Dish Network hemorrhaged another 413,000 subscribers in Q1 2020 as its pay TV footprint withered further to 11.3 million – spread over 9 million Dish TV satellite subs and 2.3 million on Sling TV. These latest losses mark an increase from 259,000 net pay TV declines in Q1 2019.
Zoom Video is seeking to shake off its reputation of vulnerability by acquiring secure messaging and encryption service Keybase for an undisclosed sum. After its much-maligned rise to fame during lockdowns, Zoom wants to amalgamate enterprise-scale communications, easily deployable security, and end-to-end encryption into one communications platform, which it claims no one on the market currently offers.
Sky has come to the temporary rescue of the UK advertising industry with a funding scheme designed to prop up 100 small businesses. Generous as it may seem, a measly £1 million ($1.25 million) will hardly touch the sides in terms of long-term economic stability. The Comcast-owned operator’s Sky Media division is offering its addressable advertising platform AdSmart free to 100 SMEs, providing access to households by postcode area, within a designated distance of their store, or by household make-up or lifestyle attributes that best suit their service. While Sky means well, and indeed AdSmart is the most advanced addressable technology on the planet, we cannot help feeling it must do better.
Industry group MPEG has delivered EVC (essential video coding), also known as MPEG-5 Part 1, which promotes the standard to Final Draft International Standard status. It comes following Faultline’s coverage of LCEVC (low complexity enhancement video coding) codec last week, where we received knowledge that MPEG was nearing approval of MPEG-5 Part 1, which paves the way to LCEVC (MPEG-5 Part 2).
After selling a large chunk of its UPC cable business to Vodafone, Liberty Global ended Q1 2020 with 2.43 million UPC video subscribers spread across Switzerland (986,000), Poland (1.28 million) and Slovakia (142,000). This is a marginal decline across the three territories, with losses of 15,400 Swiss video subs almost offset by gains of 12,500 in Poland and just 300 additions in Slovakia.
Pay TV operator RTL Luxembourg is making use of Ateme’s 90-day free software video transcoding license, as part of a new channel line-up in reaction to the pandemic. As an existing Ateme customer for its OTT services, RTL has expanded Titan Live technology to adjust its video operations and perform full remote monitoring without disruption.
Norwegian broadcaster TV2 has tapped Nevion to provide virtualized media production technology. TV2 has upgraded to Nevion’s Service Operations Center and IP media network monitoring capabilities, expanding on the original IP production transition which Nevion helped orchestrate in 2017.
Kaltura is targeting a doubling of users on its TV platform in the coming months to 100 million worldwide. The jump will be spearheaded by a number of contracts, including a project switching out legacy Mediaroom technology at Israeli operator Cellcom, which has 250,000 subscribers, as well as other deals like US cableco Wide Open West for its new WOW tv+ platform.
Vendors have already started pulling out of IBC, more than four months ahead of the Amsterdam event taking place. Open Broadcast Systems, Object Matrix, Cerberus, Caterno and iconic are among the companies to announce cancellation.
TiVo has integrated ViacomCBS-owned Pluto TV for on-click access to programming from the ad-supported linear streaming service. Pluto TV claims 22 million monthly active users in the US. TiVo has also released its new Stream 4K dongle, integrated with Dish Network’s Sling TV.
Roku clams its new OneView Ad Platform reaches 4 in 5 US households across OTT, desktop and mobile campaigns. Launched this week, Roku’s OneView uses attribution tools from demand-side platform dataxu which Roku acquired in Q4 2019 – offering more accurate TV audience data, deeper consumer insights, proprietary audiences, instant OTT forecasting, and in-flight attribution tools.
WarnerMedia has completed the takeover of stakes in HBO Ole Partners and HBO Brasil Partners from Ole Communications – giving the AT&T company full ownership of HBO, Cinemax and HBO Go services in Spanish-speaking Latin America and Caribbean.
US cableco WOW reported 8,000 video subscriber losses in Q1 2019, falling further to 365,800. Internet subscribers increased by 16,100 in the quarter to 797,600.
Movie theaters may never be the same again following the Covid-19 crisis, which is why IMAX is releasing at least 100 new titles over the next 12 months in IMAX Enhanced format – combining remastered 4K HDR content and DTS premium audio. IMAX, owned by Xperi, has Enhanced titles available on 4 streaming platforms in 14 countries, supported by 17 CE manufacturers.
Quarantines stifled Q1 growth at some of the world’s largest technology enterprises, as Apple reported revenues up just 1% year on year for the first quarter to $58.3 billion. Apple praised record performances in its Services and Wearables segments for offsetting losses elsewhere.
Amazon meanwhile saw net sales surge 26% to $75.5 billion in Q1 2020, with performance boosts across all three core businesses – online retail, video streaming, and AWS cloud infrastructure.
Liberty Latin America gained a total of 4,600 net video subscribers in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 14,900 gains in Q1 2019. Its Cable & Wireless subsidiary added gained 5,000 net video subs, driven by Barbados, Jamaica and Panama.
Altice USA now has 3.14 million video subscribers after losing another 42,000 pay TV connections in Q1. Broadband was a bright spot however, adding 60,000 new subscribers in Q1.
Charter Communications’ pay TV footprint shed 70,000 customers in the first quarter, falling to 15.5 million in total. This marked a slowdown from the 152,000 cord cutters seen a year earlier.
Amazon’s Twitch has signed a three-year deal with two of the most prominent eSports leagues, ESL and DreamHack, starting from 2021 and covering all English-language tournaments. Linear broadcasters have local language deals in China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, and Russia. It comes as PewDiePie signs an exclusive streaming deal with YouTube, moving away from Twitch.
The European Commission has approved Telenor and Nordic Entertainment Group’s deal to combine their respective pay TV businesses – Canal Digital and Viasat Consumer. The not-yet-named company will focus on satellite and IPTV over fiber in the Nordic markets.
Sports betting data provider Stats Perform has just added eSports tournament Blast Rising to its Watch&Bet streaming service, which is provided to bookmakers worldwide. Also added was the PDC Home Tour darts league, which sees professional darts players livestreaming their games.
Japanese startup Infostellar is making waves, offering a ground-station-as-a-service software stack that is aimed at the growing LEO market. The technology addresses the short overhead communications window for LEO satellites, and Infostellar likens itself to Airbnb, matching station owners with spare capacity to satellite operators that need to connect to their assets.
Satellite broadband provider Speedcast has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas, citing pressure on its core oil and gas and maritime markets, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, as the main contributors.