News Roundup: Discovery+ Launches; Roku’s Market Cap Grows $2.5B on Qubi News; Comscore Gets Investment; Netflix Raises Pricing in UK; fuboTV Grows Subs; NFL Broadcasts on Nickelodeon
If you were still on vacation last week to start the New Year, here’s a rundown of some of the interesting news that took place you might have missed:
- My hands-on review of Discovery+ launch: Massive content library, good streamlined UI, parental controls, downloads and additional smart TV support to come. 4K streams max out at 13.5Mbps, four concurrent streams per account. More details: https://www.streamingmediablog.com/2021/01/discovery-plus-launch.html
- Roku announced it has acquired Quibi Holdings, LLC, and will put that content in the free Roku Channel with advertising. I heard the deal size was “around” $50M, others are reporting the price was less than $100M. Roku’s stock closed up $19.84 on the news, adding $2.52B to Roku’s market cap, in one day. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_streamingmedia-rokutv-quibi-activity-6753338314524254208-d4ce
- fuboTV announced preliminary Q4 2020 revenue and subscriber growth with fuboTV Paid subs at year-end expected to exceed 545,000, an increase of more than 72% year-over-year. Prior guidance was 500,000-510,000 subs. https://ir.fubo.tv/news/news-details/2021/fuboTV-Announces-Preliminary-Fourth-Quarter-2020-Revenue-and-Subscriber-Growth/default.aspx
- In a first time experiment with CBS, Sunday’s NFL Wild Card game was broadcast on Nickelodeon with a format and interface that targeted kids. The adult announcers, which were joined by 14 and 15 year old Nick stars, were making less references to football and more to SpongeBob, Good Burger, homework and favorite ice cream flavors. More details: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_nflfootball-viacomcbs-nickelodeon-activity-6754158545140236288-zND_
- Netflix to raise pricing in the UK next month. Its standard monthly package will go up from £8.99 to £9.99 and its premium package will rise from £11.99 to £13.99. The basic plan will remain £5.99. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55563970
- Comscore announced a strategic investment by Charter Communications, Qurate Retail and Cerberus, which wipes out $204M in debt. As part of the deal Comscore gets a 10-year data license from Charter and becomes the preferred local measurement provider for Charter’s advertising business. More details on the deal here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_comscore-announces-strategic-investment-by-activity-6753356616789184512-Ta2Z
- Some key takeaways from Discovery’s CEO interview on CNBC talking about the launch of Discovery+ in the US. He didn’t give out any subscriber projections but did highlight some other details here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_discovery-ceo-on-2021-plans-for-discovery-activity-6751916742202671104-cTiv
- In 2019-20, Netflix invested $400M (£293M) in creating original programs and released more than 30 pieces of original Indian content. Amazon Prime now has customers in more than 4,300 towns and cities across India and has about 50 shows in development. More details: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_in-the-land-of-storytelling-netflix-and-activity-6751617896595644417-zeQX
- A behind-the-scenes look (video) at the workflow ESPN engineers implemented to enable the announcer to call the Sugar Bowl live from his home: https://twitter.com/ESPNPR/status/1345429498758639617?s=20
- Roku announced preliminary estimated data for Q4 ending Dec. 31, 2020: Roku ended the year with 51.2M active accounts, up by approximately 14M accounts in 2020. https://blog.roku.com/en-gb/50-million
- NBCUniversal and Charter Communications announced a renewal deal which includes Charter broadband and video customers getting an extended free trial of Peacock TV. The free deal hasn’t launched yet so we’ll know how long it lasts when it launches. https://ir.charter.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nbcuniversal-and-charter-communications-announce-full-portfolio