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.

Roku began taking pre-orders Tuesday for a next-generation Streaming Stick with eight times the processing power of its predecessor. The $49 device will begin shipping later this month, Roku said. Features include a quad-core processor; private listening via smartphone or tablet using the Roku app for iOS and Android device; Hotel and Dorm Connect; and cast capability from Netflix and YouTube apps directly to a TV, said Roku. The announcement of the new Roku Streaming Stick coincided with Roku’s release of its 7.1 operating system, which the company said simplifies search and discovery by adding new categories within the My Feed section. Users can view TV shows and movies from various popular streaming channels in one place on the Roku platform and then choose to watch them immediately, follow them in the Roku feed to see changes in availability and price, or watch when they become available for free viewing, Roku said. A feature unique to the Streaming Stick allows consumers to use the mobile app on phone or tablet to listen to a show through wired or wireless headphones, it said. The app can also serve as a remote control, enabling search by voice or an on-screen keyboard, Roku said. The Play On feature lets users streaming personal videos, music and photos to the TV using the stick. With the Hotel and Dorm Connect feature, users can connect a Roku device to a password-protected network like those found in hotels, dorms and other public places and sign in with their login credentials using the browser on their phone, tablet or laptop, said Roku.

Media Institute President Patrick Maines said revelations that Netflix throttled its own service to AT&T and Verizon customers show deep problems in FCC net neutrality rules. Commission officials have said Netflix, as an edge provider, isn't subject to the rules (see 1603250050). “The two companies that generate more than half of all downloads in North America are Netflix and Google,” Maines said in a commentary in The Hill. “And it was those two companies, and their amen chorus in what is laughingly referred to as the tech media, that led the way to what became the net neutrality rule. Indeed, one can say that the whole of the net neutrality case was conjured up by, and for the express benefit of, exactly two companies.” Netflix didn't comment.

Netflix’s throttling of its own video stream on AT&T and Verizon devices (see 1603250050) was a bad thing, net neutrality advocates concede, Fred Campbell, executive director of Tech Knowledge, said Thursday in a Forbes blog post. But Netflix, as an edge provider, didn’t violate FCC net neutrality rules, which shows a fundamental problem with the rules, Campbell wrote. “Netflix’s behavior was clearly inconsistent with the ‘end goals’ of net neutrality articulated by Google in the FCC first open Internet proceeding: ‘an open, transparent, and neutral Internet environment’ that ‘would optimally extend across all communications platforms and providers,’” he said. “The fact that Netflix’s behavior violated net neutrality’s goals without violating the rules the FCC wrote doesn’t vindicate Netflix. It impugns the FCC’s inexplicable practice of exempting web-based … companies from regulatory oversight while micromanaging the network management practices and investment decisions of Internet service providers.” Campbell is former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau.

Video consumers ages 13-24 start watching video from the moment they wake up -- with 65 percent of those surveyed saying they watch before school or work, and 67 percent say they watch falling asleep, Defy Media said in its Youth Video Diet report released Tuesday. Their top source of content was YouTube, with 85 percent of those surveyed watching, followed by Netflix at 66 percent and multichannel video programming distributors at 62 percent. Youths average 12.1 hours a week of free digital video, with many watching an additional 8.8 hours of subscription digital video, Defy said. When financially independent youths were asked about why they don't have pay TV, 40 percent cited cheaper options available and another 24 percent said affordability, while 24 percent said they weren't interested in the content or shows. Among those surveyed, 52 percent said they use ad blocking software on their video devices. Between 87 and 89 percent said they were "always or sometimes OK" with five-second intro screens showing brand sponsors or five-second end screens advertising a product, product placements or a digital celebrity announcing a brand sponsor or demonstrating a product in a video. Smaller majorities of those surveyed were less supportive of 30-second or one-minute pre-roll ads. The data came from 14-day video journals of 54 youths ages 13-24, subsequent interviews with 27 of those youths, and an online survey of 1,300 people ages 13-24.

The revelation last week that Netflix allegedly throttled its own stream on AT&T and Verizon devices for five years (see 1603250050) isn’t a net neutrality violation, but could have other policy implications, said Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant Monday in a note to investors. The FCC last summer fined AT&T $100 million for insufficient disclosure that unlimited data service was slowed after reaching 5 GB a month, Gallant noted. “Netflix has a sensible rationale -- reducing Netflix's churn with AT&T and Verizon wireless subscribers, who might otherwise drop Netflix due to higher data charges,” he said. “But getting ‘caught’ doing this may put Netflix on its heels in Washington at a time when important [over-the-top] policies like interconnection pricing and zero rating are fluid and could go either way.” The revelation also shows the power of edge providers, he said. “ISPs have long complained that they are being unreasonably singled out for regulation within the Internet ecosystem,” Gallant wrote. “This Netflix report may highlight for government officials the leverage possessed by large Internet companies. Slowing streams to specific wireless [operators] implies a range of steps a large edge provider ... could take to disadvantage an ISP relative to its competitors.”

Wall Street met news of management changes at Pandora with a 12 percent cut in stock value Monday, but analyst firm Dougherty & Co. maintained an outperform rating on the No. 1 music streaming company. Pandora replaced CEO Brian McAndrews Monday with co-founder Tim Westergren while Chief Financial Officer Mike Herring added the president title and Chief Strategy Officer Sara Clemens was tapped as chief operating officer. “We continue to think that Pandora's long-term strategy will drive profitability,” Dougherty analyst Steven Frankel said in a research note. Frankel compared Pandora’s strategy to invest in on-demand subscription service, live events and international expansion to that of Netflix with one exception: “Netflix has little control over its content costs, and Pandora has relatively well-settled pricing for its content.” New Copyright Royalty Board rates “set a benchmark” for negotiating international and on-demand content rights, while Pandora's three-tier offering (commercial-supported and commercial-free Internet radio plus on-demand listening) gives it “a competitive advantage over virtually every other service,” Frankel said. It could take a year or more for the strategy to show results, he said. Shares closed at $9.60 Monday.

Eighty-one percent of U.S. smartphone users stream video programming on their devices, said an NPD report Monday. While most video streaming takes place over Wi-Fi, video is the top driver of cellular data usage, with the average U.S. smartphone owner consuming nearly 3 GB of cellular data per month, NPD said. Analyst Brad Akyuz attributed growing video usage on smartphones to larger displays and free sponsored data from T-Mobile’s Binge On and Verizon Wireless’ go90 plans. Overall smartphone data usage is being driven by users 25 and younger, who spend twice as much time watching videos on YouTube and Netflix mobile apps as users over 25, NPD said. Smartphone users under 25 average 6.2 GB data consumption for video streaming monthly versus the 25-plus group who average 4.9 GB data for video usage per month, NPD said.

T-Mobile said additional video providers are now participating in its Binge On offering. Binge On, introduced in November, allows subscribers to stream video from a wide number of services without that usage counting against a customer’s monthly data bucket (see 1511120045). Some net neutrality advocates see the zero-rated offering as potentially violating FCC rules, which T-Mobile executives deny (see 1602040060). Subscribers can now also watch Baeble Music, Discovery Go, ESNE TV, FilmOn.TV, Fox Business, Google Play Movies, KlowdTV, Red Bull TV and Google's YouTube without dipping into their data allowance, T-Mobile said in a Thursday news release. Subscribers have streamed 57 million GB of video using Binge On and 70 percent of the services that subscribers watch are now part of the program, T-Mobile said. “Binge On is a runaway hit, and adding these services is just huge,” said CEO John Legere. “Now T-Mobile customers can watch all of the videos they want from these platforms without even touching their high-speed data.”

Spotify and the National Music Publishers' Association settled Thursday over claims the company failed to pay mechanical royalties on songs played via its streaming service that Spotify claimed lacked sufficient ownership information. Spotify faced multiple lawsuits (see 1512290048 and 1601110047) over claims the company wasn't obtaining mechanical licenses on copyrighted music. The Spotify-NMPA settlement will let music publishers claim royalties on performances of songs in the U.S. via Spotify for which ownership information “was previously unknown,” Spotify and NMPA said in a joint news release. The agreement sets up a compensation fund for unmatched royalties, with Spotify's contribution to that fund being a “substantial” proportion of the amount of unpaid royalties that the company currently holds, they said. Neither NMPA nor Spotify confirmed the size of the compensation fund. An industry lobbyist told us it would be around $30 million. “I am thrilled that through this agreement both independent and major publishers and songwriters will be able to get what is owed to them,” NMPA CEO David Israelite said in a news release. "We must continue to push digital services to properly pay for the musical works that fuel their businesses and after much work together, we have found a way for Spotify to quickly get royalties to the right people.”