Seven months after launching without two of the leading streaming video platforms (see 2005270033), HBO Max is widely available from most major providers and platforms, arriving on Roku players and TVs Thursday (see 2012160064). That follows availability on PlayStation 5 consoles Wednesday and Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex devices Tuesday. Wonder Woman 1984 debuts Christmas Day. The movie -- the first on HBO Max available in 4K Ultra HD, HDR 10, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos -- will be viewable to HBO Max subscribers for one month at no additional cost, said WarnerMedia. The $14.99-per-month service became available on Amazon Fire TV devices last month (see 2011160026). Existing HBO subscribers on the Roku platform will get HBO Max as an automatic update, and they can log in using existing HBO credentials. Other Roku users can download WarnerMedia’s video service from the Roku channel.

FuboTV is well positioned to benefit from “cord-nevers,” who prefer customizable TV bundles of streaming content to “pre-determined MVPD programming,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Tuesday, initiating coverage. Its “lead with sports” strategy and competitive pricing offer avid sports fans “the first comprehensive alternative to pay-TV, which should continue to entice pay-TV subscribers to cut the cord and join” its vMVPD platform. Sports content has been the “hook” to reel in subscribers to pay TV, while news and entertainment drive increased viewer engagement, he noted. Competitive pricing and “comprehensive content offerings provide fuboTV a huge competitive advantage,” he said, seeing “rapid growth” for the next several years. Challenges for the company are branding and consumer awareness, plus marketing and user interface, Pachter said. When concerns are addressed, Wedbush expects fubuTV to grow its subscriber base by 50% or more per year for the next several years. Wedbush's 2023 revenue estimate doesn't reflect any contribution from fuboTV’s expected entrance into sports wagering in the latter half of 2021, Pachter said. Cord cutters and shavers are a 30 million addressable market now, likely growing by 3 million per year for the next 10 years, said the analyst. The stock closed 12.1% higher Wednesday at $29.70.

Consumers who rely on streaming to view video content are using seven services on average, including subscription VOD and free streaming offerings, up from five in April, reported NPD Monday. It canvassed 5,000 U.S. consumers online Oct. 14-22, finding 21% say they're “decreasing engagement or canceling subscriptions because they feel other services offer better content” versus 14% in April. Free streaming services grew to 47% of viewers in October from 39% in April, as consumers increasingly “leverage” free offerings to supplement SVOD services, said NPD. Though nearly all free streaming services experience lower churn than SVOD, since consumers don't have to subscribe to these platforms, “they also experience lower engagement rates,” it said. “Consumers want the ability to customize their viewing experience, bundling both paid and free services that provide them with the content they want, when they want it.”

While VCRs and then DVDs were a staple of convenience TV viewing for decades, the era of subscription VOD has in many cases obviated the need for recording, raising questions whether consumers will notice or care much about a looming fight to stifle ripping of YouTube video streams, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. Consumers "may lose the hard-won right to record the shows and movies we watch in the transition to digital video services," he said. "Few may even notice the loss" since most people won't be involved in YouTube ripping, he said.

A quarter of U.S. broadband homes prefer to watch new feature film releases on an over-the-top subscription service, while 24% “still prefer movie theaters to experience first-run movie titles,” reported Parks Associates Monday. "COVID-19 has upended the traditional content-windowing process, and consumer research shows this paradigm shift is impacting consumer attitudes," said Parks Research Director Steve Nason. “An OTT source scores higher than movie theaters when consumers report their preferences for first-run movies,” he said. “This shift might be temporary, and nearly 30% have no preference for how to watch a new movie, which gives theaters a glimmer of hope they can eventually gain back some audience for first-run titles." Warner recently decided to release its full slate of 2021 blockbuster films simultaneously in theaters and with a one-month window on HBO Max (see 2012040047).

FuboTV added MGM's Epix network original programming and movies to its live TV streaming platform, it said Friday. FuboTV subscribers also will have access to thousands of Epix titles on demand, including select programming in 4K, in the coming weeks. The $5.99 monthly Epix package will be available to subscribers for the first 30 days after launch for $2.99 for their first three months.

Nexstar cable network WGN America will join the channel lineup of streaming MVPD fuboTV in January, Nexstar said Friday. The multiyear carriage deal follows a similar one announced with YouTube TV (see 2012020054)

Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., introduced bipartisan legislative text Thursday that would subject “large-scale criminal streaming services” to felonies. The Protecting Lawful Streaming Act wouldn’t apply to “normal practices by online service providers, good-faith business disputes, noncommercial activities, or in any way impact individuals who access pirated streams or unwittingly stream unauthorized copies of copyrighted works,” said Tillis. Co-sponsors include Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga.; and David Perdue, R-Ga.

Roku launched Winter StreamLand Monday in the U.S. on The Roku Channel with movies, TV shows, live TV and unlocked premium subscription content, including iHeartRadio holiday music stations that are free this month. Unlocked first seasons of TV shows and movies and select TV episodes from premium services on The Roku Channel will be available without a subscription, Roku said Monday. Full seasons of select premium shows will be available for free during Winter StreamLand from Showtime, Sundance Now, Acorn TV, UMC and Starz.

Warner’s decision to release 2021 blockbuster titles simultaneously in theaters and with a one-month window on its HBO Max streaming service is “a very costly one for everyone involved,” MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett wrote investors Friday. “We have a hard time believing the messaging that this is only a temporary 2021 plan,” said the analyst, “even if that might be the current plan today. Once the windows change, it will be hard to go back.” It’s “hard to find any winners here,” he said, ticking off AT&T, participants/rights holders and U.S. theater owners who will suffer “another unexpected big hit.” Despite growing consensus that coming COVID-19 vaccines should help return the U.S. to some normalcy by mid-2021, the Warner Bros. decision “puts a damper on those expectations for movie attendance,” he said. It’s unclear whether U.S. exhibitors will agree to play the upcoming Warner 2021 movie slate, “given the unattractive terms of running films that are simultaneously available for ‘free’ on HBO Max,” though given the difficult position most theater owners are in today, it will be hard for them to hold the line on an exclusive theatrical window, he said. The Warner announcement is ahead of any expected update from Disney this week “of likely plans to alter their own traditional theatrical windowing strategy,” Moffett said. While studios have been pressuring exhibitors to shrink the theatrical window for some time, WarnerMedia is the first to “blow up the model by skipping an exclusive theatrical window altogether.” The Pay 1 window -- where studios typically break even on their original investment -- is now the HBO Max release, which “no longer generates cash; instead, it merely shifts content between WarnerMedia segments,” he said. Going all in on the biggest blockbusters seems “overly aggressive vs. a simple window change.” The move will likely spur new subscriptions to HBO Max, which until now “has simply not been all that differentiated" from HBO, which has "floated at a penetration rate of 1/3 of US Pay TV homes for many, many years," he said. “But at what cost?” Warner didn’t comment Friday.