them to offer differentiating features in the future. 

Importance of Highly Responsive Internet Services

As user demands around Internet speed and availability have increased, the need to store content locally to provide high quality, responsive access to the content that customers want is required in order to address the competitive landscape.

The Internet relies on locally stored or “cached” content to serve up a great user experience. Cable has an advantage here, since they are the network down the block—not miles away in a large data center. That distance will impact responsiveness and, especially in peak hours, quality of service. The cable headend has for many years served up on demand content, but will need to make one more transformation to bring content even closer to consumers.

The first generation of streaming video might take customers to a data center out-of-state providing poor performance while tarnishing a cable company’s internet services reputation. By leveraging the HERD approach and utilizing data center technologies like virtualization, caching and software defined networking in the headend, those organizations can keep customers satisfied, lower the abandonment rate and make sure the advertisers get compensated.

Competition is already robust and to stay ahead, the customer experience is best served from the headend down the road rather than from a random data center in the cloud.

Content Delivery, Mobile Edge Computing and the Redefined Network Edge

Netflix is a great example of a company that innovated its networks out of necessity. While a fledgling streaming media company a few years ago, the company realized that the legacy Internet was not enough for the new mobile generation. Netflix used the cloud and the internet but found that video would not work unless it was delivered by a local server. When streaming from a far-away data center, the user often became dissatisfied and cancelled their service. Content Delivery Networks solved the problem to a degree, but still lacked the ability to scale with demand and would still limp along slowly.

To overcome this challenge, Netflix reimagined content distribution and placed servers close to the Internet’s edge, providing near real time responsiveness. Now picture making the performance even better by having the network respond with more bandwidth by effectively optimizing caching technology.

By moving and virtualizing these servers and sharing precious network resources, cable MSOs can effectively make all OTT content closer to the end user, improving latency and providing a platform for video aggregation that can support live and real time events such as the Super Bowl or a heavyweight boxing match.

And by driving the fiber deeper, they can further improve performance: deep fiber pushes the optical-to-electrical conversion of signals closer to subscribers, which increases potential bandwidth to homes (allowing for support of newer and more numerous services), as well as cutting down on operational costs related to power and maintenance.

Marrying Transport and Caching

Let’s face it, video follows a hockey stick curve, where there may have been slow growth initially but we have seen that growth rate quickly increase to a much faster rate. With the ability today to interact with content and binge watching becoming the new normal, cable MSOs must be able to quickly react and provide a differentiated user experience for their customers. To achieve this, cable MSOs will need to throw a combination of compression, caching, and CDN technologies at the problem.

But what if there was a new option, with the ability to get a file from just a few miles away—near instantly—and the user wouldn’t realize the difference. The future of the cloud is a combination of network, compute and storage architectures to create the best experience. By offering the right mix of bandwidth and orchestration, cable MSOs will be able to take their businesses to the next level.

This will keep the OTT consumers happy while cable MSOs avoid becoming the weak link in the video delivery value chain.

-Elias Cagiannos is MSO Practice Leader at Ciena

Expanding deeper into live event steaming, Twitter has been named the premier streaming partner for Pac-12 Plus, a broadband network that’s poised to offer more than 150 live Pac-12 events this year and in 2017.

The  final roster of school-produced Olympic events for Pac-12 Plus are still in the works, but the service will feature Olympic sports such as soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, baseball, ice hockey, swimming & diving, softball, track & field, wrestling, lacrosse, tennis, and water polo, they said.

Twitter won’t hold the exclusive rights, however, as those events, produced by Pac-12 universities, will also still be streamed on university official athletic sites and via Pac-12.com. The Pac-12 is comprised of Arizona, Arizona State, Ca

The Pac-12 deal expands Twitter’s foray into live streaming. Twitter, for example, recently locked up a deal to stream the National Football League’s Thursday night games package.  Tied to its streaming video ambitions, Twitter recently acquired Magic Pony Technology, a London-based startup that has developed a bandwidth-friendly technology that can automatically improve and sharpen the resolution of online video and images.

“The Pac-12 Networks’ collaboration with Twitter reflects our ongoing commitment to increasing exposure for Pac-12 universities and their live, school-produced events,” said Pac-12 Networks President Lydia Murphy-Stephans, in a statement. “By expanding our digital footprint, Pac-12 Plus also allows us to connect more fans with more, live Pac-12 sports content through a platform they use every day.”

“Twitter is the fastest way to find out what is happening in live sports,” added Anthony Noto, Twitter's chief financial officer. “Our partnership with the Pac-12 Networks will give sports fans a great way to view live sporting events along with the live Twitter conversation they are already accustomed to.”   

The relationship consumers have with online retailers looms as a major factor in the future of video streaming. As retailers that sell devices increasingly also offer content to watch on them, brand loyalty could become a driver in consumers' streaming platform choices.

That prospect is especially significant in the context of the Comcast-Netflix deal announced July 5, under which the MSO will add the OTT streaming service to its X1 set-top box. When launched, the easy access to Netflix content via the set-top could draw the Comcast-loyal to the OTT service and the Netflix-loyal to Comcast.

Online merchants are already engaged in leveraging consumer loyalty to cross-sell devices and content. Several of the largest -- Amazon, Apple and Walmart -- offer their own streaming platforms and content; Amazon has its Prime Video service as well as the Fire TV platform, Apple has Apple TV and content via iTunes, and Walmart sells an array of devices and offers content via a Vudu-powered electronic sell-through service. But the full impact of consumer loyalty on a merchant and viewers' perception of the hardware/content connection are still in flux, like much else in the shifting retail world.  So is the competitive impact that could have on cable delivery.

Offering some insight into the potential impact is a new list of the top 25 consumer electronics etailers from MCN sister publication TWICE magazine that ranks merchants by 2015 sales revenue for CE products. What jumps out from the list is the performance of top CE sellers that are also cultivating video business.

Amazon leads the list with $23 billion in online CE sales, accounting for nearly half of the total $46.6 billion by all 25 merchants, according to TWICE. Apple came in third (behind Best Buy) with $4.2 billion in online CE sales (or about 33% of its total sales), and Walmart ranked fourth with $3.4 billion in online CE sales (or just 15.2% of its total online sales), up 7.6% from the year before.

Most significantly, all of these merchants have electronic relationships with customers, many of whom are primed to buy video content for their connected TV sets, Internet access devices or other streaming platforms. (Notably, Google, which is not on TWICE's etailer roster, also has a presence in this scenario, thanks to its popular Chromecast receiver, which is sold by many online merchants.)

Now let's look at the important relationship between the etailers and the streaming video industry, and their competitive stance vis-à-vis the cable industry. Not so long ago, cable operators were seeking to establish marketing alliances with some retailers -- including Best Buy, Circuit City (rest in pieces) and Walmart -- in part to stave off retailers' support of satellite TV services. As Netflix rolled through their world, various cable distributors have also experimented with electronic sell-through and other attempts to provide digital content in a connected environment .

As the landscape has changed, and with the growth of streaming video (and cord-cutting), electronics retailers are in a better position to maintain and extend relationships with customers. Online merchants are even a step farther along in that connection, with their access to shopper data.

Of course, when it comes to streaming media, the downside of the relationship is that retailers often only have a one-time financial interaction: at the point of purchase when the customer buys a Roku box or a smart TV or other streaming video device. Those sales typically offer no ongoing revenue stream from subscription services bought through the retailer. BestBuy tried to do that in its alliance with CinemaNow during the last decade; Target tried for several years, then abandoned its "Target Ticket" VOD service last year; the late Radio Shack (may it, too, RIP) also played with it. And dozens of other deals have been scouted around the consumer electronics market over the years.

After the retail shakeout, the handful of major online CE retailers atop the TWICE roster are in a strong position to leverage streaming video connections.  Amazon and Apple are obviously well on their way, and Walmart is big enough to try anything. Even the moribund Sears (which sold $229 million of CE products online last year, albeit a 27% drop from the previous year) still sees some possibilities in video -- it recently started selling house-label TV sets, using the brand extension of its once-popular "Kenmore" name.

The TWICE roster of online CE sales may be seen as an indicator that the marriage of online video device sales and online content distribution still has some competitive strengths.

Walt Disney Co. has inked a deal to acquire a one-third stake in the video-streaming technology services division of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM),  Bloomberg reported.

The deal, which would value its stake in that business at roughly $3.5 billion, would also include a four-year option to acquire an additional 33% piece in the digital division of Major League Baseball, the report said, citing an unnamed person familiar with the situation.

MLB declined to comment on the report. Disney has been asked for comment.

Bloomberg’s report on a deal follows one in April from Recode that said Disney was eying a stake in the streaming video unit, known as BAM Tech, which already counts ESPN and HBO among its clients.

But a stronger stake in BAM Tech could help Disney strengthen its digital strategy as programmers, particularly in a premium arena that includes HBO, Showtime and Starz, continue to develop and launch direct-to-consumer OTT distribution service offerings.

A Disney-backed BAM Tech would also amp up competition with other companies that specialize in streaming infrastructure and distribution services, such as Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS), Amazon (via its Streaming Video Partners Program), NeuLion, Comcast’s recently rechristened theVideoPlatform unit,  IBM (which recently bought Clearleap and Ustream), and iStreamPlanet (now part of Turner).

Apple’s June 15th announcement at its Worldwide Developers Conference that it will add fragmented MP4 (fMP4) support to HLS marks a significant step in simplifying online video streaming.

fMP4 is the parent of the emerging Common Media Application Format (CMAF), and Apple’s plan to support fMP4 brings the industry closer to the single format for OTT distributors and playback support on all consumer electronics devices. The ultimate goal is to reduce the complexity when delivering video on-line.

The OTT industry has made a wholesale shift over the past five years from using proprietary media protocols such as RTMP, MMS and RTP, towards using HTTP/S to deliver adaptive segmented content to viewers. Within the adaptive segmented formats, there is still significant fragmentation, with HLS, Smooth, HDS and MPEG DASH offering competing solutions. Even with the expected deprecation of Smooth and HDS and their replacement with DASH, most content distributors are still faced with making two silos of content – one in HLS and another in DASH.

Today, HLS specifies the use of TS (transport stream) file containers, while DASH, although allowing TS, almost uniformly uses ISO Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF) in practice, in particular a variant known as the aforementioned fragmented mp4. The result is that content distributors wanting to reach a HLS and DASH audience must encode and store the same audio and video data twice – once wrapped in TS containers and then again wrapped in ISOBMFF. These same files, although representing the same content, cost twice as much to package, twice as much to store on origin and compete with each other on Akamai edge caches for space, thereby reducing the efficiency with which they can be delivered.

To try to overcome the cache efficiency problem, the market has launched a myriad of solutions which require complex synthesis of the TS and ISO segments (for HDS) at the edge or in a streaming mid-tier. These servers, which have to build content before they can deliver it, have a lower throughput than those that can simply pass it through. File container diversity therefore limits the total throughput achievable by a delivery server, as well as contributing significantly to our customer’s content preparation, workflow management, and delivery costs.  Alternatively, customers could store multiple versions of the content which impact total storage costs.

In mid-2015 two unlikely collaborators -- Microsoft and Apple -- came together to plan an end to this inefficiency through a new media file format, which at the time was called Common Media File Format but which is now CMAF. Microsoft and Apple reached out to Akamai and a number of their closer partners to iterate on the proposal. In February 2016 this group of companies prepared a joint submission to MPEG, which has been accepted onto a standardization track.

CMAF has a number of attributes that are of interest to the media industry:

-It is an ISOBMFF, fMP4 container, specifically ISO/IEC 14496-12:201. Transport Streams have served the purpose of the broadcast and cable industries well in delivering continuous streams of data, but they are ill-suited to segmented media delivery and switching, incurring higher overhead/payload ratios than fmp4. fmp4 is extensible for future additions, lightweight, already used by DASH, Smooth and HDS and is an ISO standard with a robust toolset around it for encoding, manipulation, debugging and analysis.

-Common Encryption (CENC) - ISO/IEC 23001-7: 2016 – a standard means of encrypting media content payload using AES-128bit encryption and then supplying header information so that multiple concurrent DRM systems can be used to decrypt the content. This prevents separate silos of content being needed to support the myriad of DRM solutions available today which, unfortunately, are not converging at the same rate as the file containers.

-Will support the MPEG codec suite of AVC (ISO/IEC 14496-10), AAC (ISO/IEC 14496-3) and HEVC (ISO/IEC 23008-2) codecs in a baseline interoperability but allow other codecs (such as VP9 or multichannel audio) to be signaled.

-Currently allows two types of captioning/subtitling formats – WebVTT (http://www.w3.org/TR/webvtt1) and IMSC-1 (http://www.w3.org/TR/ttml-imsc1).

-Segments must begin with keyframes and there must be precise segment alignment across bitrates. This simplifies switching between bitrates for players.

-Requires independent (non-muxed) audio and video segments.

-A low latency mode is offered, which should further help reduce OTT live stream latencies below the thresholds for terrestrial and satellite broadcast distribution.

-Is designed to be referenced by both a HLS playlist (.m3u8) and a DASH manifest (.mpd).

CMAF is very similar to the file container that DASH already uses today, so adopting CMAF from the DASH perspective requires little, if any, change to encoders, workflow or players. For the Apple and HLS community however, it requires parsing a new type of container. Apple’s announcement to support fMP4 in HLS under iOS10, macOS and tvOS gives the industry more confidence that CMAF will live up to its billing as the driver of convergence.

The advent of CMAF heralds the beginning of the end for TS containers for OTT delivery. The benefits of encoding once, packaging once, caching once and building a single type of player are too attractive along the delivery chain for TS to persist in the long term.

It is not all ice-cream cake however. Even though Apple, Android and Microsoft operating systems and devices will quickly support CMAF, there will still be many legacy devices that are non field-upgradeable for which TS-based HLS will continue to be needed.

Additionally, Common Encryption is not as common as one might think. There are actually several cipher block modes allowed by the spec – CTR versus CBC. While draft CMAF continues to support both of these, the vision of a single content set for all devices remains blurry. CMAF also does not solve the problem of manifest fragmentation, as both HLS m3u8 manifests and DASH .mpd manifests will still need to be generated.

Despite these issues, CMAF remains the biggest step forward the industry has taken in many years towards a harmonized and converged future. We can expect market forces to pick winners (for codecs, captions, encryption modes and presentations formats) and CMAF to settle quickly to be the de-facto OTT media standard.

Akamai has been committed to CMAF from its instantiation and is actively working to ensure CMAF support is a first-class citizen of both our Media Services On Demand and Media Services Live products.

Want more information on CMAF?

-Attend the public Ad Hoc meeting August 25 and 26 in New York City hosted by MLB Advanced Media.

Will Law is Chief Architect, Media Division, at Akamai, a top provider of content delivery network services.

A recent update to Comcast’s Xfinity TV app for mobile devices has opened up access to the live feeds of ABC and NBC, though only in select markets.

That update, delivered in early May 4, noted that “[i]n limited markets, live local broadcast channels NBC and ABC can now be streamed when you’re on the go.” The update also enhanced the app’s VOD feature with more categories and suggestions, the ability to buy on-demand content and stream and download it without leaving the app, and allow for users to dismiss the video player via a new “minibar” that resides at the bottom of the screen.

As for the live ABC and NBC feeds, Comcast confirmed that access is currently limited to the signals offered in the broadcasters’ respective owned-and-operatedmarkets.

NBC and ABC also offer live streams in some markets via separate authenticated apps that require a pay TV subscription, but this latest update gives Comcast a way to integrate out-of-home access to those live feeds into the Xfinity TV app, which is being unified to support VOD and live TV that’s available to customers when they are accessing the app in the home or on the go. See this Q&A with Matt Strauss, Comcast Cable’s executive vice president and general manager, video services, for more about that.

Roku remained the top-selling streaming media player in 2015, accounting for 30% of the units purchased, according to new data from Parks Associates released in tandem with this week’s INTX confab in Boston.

Amazon, maker of the Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick, represented 22% of sales in 2015 (up from 16% in the prior year) as it rose to the number two slot, putting it in a virtual tie with Google, which makes the popular $35 Chromecast streaming adapter.  

Parks said the Apple TV trailed them with 20% of sales in 2015, but had the largest increase in unit sales on a year-over-year basis thanks to the Q4 2015 launch of its new apps-friendly platform. Apple’s share last year was 50% higher than its 2014 results, the research firm said.

Those four players – Roku, Amazon, Google and Apple – accounted for 94% of the streaming media players purchased last year, up from 86% in 2014.

“Thirty-six percent of U.S. broadband households have at least one streaming media player, up from 27% last year,” Barbara Kraus, director of research at Parks Associates, said in a statement. “Device makers have successfully sold streaming media players to consumers by offering easy access to a variety of content streams, as well as frequent updates that add the latest innovation. Amazon in particular has benefited by promoting its Fire TV devices in conjunction with the company’s Prime Video service as well as streams from HBO, Showtime, and other premium offerings.”

She noted that Roku and Amazon are benefiting from a strategy that centers on multiple form factors – boxes and streaming sticks – adding that streaming sticks accounted for 50% of all unit sales in 2015.

Kraus also estimated that about one-third of Roku sales were streaming sticks, and roughly 75% of Amazon sales were sticks.

“Apple and Roku were essentially tied for selling the most boxes, but Roku is expanding its base with the additional form factor,” Kraus said.

Parks estimates that 36% of U.S. broadband households have at least one streaming media player.

Looking ahead, Parks predicts that 86 million streaming media players will be sold globally in 2019. 

Giving a nod to ever-popular over-the-top options, Alaska-based service operator GCI has launched a promotion that will make it easier for some of its customers to get their hands on a new Apple TV device.

Depending on the option, some customers can get the device for free (via credits that accrue over multiple months), and others have the option to finance it from the provider.

All GCI customers can finance the Apple TV (32 GB version) for $5 for 24 months.

GCI is offering the giveaway option to customers on its “No Worries 100” (100 Mbps down by 5 Mbps up, with a monthly 300 GB data plan), or its “red” 1 Gbps Internet service. Those customers will receive a $5 credit each month for as long as they are on qualifying plan.  GCI launched its “No  Worries” plan in January 2015 -- customers who exceed their monthly data ceilings can either buy additional buckets of data for $10,  upgrade to a different plan, or shift to a “basic” level of service of less than 1 Mbps with no overages).

GCI customers can also device finance the Apple TV with 64 GB for $7.50 per month.

Apple launched its app-friendly, fourth-gen Apple TV platform last year. The 32 GB model regularly sells for $149 while the 64GB option fetches $199.

GCI is also making similar offers to customers on its “Epic Life” packages that are available to all customers on the company’s No Worries plans.  Epic Life is GCI’s loyalty program that offers monthly discounts to customers who take three or four  services from the provider.

Telemundo and Syfy have joined a growing number of NBCUniversal programming properties to launch apps for Roku players and Roku TVs.

Telemundo Now and Syfy Now, both authenticated TV Everywhere apps, are now onboard that platform, offering access to full seasons, current and past episodes, clips and other content from those networks.

NBCU said Telemundo is the first major Hispanic network in the U.S. to launch on Roku, offering “Super Series” El Señor de los Cielos and Señora Acero, as well as shows such as Caso Cerrado,and  La Voz Kids.

Syfy Now includes access to shows and series spanning The Magicians, 12 Monkeys,The Expanse, Hunters, as well as reality program Face Off and latest series Hunters.

Bravo and E! launched apps on the Roku platform earlier this month. Other NBCU brands and channels with apps on Roku include NBC, NBC News, USA, NBCSN, and CNBC.

It’s been a busy time for Roku on the pay TV front. Earlier this week, Roku was revealed as one of the first to join Comcast’s Xfinity TV Partner Program, an initiative that enables retail partners to build apps that support the MSO’s pay TV service, including live TV, VOD and cloud DVR recordings. Those services will be delivered in the home over a managed IP link rather than “over-the-top” via a public Internet connection.

“We are delighted to partner with Roku to provide a new digital platform for Telemundo and Syfy fans to view their favorite shows and programming,” said Dina Juliano, NBCU’s SVP of consumer product strategy, TV Everywhere, in a statement. “The addition of these networks demonstrates our commitment to expanding our diverse TV Everywhere portfolio and providing access to subscribers anytime and anywhere they want it.”

BitTorrent said it has tapped Jeremy Johnson and Robert Delamar as co-CEOs as the company looks to accelerate its focus on on-demand and live streaming platforms and services. 

The company confirmed that former CEO Eric Klinker is staying with BitTorrent “in a technical role.”

BitTorrent said it made the change up top as it looks to further commercialize and accelerate the reach of its distribution platform for creators and other partners. It now claims that 200 million fans use its BitTorrent Bundle system for on demand music and video.

BitTorrent has plans for a spring launch of its first applicaton for live video streaming based on the company’s “Live” protocol.  BitTorrent has already been expanding its video strategy via its BitTorrent Bundle, which sells shows from programming partners, and an  expansion into original content.

In his new role, Johnson will head up technology and the go-to-market strategy and executive management of BitTorrent’s product development, operations and media teams. He’s late of Silver Spring, Sony Online Entertainment, NetVmg, and Excite@Home.

Delamar, a digital content distribution platform specialist, is a co-founder of several digital content services, including urbmob, Totalmovie, and UUX, a hybrid live/linear and VOD platform.

BitTorrent also announced David Chidekel as head of business development and business affairs, responsible for content acquisition and sponsorship deals; Straith Schreder as VP of creative initiatives. Schreder, who joined BitTorrent in 2012, will head up creator-focused initiatives, which include the opening of an office in Los Angeles. 

Qwilt, a maker of online video delivery and open caching products, said it has tapped former Cisco Systems exec Jesper Knutsson as vice president of sales.

In that role, Knutsson will head up Qwilt’s overall sales strategy and growth initiatives for the Americas.

Knutsson most recently was with Cisco, joining them following Cisco’s $5 billion acquisition of video software and security specialist NDS in 2012.

“The transformation from broadcast television to internet TV is at a critical juncture – a myriad of streaming content options and insatiable demand from subscribers are top of mind issues for network operators who must architect their networks to meet this demand,” Alon Maor, Qwilt’s CEO, in a statement. “We’re glad to have a sales leader like Jesper join our team and scale our sales efforts so more network operators can benefit from an open caching solution that increases network capacity and improves subscriber quality of experience. We expect his extensive industry experience and remarkable sales success will continue to accelerate Qwilt’s growth and expansion. ”

“Streaming video is ubiquitous in today’s society,” Knutsson added. “Consumers are cutting the cord and relying on OTT video for everything from Netflix to live streaming major events such as an NFL game or the Oscars. Qwilt has established itself as a leader in working with network operators to address the issues related to the industry transformation from broadcast to Internet TV. I look forward to my new role guiding Qwilt’s sales teams as we work with network operators to scale their networks for streaming video. ”

fuboTV, a “sports-first” virtual MVPD, said it now has more than 50,000 subscribers, after adding 15,205 subs in Q1 2015, a 47% increase versus the year-ago quarter.

fuboTV said had 47,392 subs as of March 31, 2016, and has since eclipsed the 50,000 mark. By comparison, Sling TV, the virtual MVPD operated by Dish Network, has more than 600,000 subs, according to February report from  The Wall Street Journal(Dish no longer breaks out Sling TV subscriber figures).

Launched in January 2015, fuboTV said its subs base jumped by 43,651 (1,167%) on a year-over-year basis. fuboTV has raised $20.6 million so far, helped along by a   $15 million Series B round led by Sky and 21st Century Fox.

Of recent note, fuboTV entered the TV Everywhere game by providing access to authenticated content from beIN Sports. The millennials-focused service starts at $9.99 per month and offers live sporting events via distribution deals with partners that also includes GolTV, Univision Deportes and Benfica TV. It also has distribution deals with Univision Communications, Pivot and Revolt Media & TV that added another 15 networks to fuboTV’s lineup.

fuboTV supports several platforms, including Web browsers, iOS and Android mobile devices, Amazon  Fire TV, Roku players and Roku TVs, Google’s Chromecast adapter, and the new Apple TV. 

Netflix is making a big bet on high dynamic range (HDR), a format that delivers “better” pixels by making them brighter and enabling a richer gamut of colors.

Netflix’s foray into HDR plan is underway with support for season one of original series Marco Polo, offered to subs on Netflix’s $11.99 per month Ultra HD/four-stream plan who also have a compatible 2016 Dolby Vision or HDR-enabled TV.

Netflix plans to add over 100 hours of HDR programming by August, with more than 150 hours slated by the end of 2016, Neil Hunt, Netflix’s chief product officer, announced Tuesday in this blog post.

“While 4k offers more pixels, HDR offers better pixels that have greater depth, and on HDR screens you get brighter highlights, more detail in dark scenes, and a wider color range that more closely matches the real world,” he wrote.

Hunt also shed some light on titles that Netflix will offer in both Dolby Vision and HDR formats: A Series of Unfortunate Events; Bloodline; Chef’s Table; Hibana; Knights of Sidonia; Marvel’s Daredevil; Marvel’s Iron Fist; Marvel’s Jessica Jones; Marvel’s Luke Cage;Marvel’s The Defenders; The Do-Over; and The Ridiculous Six.

Netflix streaming rival Amazon, which this week added a standalone streaming video subscription option for U.S. members, began to offer select originals in HDR format last year, including Mozart in the Jungle and the pilot episode of Red Oaks, in markets such as the U.S., U.K. and Germany.

Update: Amazon said it now has about 100 hours of HDR available now and expects to double that by early 2017. 

Buoyed in part by its recent international expansion, Netflix said it added 6.47 million subs in the U.S. and abroad in the first quarter of 2016, surpassing its prior high water mark of 5.59 million in Q2 2015.

Broken down further, Netflix ended Q1 with 46.97 million U.S. streaming subs. It added 2.23 million in the quarter, down slightly from additions of 2.28 million in the year-ago period. It’s forecasting Q2 U.S. streaming net adds of 500,000 to extend that total to 47.47 million.

On the international front, Netflix added 4.51 million streaming subs, extending that total to 34.53 million. It’s forecasting international sub adds of 2 million, which would expand that total to 36.53 million.

“Of our 81.5 million members, 42% are now outside the US,” Netflix noted in its letter to shareholders (PDF), attributing Q1 performance in part to the launch of several series, including Making a Murderer, Fuller House, House of Cards season four, and Daredevil season two. "Our forecast for the quarter was low (at 1.75 million) because we underestimated the positive acquisition impact of our major original content debuts."

As for its U.S. Q2 forecast of 500,000 net adds, Netflix said that’s in line with prior years that take into account a “modest impact from the beginning of un-grandfathering.”  (Netflix is about to move grandfathered subscribers to its $9.99 monthly price point for its most popular baseline service tier, a move that some analysts and industry observers believe will lead to a slowdown of subscriber gains.)

Update: That anticipated subscriber slowdown caused Netflix shares to drop. On Monday, Netflix shares closed down $3.11 (2.79%) to $108.40, and were down 9.36% ($10.15) to $98.25 in pre-market trading Tuesday. 

Netflix noted that more than half of its U.S. subs pay $7.99 or $8.99 for its current $9.99 HD two-screen plan. Netflix said it will phase out this grandfathering gradually throughout 2016, rather than mostly in May “so we can learn as we go.” Netflix will take the same approach internationally. 

“We expect only modestly increased churn from un-grandfathering, partially because members have been with us for a reasonable period already, and because our content continues to improve,” Netflix said. 

As for a hoped-for  push into China, Netflix said conversations are ongoing, but has “no material update on our approach or timing.” 

Looking ahead, Netflix noted that Q2 will be its first foray into the talk show genre with Chelsea, starring Chelsea Handler, which will premiere new episodes nightly, three nights per week. 

In the video tech arena, Netflix confirmed that it has begun to offer some content in High Dynamic Range, starting with season one of original series Marco Polo.  To get that, subs need an HDR-enabled TV and take Netflix’s $11.99 per month, four-screen Ultra HD/4K plan.

More to come...

Bravo and E! are the latest networks from the NBCUniversal stable to launch apps for Roku players and integrated Roku TVs, marking an expansion of NBCU’s TV Everywhere efforts.

Those authenticated apps – Bravo Now and E! Now – allow pay TV subs to stream full seasons of shows from those networks, as well as current and past episodes of a variety of originals.

On the Bravo end, that includes Vanderpump Rules, Top Chef, The Real Housewives franchise, and, starting this fall, the ability to catch up on Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce.

On E! Now, the app offers access to series and shows such as Total Divas, I Am Cait, and Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry. Keeping Up with the Kardashians will be available to Roku users soon after its April launch, and season four of Rich Kids of Beverly Hills will be available in early May.

“Bravo Now and E! Now offer passionate fans some of the best – and undeniably most addictive – programming wherever and whenever they want, and we’re happy to make it available to Roku customers,” said Dina Juliano, NBCU’s SVP of consumer product strategy, TV Everywhere, said in a statement. “This launch underscores our commitment to enhancing the digital experience for our networks’ subscribers and further connecting audiences with NBCUniversal’s beloved TV brands.”

Other NBCU brands and channels with apps on Roku include NBC, NBC News, USA, NBCSN, and CNBC.