FuboTV joined with analytics firm Kantar to help advertisers running campaigns on fuboTV understand the effectiveness of connected TV ad campaigns and benchmark performance against competitors, the companies said Tuesday. CTV campaigns across fuboTV’s inventory can be activated directly or through fuboTV’s programmatic partners and evaluated using Kantar’s Brand Lift Insights. Insights are said to show the impact of CTV campaigns on brand awareness and favorability, consideration and purchase preference.

Every major change to expand audience measurement, including adding cable to broadcast in the 1990s and adding delayed DVR viewing in 2006, “has been met with resistance and headlines,” said Nielsen CEO David Kenny on a Q4 earnings call Monday. The current move to “reconcile” streaming and linear TV “is perhaps the biggest change in the history of media,” he said. “Friction can be expected, and we are seeing it.” Nielsen data showed streaming reached an all-time high in January, at 38% of viewing within the 18 to 54 age demographic, he said. Kenny admits “there is more noise on the traditional TV side as our clients adjust their business models from linear to streaming,” he said. “But privately, the conversations we have with clients and their contracts with us show that our business with them is much more productive than the noise suggests.”

When tackling misinformation, YouTube's three focuses are catching new misinformation before it goes viral, the spread of "borderline" videos that narrowly avoid violating the terms of service that would warrant taking them down, and cultural and language complexities internationally, Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan blogged Thursday. He said use of more-targeted classifiers, keywords in additional languages, and information from regional analysts "will make us faster and more accurate at catching these viral misinfo narratives."

Vizio promoted Platform+ business head Michael O’Donnell to chief revenue/strategic growth officer and granted him performance-based stock options worth more than $750,000 at current values that will vest in equal installments over the next four years, based on annual Platform+ net revenue growth, said an 8-K filed Monday at the SEC. Vizio also raised O’Donnell’s base salary 47% to $530,000, it said. Under O’Donnell’s watch, Platform+ revenue, drawn mainly from Vizio’s monetization of its SmartCast operating system and streaming business, grew 134% in the nine months ended Sept. 30 to $203.57 million compared with the same 2020 period, said a Nov. 10 10-Q filing. Vizio is scheduled to report 2021 results March 3.

Wedbush modeled Roku player gross margin at minus 25% in Q4 since the streaming platform provider didn’t pass through higher shipping costs to consumers: "Driving active account growth on each unit sale is far more valuable,” analyst Michael Pachter wrote Monday. Wedbush expects platform revenue of $750 million, a 59% year on year increase, on an estimated 3.1 million new users in the quarter. The estimated 16% Q4 subscriber growth is a “significant deceleration” from recent quarters, as Roku’s TV OEM partners “struggled to get TVs to market due to component shortages and supply chain disruption, coupled with consumers spending more time out-of-home as we exited” COVID-19 lockdowns, Pachter said. As the supply chain disruption eases, possibly midyear, Roku’s user growth will “reaccelerate alongside OEM and retailer discounting,” said the analyst. Wedbush expects average revenue per user growth to offset the shortfall in active account growth, “as Roku continues to gain share of digital marketing budgets.” Pachter maintained an “outperform” rating but reset the company’s valuation on “post-pandemic fade.” Roku reports earnings Thursday.

The Missouri and Georgia communities backing Reno, Nevada, in its legal fight seeking franchise fees from Netflix and Hulu also are supporting similar litigation brought by Ashdown, Arkansas. In a docket 21-3435 amicus brief Wednesday filed with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Creve Couer, Missouri, and the various Georgia localities largely echoed their arguments made in the Reno amicus brief filed this week with the 9th Circuit (see 2202080088). They themselves are suing the streaming services, seeking local franchise fees (see 2112230003). Ashdown is appealing a lower court's dismissal of its suit seeking back franchise fees from the streamers.

Fubo Gaming secured market access agreements for Fubo Sportsbook in Mississippi, Louisiana and Missouri through Caesars Entertainment, providing statewide mobile access for sports betting, subject to regulatory approvals, and in some jurisdictions, enactment of legislation, said the fuboTV subsidiary Thursday. It also has agreements with Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Fubo Sportsbook is live in Arizona and Iowa. FubuTV’s goal with the Sportsbook app is to “turn passive viewers into active participants.” The app’s Watching Now feature uses fuboTV user data to engage participants by recommending relevant bets based on what they are streaming, even if they change channels, the company said. Fubo Gaming is continuing to add features that will “further integrate wagering into the fuboTV platform."

Spotify’s loyalty to controversial podcaster Joe Rogan is partially driven by music rights fees, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Wednesday. “The more that music costs, the more incentive there is for a music service to find alternative audio programming to provide to its listeners,” Oxenford wrote. “So, as long as music royalties remain high, expect talk programming to grow.” This calculation is also the reasoning behind broadcasters such as iHeart expanding their podcast offerings, he said. When Spotify users are listening to podcasts, they aren’t also listening to playlists of streaming music, so talk programming both costs less and reduces song royalty payments, Oxenford said.

Fubo Gaming announced a market access agreement with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, making Fubo Sportsbook the Office Mobile Sports Betting Partner of the team, pending regulatory approvals, said parent fuboTV Tuesday. The agreement follows December legalization of sports gambling in Ohio on professional, college and esports. Creating rules and regulations for the industry will take “months,” reported Cincinnati.com.

The Roku Channel added 25 linear channels, including AfrolandTV, Ax Men, Fox Weather, Modern Marvels, Project Runway, Redbox Romance, Spark TV, Supermarket Sweep and This Old House Makers Channel, it emailed Tuesday.