In this week's collection of recent cord-cutting news items from around the web: Every Wimbledon match will be available through ESPN app, Roku successful in war against piracy, unethical sales tactics used to sell DirecTV Now, CBS won mobile rights to NFL games, eSports will surpass MLB and NHL viewership, World Cup boosts streaming TV services, and more!
CBS won mobile rights to NFL games. According to AdAge, "While CBS has been streaming football games to desktop computers, tablets and connected TVs for years, this season will be the first time it will do so through mobile phones. It joins ESPN and NBC Universal, which in December also announced that they extended their deals with the NFL to include mobile streaming rights of live games." CBS will also stream all games on the CBS All Access subscription service through the 2022 season.
For the first time, every Wimbledon match will be available through ESPN. According to an ESPN press release, "[t]he coverage – first ball to last ball – includes more than 500 matches from the All England Club's pristine grass courts, all available for fans between ESPN3 and the new ESPN+ on the ESPN app." Fortnight begins Monday, July 2.
Variety also reports that Internet TV services got a big boost from World Cup. "Internet-based TV services like Sling TV and DirecTV Now have seen an influx of new customers thanks to the World Cup, if new app download numbers from app intelligence specialist Sensor Tower are any indication. First-time downloads of the five leading internet TV services grew by 77 percent during the first week of the World Cup, Sensor Tower is set to report Tuesday." It remains to be seen how many of these subscribers will keep the services after the last World Cup match.
According to TorrentFreak, Roku has been successful in its war against piracy. "After Mexican courts put a ban on Roku sales in the country, the popular media player ramped up its anti-piracy efforts. According to new data released by Roku today, this response has paid off. Globally, approximately 99.5% of all "streaming hours" come from channels with no links to 'pirate organizations.'"
"Millennials Really Like Video Streaming," according to a new study by Parks Associates and reported by DSLReports. The study "unsurprisingly finds that millennials really like this whole streaming video thing. According to the group's latest survey of the American public, more than 85% of millennials subscribe to at least one streaming video service, notably higher than in other generations where streaming is popular, just not quite as popular. The survey also found that more than one-fourth of millennials subscribe to three or more OTT services, and more than half take at least two subscription OTT video services."
"AT&T Managers Reportedly Encouraged Unethical Sales Tactics to Sell More DirecTV Packages," says Fortune. "The staffers apparently told customers they could try out DirecTV Now for a month without paying, and the salespeople would cancel their trials before they turned into paid subscriptions. In some cases, the cancellations never happened, and people started paying $35 a month for the service without having agreed to become subscribers. " The story was originally reported by Hawaii News Now, which offers much more information on this topic."
Broadcasting & Cable reports that Viacom has licensed four more series for streaming on Hulu. "Hulu said it reached a deal with Viacom that makes the service the exclusive streaming home to Daria, Nathan for You, My Super Sweet 16 and New Edition Story. Hulu, heaving up on family programming, has rights to the full library of each of those programs. Viacom recently announced plans to make new episodes of Daria."
"Goldman Sachs believes that eSports is on track to be as popular as the NFL in a couple of years" reports TheStreet.com. "In a report published Tuesday, Goldman said it sees eSports surpassing Major League Baseball and National Hockey League viewership... Goldman analysts also stated that they 'believe that eSports viewership is moving more into the mainstream, which should support a 14% audience growth for the next five years, Recently, Epic Games announced that it would set aside $100 million in prize pool for the first year of Fortnite eSports tournaments.'
Updated 'Channels' app for Fire TV devices adds DVR support for OTA Antenna channels, says AFTV News. "The big new feature with this update is full support for the Channels DVR service that was previously only available on the Apple TV. This allows owners of HDHomeRun networked tuners to view and manage recordings of OTA antenna and digital cable channels directly from their Fire TV devices."
Verizon is shutting down its mobile video service Go90, reports Variety. "The Go90 app, stocked with a mix of short-form original entertainment, live sports, and licensed TV shows, was never able to attract any kind of sizable audience and as a result struggled to book advertising dollars... Go90 failed because Verizon arguably didn’t effectively market the millennial-targeted service." The service will cease on July 31.
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