Viewers 18-44 years old make up 71 percent of U.S. adults with a livestreaming vMVPD pay-TV service, reported Leichtman Research Group Thursday. Sixteen percent of adults 18-44 have a vMVPD service vs. 6 percent of those 45 and older. Forty-three percent of vMVPD subscribers switched from a traditional pay-TV service, 25 percent also have traditional service, 17 percent switched from another vMVPD offering and 15 percent didn’t subscribe to any pay-TV service. Though 73 percent of vMVPD subscribers are very satisfied, 20 percent are "very likely" to switch from a vMVPD service in the next six months, and 93 percent with a vMVPD service also have subscription VOD service from Netflix, Amazon Prime and/or Hulu. A quarter of respondents who didn’t have a vMVPD service were “very interested” in getting one, LRG said. The market for lower cost vMVPD services -- first introduced four years ago -- is “still growing and evolving,” said President Bruce Leichtman. “Consumers continue to experiment with the various vMVPD services, along with other traditional and streaming options, to find the best combinations of video content and cost.” Findings are based on a January online survey of 6,715 U.S. adults.

Apple’s expected foray into subscription VOD won’t dent Netflix or Amazon Prime Video growth, blogged Futuresource Friday. But the Apple SVOD service, the anticipated topic of the company’s Monday announcement, will be key in the evolution of the 2019 SVOD market this year, along with Disney, wrote analyst David Sidebottom, saying its 20 million Apple TV customers are a “ready-made” audience “waiting to switch on.” The service also will draw viewers via Apple’s partnership with Samsung, announced just before CES (see 1901070062), placing iTunes content on the TV maker’s 2018 and 2019 smart TVs. Sidebottom expects additional partnerships as Apple’s SVOD service ramps, including integration with pay TV. The company will need a “strong and wide content offering,” and even with exclusive or original content, SVOD subscribers will likely “be taking Apple as an additional service, rather than cannibalising their existing video subscriptions,” he wrote.

Subscription VOD service OVID.tv launched a collaboration Friday among eight U.S. independent film distributors. From Bullfrog Films, the dGenerate Films Collection, Distrib Films US, First Run Features, Grasshopper Film, Icarus Films, KimStim and Women Make Movies, its 350 titles are described as “quality” art house, documentaries and social issue films. Five new films will be added every two weeks, it said. After a seven-day free trial, subscribers pay $6.99 monthly or $69 yearly.

Comcast will launch a $5 monthly streaming platform, Xfinity Flex, for its broadband customers. It said Thursday Flex will be available starting next week and allow streaming of content from subscription services like Netflix and HBO and from free services like YouTube and Pluto, plus music from Pandora and iHeartRadio.

Household spending on subscription over-the-top video services has held steady for three years, averaging just under $8 per month since 2016, reported Parks Associates Wednesday. Adoption of multiple services, or expensive services, by some consumers appears to be offset by a large base of consumers who subscribe to one or two relatively inexpensive services, including 30 percent of consumers who don’t spend any money on OTT video services, it said. “The stability in average household spend belies the activity going on under the surface,” and that trend may end this year, said analyst Brett Sappington. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon continue to add subscribers, services such as ESPN Plus are also experiencing “phenomenal growth,” and Disney and AT&T's WarnerMedia plan to enter the fray this summer. Sappington sees three possible scenarios in the morphing market: More households become OTT streaming households, rival services begin to pull subscribers away from Netflix “or that spending number will go up.” The deluge of OTT platforms created more competition for video based on choice and content quality, but even as consumers spend more time viewing digital media, OTT platforms are experiencing a lag in customers’ insights, loyalty and revenue, said Barry Nolan, chief strategy officer, Swrve. OTT platforms need to deliver “the perfect message at the perfect time,” he said.

Univision used the Powered by Napster audio platform to launch a redesigned app for its Uforia Latin music channel, it said Thursday. Features include curated playlists from a 40-million song catalog, a “geo-localized experience” and podcasts, due to launch in spring.

The Disney Plus streaming service likely will see strong early demand, the Diffusion Group said Wednesday, pointing to its survey of adult broadband users. Forty-three percent are likely to sign up. TDG said the amount of content expected to be in the streaming service likely will make it "very sticky." It said Disney Plus is "a major test" for direct-to-consumer offerings, differing substantially from Netflix or HBO Now by being a major studio pooling a big library of content into a single branded subscription service. Legacy pay-TV subscribers appear more interested in Disney Plus than cord cutters and cord nevers, while people under the age of 35 and those with children living at home are more likely than older counterparts. It said survey results came from three separate online panels and close to 2,000 adult broadband users were polled.

Tidal Masters tracks are now available on the iPhone -- following availability on desktop PCs and Android devices, via Master Quality Authenticated decoding, said MQA Monday. Tidal is using MQA’s “music origami” process to “fold” master files into smaller files that can be streamed on the go. The MQA decoder in the Tidal app recovers all direct music-related information and authenticates the source of the original master recording, said the company. Tidal Chief Operating Officer Lior Tibon said the MQA process helps to recreate music in the way the artist intended, a “core value” of the streaming music company. Masters tracks are available to members in Tidal's $19.99-per-month HiFi tier.

Music streaming service Qobuz announced availability on Sonos for its mid-tier, 16-bit service. The $19.99 per month subscription plan is available in the Sonos app, allowing customers to stream audio at a "CD-quality" 1,411-kbps bitrate, said the company. Qobuz, founded in Paris 12 years ago, launched last month in the U.S. (see 1902150052).

As TiVo continues to hunt for buyers of its product and patent-licensing businesses, it plans this year to launch "the most advanced new content-discovery solution for the internet age," said interim CEO Raghu Rau on a Q4 call Tuesday evening. The product will "allow customers to build their own entertainment or streaming content bundle, and truly personalize their experience," he said. It will run on "natural language voice interactions, enabling personalized content discovery, monetizing audiences through sponsored promotions and delivering media engagement data to enable targeted advertising solutions," he said. TiVo has “ongoing discussions” with outside “parties” interested in buying the two businesses, Rau said. “This process is taking longer than we hoped” because of the businesses’ “complexity and uniqueness,” he said. TiVo owns an "extraordinary catalog" of "foundational" patents "across the TV and video domain," he said. Its goal was to wrap up finding buyers by year-end 2018, he said on the Q3 call Nov. 7. Though having failed to meet that target, Rau is “not willing to put a time limit on when this will happen,” he said Tuesday. TiVo's prolonged failure to find buyers sent the shares plummeting 13.9 percent Wednesday to close at $9.58.