Comcast is launching a $15-a-month streaming service, Stream, starting later this summer, Matt Strauss, general manager-Comcast Cable video services, said in a company blog post Sunday. Through Stream, Comcast's Xfinity Internet customers will be able to watch live streaming video from close to a dozen networks, as well as numerous on-demand movies and TV shows, on their mobile devices, Strauss said. Stream -- which will be accessed through Comcast's Xfinity TV app -- also will have a cloud-based DVR service for recording and viewing. The Stream rollout will start in Boston late this summer and expand to the Chicago and Seattle markets next, with Comcast expecting it to be available across its coverage area by early 2016, Strauss said.

Sprint’s decision last week to remove the 600 kbps limitation on streaming video, in response to customer complaints (see 1507010011), shows the market works, said Gus Hurwitz of the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, in a blog post. But Hurwitz questioned whether Sprint’s proposal was really better for consumers than AT&T's and Verizon’s attempts to control use of their networks. “On its face, Sprint’s policy seems fairer,” he wrote. “It applies to everyone, and it’s a simple, bright-line rule. Verizon and AT&T’s plans, on the other hand, are unpredictable and target only specific users under specific conditions. From another perspective, however, Sprint’s rule merely harms everyone equally. AT&T and Verizon’s rules are permissive: they allow users access to as much bandwidth as is available, so long as it doesn’t harm other users by slowing down the network for others.” But the FCC has clamped down on both AT&T and Verizon for their policies, including a proposed $100 million fine against AT&T, Hurwitz said.

Online video services run by cable operators shouldn't labor under the same regulations cable businesses do, Cablevision said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 14-261. Cablevision representatives met with FCC representatives about the agency's proposed re-interpretation of the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor to include some types of online video delivery. If the FCC does that, Cablevision said, "it should ensure that potential competitors in the online video marketplace are able to enter the market and compete on fair terms." Cablevision also asked for clarification of broadcasters' responsibilities to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith, referring to ongoing open proceedings on good-faith negotiations in docket 10-71. Meeting attendees included Cablevision lawyers and executives and front-office and other Media Bureau officials.

Scripps Networks Interactive will provide content from 45 different cable series for Verizon's mobile-first video offering to be made available to Verizon Wireless customers later this year, the programmer said in a Thursday news release. The multiyear content licensing agreement the two announced will see such Scripps Networks series as Bizarre Foods, House Hunters and Rehab Addict streaming on Verizon's mobile video offering.

Amazon made its voice-operated Echo device available to the public for pre-order, the company said in a news release Tuesday. It said the device costs $179.99 and offers a wide variety of services, including hands-free access to news, sports information, weather reports and music. Amazon will begin shipments July 14, it said.

Streaming Showtime content will be available to Hulu subscribers starting in early July, the two companies said Tuesday. A Showtime subscription will be available for Hulu users for $8.99 a month atop the $7.99 a month they currently pay for their Hulu subscriptions. The Hulu move comes as Showtime and rival HBO have made stand-alone subscriptions available in recent weeks through a number of over-the-top channels, including Apple TV, PlayStation Vue and Roku (see 1506080035).

Apple bowed amid pressure from singer Taylor Swift and other artists to reverse its royalty payment policy for its Apple Music streaming service. Senior Vice President-Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue said Sunday that the company now plans to pay artists royalties for music streamed during the three-month trial period Apple is offering for the service. Apple Music is to launch June 30, with individual subscriptions costing $9.99 per month and six-user family subscriptions costing $14.99 per month. Apple’s original plan not to pay royalties on music streamed during the trial period was “shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company,” Swift said in a letter posted to her Tumblr Web page before Apple reversed its decision. “Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing.” Cue acknowledged Swift’s letter, saying via Twitter that “We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple.” Apple said recently that it would pay 71.5 percent of revenue generated from the service to copyright owners for songs streamed in the U.S. (see 1506150073).

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos was among those attending a Democratic National Committee fundraiser featuring President Barack Obama in Beverly Hills, California, Thursday at the home of filmmaker Tyler Perry, said White House pool reports. About 250 supporters paid $2,500 to $33,400 each to attend, the reports said. Netflix has been a vocal lobbying force in the net neutrality debates for more than a year and strongly pressured the FCC to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, as Obama himself did in November.

A little more than a month after Spotify became available on PlayStation devices through PlayStation Music, the music-streaming service has had more than 5 million downloads, the company said in a blog post Wednesday. Spotify called it the "quickest launch adoption rate in PlayStation history." The company said that PlayStation Music, including Spotify, is scheduled to be released this summer in Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador.

The wider availability of services on a fast-growing connected-device base “has led to a vastly improved viewing experience for many in the online video sector, encouraging consumers to pay for premium content,” said a Futuresource Consulting report Tuesday. It described a “perfect storm” in which Netflix has been able to capitalize “on the growing trend to access content via IP.” Netflix has used its low-priced subscription VOD business model to increase its global customer base to 60 million, of which 40 million are in the U.S., it said. Futuresource estimates the global total will reach at least 80 million by the end of 2016, it said. This would make Netflix “approximately twice as big” as any other pay-TV content provider except HBO, which is available in 114 million homes worldwide, it said. For Netflix, “international expansion has been a huge success, with most countries it has launched in exceeding expectations,” it said, citing the recent Netflix debut in Australia. “However, uptake in Germany and France has been slower, with some resistance to the service, whilst Japan could be its toughest and potentially most expensive launch yet, with language, culture and content in Japan all very different to Netflix's previous experiences of international launches.” Netflix representatives didn’t comment.