Suggestions of intense industry streaming wars are a possible “fallacy,” LightShed Partners blogged (login required) Wednesday, noting Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video combined for 64% of streaming hours in July. Citing Comscore data, LightShed said some 84% of viewing is spread among the top five apps, with Hulu (14%) and Disney+ (5%) added to the mix. Wednesday's launch of Google TV (see 2009300062) and the addition of a dedicated button on the Chromecast remote marked YouTube’s transformation from a casting device “to a full streaming device” akin to Roku and Fire TV, analysts said: It’s “hard to imagine how any advertiser who wants to be on connected TV is not thinking about YouTube first and foremost,” given its size. Disney+ has had “explosive” subscription growth in its first year, to more than 30 million in the U.S. and over 60 million globally, but has just 5% of streaming time spent, showing “how hard it is for a new entrant to build daily engagement.” HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount+ “waited far too long to compete,” they said, noting Netflix’s 13-year head start. Netflix’s 193 million global subscribers was a 27% year-on-year increase, averaging $10.80 per month; analysts expect it to raise pricing next year. HBO Max finished last quarter with only 15% of subscribers activating the service vs. continuing to use legacy HBO, LightShed said. The average revenue per Disney+ user is $4.62, while Hulu ARPU was down 10% year over year, they said.

Photoshop inventor Adobe is promoting its “content authenticity initiative” as an open, voluntary standard to thwart content manipulation for nefarious or criminal purposes, said Dana Rao, Adobe general counsel. “You can make videos and images that could be very lifelike” and difficult to differentiate between truth and fake, he told an Axios webinar Wednesday. “Everyone should be concerned," he said. “The basis of a democracy is a shared understanding of facts. If we can’t agree on what the facts are, we can’t do anything about policies like climate change.” It’s easy to edit videos and images “and create a fiction from a fact,” said Rao. “The problem with images and video is that people believe them. They believe them more than the written word.” People “can’t always trust what they see,” he said. “Years ago, you might have gotten an email from a bank. It asked you for your Social Security number, and you may have just typed it in and sent it away. You know better now. You know that some of these emails are fake, even if they have beautiful letterheads. People need to think that way about online content.”

Sports aside, legacy media companies are telling consumers "there is no reason to subscribe to multichannel television anymore,” LightShed Partners wrote investors Tuesday. Legacy media are shifting their most ambitious content to their own streaming platforms, away from linear TV, said analyst Richard Greenfield, and COVID-19 led to “a whole new level of pain for the legacy TV ecosystem.” With little fresh content on TV, consumer adoption of streaming video “hit warp speed.” Once consumer behavior shifts, it’s hard to shift it back, “especially when the ‘experience’ of streaming TV is so far superior to linear live TV," Greenfield said, citing on-demand programming, few to no ads and smart interfaces that learn consumers’ tastes and make viewing suggestions. The investment firm hiked its target price for Netflix stock to $630, citing “unprecedented industry scale” and a forecast of more than 300 million global subscribers by 2023. Netflix has the global scale to attract talent and create “blockbuster hits,” Greenfield said. If it’s able to hit 400 million subscribers by 2026, the company will “dictate the global zeitgeist across long form video content, including film.” Netflix stock closed Tuesday up less than a point at $493.48.

It's “unclear” how streaming competition affects consumers, reported the Congressional Research Service Friday. “Consumers may benefit from the increasing number of companies” offering services, it said. But “recent disputes,” like the impasse that kept Peacock off the Roku platform until Sept. 21 (see 2009210024), “illustrate that consumers may face limitations on the content they are able to access, depending on the services available on the digital media players and the licensing agreements,” it said. Roku and Amazon Fire TV subscribers still can’t access HBO Max. “The disputes illustrate that companies participating in multiple markets may compete by controlling access to content in addition to pricing.”

Twenty-six percent of American adults get news from YouTube, the Pew Research Center reported Monday. The survey of 12,638 adults, done Jan. 6-20, found 66% of YouTube news consumers said the platform’s videos help them “better understand current events,” and 73% “expect them to be largely accurate.” More than half (51%) of YouTube news consumers said “they are primarily looking for opinions and commentary,” Pew said.

Streaming is a “self-exploration process” for Gen Z, who use content to “help define who they are and what they stand for,” reported Hulu Friday. Gen Z's “see themselves in the complexities of characters’ identities, push for cultural connectedness and seek content that deepens their niche interests,” said the streaming service. Content that grapples with “big issues facing society” resonates most, it said. They seek entertainment “that spans all corners of culture,” it said. Hulu canvassed 2,500 Gen Z's online in April, finding 74% want “lots of choice” in their content offering, it said: “They prefer to be their own ‘content curator.’” Six in 10 identify as straddling “multiple races, cultures or languages,” said Hulu.

Roku users can now access NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming video. The free tier includes 13,000 hours of current, classic and original movies and shows, plus live and on-demand content covering news, sports, reality, late-night and Spanish-language programming. For $4.99 monthly, Roku customers have access to the full Peacock Premium portfolio of 20,000 hours of content; another $5 zaps advertising, said Peacock Monday. A Roku spokesperson emailed there's no update on talks with AT&T to carry HBO Max, which isn't available on Roku or Amazon Fire TV platforms. Peacock is available on Apple devices, Google platforms and devices, Microsoft’s Xbox One family consoles, Vizio SmartCast TVs, Sony’s PlayStation 4 family consoles and LG Smart TVs. Eligible Comcast Xfinity X1 and Flex customers and eligible Cox Contour customers get Peacock Premium for free. In July, Comcast said Peacock had 10 million signups (see 2007300032).

A new Gracenote product connects fans to televised live sporting events and related content across over-the-top sources, said the company Wednesday. Streaming Sports Catalogs is said to ensure sports content is easily searchable and discoverable. “While increasing consumer choice, the rapid rise of sports driven OTT services is making it ever more challenging for sports fans to find and watch their favorite teams,” said Simon Adams, chief product officer.

ViacomCBS' CBS All Access streaming service will rebrand as Paramount+ early next year as the company expands its content offerings and debuts the service in Australia, Latin America and the Nordic nations, it said Tuesday. It said it will enlarge content offerings with more than 30,000 TV episodes and movies and continue developing original content.

Paid subscriptions, at $3.8 billion, were 67% of total music industry revenue, and 79% of total streaming revenue, in the first half, reported RIAA Thursday. Paid subscription growth of 14% outpaced overall streaming music revenue growth of 12%. Streaming revenue was 85% of revenue in the half, physical sales 7%, digital downloads 6% and synch 2%. Average subscriptions were 72 million, up 24% vs. the year-ago half, with more than a million net subscriptions added monthly. Ad-supported on-demand streaming music revenue slowed to 3% at $421 million because due to COVID-19. Services' Q2 ad revenue had double-digit declines. Store closures due to the coronavirus led to a 23% falloff in physical products to $376 million. Vinyl album sales grew in Q1 but reversed in Q2, resulting in a first-half net increase of 4%. At 62% of total physical revenue, vinyl outpaced CD sales for the first time since the 1980s. Vinyl generated 4% of overall industry revenue. Digital and customized radio services receipts grew 6% to $583 million. Digital downloads’ share declined from 8% to 6% at $351 million.