U.S. subscribers to the big five virtual MVPDs probably number close to 4.6 million, up 2.6 million from a year ago, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors Thursday. Beyond those five -- YouTube TV, Hulu Live, Vue, DirecTV Now and Sling -- there's no way to estimate patrons of the "dozens of small fries" virtual MVPDs like Philo and fuboTV, he said. For Q4, the pay-TV industry's subscriber base declined 3.4 percent -- or 0.7 percent, if virtual MVPDs are included, he said.

Consolidated Communications now is offering virtual MVPD DirecTV Now across its footprint, it said Wednesday.

Consumers want help managing all video services, but they don't necessarily want a single video aggregator, and the market is delivering multiple solutions, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Tuesday. For example, the ESPN Plus streaming service to launch in March will allow subscribers to aggregate other sports content via the app for additional cost, he said. Pointing to streaming service VRV aggregating subscription VOD services for the fandom community, and Philo aggregating entertainment TV for non-sports watchers, he said many more services likely will embrace this approach in coming months.

YouTube and Prager University are at odds over a preliminary injunction sought by the conservative group. Prager said in support of its motion for a preliminary injunction that the admission by YouTube and its Google parent that Prager videos don't contain age-restricted content, while contending the videos contain potentially mature content sufficient to warrant viewer access restrictions, are enough to justify the requested relief. Prager said in the docket 17-cv-6064 filing (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose that YouTube's acknowledgement its Restricted Mode can improperly restrict videos in a way to create viewpoint discrimination backs the group's push. Google/YouTube in a reply (in Pacer) Friday isaid Prager's case is "a public relations campaign disguised as a lawsuit" when it asks the court to ignore YouTube's First Amendment and Communications Decency Act Section 230 rights to help users avoid content on its service. Prager sued YouTube last fall over the restricted mode feature (see 1801030009).

CBS launched a free, 24-hour streaming sports network, CBS Sports HQ, it said Monday, adding that the streaming service features game highlights, analysis and news. It said the service follows in similar direct-to-consumer footsteps as its CBS All Access streaming service, Showtime's over-the-top offering and CBSN. Aside from via the CBS Sports HQ app, the streaming service also is available through CBS All Access and at CBSSports.com, it said.

Among parents whose children watch YouTube videos, 62 percent say their kids have seen inappropriate content, and 81 percent see preventing of that kind of viewing as their job vs. 10 percent who think it's YouTube's responsibility, said Common Sense/SurveyMonkey survey results Thursday. Forty-seven percent of parents believe their children are addicted to mobile devices, vs. 32 percent of parents who say that about themselves. Sixty-eight percent of parents are somewhat to extremely concerned mobile device usage is negatively affecting the mental health of their children. YouTube didn't comment. The online poll of 4,201 adults, including 1,024 with children under 18 years old, was conducted Jan. 25-29.

A judge rejected Disney arguments seeking injunction stopping Redbox from selling codes that allow streaming of movies. U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson of Los Angeles in a docket 17-8655 order (in Pacer) Tuesday said Disney includes a "Codes are not for sale or transfer" notice inside DVD cases, but there's no evidence Redbox assented to that restriction. Ferguson said Disney's copyrights don't give it power to stop consumers from selling or transferring Blu-ray and DVD discs, and its "improper" leveraging of its digital copyrights conflicts with secondary transfers of physical copies. Disney outside counsel didn't comment Wednesday. It sued Redbox in December alleging copyright violations (see 1712010053).

Virtual MVPDs, which once touted their skinny bundles and low introductory prices, increasingly seem to banking on their subscriber bases transitioning to fatter, costlier packages, The Diffusion Group senior adviser Brad Schlachter blogged Tuesday. Examples include YouTube TV adding various Turner networks to its lineup, with an increase in its base cost, PlayStation Vue axing its cheaper Access Slim package, and AT&T hinting at a price increase this year for its DirecTV Now entry tier, he said. Livestreaming pay-TV operators "should proceed with caution" since lower prices and consumer choices for skinnier bundles are what attracted consumers, said Schlachter. He said increased competition could come from "cord cobbler" services where subscribers build a la carte packages.

Music artists and labels don't profit off music alone anymore, and music streaming services like Spotify and Pandora haven't generated ongoing profit, so YouTube stands alone making money off music itself, CreaTV Media Chairman Peter Csathy blogged Monday. Video-first YouTube's royalty structure is also fundamentally different from audio-first services, he said. Spotify used that "un-level playing field" to negotiate better royalties from the major labels last year, he said, saying Vevo's sole major label holdout, Warner Music, agreed in 2016 to license its videos to Vevo to reap higher royalties.

Adult video and images company ALS Scan and computer storage companies Steadfast and Cloudflare are opposing rival summary judgment motions in ALS' copyright infringement complaint against the defendant data firms. Steadfast hasn't adopted or reasonably implemented a termination policy for repeat copyright infringers, since it continues to provide storage services to imagebam.com and its subpages even after receiving more than 1,500 infringement notices on that site, said pornography company ALS Scan in a docket 16-cv-5051 opposition (in Pacer) Friday to Steadfast's motion for summary judgment. ALS Scan said Steadfast doesn't get safe harbor protection for copyright infringement since it didn't terminate imagebam.com. In opposition (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, ALS argued against Cloudflare's motion for summary judgment, arguing the data storage company won't act on infringement notices, or forward email notices of infringement to hosts or site owners, and that it doesn't follow up on such email notices to ascertain whether the infringing content was removed. Cloudflare's opposition (in Pacer) Friday to ALS' motion for summary judgment said ALS can't establish a contributory infringement claim. Cloudflare said that unlike virtually all copyright claimants with which it has worked, ALS refuses to use its "simple and accurate" process for complaint processing, relying instead on "unworkable and defective" email communications.