C Spire and MobiTV scheduled a workshop Oct. 4 at C Spire’s Ridgeland, Mississippi, corporate office for pay-TV operators interested in an IP video delivery platform that provides in-home streaming service without a set-top box. The app-based solution, MobiTV Connect Platform, launched in July and runs on devices including Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV and Roku, said the companies.

The future of SiriusXM-Pandora is “compelling,” amid a “fairly benign” competitive landscape, wrote Macquarie Capital analyst Amy Yong in an investor note Wednesday night. Competitor promotions were minimal in Q3, though Spotify’s pending initial public offering is generating excitement as financial details emerge showing 60 million-plus subscribers and 140 million-plus active users, said Yong. Pandora was the headliner in the quarter, though, giving away three free months of Premium through T-Mobile’s Tuesday customer appreciation giveaways, contributing to its position as top-grossing app at the Apple Store, she said. The beginning of cross-pollination between satellite and digital includes ideas to expand each other’s mobile and car presence, with Pandora leveraging SiriusXM content, she noted. Sirius could benefit from a Hurricane Harvey effect as damaged vehicles will drive an upswing in new car sales that include a free trial period before customers are converted to a paid subscription, she said. Pandora, with a new executive team's “well-articulated plan,” and no longer burdened by Ticketfly, can “refocus its attention on finding the perfect balance of ad/subscription," Yong said. Pandora controls about two-thirds of U.S. audio and is focused on improving monetization through targeted ads. She cited the Video Plus offering where advertisers pay only when users watch, along with Pandora’s plans to offer content outside of music, leverage voice-enabled speakers and engage the 25 million listeners that currently don’t meaningfully drive ad revenue. Recently named Pandora CEO Roger Lynch will bring “valuable insight, as he built and scaled Sling TV under a tight, cost-controlled environment,” she said.

Retail revenue from recorded music in the U.S. rose 17 percent to $4 billion in the first half of 2017 from the same period last year, RIAA said. At wholesale value, the industry increased to $2.7 billion, up 15 percent, but "significantly below" 1999 levels. Revenue from music subscription streaming services grew 48 percent to $2.5 billion for the first half of 2017, over the same period in 2016. Streaming services had 62 percent of the total market, and continued to offset declines in traditional unit based sales, said RIAA Wednesday. "The streaming category includes revenues from subscription services (such as paid versions of Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music, among others), digital and customized radio services including those revenues distributed by SoundExchange (like Pandora, SiriusXM, and other Internet radio), and ad-supported on-demand streaming services (such as YouTube, Vevo, and ad-supported Spotify)." CEO Cary Sherman blogged that his group estimates there may be a trillion streams this year from both on-demand services and digital radio. "That staggering number ... also speaks to the foundational challenge" as payouts to creators "are very different and vastly impacted by outdated or abused laws and regulations," he wrote. "A united music community continues to be incredibly animated about music’s 'value gap' and calls upon policymakers -- and our business partners -- across the globe to do better and address these inequities." In an International Federation of the Phonographic Industry report Tuesday (see 1709190075 and 1709190031) on audio streaming trends, IFPI CEO Frances Moore said the music industry’s “value gap” remains the biggest threat facing the music world.

Programmer Entertainment Studios is launching an over-the-top subscription platform, Sports.TV, that aggregates various independent sports networks, it said Monday.

Linear pay-TV operators are running out of time and options in the face of changing technologies and consumer viewing preferences, Moody's said Tuesday. It said higher churn rates and mounting subscriber losses are likely as cable operators and broadcasters deal with shifting demographics, less consumer availability of disposable income and the lack of "appointment" TV beyond expensive sports programming. It said virtual MVPDs are making inroads while the linear pay-TV industry has avoided trying to reinvent the platform, and competitive issues are growing with increased original programming spending by subscription VOD operations and companies like Apple and Facebook planning to commission original content for their video platform. Moody's said "the nail in the coffin" for linear pay-TV will be content companies increasingly going directly to consumers, with subscriber losses likely to be 3 to 4 percent annually in coming years vs. 2 to 3 percent now.

The sports-less virtual MVPD service Philo that A&E, AMC, Discovery, Scripps and Viacom reportedly are partnering on "could be a good deal" for viewers and content companies, but a tough sell nonetheless, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Wednesday. He said the top 34 channels of the four content companies are earning around $10 a month in pay-TV license fees, so even a Philo subscriber paying $15 a month would be more valuable than a pay-TV subscriber. Considering other expenses, a likely Philo cost could be around $19 a month, he said: But Philo will see competition from other virtual MVPD services carrying many of those same channels and also the cord-cutter universe is still relatively small.

Sling TV added an antenna bundle deal, it said in a Wednesday blog post. New customers who qualify for an over-the-air antenna, based on their location, can prepay for two months of Sling TV and get a free Winegard indoor antenna valued by Sling at $59, it said. The antenna is available online at several sites for under $30. Or, consumers can prepay for three months of Sling TV for an AirTV player, adapter and Winegard indoor antenna for $70 (a $189 retail value, according to Sling). Customers who don’t live in an area where local channels are available through the service can get Sling + OTA and receive channels such as ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC without an additional Sling TV subscription, it said.

Disney's 2018 launch of its ESPN-branded livestreaming sports service likely won't “disrupt traditional pay TV distributors" for at least two-three years, Standard & Poor's said in a Friday report (1709100002). The ESPN over-the-top service won't replace any linear ESPN TV networks, but will “instead complement” them, it said. It’s possible Disney “could make the service more robust over time by adding more content, including from its TV networks,” and that could “accelerate cord-cutting trends,” it said. But any “threat to the pay TV ecosystem” would be “mitigated” because programming rights for the top-tier leagues are “spread among several broadcast and cable networks,” not concentrated at ESPN, it said. Sports enthusiasts who cut the cord in favor of buying an ESPN-branded OTT subscription “would likely need to purchase several sports-oriented OTT services to get the full sports experience,” it said. “Combined, these services could be cost prohibitive. But even if they aren't, the inefficiency and inconvenience of navigating various live-streaming services strengthen the case for content aggregation.”

YouTube's app is being integrated into Comcast's Xfinity X1 platform, with YouTube videos to be featured throughout Xfinity on Demand, the two companies said Tuesday. They said YouTube content will be searchable via the X1 voice remote.

AT&T is increasingly giving HBO subscriptions to its wireless subscribers. Senior Vice President-Entertainment Group Vince Torres blogged Tuesday that that company, which has made HBO free to Unlimited Plus customers since April, will expand the offering to include Unlimited Choice customers starting Friday. AT&T expects to close by year-end on buying HBO parent Time Warner (see 1707260007).