Netflix's price increases on new and existing U.S. customers (see 1901170053) “will obviously impact the rate of net addition growth” in subscriptions for 2019's first half, said CEO Reed Hastings in an earnings interview. But the company “commensurately” also expects average selling prices to improve, “and that’s what we think will drive an acceleration in revenue growth over the course of 2019,” he said. It’s also instrumental in driving operating margin “higher sequentially” each quarter “to enable us to hit that 13 percent target for the full year,” compared with 5.2 percent in 2018's Q4, he said Thursday. Hastings estimates roughly a billion hours of TV content is being consumed daily in the U.S., and Netflix is “winning about 10 percent of it,” he said. “We’re excited” for the 2019 launch of Disney's direct-to-consumer service (see 1901180026), he said. “Maybe they grow over a couple of years to 50 million hours a day, but that’s out of the billion, and so we compete so broadly with all of these different providers,” including new services entering the market, he said. “That’s why we don’t get so focused on any one competitor.” Shares plunged nearly 5 percent early Friday before closing 4 percent lower at $339.10. Analysts said investors were unhappy with the company's Q4 operating-margin performance, its conservative Q1 U.S. subscriber forecast and that it missed its $4.2 billion Q4 revenue target, albeit barely. MoffettNathanson nevertheless told investors Friday it gives the company's "future U.S. pricing narrative" high grades. Netflix "continues to excel in content procurement and discovery," compared with "the feeble efforts by some traditional media companies" to build "attractive" and competitive streaming offerings, it said.

Sinclair launched free, advertising-supported streaming service Stirr that will include live local news and sports. It said Wednesday Stirr will carry 20 national networks to start, including Cheddar, NASA TV and Outdoor America, with original channels including Stirr Movies and Stirr Sports to follow. It said by year's end, it should have more than 50 linear networks. The broadcaster will add a local channel, Stirr City, with live news, local and regional sports and entertainment programming from its local station.

Wurl launched AdSpring, a server-based advertising insertion technology for connected TVs that lets video producers plug in mid-roll ads on linear and on-demand programming. Connected TV gets more than half of over-the-top viewing time, and AdSpring is said to give video producers a way to fill ad inventory with targeted messaging. It’s for video producers, priced as pay-as-you-go; producers pay for ads they insert. Video producers schedule location and duration of ad breaks and personally targeted, data-measured ads are stitched into the live video stream, Wurl said. AdSpring is pre-integrated with connected TV platforms in products from Samsung, Roku, Apple TV and others.

A proceeding to determine rates webcasters pay for non-interactive public performance of sound recordings is being delayed by the partial federal shutdown, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford Tuesday. Though the Copyright Royalty Board is operating, the Federal Register is accepting only vital notices such as those connected with public safety, Oxenford said. Since notice of the proceeding’s opening has to appear in the FR, it will be delayed, Oxenford said. When the proceeding starts, it’s likely to involve broadcasters that stream their signals, small commercial webcasters and noncommercial webcasters, but it’s not clear if interactive streaming services like Pandora will be involved, Oxenford said. “Will they participate in the upcoming case, or have they negotiated direct deals that cover their more traditional webcasting services along with their interactive services?"

Comcast's 2020 foray into a streaming service is incrementalism (see 1901140030) since the MVPD "has many masters to serve" and can't totally disrupt its cable TV or content licensing businesses, MoffettNathanson wrote investors Tuesday. The company appears to be taking an experimentation route, and that might be the smartest path since there are no obvious easy answers, it said. Netflix's announced price hike, with the money presumably going into more content development and marketing, shows the streaming company focused more on a spending war against competitors than a price war, the analysts said: Comcast apparently doesn't have the stomach for the level of investment into content that Netflix does, or doesn't think it needs to spend that much. Comcast and Netflix didn't comment.

NBCUniversal will roll out a free, ad-supported streaming service in early 2020 focusing on its content library and original programming and some licensed content, the network said Monday as it also announced executive changes. It said the service will be provided free to Comcast Cable and Sky subscribers, by subscription to others. A fee-based ad-free version also will be available. Heading the streaming service will be Bonnie Hammer as chairman-direct-to-consumer and digital enterprises. She was chairman-NBCU cable entertainment and cable studios. NBCUniversal’s Digital Enterprises group, led by Maggie Suniewick, moves into Hammer’s digital group. NBCU's content business will be reorganized under Mark Lazarus, chairman-NBCU broadcast, cable, sports and news, and Jeff Shell, chairman-NBCU film and entertainment. Donna Langley was promoted to chairman-Universal filmed entertainment.

Freedive -- the advertising-supported free streaming service launched last week by Amazon's IMDB (see here) and available via PCs or Amazon Fire TV devices -- trods a similar path as Roku, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Thursday. He said makers of smart TVs increasingly are building free ad-supported linear channels from Pluto TV, Wurl and others into their devices.

Home entertainment content spending increased 11.5 percent in 2018 to a record $23.3 billion, reported the Digital Entertainment Group at CES. Spending growth was especially strong in Q4, rising 13.1 percent to $6.3 billion. Subscription VOD streaming was the engine that drove the train, rising 30.1 percent for the year to $12.9 billion. SVOD spending also was up 30.1 percent in Q4 to $3.5 billion. Overall electronic sell-through spending rose 20 percent in Q4 and 14 percent for the year. Overall sales of 4K content increased 70 percent for the year and 46 percent in Q4, said DEG, which estimated the number of Ultra HD Blu-ray titles grew to 445 by year-end, and 682 4K titles were available digitally. Sell-through sales of physical media were down nearly 15 percent for the year and the quarter. In deference to subscription streaming’s growing share of the home entertainment pie -- it was 55 percent of total 2018 spending -- DEG used CES to announce the formation of a DTC Alliance subsidiary geared toward “advocacy” of the direct-to-consumer services that abound and will become more numerous. “Every major media company and TV network” will launch DTC streaming services in the next five years, “representing a significant new chapter in how television and film content is purchased, accessed and consumed,” said DEG. “As DTC streaming currently is a longtail situation with a few high-reach apps and many low-reach services, DEG's DTC Alliance is designed to support direct-to-consumer media services of all sizes to tackle difficult challenges and coordinate voluntary best practices and initiatives.” It expects the alliance will “advocate for the industry by presenting a common front to the commercial community” and help promote “member channels through campaigns aimed at building awareness among consumers.”

This year could see household bills for streaming content services starting to rival the cost of traditional cable packages due to the proliferation of over-the-top services, each with exclusive content, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Wednesday. Rather than heading toward a model of super-aggregators, OTT is going the other direction toward owners of unique content each selling directly to the public, he said.

A 45 percent increase in streaming-music subscriptions and the “continuing vinyl revival” helped push U.K. recording industry sales 10.6 percent higher in 2017 to 839.5 million pounds ($1.06 billion), its largest yearly rate of growth since 1995, reported the British Phonographic Industry Thursday. Tracks being streamed at least a million times rose 50 percent in 2017, said BPI. Vinyl accounted for one in every 15 album purchases last year, it said: Three quarters of albums purchased were on physical formats, the first time since 2011 that the market reached that milestone.