Four distinct virtual MVPD business models are emerging, and the growing industry could put significant pressure on pay-TV providers' monthly subscription fees, Strategy Analytics (SA) said in a report Tuesday. The four models are defenders, typically traditional pay-TV providers offering over-the-top services that closely resemble traditional service but at low price; flankers, traditional pay-TV providers opting for skinny bundles; agitators, made up of programmers and studios that also favor fatter bundles; and disrupters, generally digital pure-plays with no ties to the legacy pay-TV business, SA said. As of January, 3.5 million to 4 million households are virtual MVPD subscribers, but that slow adoption could change with increasing numbers of offerings, SA said. Large-scale adoption of online pay-TV services "will overwhelm existing Internet infrastructure" without improvements being made, SA said. It said addressing technical challenges such as ensuring quality and consistency in the service needs to be the top priority of virtual MVPDs.

A permanent injunction against the companies behind the TVpad set-top box needs to be modified because the defendants continue to pirate copyrighted programming through a comparable product, said Dish Network and broadcasters China Central TV (CCTV) and TVB Holdings in a motion to amend (in PACER) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Dish and the others sued in 2015, alleging the plaintiffs -- including Create New Technology (CNT), Hua Yang International Technology, TVpad.com and NewTVpad.com -- were infringing on CCTV and TVB programming, with Dish having exclusive rights to that content in the U.S. The plaintiffs received a permanent injunction last August, but the defendants now are marketing an identical device, blueTV, that functions the same as TVpad, Dish and the others said. CNT and Hua Yang couldn't be reached for comment.

Sinclair, Silver Chalice and Silver Chalice's 120 Sports are jointly launching a multi-platform sports network of linear broadcast and digital programming later this year, they said in a news release Thursday. The network will combine Sinclair's American Sports Network distribution and live collegiate games, 120 Sports' live studio operations and Silver Chalice’s Campus Insiders’ live collegiate games, they said.

Websites that offer free content like movies, TV shows and sports are likely hiding malware that can hijack individuals' computers, steal personal data and hit them with a barrage of advertising, wrote Will Maxson, FTC assistant director-Marketing Practices Division, in a Wednesday blog post. "We recently downloaded movies from five sites that offered them for free. In all five cases, we ended up with malware on our computer. Generally, it served up a slew of unwanted ads." He said downloading pirated content is illegal. Maxson said it's also not a good idea to provide credit card information if some sites ask for it since they may not be legitimate businesses.

THX joined the Streaming Video Alliance, an industry group focused on solving streaming challenges and creating best practices, to bring its audio experience to the streaming market, it said in a Wednesday announcement. As a member, THX will participate in industry workgroups, including ones focused on quality of experience, which THX called a key component of the audio and video streaming certification program it launched with Conviva this year.

Hyperlocal content could be the competitive offering that helps bolster small MVPDs caught between escalating TV channel licensing expenses and increased competition from online services, said nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon in a blog post Tuesday. It said one panel at this week's IP Vision Conference & Expo discussed the strong desirability local content still has, with such ideas being suggested as video from local events or trying to better partner with local broadcasters largely ignored by the major MVPDs. "Bundling these channels inside a video service could be a win for everyone concerned," nScreenMedia said.

WWE is pursuing across multiple courts an array of John Doe defendants who allegedly illegally copied and distributed its video content online. The company in a motion (in Pacer) for discovery filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu asked for a green light to serve a third-party subpoena on Hawaiian Telcom and Time Warner Cable (part of Charter Communications) for the identities behind IP addresses responsible for BitTorrent distribution of its motion picture Eliminators. Monday, WWE sued an array of other John Does in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia and said in its suit (in Pacer) they're all Comcast subscribers and it plans to seek discovery including a subpoena of Comcast records for their true identities. U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe of Las Vegas earlier this month approved a WWE ex parte motion (in Pacer) attached to another WWE piracy suit, letting it subpoena unnamed ISPs for John Doe information. WWE has pending motions (here and here, in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and with another federal suit in Las Vegas about serving ISPs with third-party subpoenas regarding piracy of its video content. The ISPs didn't comment Wednesday.

Ultra HD video's main delivery will be via streaming, at least through 2020, due to "broadcaster foot-dragging and falling disc sales," nScreenMedia said in a blog post Sunday. It said UHD Blu-ray discs are selling well for now, but the long-term trajectory of disc sales is downward as more people opt for subscription VOD over ownership. It said Japan is alone in having a firm timetable for converting to UHD broadcasts, and there's no hard deadline in the U.S. for the rollout of ATSC 3.0, which includes UHD support. Also, major cable companies haven't said anything about supporting UHD in their traditional cable delivery. The firm said strong UHD TV set sales and the growing number of 25 Mbps broadband connections mean the number of people able to watch UHD is growing quickly, but people will still mostly watch HD video in 2020.

Herring Networks' One America News Network and A Wealth of Entertainment channels are now on DirecTV's lineup and will become part of DirecTV Now within weeks, Herring said in a news release Wednesday.

Younger viewers increasingly opting for global online subscription VOD services like Netflix for their TV content over regional broadcasters could put national identity "at risk as the young are continually exposed to different cultural values than their home," said nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon in a blog post Wednesday. The BBC's iPlayer is facing slowing growth and losing ground to Netflix, and BBC made its BBC 3 channel online only in a bid to try to gain younger viewers, who increasingly are online, he said. Denmark's largest broadcaster, TV2, has seen linear TV consumption plummet while online TV viewing there has growing rapidly since 2014, though it has seen some success with its TV2 Play over-the-top service, the analyst said.