Disney -- which in February was denied an injunction stopping Redbox from selling codes that allow streaming of Disney movies (see 1802210051) -- is trying again. In a docket 17-8655 motion for preliminary injunction (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Disney said with its original motion for preliminary injunction denied because some licensing terms on the code-redemption websites could support Redbox's copyright misuse affirmative defense, it revised those online licensing terms to moot the misuse defense. But Disney said Redbox is still selling those codes, harming Disney's licensee and customer relationships and its ability to control exploitation of its exclusive rights. Disney also filed an amended complaint Monday against Redbox. Redbox outside counsel didn't comment Tuesday.

Eleven percent of U.S. adults ages 18-44 have an internet-delivered pay-TV service such as Sling TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, Hulu with Live TV or YouTube TV, Leichtman Research Group reported Monday. The 18- to 34-year-old age group accounts for 53 percent of U.S. adults with a live-streaming pay-TV service, it said. Some 49 percent of internet-based pay-TV subscribers have a TV antenna for viewing over-the-air broadcast TV, and 35 percent also have a pay-TV service from an MVPD, analyst Bruce Leichtman said. Nearly 70 percent of current internet-delivered pay-TV subscribers are very satisfied with their service, but 27 percent are very likely to switch in the next six months, the report said, while 24 percent of those who don't have an internet-delivered pay-TV service are very interested in getting one. Households with internet-delivered pay-TV services are largely augmenting other sources of video in the home and “experimenting with the various streaming pay-TV services to discover what combinations of video offerings work best for their household,” the analyst said. Findings were based on an online survey of 6,947 U.S. adults.

YouTube's data collection policies are in direct violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for young users of the video sharing service, consumer and other groups said in a FTC complaint filed Monday against the Google-run service. They said YouTube knows children use the service, portions of YouTube are directed at children and YouTube uses information collected from users such as geolocation and unique device identifiers to target advertising without giving parents notice or obtaining advanced verifiable parental consent as COPPA requires. The groups said YouTube can't use the "age gate" exception under COPPA since it requires registration only to post videos, not to watch them. They asked the FTC to enjoin Google from further COPPA violations and to assess "substantial" civil penalties of "tens of billions of dollars." Signing the complaint were 23 groups, including Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Parents Television Council and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. A YouTube spokesman emailed that the company is reviewing the complaint and will evaluate if there are ways to improve. The spokesman also said protection of children has been a top priority and pointed to creation of the YouTube Kids app offering a children-focused alternative to the service. The spokesman said its Terms of Service Section 12 makes clear the service isn't for users under 13, and its advertising policies restrict advertisers from targeting personalized ads at or collecting personally identifiable information from children under 13.

Weaknesses in safe harbor could play a role in the relative lack of competition in video hosting services, Santa Clara University Director-High Tech Law Institute professor Eric Goldman blogged Friday. Pointing to the ongoing Capitol Records v. Vimeo litigation filed in 2009, he said fights like this and similar litigation against YouTube means investors are spooked by the inevitability of lengthy, costly Digital Millennium Copyright Act fights with copyright owners. In a Capitol order (in Pacer) last month in docket 9-10101, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams of Manhattan agreed with Vimeo to dismiss 273 unfair competition claims against it but rejected its arguments to dismiss another 59.

Spotify hit the public market Tuesday with force, bypassing traditional routes (see 1804020050) to an initial public offering, and was poised to become the third-largest U.S.-listed tech IPO on record with an opening value of $29.55 billion, said The Wall Street Journal Tuesday. Shares opened at $165.90 and were up 15 percent from their $132 reference price by mid-afternoon before closing 13 percent higher at $149.01.

Spotify’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday (see 1803150053) could pave the way for other pre-IPO companies to choose a similar alternate route to going public, but the deal carries a “high degree of uncertainty” since 91 percent of the 178 million shares will be set by broker-dealers based on buy and sell orders, said Renaissance Capital IPO Research in a Friday investor note. Spotify has 71 million Premium subscribers, who generated 89 percent of Q4 revenue, said the analyst, noting that’s twice as many paying users as its nearest competitor, Apple Music. Spotify’s 90 million ad-supported monthly active users provide “a long runway for growth,” said Renaissance. Though Spotify has yet to make a profit, “it has achieved positive free cash flow, and has offset declining ARPU [average revenue per user] by decreasing churn and improving gross margin,” it said.

Spotify, scheduled to make an initial public offering April 3, released its financial outlook for Q1 and the full year on Monday. Total monthly active users for Q1 are projected at 168-171 million, up 28-31 percent year on year, with premium subscribers totaling 73-76 million, a 41-46 percent year-on-year increase, it said. Revenue for Q1 is forecast to be 1.10 billion euros-1.15 billion euros ($1.37 billion-$1.43 billion), up 22-27 percent over Q1 2016. For full year 2018, Spotify is projecting 198-208 million subscribers of whom 92-96 million are premium. Full-year projected revenue is 4.9 billion euros-5.3 billion euros ($6.1 billion-$6.6 billion), it said. At Spotify’s first investor day this month (see 1803150053) CEO Daniel Ek shunned “pomp or circumstance” of a conventional IPO road show, saying the traditional model wasn’t “a good fit.” Noting the typical IPO requires a quiet period, he said: “We don’t think that’s the right thing to do.” Spotify has allowed employees and shareholders to buy and sell stock for years “and that shouldn’t stop just because our stock is becoming more widely owned,” he said. The company isn’t selling any stock when shares begin trading April 3: “We’re entirely focused on the long-term performance of the business,” said Ek. As of March 21, Spotify had 178.1 million shares outstanding, said an amendment to an SEC-1 filing.

Digital piracy grew by 1.6 percent in 2017, with visits to video, music, publishing and software piracy sites hitting 300.2 billion, piracy tracking firm Muso said Wednesday. It said pirate sites hosting TV content were most visited, at 106.9 billion, followed by visits to music sites (73.9 billion) and film (53.2 billion). It said the U.S. was the country making the most visits to piracy sites, accounting for 27.9 billion, followed by Russia, India and Brazil. Muso said 53 percent of piracy happens on unlicensed streaming platforms. It said visits to pirate TV content sites were up 3.4 percent worldwide from 2016, and 96.1 percent of those sites make content available via streaming. It said consuming pirated TV content was done primarily via mobile devices, surpassing desktop for the first time. It said visits to pirate film sites was down 2.3 percent year over year, with streaming being the most popular form of consumption, over torrent sites or web download sites.

The first live concert over MQA Live streamed to an invitation-only gathering last week in Austin, said MQA Monday. Folk singer Jake Isaac and his band, performing at London’s Rocket Studio, streamed tunes to an Austin home outfitted with various devices chosen to recreate everyday listening environments. MQA Live streams music from “wherever and whenever” artists are performing, allowing fans to listen to a concert, in real time, in its original quality “as if they were standing in the venue,” said the company. MQA CEO Mike Jbara said the channel opens an age of “social and appointment listening,” a new way for artists to connect with fans. With MQA Live, a venue needs a real-time MQA encoder, which connects to a venue’s audio system and chosen delivery platform. MQA music will stream and play back on any device, but to get optimum results of the full MQA “unfold,” listeners need MQA-compatible products, which include players from companies including LG, Onkyo, Pioneer and Sony and many other digital-to-analog converters, network streamers, amplifiers, sound bars and disc players.

More households are using antennas to watch TV (see 1803150019), but their numbers aren't growing as fast as cord cutters', nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. Cord cutters are using a mix of antennas, streaming and -- increasingly -- virtual MVPDs to supplement their already-heavy over-the-top video consumption. That makes live TV "an augmentation of the main diet" of online video, he said.