Univision signed up for Nielsen's National and Local Digital in TV Ratings services to get estimates of linear viewing online, the ratings company said in a news release Monday. With the deal, Univision Network and UniMas become the first Spanish-language broadcasters to include Nielsen's digital audience data in their TV ratings, it said.

Pandora passed the $2 billion mark in royalties for artists and songwriters, nine months after hitting the $1.5 billion royalties mark, the company said Monday. Some 80 million users spend an average of more than 23 hours per month streaming music on Pandora, it said. Pandora CEO Tim Westergren called the “rapid acceleration” of Internet radio royalty payments "promising news" for the industry, creating a “massive” revenue stream that previously hasn’t existed from radio.

Harman partnered with software and cloud-based streaming technology company Wowza Media Systems to be an integrator for Wowza’s technology portfolio, it said Thursday. Customers in broadcast, automotive, government and enterprise markets will have access to Wowza’s Streaming Engine software that delivers video in any format to any device and its Streaming Cloud service for pay-as-you-go live streaming through Harman’s service delivery solution, the companies said.

Dish's Sling TV is offering a $20 per month version with live and on-demand streaming Fox content and the ability to stream on up to three subscriber devices simultaneously, it said in a news release Wednesday. The beta service also offers A&E, AMC, Epix, Scripps, Turner and Univision, Sling TV said. Sling CEO Roger Lynch said that "since launch, our customers have asked for more channels and multiple streams. We believe our new multi-stream service ... is the first step in answering their requests." Sling said its Best of Live TV multistream service includes Fox Broadcasting, Fox Sports, FX and National Geographic networks. Its existing single-stream Best of Live TV service -- which includes Disney and ESPN content -- is unchanged, it said.

Verizon Fios had the fastest streaming rates in March, at 3.68 Mbps, CenturyLink the slowest, at 1.53 Mbps, Netflix said in its monthly speed report. The report doesn't touch on the controversy over its alleged throttling of signals to AT&T and Verizon, but focuses on wired connections (see 1603250050). “In the US, CenturyLink, whose performance has steadily slid since last November, now ranks last in the index with an average monthly speed of 1.53 Mbps,” Netflix said Monday. “By comparison, the slowest country we currently track -- Costa Rica -- posted average monthly performance of 1.87 Mbps in March.” But Netflix also said ISPs in general are seeing lower average rates because of Netflix’s ongoing encoding project. With encoding, programming uses less bandwidth. “With about 80 percent of our catalog now re-encoded, that change is beginning to impact the index,” Netflix said. “If you look at the US ISP Speed Index graph, you’ll see the group of top performers started moving collectively down last month and again this month. That movement as a group reflects more efficient streaming on those networks due to our encoding work.” CenturyLink didn't comment Tuesday.

Brightcove launched OTT Flow, an over-the-top system to let media and content companies launch their own OTT service offerings, it said in a news release Monday. OTT Flow was jointly developed with Accedo, Brightcove said. It said OTT Flow pricing depends on a user's operating model, with OTT Flow for ad-supported OTT video service starting at $10,000/month, and the service for subscription-based OTT service starting at $15,000/month.

Millions of Netflix subscribers were tipped off last week to a $2 per month bump in standard streaming subscriptions on tap for next month, as stories swirled around media sites and social media about the hike to $9.99 per month. Subscribers didn’t get an official word from Netflix, and a few were miffed at the streaming video service for not sending notice directly, although the increase shouldn’t be a surprise. Netflix emailed subscribers in May 2014 (see 1405120065) alerting them they were grandfathered in at $7.99 but would face a price hike in two years. At the time, the new subscriber rate was $8.99 per month, which went up to $9.99 last October. Wedbush Securities anticipates some falloff due to the increase, analyst Michael Pachter emailed us. “Most subscribers use the service and perceive sufficient value to remain subscribers after the price increase.” Wedbush estimates 600,000-750,000 subscribers don't use the service “but still pay out of inertia.” It expects those subscribers to “gradually defect when the price goes up, particularly if the company notifies them of the increase.” Pachter said new subscribers have paid $9.99 since October, “and it appears to be dampening new subscriber growth already.” Business Insider reported that Netflix will raise prices on roughly 17 million of its standard accounts next month and said “most people have no idea.” It cited a JPMorgan survey saying 80 percent of Netflix subscribers grandfathered in at $7.99 didn’t know the increase was to go into effect in May. A Netflix spokeswoman told us Friday that grandfathered subscribers will have the choice of continuing at $7.99 on the standard-definition plan or continuing on HD at $9.99 per month. The two-year holding price was a "thank you" to members, she said. Later this month, members in the U.K. will begin to be "ungrandfathered," she said, and beginning in May, the price hike is rolling out elsewhere based on member billing periods. Members affected by the price increase "will be clearly notified by email and within the service, so that they have time to decide which plan/price point works best for them," she said.

Cablevision's Optimum TV interactive program guide will start including Hulu, the cable company said in a news release Thursday. Cablevision distributed Hulu content to Optimum customers only online last year (see 1504280054). Cablevision said it's the first cable provider with a dedicated channel -- channel 605 -- for Hulu content.

Verizon is buying 24.5 percent of DreamWorks Animation's AwesomenessTV and plans to use it to launch a short-form mobile video service to be shown on Verizon's go90 video affiliate, Verizon said in a news release Wednesday. Verizon President-Product and New Business Innovation Marni Walden said, "The content AwesomenessTV has produced for go90 has exceeded all our expectations with shows such as Guidance and Top Five Live. That's why we want to be in the AwesomenessTV business." Verizon said the new content service, which will have an independent though so-far-unnamed brand, initially will be exclusive to its U.S. platforms, though AwesomenessTV will retain the right to sell it elsewhere in the world. Terms of the purchase weren't disclosed. The company said the deal on close will value AwesomenessTV at $650 million, which Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said would put Verizon's investment at close to $159 million. In a note to investors Wednesday, Fritzsche said the deal points to advertising-supported video service as among Verizon's top strategic focuses, if not paramount, and future tuck-in acquisitions and investments are likely. Macquarie Capital Analyst Amy Yong, in a note to investors, said, "Embracing the mobile ecosystem with Verizon will likely drive [AwesomenessTV's] Gen Z audience to become even larger. This transaction will redefine mobile video content for the millennial audience and positions AwesomenessTV as a top content leader." DreamWorks will remain the majority shareholder, with 51 percent, and Hearst will own the remaining 24.5 percent, Verizon said.

Comcast and Disney Studios signed a licensing agreement that will let the cable company resell new releases and library titles from such Disney properties as Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Pixar and Touchstone Pictures through its Xfinity On Demand digital store, the cable company said in a news release Tuesday. It said the purchased films can be cloud-stored to watch on any device anywhere. Disney joins Fox, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony Pictures and Warner in making content available through Comcast's On Demand digital store, it said.