Ultimate Ears added to its UE Bluetooth speaker line a canteen-shaped model designed for outdoor activity. The speaker is shockproof and waterproof, including waterproof connectors that protect the unit even if the “weather door” isn’t fully closed, said the company. The unit produces 360-degree sound up to 65 feet from a sound source, it said. The 12-ounce UE Roll ($99), measuring 5.3 inches in diameter, is available in purple, gray, blue, orange, pink and blue.

Apple will pay about 71.5 percent of revenue generated from its forthcoming Apple Music service to copyright owners for songs streamed in the U.S. and an average of 73 percent of revenue for songs streamed elsewhere, a spokesman confirmed Monday. Earlier media reports had said Apple would pay copyright owners only 58 percent of revenue for songs streamed in the U.S. The Apple Music service, to launch June 30, will cost $9.99 per month for individual subscriptions and $14.99 per month for a six-user family subscription (see 1506080055).

Sunday's season finale of Game of Thrones set a new piracy record, with 1.5 million downloads in eight hours, said piracy news site Torrentfreak, citing data from Demonii Tracker Project. That number was expected to surge to over 10 million over the coming days, it said. The episode also broke the all-time record for the number of people sharing a single file at the same time, which was 224,367 at first post, updated to 258,131 later in the evening. The lower quality 480p copies of the show were “by far” the most popular among downloaders, followed by 720p and 1080p copies, it said. Game of Thrones pirates come from all over the world, but the show is particularly popular in the U.S., UK, Canada and India, it said.

Global over-the-top video service subscription revenue will more than double from nearly $9 billion in 2014 to over $19 billion in 2019, said a Parks Research report Thursday. OTT service penetration among broadband households is 57 percent in the U.S. and U.K., 29 percent in Spain and 24 percent in Germany, said Parks. Some 8.4 million U.S. households, roughly 7 percent, subscribe to broadband and at least one OTT video service but not to pay TV, it said. In other Western countries, comparable rates are 4 percent or less, Parks said, and operators are introducing their own OTT services to appeal to consumers. Citing the “rapid rate of change” in the OTT services market, Director-Research Brett Sappington said, “While operator attempts at TV Everywhere have made little impact, OTT video services are experiencing a boom.” New operators entering the market with their own OTT video services include Bell Canada, Dish Network, Rogers Communications and Sky. “How the industry responds to this change will ultimately affect the fundamental structure of the video industry for years to come," Sappington said.

Some Marriott hotels around the U.S. began letting guests sign onto their Netflix accounts on Internet-connected hotel room TVs, in a first such deal between the streaming video website and hotels, the lodging chain said in a Wednesday news release. The Netflix offering is available at six Marriott hotels and more than two dozen of its other Marriott International brand properties, and is expected to be in almost all Marriotts by the end of 2016, it said.

Since May 2014, Spotify has doubled its number of paid subscribers -- now more than 20 million -- the music-streaming service said in a blog post Wednesday. The company has more than 75 million active users and paid out $300 million in royalties to artists in the first three months of 2015, it said.

Five broadcast TV groups collaborated to create a live-streaming and on-demand service for local newscasts called NewsOn, Cox Media said in a release Tuesday. NewsOn is a joint venture formed by ABC, Cox, Hearst Television, Media General and Raycom. The free service will be a downloadable application and gives users the ability to watch newscasts from any of the 112 participating stations, Cox said. The current participating stations are in 17 of the top 25 national TV markets, it said. Cox said NewsOn is expected to be available to the public by fall.

April’s five fastest U.S. ISPs for Netflix streaming speeds remained atop the list in May, the company said in a blog post Monday. Verizon FiOS held the top spot among major ISPs at 3.56 Mbps, followed by Cox, Cablevision Optimum, Bright House and Comcast. CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream, Verizon DSL and Clearwire rounded out the bottom half of the list of major providers. A one-position swap between Suddenlink, now at the eight spot, and Mediacom, now at the nine spot, was the only change to the list in May. Abroad, New Zealand’s Bigpipe fell three spots in the country’s Netflix speed index, down .34 Mbps from the previous month to 3.11 Mbps. Kabel Deutschland found its way back into second place on the list in Germany, clocking in at 4.0 Mbps -- up from 3.81 Mbps in April.

Streaming Showtime is headed to more devices, as the premium channel's new streaming option will be available via Roku and the PlayStation Vue next month, Showtime said Monday. Showtime announced its streaming service earlier this month, saying it would be available initially via Apple products when it starts in July (see 1506030026). The monthly subscription cost, whether on an iPad or via Roku Vue, would be the same at $10.99 a month. Showtime's streaming service follows HBO's April announcement of a similar streaming option.

Despite having launched its Fire TV streaming box and stick in 2014, Amazon has quickly established itself at the top of the rankings in the U.S. digital media streamer market, taking a 30 percent share of Q1 shipments, Strategy Analytics said last week, citing the availability of its quarterly vendor share report. Market concentration is prevalent in the stand-alone digital media streamer space, as the top four brands -- Amazon, Roku, Google and Apple, in the order of their rankings -- accounted for more than 90 percent of Q1 shipments, the research firm said. Other findings: (1) A total of 35.7 million digital media streamers are installed in U.S. homes, and about a third of U.S. broadband homes own at least one such device. (2) Apple has shipped in excess of 15 million Apple TV units since its 2007 launch. (3) Apple TV, Roku streaming boxes, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV in Q1 accounted for 18 percent of all connected TV streaming devices installed in U.S. homes, up from 14 percent in Q1 a year earlier. "Low-cost standalone digital media streamers are proving hugely popular with consumers who want a quick and easy way of accessing their favorite online streaming services on the living room TV and the entry of instantly recognizable brands such as Google and Amazon is helping maintain growth in the sector," said David Watkins, Strategy Analytics service director-connected home devices.