HBO Now, HBO’s stand-alone offering, is a Comcast competitor, TDG Research analyst Alan Wolk said in a note Thursday. HBO Now is suited for cord-nevers and cord cutters, he said. Comcast hopes its customers will use X1 and X2 set-tops, while other multichannel video programming distributors could shift to a bring-your-own-device system, he said. Set-top boxes are dated, difficult to update and unreliable, he said. Customers could buy Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV or Roku and MVPDs could provide an app, he said. Operators could instead offer branded devices and make customers install and maintain them, he said. “This would take the onus to provide STBs off the operator” and allow more frequent updates, Wolk said. Comcast wants to control its interface and “create a standard for the industry,” selling X1 and X2 to peers, he said. The set-top could include streaming services, like Amazon or Netflix, he said. Pay-TV subscribers who have HBO Go have “the best of both worlds” with HBO live through set-tops and on-demand through an app, he said. HBO Go is available on mobile and in-home connected devices at no extra charge, he said. MVPDs shouldn’t worry about HBO-subscribing customers deserting them, he said. To keep HBO customers, MVPDs can offer a lower package price, add 10 MB of Internet speed for free or give two free years of HBO for renewals, he said.

Streaming audio increased 41 percent in January from the year-ago month in average active sessions (AAS), said Triton Digital in listing top-performing digital audio stations and networks measured by the Webcast Metrics platform, in a news release Thursday. Thirty-six percent of all audio streaming listening happened on iOS, 30 percent on Android, 9 percent on Flash Player and 8 percent on Google Chrome, Triton said. Android and iOS remain the favored platforms for streaming audio, it said. In the top 20 markets, Denver experienced the largest listening gain compared with December, with a 33 percent increase in AAS, it said. The next markets with listening gains were Tampa with 26 percent, Chicago with 21 percent, New York with 21 percent and San Francisco with 20 percent, the industry researcher said.

Apple’s deal with HBO to exclusively offer HBO’s mobile app (see 1503090035) is exciting for most of the communications industry other than some multichannel video programming distributors, CBS President Les Moonves said Wednesday at a Deutsche Bank investor conference webcast from Palm Beach, Florida. Apple's HBO deal paves the way for others, and there will be a similar offering from CBS-owned Showtime “in the not too distant future,” he said. The popularity of subscription VOD has made this the best time to monetize video content, Moonves said. “It is far better to be in broadcast than some of the other businesses out there." CBS’ over-the-top offering, CBS All-Access, will launch nationwide in a few months, Moonves said. He also spoke on the FCC incentive auction and said he is actively looking at participating in it with spectrum from CBS's CW and independent licenses. CBS could be "a major player" in the auction, Moonves said. Though he said NAB initially characterized the auction as a bad thing, his company's analysis of the numbers makes it seem like a profitable option, he said. If CBS could put up the spectrum of its CW and other independent stations and make $2 billion, it would be "dumb" not to participate, he said. "You're gonna see us being a full-fledged participant."

Charter Communications improved its prime time Netflix performance by two spots to No. 6 among U.S. ISPs in February to an average speed of 3.29 Mbps, said the Netflix February ISP speed index released Monday. That was up from 3.14 Mbps for Charter the previous month. Also in the U.S., Verizon FiOS had the fastest speed at 3.53 Mbps and Clearwire the slowest at 1.10 Mbps. The average was 3.07 Mbps. Those speeds compared with the U.K., which saw the fastest streaming speeds at 3.62 Mbps and the slowest at 2.99 Mbps, with the average at 3.33 Mbps.

HBO’s new stand-alone streaming service -- HBO Now -- will launch in April and be available via subscription exclusively to Apple customers, a news release from HBO parent Time Warner said Monday. When the service is launched, Apple customers can subscribe using the HBO Now app on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch or directly on Apple TV for $14.99/month. HBO will offer a 30-day introductory free trial period to new HBO Now customers who sign up through Apple in April. The service provides instant access to HBO programming over the Internet. HBO CEO Richard Plepler used Time Warner’s investor meeting in New York last fall to drop the news that the company will offer a "stand-alone HBO streaming service" in 2015 (see 1410150095).

Sling TV launched a "Best of Live TV" core package for $20 a month, it said in a news release Wednesday, adding AMC and IFC to its programming. Sling has programming rights for BBC America, BBC World News and WE tv, it said. Sling added a Hollywood Extra add-on pack, which offers movies from Epix, Epix2, Epix3, Epix Drive-In and SundanceTV, for an additional $5 per month, it said in a news release Wednesday. The Hollywood Extra pack has a replay feature, so customers can watch up to seven days of previously televised content, it said. Sling will add video on demand content from AMC, IFC and SundanceTV, it said.

Five new channels were added to Verizon’s FiOS Mobile App -- FX, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo Wild and National Geographic Channel -- increasing the number of live, outside-the-home channels available on devices to 93, said Verizon in a news release Wednesday. It said TV consumption across devices grew 388 percent year over year, according to Adobe.

Quickplay bought Roundbox, which will enable it to monetize viewing experiences on any device or network by using multicast or unicast technologies that leverage 4G LTE Broadcast, said the acquirer in a news release Wednesday. It said Roundbox’s cloud-enabled software makes it possible for Quickplay to deliver a range of new capabilities and mobile media experiences, as well as optimized video and data delivery and spectrum utilization.

Time Warner Cable is bringing its TWC TV app to the Xbox One video game system, in an agreement with Microsoft, the cable operator said in a news release emailed Wednesday. TWC video subscribers who have an Xbox Live account can access 7,000 free and subscription on-demand titles, it said. Customers can download the TWC TV app at no additional cost from the Xbox Live Apps, it said. The app also is available on Xbox 360, it said. The app uses the OneGuide program guide and voice commands through Kinect, it said.

Connected TVs moved past Blu-ray players on the list of most-used TV app platforms, to become the third most prominently owned device that delivers apps to TVs in the U.S., said the NPD Group. In Q4, 22 million connected TVs were installed and accessing the Internet in the U.S., said NPD, up from 13 million in the year-ago quarter, while Internet-connected Blu-ray Disc players numbered 20 million. By 2017, 47 million connected TVs in 30 million U.S. Internet homes will be delivering content through apps, said NPD, saying usage trends led the TV to become a more prominent connected device ahead of forecast. Availability of apps from top TV networks will be key to the future success of connected TV as HBO and Showtime join CBS in becoming available to consumers this year without the need for a cable or satellite pay-TV subscription, said analyst John Buffone. The most-used TV app platforms are video game consoles, followed by streaming media players, said NPD.