YouTube began attaching notices to videos uploaded by broadcasters getting government or public funding in an aim to give viewers better understanding of the sources of news, YouTube News Senior Product Manager Geoff Samek blogged Friday. He said the feature is starting in the U.S., with plans to expand. He said the notice will appear below the video but above the title and with a Wikipedia link so viewers can learn more about the broadcaster.

NBCUniversal and three Comcast regional sports networks rely on procedural defenses and are barely trying to justify their conduct in Wave's carriage and streaming complaint, the smaller operator said in an FCC docket 17-361 reply posted Thursday. That they wrongly argue Wave's petition should be treated as an untimely filed program access complaint (see 1801230036) highlights how important it is to address the merits, since such inaction "would green-light egregious and illegal conduct" by cable-affiliated programmers that wait at least a year before signing their programming deals, Wave said. It said the increased distribution of the RSN content via online streaming undercuts NBCU justification of strict enforcement of the minimum distribution requirements in the programming agreements with Wave. Comcast didn't comment.

Virtual MVPD YouTube TV is now available via Roku devices and Roku TVs, Roku said Thursday.

Time Warner added 5 million U.S. HBO and Cinemax subscribers in 2017, its largest annual increase, said its Q4 earnings announcement Thursday. It said HBO in November started 11 over-the-top services in Central Europe. It said revenue overall rose 9 percent to $8.6 billion and it recognized $279 million of costs for the year related AT&T's planned takeover. For 2018, TW expects Turner full-year subscription revenue to be up a mid-single-digit percentage compared to 2017, and programming costs to moderate compared with 2017. It expects Home Box Office -- which includes HBO and Cinemax -- subscription revenue to be up at a similar rate as 2017, though content and other revenue to be down significantly due to the mix of home video releases and the comparison to international licensing deals done in 2017. AT&T hopes to prevail in court so it can buy TW, AT&T's CEO said on its Q4 call Wednesday (see 1801310074).

Subscription VOD services Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix combined are expected to be spending $10 billion annually by 2022 on producing original content, The Diffusion Group said Tuesday. TDG said original content is "extremely important" to retaining subscribers, with 62 percent of Netflix subscribers considering originals critical or very important to their decision to keep Netflix. It said with studios pulling their most compelling content from the big three SVODs, a strong schedule of original content becomes increasingly necessary.

Tegna is investing in free streaming and TV movie network Tubi TV to give it a bigger over-the-top footprint and better options for local advertising in long-form OTT content, it said Tuesday. Tubi TV will distribute Tegna local content, it said.

Wave's carriage and streaming complaint against NBCUniversal and three Comcast regional sports networks (see 1712190041) is procedurally flawed, time barred and without merit, the networks said in a docket 17-361 opposition posted Tuesday. They said Wave is essentially making an untimely program access complaint, and gives no authority as to why the FCC should waive the one-year limitation to allow a formal program access complaint. They said Wave indicated it will invoke arbitration for the RSNs under the Comcast/NBCU consent decree order, which is incompatible with the company simultaneously seeking the FCC involvement. The networks said Wave complaints are about to become moot given the pending takeover by TPG Capital (see 1705220058), since NBCU and TPG's RCN Telecom Services recently signed a multiyear carriage agreement, meaning Wave systems within days or weeks will carry the RSNs under the terms RCN negotiated. Wave outside counsel didn't comment.

Netflix had 8.3 million global net subscriber additions in Q4, significantly beating its October forecast of 6.3 million, the company reported Monday. “We had a beautiful Q4, completing a great year as internet TV expands globally,” said the company in its quarterly letter to shareholders. The net adds marked the highest quarter for that metric in the company’s history and was an 18 percent increase from 2016's record Q4 7.05 million net adds, said Netflix. It credited its strong “original content slate and the ongoing global adoption of internet entertainment.” Geographically, "outperformance vs. guidance was broad-based,” it said, including 2 million net adds in the U.S., compared with 1.25 million in October's forecast. Internationally, it added 6.36 million memberships, a new record for quarterly net adds for this segment and above guidance, it said. Netflix has been “talking about the transition from linear to streaming for the past 10 years,” said the shareholder letter. “As this trend becomes increasingly evident, more companies are entering the market for premium video content.” Since the market for entertainment time is “vast,” Netflix thinks it “can support many successful services,” it said. “Entertainment services are often complementary given their unique content offerings. We believe this is largely why both we and Hulu have been able to succeed and grow.” The stock rose 8.2 percent in after-hours trading to $246.25.

Content distributor Cinedigm formed a strategic alliance with Chinese entertainment company Starrise Media to release films in China theatrically and to digital streaming platforms, the company said in a Friday announcement. The deal also paves the way for Cinedigm distribution of Chinese films in the North American marketplace, it said. “This new arrangement contemplates the release of hundreds of films into the home entertainment marketplaces in China and North America,” it said.

By year's end, selling sports by the season directly to consumers will be common, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Wednesday. Live premium sports viewing online is small, but growing quickly, with virtual MVPDs sure to fuel the trend, he said. The NFL rating declines seen by CBS and NBC might be attributable to more people watching online, he said. It doesn't appear that, at least in the short term, finding a particular game will be any easier online than via traditional TV, since sports league rights aren't only often divided across different services but also among screens, he said.