Twelve companies joined the Digital Entertainment Group: AMC Networks, Azure, Breaker, Cinedigm, Movies Anywhere, Pixelogic, Respeecher, ScreenHits TV, SmithGeiger, Starz, Verizon Business Group and Vuulr. All but Breaker, Movies Anywhere, Pixelogic and Respeecher also plan to join the D2C Alliance Council, DEG’s initiative to promote direct-to-consumer content delivery, said the group Monday.

The video services market is in a “historic state of disruption and disarray,” said Parks Associates analyst Paul Erickson Thursday, saying 45% of U.S. broadband households with traditional pay-TV service are likely to switch to a virtual MVPD in the next 12 months. A Q3 Parks survey found 29% of MVPD subscribers were unhappy with the price and value of their service, and vMVPDs are targeting the segment with different bundles and value propositions, said Erickson. An “unprecedented acceleration of consumer interest in aggregators and vMVPDs” occurred in 2020, “and there’s still a lot of room to grow viewership” through content discovery, said Nic Wilson, TiVo head-customer success, who's scheduled as a panelist on Parks' virtual Parks Future of Video conference Wednesday.

AT&T's DirecTV and U-verse are challenged by the rise of online video distribution and the decline of MVPDs, and a New DirecTV spinoff with more autonomy will be in a better position to improve technology, optimize marketing and fortify "the overall value proposition for ... customers," said AT&T in an FCC International Bureau application Monday. It seeks approval of transfer of control of a variety of its satellite, earth station and private land mobile radio licenses as part of the planned $7.8 billion spinoff of its video distribution business (see 2102240046). It said the deal will give New DirecTV the dedicated management focus needed to deal with changing consumer preferences and investment capital aimed solely at improved tech and marketing. AT&T TV "will be rolled out more broadly and marketed more consistently and evenly," it said. It said the deal raises no horizontal or vertical competitive concerns, as investment firm TPG, which will have a minority stake in New DirecTV, is under contract to relinquish control of its only pay-TV business interest -- Astound, a cable overbuilder with video subscribers in 10 states and Washington, D.C.

Longer commercials are coming to The Roku Channel, which announced Tuesday it’s launching an advertising brand studio to produce “new creative ad formats and TV programming tailored for marketers.” The studio will help marketers “go beyond the traditional 30-second TV ad spot and amplify big moments in the marketing calendar.” That includes commissioned short-form TV programs, interactive video ads and other branded content on The Roku Channel, it said. “The shift to TV streaming has accelerated and leading advertisers are going beyond the 30-second ad,” said Dan Robbins, Roku vice president-ad marketing, saying streaming has “creative flexibility that goes beyond what traditional linear TV can offer to marketers." Lexus shifted ad budgets to TV streaming, allowing the carmaker to "go beyond traditional advertising to move the needle on purchase consideration,” said Media Manager Lisa McQueen. As part of the studio launch, Roku inked a deal with the Funny Or Die branded entertainment division for several branded content team members to join Roku, said the streaming platform. It will give more details at its livestreamed Interactive Advertising Bureau NewFronts presentation on May 3.

Estimates of lost subscription VOD revenue due to password sharing are exaggerated, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Wednesday. The idea everyone would subscribe is "a very big if" since the vast majority of passwords shared are within families, he said. Cracking down will make "a good proportion of subscribers angry."

Subscriptions to online video services grew 26% in 2020 to 1.1 billion globally, said MPA Thursday. They helped offset an overall revenue decline of 18% in theatrical and home/mobile entertainment, amid widespread theater closures due to COVID-19. The global box office market was $12 billion in 2020, including $2.2 billion in the U.S. and Canada. U.S. online video subscriptions grew 32% to 308.6 million, reaching $30 billion. The global home/mobile entertainment market grew 23% to $68.8 billion.

Oppo joined the Alliance for Open Media at the promoter level and will work with other members to advance technologies in content creation and provision, video compression, and media delivery and consumption, AOMedia said Thursday. The company will help shape open and interoperable media streaming standards that power web-based video, AOMedia said.

Decisions about which Disney feature films will play in which theaters are “a function of the exhibitors that own those theaters and whether or not they agreed to the terms of the Walt Disney Company,” said CEO Bob Chapek during the company’s virtual annual meeting Tuesday. A Peoria, Arizona, shareholder had asked why she and her Girl Scouts troop were denied seeing Raya and the Last Dragon on the big screen when a local theater chain told her it couldn’t make a deal with Disney. Raya debuted theatrically last week with simultaneous release on Disney+ as a $29.99 "premier access" streaming option. “We hope to be able in the future to have all theaters playing all Disney films,” said Chapek. Disney has “a small army of people that spends every waking hour” protecting the “very valuable data that’s entrusted to us” for Disney+ and its other direct-to-consumer streaming services “so it doesn’t get into the hands of bad actors,” he told another questioner. Guarding Disney+ against hacks is “something that we spend a lot of time on,” he said. “We realize the trust” that subscribers “put in our hands when they decide to sign up,” he said. “We continue to try to improve and get better and better to protect that data for everybody’s best interests.” Disney constantly studies “a lot of different options” for managing its various businesses to increase shareholder value, “including potential spinoffs,” said Chapek. “We have nothing to announce today, but that is a regular part of what we do as we examine ways to operate more efficiently and more effectively.” He announced that Disney+ surpassed 100 million global paid subscribers in its first 16 months.

Cord cutting and cord shifting to virtual MVPDs will continue this year, but the price advantage vMVPDs enjoyed has eroded significantly, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Monday. "Big bundle" vMVPDs like YouTube TV, Hulu Live and fuboTV now cost $65 monthly and could cost more than $70 by year's end, he said. He said the vMVPD industry will likely add 1.5 million new subscribers this year, with cheaper services like Sling TV and Philo gaining share as pay TV likely loses 5 million to 6 million subs.

Top U.S. pay-TV providers lost 5.1 million net video subscribers in 2020, up from the 4.8 million pro forma net loss in 2019, Leichtman Research Group said Thursday. The top providers collectively have about 81.3 million subs, with the seven largest cable companies having 43.9 million, direct broadcast satellite 21.8 million, telcos 7.9 million and the top publicly reporting virtual MVPDs 7.7 million. DBS lost about 3.4 million subs in 2020, compared with 3.7 million in losses the previous year. The seven largest cablers lost 1.92 million in 2020 vs. 1.56 million in losses a year earlier. Slowing their losses were telcos, with 405,000 lost video subs in 2020 vs. 630,000 lost in 2019. VMVPDs Hulu+, Live TV, Sling TV, AT&T TV Now and fuboTV added 640,000 subs in 2020, compared with 1.1 million net adds in 2019.