This year is proving to be "very difficult" for local ad revenue, said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb in a teleconference Friday with acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, per a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-349. Retransmission consent revenue is increasingly important for stations to provide local content such as news, the company said. With more consumers streaming and traditional MVPD subscribers declining, revenue from “virtual MVPDs” has risen in importance, the filing said: “vMVPDs are generally unwilling to carry independent stations to the disadvantage of local viewers.”

Multiple MVPDs will shift from developing their own third-party digital media adapters to developing apps that can run on third-party DMAs such as Apple TV 4K or Android-based alternatives, Colliers analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Tuesday. The shift could eliminate development delays that hampered Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) over the past few years, said the analyst. UEI will still play a “critical role” in a third-party DMA, providing the voice remote and technology to configure and control additional devices, Frankel said. UEI launched several “interesting products” over the past few months, including an Apple TV 4K remote for MVPDs that want to use that platform for their next set-top box, a new voice remote for Liberty Global’s latest 4K set-top box and the Comfort family of connected thermostats for OEM and hospitality markets, announced Thursday (see 2102120042). Revenue headwinds facing the remote control maker include continued struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic of legacy customers that rely on truck rolls for new installations, said Frankel, citing Dish Network and AT&T's DirecTV. Other challenges are a shift by some TV OEMs from completed remotes to a higher margin combination of chips and software, and UEI’s decision to walk away from some lower margin products, he said. UEI's Q4 call is Thursday at 4:30 p.m. EST.

Market conditions arising from COVID-19 that drove accelerated adoption of Roku devices “creates potential to substantially grow revenue and profits” long-term, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Friday. Pachter expects advertisers to “continue defecting from linear TV to digital,” where Roku has a rapidly growing user base “and superior targeting capabilities.” Roku is also benefiting from increasing availability of live sports on OTT platforms, “which has accelerated cord-cutting,” he said. The platform’s growth rate is sustainable due to linear TV advertising that will “shift in Roku’s direction,” as content continues to shift to subscription-, premium- and ad-based VOD platforms, Pachter said. Wedbush expects continued revenue growth in transactional VOD, SVOD and AVOD given “substantial user growth coupled with Roku’s enhanced targeting capabilities.” The addition of Quibi original content (see 2101080028) to Roku’s free-to-watch Roku Channel should drive adoption in the desirable 18-to-35-year-old demographic, allowing the platform to command higher ad rates, Pachter said. Roku said Thursday it added 13 new live, linear TV channels to the Roku Channel: Baby Shark, Bloomberg Quicktake, Cine Romantico, CineVault Westerns, Hallmark Movies & More, Kocowa Classic, New K-ID and six Loop channels. Roku reports Q4 results Thursday at 5:30 p.m. EST.

Bowers & Wilkins launched the new Music app for its wireless audio Formation platform with initial support for Qobuz, Tidal, TuneIn, Dash Radio, NTS Radio and SoundCloud streaming services, it said Friday. More subscription services and streaming platforms will be added in coming months, it said. President Geoff Edwards called the update “a statement of our intent to further develop and improve our Formation-enabled product portfolio.” The app aggregates content from available music services into one interface, allowing users to access tracks, albums, playlists and radio stations; it also offers personalized recommendations and curated B&W playlists. Initially, the app will operate alongside the existing Bowers & Wilkins Home app, which provides setup functions for Formation products. Later this year, the company will combine all app functions into the Music app, including setup, control and streaming, replacing the Home app. All other functionality already offered by Formation-enabled products remains current, including AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth aptX HD support for streaming from mobile devices, integrated support for Spotify Connect and Roon, and “Works With Alexa” certification. B&W plans to continue to expand the capabilities of Formation to improve the user experience and add new features, including support for custom-channel control systems such as Control4, it said.

LG named SpotX its primary supply-side platform for programmatic video advertising in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa said the companies Thursday. SpotX is also providing LG with demand facilitation services to connect media buyers with premium over-the-top video inventory available on LG smart TVs. Buyers will be able to purchase inventory programmatically through its platform or a demand-side platform they choose. TV makers are "recognizing the power of owning the glass to not only manage content distribution and access but also aggregate unique audience data," said Mike Laband, SpotX senior vice president-platform. LG had more than 300% growth last year in streaming hours on its channels, said Matt Durgin, senior director-North America smart TV partnerships.

Encore Drive-In Nights and MetaMedia partnered to offer livestreamed concerts, sports and other events at drive-in venues across North America, they said Wednesday. Encore's network of “hundreds” of outdoor venues targets fans not traditionally reached by touring routes. June-September, Encore events played to more than 900,000 fans with concert films from Metallica, Garth Brooks, Kane Brown and Blake Shelton, it said. Encore also showed its first livestreamed event last month, an Ultimate Fighting Championship match between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor.

Consumers’ broadband upgrade plans suggest many households consider certain COVID-19-related changes “permanent,” said Parks Associates analyst Steve Nason Wednesday, citing over-the-top video service stacking as a contributor. Broadband usage is higher for half of U.S. broadband households since the start of the pandemic, reported Parks, saying in Q3, 24% of fixed broadband homes planned to upgrade their speed in the next six months, up 6 points sequentially. Some 45% of broadband households subscribe to three or more OTT services, and many are planning to add new ones such as Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max and Peacock as a permanent part of their OTT menus, beyond the “Big 3” of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. “Many traditional pay-TV subscribers are migrating to online pay-TV offerings or standalone OTT services,” Nason said. “Traditional providers, who still comprise the majority of the pay-TV market, have to continually seek ways to integrate online video services into their offerings either through homegrown solutions or external partnerships.”

Fifty-five percent of U.S. pay-TV households say availability of live sports is important in their decision to keep the service, said Parks Associates Tuesday. The churn rate for pay-TV services is trending “significantly lower than the rate for [over-the-top] OTT services,” said analyst Steve Nason. Over the past year, churn rates for OTT and virtual MVPD services declined as consumers turned to streaming video services for entertainment.

IHeartMedia is expanding into binaural podcasting, marking a “shift toward a more immersive listening experience,” said the company Tuesday. Binaural, or 3D, audio creates a sense of movement and location and triggers other senses. IHeartMedia is expanding its previously introduced 13 Days of Halloween podcast series, produced with Blumhouse Television, into a seasonally focused 13 Days franchise of podcasts tied to major holidays. The iHeart 3D Audio slate will also include The Mantawauk Caves and a series of bonus 3D episodes.

Universal Music Group and TikTok expanded their relationship to provide “equitable compensation” for recording artists and songwriters, they said Monday. The companies pledged to experiment with new features. TikTok users will be able to incorporate clips from UMG's music catalog. The alliance “sets an industrywide example of social media companies acknowledging, respecting and compensating the music creators whose songs are instrumental to their platforms,” said Marc Cimino, Universal Music Publishing Group chief operating officer. As a driver in creating chart hits, TikTok will help bring “legacy acts to a new audience,” said Ole Obermann, its global head-music.