The Dan Rayburn Podcast: Recent Episodes
Dan Rayburn
Curating all the streaming media industry news of the week that matters most, in 30 minutes. Unvarnished, unscripted and providing you with the data and analysis you need, without any hype. The pulse of the streaming media industry.
This week, discuss the news that eligible YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. will gain access to ad-supported Peacock Premium in 2027 at no additional charge and debate if this means NBCU will become a content arms dealer. We detail the plan for NFL Ticket to come back to DIRECTV for businesses through a new licensing deal, and DAZN plans to acquire EverPass Media.
We also highlight the YES Network and MSG Networks news that will make DAZN the exclusive home for their content, replacing the Gotham Sports App, which will be shut down. We touch on the latest news from HBO Max, Roku, Disney, SiriusXM, Prime Video, and Rogers Communications. Finally, we cover all the Q2 earnings numbers you need to know from Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Meta and AMC Global Media.
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This week, I detail Comcast's Q2 earnings, which, for the first time in six years, showed Peacock had a positive quarter, with $189 million in EBITDA. This positive news was offset by the loss of 280,000 cable TV subscribers and 167,000 broadband residential customers, with total company revenue down 1.2% YoY.
I discuss the news that Roku is raising the MSRP of its streaming sticks and boxes from $10-$50, depending on the model, noting that the largest portion of Roku's overall device unit volume comes from the sale of third-party Roku-made TVs by OEM partners, not Roku boxes.
Finally, I detail the final FIFA World Cup viewership numbers from YouTube, Cazé TV, TikTok, Fox/FOX One, and Telemundo/Peacock, highlighting the different measurement methodologies used, and mention Telemundo becoming the exclusive U.S. Spanish-language rights holder for the next UEFA men's club competitions.
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This week, I discuss Netflix's earnings, the new numbers it disclosed regarding live streaming, confirmation that engagement didn't decline, double-digit revenue growth in all regions, and the largest share buybacks in company history. I explain that while some suggest that Netflix's business is "broken" or "collapsing," none of it is based on facts or supported by any actual numbers. (Nielsen's don't count)
I also cover Fandango's push to become a FAST platform, with its owner, Versant, having acquired rights to air Bundesliga games in the U.S., some of which stream on Fandango. I also talk about the company's goal of having what they say will be a better FAST experience, with lower ad loads and its claims that it has a unique advantage in bringing audiences in through recent theatrical releases.
Finally, I cover why I don't think a streamer will secure U.S. rights to the 2030 FIFA World Cup, since the largest viewing audience will require a combination of linear TV and streaming.
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This week, I discuss Comcast's plans to split its media and technology businesses, spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky into a separate publicly traded company. I questioned why it didn't happen sooner, since for years we've seen from its balance sheet and stock price that combining its content and distribution pipelines hasn't added value. Also related to Comcast, I cover the news that ITV has agreed to sell its Media and Entertainment division, covering the ITV channels, the ITVX streaming platform, and the advertising business that funds them, to Comcast-owned Sky for up to £1.6 billion.
I discuss Meta's plans to launch a cloud business to sell AI computing power and why it makes sense, when Meta is spending so much on capex without a clear path to directly monetize it. I also use the example of Meta taking a page from Google's playbook, which successfully diversified revenue beyond just advertising by growing their cloud services over many years. Other Meta news covered is that the company took a patent license covering AV1 and VP9 from the Access Advance VDP Pool.
Finally, I cover the latest news from Netflix, which will add video content from new publishers, ranging from 3 to 20 minutes in length, and why this is not a sign that Netflix is trying to be YouTube.
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This month, Eric Black and Dan Rayburn talk about World Cup viewership, breaking down the numbers between linear and streaming, and the problems posed by the lack of a standard measurement. They also cover World Cup latency, including on airplanes, and question if viewers would be willing to pay more for Dolby Vision HDR, Atmos surround sound and lower latency. Or, similar to customers gravitating to ad-supported subs for a lower cost, would they do the same for less interactivity?
They also cover other live streams, including the Tour de France, WNBA, Wimbledon and MLB and debate how these leagues can elevate their visibility during competing top-tier events. Also discussed was the price increase for Apple TV, now priced at $199, making it unlikely to grow in the market, since less than 5% of live streams already go to Apple TV hardware. Finally, they covered the news that Fubo CEO and co-founder David Gandler is leaving the company and why the upcoming UFC Conor McGregor fight on Paramount+ might see the largest viewership on the platform, outside of NFL games.
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This week, we discuss the launch of TF1 Groupe programs and live TV channels on Netflix in France, the first such deal for Netflix. We detail the available content and explain why we think TF1 dramas, reality shows, news and sports could help limit churn among existing Netflix subscribers. We also cover viewership numbers for Paramount's UFC Freedom 250 event at The White House, review the latest World Cup viewership stats, and discuss Snap's plans to spin off an internal team that was working on AI-powered generative video into a separate company.
Finally, we cover news from Meta that AV1 is now enabled on the majority of mobile devices in Meta Real-Time Communication (RTC) applications, Apple raising the price of the Apple TV to $199, and debunk some of the latest rumors of the announced Fox and Roku deal.
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This week, we separate facts from opinions on the news that Fox Corporation has agreed to acquire Roku. We break down all the numbers, the impact on Tubi and The Roku Channel, Roku's hardware business, and all the other details you need to know. We also cover World Cup TV and streaming viewership stats released by Fox Sports, ITV, NBC Sports, STV, and others. We detail the revenue and profit numbers from Bending Spoons' SEC filing, which plans to go public this year. Finally, we go through the latest codec and protocol news, including Apple's HTTP Live Streaming enhancements, the Alliance for Open Media publishing AV2 specs, and the impact on OTT services from current codec and ABR patent suits.
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Sports streaming is kind of a big deal. So, Eric Black and I have teamed up to record a new monthly podcast breaking down the Business and Technology of Sports Streaming. Giving listeners insight into the latest content deals, viewership numbers, user experiences and technical workflows, without any hype.
In episode one, Eric and I talk about the World Cup's streaming quality, latency, piracy, free trials across OTT services and discuss the streaming rollout across FOX, ZEE5, Peacock, and FIFA+ on DAZN. We detail the renewed distribution deal between NBCU and Fubo, Fox’s expanded deal with the NFL that will bring games to Mexico, and Disney's new partnership to carry L’équipe’s TV channel in France on Disney+.
We highlight a recent interview with MLS's Commissioner, who admitted that the added paywall and timing weren’t right for the market, as well as the impact on MLS within the Apple TV ecosystem. We also discuss the impact of RTL's acquisition of Sky Deutschland on sports content, which combines Sky’s premium sports rights with RTL’s entertainment and news brands, forming the strongest local competitor to Netflix in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Finally, we recap comments from those who testified at the congressional hearing on the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, and I question why EverPass Media has been so quiet about providing any technical details to businesses or integrators who are still in the dark about how the NFL Sunday Ticket will be rolled out later this year.
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This week, special guest Eric Black and I discuss the upcoming World Cup, detailing streaming and pay TV viewership numbers from the 2022 event and what to expect this year. We also discuss the MLS game that used Apple iPhones for video capture, noting that they were used only as camera sensors and image processors. We review the NFL's 2026-2027 schedule, calling out the newly announced exclusive games on Netflix and Peacock and detail Netflix's newly extended media rights deal with the NFL through the 2029-30 season.
We discuss the growth of Prime Video and Amazon's disclosure that Prime Video, as a stand-alone business, is profitable, without knowing how Amazon accounts for costs to the business. Eric details his recent experience with Peacock's vertical video stream, noting quality differences when the video source is Peacock versus a third party. Finally, we recap some numbers from Netflix on its monthly active viewers for its ad-supported plan, new price increases for DirecTV streaming packages, and a YouTube stat that two billion hours of Shorts are streamed on TVs each month.
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This week, we discuss a wild week in infrastructure news, with Akamai, Fastly and Cloudflare reporting earnings, sending all three companies' stock up or down by at least 30%. We detail Cloudflare's announcement that it will lay off over 1,100 employees, Akamai's new $1.8 billion seven-year contract for Cloud Infrastructure Services for AI modeling, and Wall Street's lack of understanding of the CDN business. We highlight reports suggesting that contracts involving Anthropic and OpenAI now account for more than half of the $2 trillion in backlogs at major cloud providers, and how Google and Amazon reported a surge in profits in their Q1 earnings, based on the valuation of the stock they bought in Anthropic, and not any actual net profit.
We also detail the latest numbers you need to know from WBD, Disney, and Fubo earnings, and how, with WBD no longer breaking out streaming subs and Fubo no longer breaking out Hulu+ Live TV subs, it's now almost impossible to compare DTC service growth quarter to quarter. Finally, we break out the pay TV losses by Optimum and discuss the unconfirmed reports that Netflix will get two additional NFL games starting in the 2026-27 season. Finally, we highlight Sky Sports' announcement that it will remain the exclusive home of Formula 1 in the UK and Ireland until 2034 and in Italy until 2032, which prevents Apple from securing the rights to stream F1 content in those countries.
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This week, we detail the numbers you need to know from Q1 earnings from Roku, which, for the first time, separated out revenue for its advertising and subscription business. We also cover earnings from Comcast, the latest Peacock numbers, cord-cutting at Charter, and the massive capex spend in the quarter from Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, with AWS revenue growth at its fastest in 15 quarters.
We detail YouTube's Q1 revenue, which was down from the previous quarter and highlight YouTube TV's launch of a fully customizable multiview, including some device and content limitations. Moving on to NFL news, we also mention a rumored deal between the NFL and YouTube for a long-form contract review of a five-game package, and Comcast dropping the NFL Network and RedZone Channel from its Xfinity service due to a carriage dispute.
We share live sports viewership numbers from April, including the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game and NBA on Amazon Prime, and discuss a hardware failure that caused one of Prime's games to lose video for 20 seconds during gameplay. Finally, we discuss why Amazon’s newly announced Fire TV Stick HD, which runs its Vega operating system, is not good for customers, and how Fire TV's lack of explanation of its Fire OS strategy to the market is bad for developers and consumers.
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This week, we recap what we saw and heard at the 2026 NAB Show, covering themes, content, the West Hall exhibit floor, and the speakers at the Streaming Summit. We highlight some of the topics discussed most, including sports, workflow orchestration, MOQ, scaling live events, multiview, UI/UX, and how AI tech is being implemented into the video stack. I also cover what I want to improve at the Streaming Summit next year, what exhibitors can do to improve their messaging and booth presence, and where we both see room for improvement in the attendee experience.
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This week, we detail YouTube's upcoming price increase across all U.S. YouTube Premium plans, Sling TV's new $20 monthly plan that includes ESPN, and FOX's announcement that it will shut down the Fox Sports app for smart TVs and connected devices. We also discuss Fubo's newly released set of long-term financial targets, which projects positive free cash flow by fiscal 2027, and why the news that the DOJ is exploring whether the NFL is engaging in anti-competitive tactics isn't a surprise.
Finally, we discuss AI news, including Amazon's newly released revenue data for its AI business, which shows AWS’s AI revenue run rate is over $15 billion. We break down Amazon's plans to double its total power capacity by the end of 2027, its $20 billion in revenue for its chip business, and its stated model of investing disproportionately behind what matters and pulling back when something isn’t working.
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This week, we detail viewership numbers from Netflix, NBC Sports and Peacock for MLB's opening week, highlighting the multiple issues with how the data is collected and presented, leading to impossible comparisons. We also discuss OpenAI's hiring of Indian streaming giant JioStar to lead its Asia-Pacific operations and news that Main Street Sports Group lenders have formally signed paperwork to close the business after the first round of the NHL playoffs.
Finally, we discuss Oracle's recent round of layoffs and break down the balance sheet numbers that led to them, including $58 billion in new debt, net income, operating cash flow and $50 billion in capital expenditures expected during fiscal 2026. Dan argues that all this reckless spending on AI isn't innovation but rather financial engineering dressed up as leadership, with no accountability, no consequences and a lack of leaders who manage with discipline.
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This week, special guest Eric Black and I discuss Netflix's opening-night MLB stream, which received many negative reviews for its production, relentless, intrusive promotions and poor video quality. We also discuss Netflix's price increases across all its packages and the 18.4 million global viewers who watched the BTS concert live stream. We also highlight the launch of HBO Max in the UK and Ireland, the launch in 12 new markets in the APAC region, and the news that WBD will hold the Special Meeting of Shareholders to vote on the merger with Paramount Skydance Corporation on April 23.
We discuss why OpenAI shut down Sora, the lack of a business model behind the service and why it makes sense for OpenAI's bottom line. We do a quick roundup of the latest news from YouTube TV, DAZN, Roku, Fubo, NFL and Epic Games. Finally, we mention the newly appointed CEO at Deltatre, prompting me to ask whether this now means the company will explain its strategy and focus and tell the market what it wants to be known for.
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This week, we discuss JioHotstar's recent live stream of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, which set a global streaming record with a peak of 72.5 million concurrent viewers. We detail some of the tech specs from the event, including the split between mobile and TV viewing and the rebuffer rate. We cover EverPass Media's news that it will be the exclusive commercial option for the NFL Sunday Ticket package this season, with DIRECTV no longer having a license to carry the games. This change raises many questions, including how the streaming video will sync across multiple TVs streaming the same game.
We highlight Spectrum's launch of its new multiview feature in the Spectrum TV App, noting that at launch, viewers can't select their own games and must choose from pre-curated options. We share a few new numbers from Netflix's Next on Netflix summit, including that subscribers watch about 7 movies a month and that the company will invest in original storytelling and a renewed focus on theatrical comedy and content for young adults. Finally, we detail new technology in the video streaming pipeline, including MoQ, AV1/2, VVC, SGAI, and ULL, to refute an analyst's claim that there is "no more to get out of the core technology of video streaming."
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This week, we discuss reports that the NFL has begun renegotiating its $110 billion in domestic broadcast agreements ahead of the 2026 season, seeking a 50% increase with some broadcasters, if accurate. We also explain why it's gotten so hard to compare big live streaming events to one another when viewership numbers alone don't provide a clear picture. We use NBCU as an example: it released a rebuffer rate for the Super Bowl stream but did not provide viewership numbers, while JioHotstar provided viewership numbers for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, but not the rebuffer rate.
On the vertical video front, we detail news from both Peacock and Disney, which are rolling out trials of the new viewing format. Peacock will debut a new vertical video option for all live NBA broadcasts, not just highlights, powered by AI that performs real-time cropping and is optimized for phone screens. Disney+, meanwhile, has rolled out Verts, letting users swipe through a stream of scenes and moments from Disney+ movies and shows, add them to their Watchlist, or jump directly into playback.
Finally, we discuss Apple's claim that viewership for the first weekend of the F1 races was "up year over year" compared with ESPN's coverage, but provided no numbers, as well as the latest on the WBD and Paramount Skydance merger.
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This week, we discuss why a "unified streaming stack" is not the same as combining two streaming services, despite media reports that HBO Max and Paramount+ will merge into a single DTC service shortly. As we break down the latest details of the proposed Paramount and WBD deal, we speculate on the layoff impact across both companies, as Paramount tells bankers it expects to see billions in cost savings while telling employees the savings target will be realized mostly through non-personnel means.
We also cover the launch of F1 on Apple TV, Versant Media's full-year 2025 earnings, Sling TV losing 167,000 subs in Q4, NBCU not planning to publish Super Bowl viewership numbers for Peacock/digital, and YouTube in talks to stream four more live NFL games. Finally, we detail that, due to rising costs for servers, RAM, SSDs, and energy, Akamai has notified customers and partners of upcoming surcharges and contract renewal adjustments.
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This week, we discuss the latest Olympics viewership numbers on Peacock and debate whether Peacock's offer to give me a 72% discount on the service for six months to keep me as a subscriber is beneficial to the company's long-term viability. We cover the latest Apple TV news, including MLS, which kicked off the season this week; Apple's launch of its new dedicated Formula 1 channel in the Apple TV app; and the news that IMAX will show five major Formula 1 Grands Prix in its theatres.
We also detail the new ultra-low-latency technology behind Comcast’s 30 Mbps upscaled 4K Super Bowl Stream, called RealTime4K, the workflow, and the supported devices. Finally, on the infrastructure side, we cover the latest numbers from Akamai's Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings, as well as the news that it will no longer break out delivery revenue. In addition, we detail the numbers from CDN Netskrt, which has broken out its network capacity, capital-to-revenue ratio, and the unique factors behind its underlying costs.
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This week, I discuss my review of Peacock's Super Bowl stream, which was executed flawlessly, along with some of the limited viewership numbers released to date. I also detail the new live TV bundles from YouTube TV, the launch of HBO Max in the UK and Ireland and a new bundle from Sky that includes Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, and Hayu. I cover earnings results from Roku (full-year revenue up 15%), AMC Networks (AMC+ price increase), Optimum (lost 49,000 pay TV subs), Amagi (which had its IPO last month) and positive earnings from Fastly and Cloudflare, with Fastly stock up 116% in the week of earnings.
Finally, with the hyperscalers projected to collectively spend close to $700 billion in capex in 2026, I break down what we are seeing in the bond market for their capital raise, the risks, and why analysts expect free cash flow to plummet this year.
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Filippo Maria De Salazar, General Manager of the Brightcove business, sat down with me for a detailed conversation on the state of the business, one year after the Bending Spoons acquisition. Filippo discusses Brightcove's size, its structure under the Bending Spoons umbrella, and the benefits Brightcove derives from being part of a larger software and engineering company.
We also discuss Brightcove's business, including OTT services for media customers and video use cases for enterprise customers tied to marketing and communications. Finally, Filippo details Brightcove's roadmap, highlighting the new functionality already added to the platform and the 2026 product roadmap they released publicly earlier in the month.
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This week, I detail the numbers you should know from Q4 2025 earnings results from Netflix, Amazon, Fubo, FOX, YouTube, Comcast, and Disney. I cover subscriber additions, profit and loss, Fubo's plans for a reverse stock split, the latest on its carriage dispute with NBCUniversal, and the latest cord-cutting numbers. With the NFL and ESPN deal now closed, giving Disney control of the NFL Network and other NFL Media assets, I break down the terms, the additional content Disney gets, the deal’s value, and how it is structured. I also cover viewership numbers from Paramount's first UFC stream, with 7 million households in the U.S. and Latin America having tuned in, and Crunchyroll raising prices across some of its tiers in the U.S. Finally, I give the latest news on the Netflix and WBD deal, with Netflix's co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, testifying before the US Senate’s antitrust subcommittee.
On the vendor side, I detail the exact extent of Vimeo's layoffs, share my thoughts on Brightcove's 2026 product roadmap, and provide financial figures for CDN and infrastructure provider Gcore, which showed significant revenue growth over the past two years.
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This week, I detail viewership numbers from Prime Video’s exclusive stream of the NFL Wild Card playoff game, making it the most-streamed NFL game in the U.S., as well as those from Peacock’s exclusive NFL game on December 27th. I also review the latest subscription numbers for RTL+ and TF1+, as well as the recent price increases from Paramount+ and Spotify. Additionally, I discuss the new Amazon content deals with M6 in Europe and RTVE in Spain, involving live linear channels. Finally, I explain why the Metaverse was never real and just a fantasy of executive egos with money to burn, and detail Stats Perform's acquisition of the assets of the ultra-low-latency tech company Phenix Real Time Solutions for approximately $7 million.
Added Jan 20th: Correction: I misspoke regarding Paramount's efforts to compel WBD to disclose additional financial information. The judge has not rejected Paramount's efforts but has instead rejected the motion to expedite the trial.
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This week, we discuss news that FIFA has partnered with TikTok to allow select media partners to live-stream parts of matches from the FIFA World Cup, with limited details about exactly what that means. We also review the latest viewership numbers for NFL and NBA games across Netflix, Peacock, and Prime Video, while noting that ESPN (Disney), CBS (Paramount), and FOX don't disclose the percentage of NFL regular-season viewership that comes from streaming. Finally, we cover Dish countersuing Walt Disney Co. and ESPN, Comcast spinoff Versant going public on the Nasdaq, and WBD’s board once again rejecting Paramount's latest bid.
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This week, I wrap up the year with a review of NFL streaming during the holiday week across Netflix, Prime Video, ESPN and Peacock, with no major QoE issues reported. I also highlight ESPN's data-enhanced MNF telecast, featuring a well-designed stats overlay that was informative and not obtrusive. Finally, I wrap up with a few news items from Amazon, Sling TV, and Netflix, a recap of traffic to my posts, and a thank you to readers and listeners for what has been 30 years for me in the streaming media industry.
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This week, we highlight the NFL's distribution strategy during the Christmas holiday, with five games played, none of which will be broadcast nationally on broadcast TV, during some of the year's largest viewership windows. We cover the news that Instagram is launching an app for TVs, rolling out first on Amazon's Fire TV devices in the U.S. and suggest that many in the media are making this out to be bigger CTV ad news than it is, when selling ads in an 8-minute video on YouTube and a 15-second video on Instagram are very different.
We detail how Amazon Prime Video has removed AI recaps from certain shows after users reported errors and why AI is absolutely overhyped in its deployment in the streaming video stack, with almost no examples of how well it works, what it costs to implement, or proof that it works at scale. Finally, we cover the latest news about YouTube, ESPN, Netflix, JioStar, Crunchyroll, FIFA, Brightcove, and Fastly.
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Rob Koenen, Founder and CBO of Tiledmedia, the company that built the multiview player for F1, joined me for a detailed conversation about the latest multiview deployments across the OTT industry. Rob and I discuss the different technical approaches to building multiview functionality, the trade-offs of each, and the challenges of delivering multiview across so many devices. We cover latency, the impact of limited bandwidth, how to customize multiview layouts, and the challenges of offering a scalable, personalized multiview option.
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This week, we detail the viewership stats from Amazon, ESPN, FOX, and Paramount for NBA and NFL games during the Thanksgiving holiday, as well as the changes we saw in Black Friday OTT discounts. We also discuss what we consider a bad decision by Netflix, removing support for casting shows from mobile devices to most TVs and streaming devices, thereby affecting users who stream Netflix in hotel rooms. We also cover NBC News' announcement that it plans to launch a new ad-free paid streaming service; live programming, including CFL, PGA TOUR, Formula 1, and FIFA, coming to Bell Media’s streaming service, Crave; and Fubo's carriage dispute with NBCU.
Finally, we do a news roundup of Versant Media Group's financials, and its acquisition of Free TV Networks, Bending Spoons' acquisition of Vimeo closing, HP and Dell removing hardware decode support for the H.265/HEVC codec in several business and entry-level models, and CW Network calling out Nielsen for "lacking credibility" and being "fundamentally flawed" with regards to their viewership methodology.
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For this special podcast episode, we break down the deal numbers behind Netflix's plan to acquire Warner Bros. film and television studios. We focus on the facts rather than on many varying opinions about the deal, most of which are speculation, given the many unknowns. We detail the impact of the proposed agreement on Netflix's balance sheet, highlight the potential regulatory hurdles, and point out what some people are getting wrong about the news. Finally, we call out uncertainties not yet known, including the possible impact on content bundling, pricing, layoffs, and theatrical releases.
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This week, special guest Eric Black and I detail the latest news in sports streaming and price increases. We cover the impact on UK sports fans, with Paramount Skydance having secured the bulk of UEFA Champions League rights in the UK and Ireland, starting in 2027. We also cover MLB's newly announced licensing deals for 2026-2028, which will feature new packages of games on NBC, Peacock, and Netflix, while ESPN is bringing back a smaller selection of games. We detail the new deal terms between MLS and Apple, with the contract ending three years earlier and payment terms altered and NBC Sports' upcoming "EA SPORTS Madden NFL Cast" stream on Peacock for Thanksgiving.
We discuss T-Mobile and Xfinity price increases, with T-Mobile announcing it will charge $3 per month for the "On Us" Apple TV perk for all customers who previously received the streaming service for free. Similarly, Xfinity is raising the monthly cost of the Xfinity "StreamSaver" bundle by $3, from $15 to $18. Finally, we do a news roundup across Netflix, Verizon's layoffs, Amazon's CloudFront CDN, and the reported non-binding bids placed for Warner Bros. Discovery.
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This week, we detail all the numbers you should know from Disney and Paramount's earnings and the comments made by executives during the earnings calls. We discuss the latest subscriber numbers, DTC operating income, ARPU, content spending budgets, Paramount ending free trials and the upcoming Paramount+ price increase. We also debate what Disney's CEO might mean when he said that gen-AI short-form UGC will be available on Disney+ in the future.
We also highlight that, starting in 2026, Apple's MLS Season Pass will be discontinued, and that all MLS games will be streamed on the Apple TV service at no additional cost, potentially bringing more exposure to MLS content. We break down Amazon's announcement that Prime Video now reaches 315 million monthly viewers globally, and why we don't know what it means, without any details on the methodology. To wrap up, we cover news related to Netflix, Roku, NBC, and Kaltura's plans to acquire eSelf.ai.
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This week, we detail Amazon's confirmation that it has started blocking sideloaded apps on Fire TVs that it deems are being used for piracy, in an effort to restrict users from accessing pirated content. We also discuss ITV's confirmation that it is in talks with Comcast-owned Sky about a potential acquisition of its broadcast business, valuing the company at £1.6 billion. We review the latest financial numbers and subscriber counts from Q3 earnings reported by WBD (HBO Max), Xperi, EchoStar (Sling TV), Altice, and AMC Networks, and highlight the strong earnings results from Akamai and Fastly.
Note: I incorrectly stated 'Hulu+ Live TV' when I meant to say 'YouTube TV', and on a second occasion, I meant to say 'YouTube' instead of 'Amazon'. My apologies for the confusion.
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This week, we detail Netflix's plans to offer live, dynamic ad insertion (DAI) for NFL games on Christmas and why this is a significant development for the industry. We also debated their new ad viewing definition and the announcement that ads on Netflix now reach more than 190 million MAUs globally. We break down the latest developments on the YouTube TV and Disney Carriage Dispute and how both companies are being disingenuous with users.
For Q3 earnings data, we highlight Fubo's improving balance sheet, with its net loss shrinking to $18.9 million, while also reducing churn by 50% compared to last year. We also detail how Disney will take over advertising sales across Fubo, with Fubo integrating its inventory into Disney’s ecosystem and ad server. Additionally, Fubo announced plans to utilize Disney to grow internationally over the next 18 to 24 months.
Finally, we dicuss how, in their latest earnings reports, Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon have announced plans to increase their AI spending in 2026 to a combined $ 400 billion, but with no details on what percentage of their AI spend is going toward internal projects, versus selling cloud AI services to other companies. Additionally, quick updates on earnings from Broadpeak, Harmonic, Qwilt's new CEO, as well as Bending Spoons' $710 million equity raise at a $11 billion pre-money valuation.
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This week, I detail Netflix's Q3 earnings, its new interactive ads rolling out this quarter, and discuss its current use cases for GenAI. I also cover the upcoming Max price hikes and the latest WBD acquisition rumors, focusing on the numbers that matter most —revenue, debt, and financial metrics. Also discussed is the new NBA season, with the NBA back on NBC for the first time since 2002, Prime as a new addition to the NBA party, and ESPN returning for its 24th straight season. Finally, I detail the recent F1 viewership numbers on ESPN, FOX Sports plans to stream the FIFA World Cup 26 in native 4K, and layoffs by Charter Communications and Meta, with more on the way.
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This week, we highlight my review of Amazon's new Vega OS-based Fire TV Stick, which claims to offer "remarkably fast app launches,” but when tested against the Fire TV Stick Max, I found there was no difference in speed. We also detail all the news from Apple regarding its deal with F1, Apple's services chief discussing how Apple approaches the live sports business and Apple's new bundle with Peacock. We also dispute Apple's odd claim that Apple TV has better video quality than other broadcasters because it doesn’t compress its video, and the news that Apple will stream Select Los Angeles Lakers games in Apple’s Immersive on Vision Pro.
Also covered is the latest news from WBD regarding the launch of CNN All Access, Max now streaming in over 100 markets, and HBO Max ingesting the All Elite Wrestling PPV at native 1080p60 HDR (HLG source), transported at 425mbps JPEG XS and PCM audio directly from the venue. Finally, we cover some of my thoughts on my opening talk at the DanAds conference, where I reinforced why the CTV industry needs to prioritize outcomes over impressions.
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This week, we highlight all of the comments from Netflix's co-CEO regarding its upcoming release of five Party Games designed for connected TVs. We also detail his remarks on why Netflix doesn't bid for an entire season of NFL games, why Netflix doesn't want to acquire WBD, the impact of their new UI/UX and why trying to copy YouTube is the "dumbest move" a company can make. We also cover some announcements made during Advertising Week NY, with news from NBC, Paramount Skydance, Roku, Snap, The Trade Desk, Sky Media and Fox.
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This week, we highlight the stocks of WBD, Disney, Roku, Paramount, Apple, Fubo, and others, which have all increased by at least 25% over the past six months, with WBD leading the way at 112%. We detail all the latest news related to Peacock, Max, FOX, Fubo, Disney, Versant, Prime Video, the NBA, and YouTube TV, as well as rumors that Yahoo is in advanced talks to sell AOL to Bending Spoons. Finally, we discuss some tips and tricks for increasing exposure on LinkedIn, including recent best practices from the company regarding content focus, length, reposts and new analytic metrics.
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This week, we highlight the balance sheets of WBD, Netflix, and Roku, including their market capitalization, debt, cash, and profit and loss statements, as we examine some of the high-level rumors of mergers in the industry, where no one seems to be considering the financials. We also discuss Disney's DTC price increases and the ridiculous comparisons about Kimmel's monologue viewership numbers between TV and YouTube, as some claim Disney has seen "mass" cancellations.
We cover the unconfirmed news that MLB has agreed to a three-year deal with Netflix for games that include the Home Run Derby and the 2026 opening day game, and highlight how Apple used iPhone 17 Pros to capture and stream live footage of their last Friday Night Baseball game on Apple TV+. Finally, we discuss Roku's unusual comparison, declaring "FAST is the new cable," in their latest report, and highlight the revenue and profit disclosed from vendor Cleeng.
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This week, I highlight where the hype lies in AI, where there is opportunity, and why an "AI-first native strategy" by vendors is the wrong approach. I also explain the importance of AI use cases that help boost efficiency, versus those that are more disruptive to a given industry and how AI is truly upending the news media industry. I detail the new financial details released by Versant Media Group, Comcast’s spinoff of the majority of its NBCU cable network portfolio and the importance of understanding the difference between free cash flow and profitability.
I also break down the viewership numbers from Netflix’s Canelo vs. Crawford boxing event, Amazon’s TNF kickoff NFL game, and YouTube’s exclusive live global stream of the NFL game from Brazil, which YouTube originally misreported, resulting in updated numbers that increased by two million viewers a few days later. Also covered are Sky's plan to lay off 600 employees, the NBA's investment arm investing in MediaKind, and why Antenna's numbers of ESPN Unlimited and Fox One sign-ups should not be trusted.
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This week, I cover the viewership stats from YouTube’s exclusive NFL live global stream, breaking down what the numbers really mean, since many in the media misreported them. I discuss the challenges that the NFL, FOX and ESPN say they have in working with Nielsen, who once again, announced it is changing the way it measures viewership, which is absent of impartiality and transparency.
I also detail the latest news and rumors involving WBD, the upcoming TNT Sports app, and the news that the HBO Max platform will lose live sports in the US next year. Also covered are the rumors that Paramount Skydance wants to make a bid for WBD, and I detail why, if a deal were to happen, it would be far more complex than most realize and would not quickly raise ARPU and reduce churn like some suggest.
Amazon's quality stream for the season kickoff of Thursday Night Football is discussed, along with DISH price increases, DAZN's new multiview feature for select NFL Game Pass subscribers and news that Walmart+ members can choose between the ad-supported plans of Paramount+ and Peacock and switch every 90 days at no additional cost.
Finally, I provide context around the news that Vimeo has agreed to be acquired by Bending Spoons in an all-cash transaction that values Vimeo at approximately $1.38 billion and detail the numbers from Vimeo's balance sheet that most are not looking at, but should be.
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The OpenMOQ Software Consortium has launched as a new effort among vendors and content owners, focused on advancing MOQ-based technology through open-source software. The consortium is tasked with developing high-performance software that will enable the next generation of media contribution, distribution, and playback. OpenMOQ is a collaborative effort to accelerate development, enhance interoperability and share cost between vendors, distributors and in some cases, even competitors. In this interview, Will Law from Akamai and Tomas Kvasnicka from CDN77 discuss the formation of OpenMOQ and its goals. https://openmoq.org
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This week, I cover the launch of Fox One and ESPN Unlimited, which appeared to go smoothly, with few user issues reported. I detailed the news of the week, including price increases for Apple TV+ and BritBox, the launch of a new $20 bundle from Sling TV, and news from Netflix, YouTube, MLB, Fubo and NBC Sports. Finally, I discuss the expected upcoming layoffs at Paramount and their implications for the industry.
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Marty Kagan, co-founder and CEO of Hydrolix, joined me for a detailed conversation on the importance of delivering better end-user QoE with real-time telemetry and the challenges that come with CDN observability. Marty highlights why more hot data is crucial for AIOps and challenges that M&E customers face today, including the need to discard data due to storage costs. Marty presents a compelling argument against the notion that most data is irrelevant and that content owners only need to retain a small percentage as a sample. We also discuss why Hydrolix isn’t an AI company and Marty's plans to continue growing its streaming data lake platform in verticals outside of video.
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This week, we detail Paramount Global's seven-year deal with TKO for the rights to stream UFC fights, the impact on ESPN+ and UFC's approach to move away from PPV to expand its audience. We also discussed the new Disney and Fox bundle launching on October 2nd, which combines ESPN+ and Fox One for a discounted rate. Additionally, we list out why not all pay TV customers will have access to ESPN's new DTC service for free when it launches on August 21st. We covered Netflix's pricing increase in Australia, Sling TV's new daily, weekend, and weekly pricing models, as well as the changes to Sky Sports' coverage of the 2025/2026 Premier League season. Finally, we detail what it takes to produce quality content on LinkedIn, how to build a brand, and why to ignore many of the so-called content and SEO experts on LinkedIn.
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This week, we detail all the news from Disney's earnings, its proposed deal between ESPN and the NFL and the launch of ESPN's new DTC service this month. We also discuss the impact of Disney's decision to no longer report paid subscribers or ARPU numbers for Disney+ and Hulu, and will cease reporting ESPN+ numbers as of next month. We also discuss all the essential numbers from Q2 earnings for WBD, Paramount Global, Fubo, Altice, Akamai, Fastly, Vimeo, and highlight the upcoming launch of FOX One on August 21st, as well as recent news from Roku and MLS.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, I outline the key numbers you should know regarding subscriber gains and losses, as well as the profitability of D2C businesses for Peacock, Roku, Paramount, Sling TV, and Fubo. I also cover the revenue growth from cloud providers Amazon and Microsoft, and break out the capex spend of Meta and the hyper-scalers, totaling more than $250 billion this year, driven by AI-related infrastructure. Finally, I highlight some news relating to Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, Instagram and DAZN's deal with the NHL.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we highlight the details surrounding the MLS commissioner's disclosure that MLS Season Pass is averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match on Apple TV, representing a nearly 50% increase from 2024. For earnings, we cover Q2 ad revenue on YouTube, up 13% YoY and Alphabet's plan to increase capex investment in 2025 to approximately $85 billion, in addition to the cord-cutting numbers from Charter and Verizon. We cover the latest rumors of the NFL’s interest in acquiring an equity stake in ESPN, HBO Max's expansion to more than 90 markets, and Paramount and Skydance's merger receiving FCC approval.
We detail viewership figures from Netflix's latest boxing event, along with TV and streaming viewership numbers across baseball, golf, tennis, car racing, hockey and DAZN's video workflow for its successful stream coverage of the FIFA Club World Cup. Finally, we discuss why companies conduct layoffs even amid record profits, the impact of AI investments, and why, despite many talking about strategy, a company's culture eats the best strategy all day.
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This week, we highlight the key numbers and comments from Netflix's Q2 earnings, covering finances, ad growth, live event strategy, competition, AI, and content strategy. We detail the financial metrics tied to revenue, free cash flow, debt, and estimated full-year 2025 revenue guidance. We discuss all the comments from Netflix's management team regarding measuring household engagement, its upcoming interactive ad launch, the impact of the recent price hike, its deal with TF1, and the acquisition of content assets. We also detail NBCU's decision to raise Peacock’s monthly subscription by $3, as well as the new US-based SVOD service from the BBC. Finally, we discuss Deltatre's plans to acquire Endeavor Streaming, which raises questions about the state of Deltatre's business, as no metrics have been provided since its acquisition in 2022.
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This week, we highlight Disney's new content bundling deals with Charter and ITV, as well as Paramount's new agreement with DIRECTV. We discuss Amazon's investment in AI to help remaster SD content into HD, and what we think the impact of AI can be in the video streaming workflow. We also discuss why the media is getting it wrong when they suggest that Google has won the living room, as YouTube tightens its enforcement of its monetization guidelines. We break down the latest rumors that Apple will acquire Formula 1 content and why Apple's F1 movie was about more than just content, since it ties into the hardware of the iPhone. Finally, we discuss some recent online comments about ultra-low-latency deployments for media use cases, which overlook any tangible or measurable business benefits.
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This special CDN focused podcast details the latest on delivery pricing and industry trends. I discuss delivery commits, QoE measurement, DIY deployments, HD HDR bitrates, and the impact of vendors exiting the market. I also cover how content owners perform capacity planning at the ASN level, leaching, latency, and why multicasting and P2P won't positively impact the industry. The data comes from my CDN pricing survey, as well as hosting panels and private events at the NAB Show Streaming Summit in April, which included OTT platforms, content owners, broadcasters, sports leagues, and others.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we highlight all the sports news from Peacock, Pac-12, ESPN, Optus Sport, Amazon, IMG, and NASCAR, detailing viewership stats and new licensing deals. We also cover the recent layoffs at Disney, the BBC's low latency live streaming trial, and the current ad loads of Max, Prime Video and Peacock. Finally, we cover some vendor news, including Wowza's acquisition of AI tech company AVA Intellect, and discuss some recent data I collected on the use of AI in the streaming video workflow.
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This week, we cover a lot of news, stats and numbers across WBD, Disney, Netflix, YouTube, MGM, Amazon, F1, DAZN, NFL, Verizon, Starz, Roku, TikTok, Apple TV, Premier League, JioHotstar, Paramount and other sports and OTT services. We also discuss the changes taking place at Qwilt, including the appointment of a new CEO, the assets of Phenix Real Time Solutions being put up for auction, and Bending Spoons' plans for Brightcove’s product roadmap. Correction: About 14 minutes in, when discussing WBD, I said Disney+ when I meant to say Discovery+. My apologies for the confusion.
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This week, we cover the news from the Upfronts, with Netflix and Amazon announcing updated ad-tier user numbers, YouTube disclosing ad conversions on Shorts, and some of the new ad formats coming to OTT platforms. We also detail the upcoming DTC offerings from ESPN and FOX, as well as YouTube's plans to stream an exclusive NFL game for free in September. Finally, we highlight Charter's announcement of its plans to acquire Cox Communications, Warner Bros. Discovery's rebranding of Max to HBO Max this summer, and Sony's announcement of updated subscriber numbers for Crunchyroll.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we highlight the key Q1 earnings numbers from Disney, WBD, Paramount, AMC Networks, Altice, EchoStar, Vimeo, Kaltura, Akamai, Fastly and Cloudflare. We detail the numbers tied to DTC subscribers additions/losses, profitability, bundling, capex and content spend, and the impact of earnings on stock prices. We also break out the 1.73M cord cutters across pay TV providers and vMVPDs, along with sports news from MLB, NFL, MLS, FanDuel Sports Network, JioStar, Disney and Comcast.
Correction: Disney has not announced a spinout of its linear assets.
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This week, we detail Roku's revenue growth of 16% YoY, with the number of streaming hours growing by 5.1B hours YoY. We also highlight Roku's announcement that more than a third of streaming households in the U.S. streamed monthly from its content row in Q1, with a total of more than 125 million people every day. We detail Fubo's earnings, with North America subscribers declining 2.7% YoY to 1.47M and a net profit for the quarter of $188.5M, due to the positive impact of the Venu Sports litigation. Finally, we touch on revenue numbers tied to AWS and Harmonic, some new TikTok data, and why Nielsen's new Gauge chart tied to ad-supported streaming services is flawed and misrepresents the streaming market.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we detail Comcast's Q1 earnings, including Peacock's sub gains, thanks to the Charter bundle, with revenue up 16%, on an EBITDA loss of $215M, down from $639M YoY. We also cover all the pay TV losses from Comcast, Verizon, and Charter in the quarter, as well as Comcast's worst broadband losses ever in a quarter. We highlight MSG Networks deal with its lender JPMorgan that allows the RSN to avoid bankruptcy, and the NFL's Commissioner stating that he expects the NFL to return to scheduling a Christmas Day tripleheader in the future. Finally, we discuss Max's password sharing crackdown, YouTube's announcement of 20 million videos uploaded daily, and Twitter having been found guilty of patent infringement relating to streaming technology involving Vine and Periscope.
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This week, we detail Netflix's Q1 earnings, including its free cash flow, content spending, and 2025 guidance forecast of $43.5-$44.5 billion. We highlight all of Netflix's comments around its ad tech platform, Netflix Ads Suite (NAS), and why Netflix says owning the tech stack is foundational to its long-term ads strategy. We also mention Netflix's comments about video podcasts and why it doesn't see YouTube as a competitor, saying Netflix is a "better service for a certain class of creators and certain types of storytelling." Finally, we cover the latest sports news from the NFL, Formula 1, MLB, and ESPN, and funding and acquisition news from FloSports, Hydrolix, Touchstream, and Simply TV.
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For this special podcast, Mark Donnigan and I recap key takeaways from the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas, discussing what we heard on the show floor and in sessions. We detail the NAB’s attendance numbers and the impact I saw on the number of attendees due to the uncertainty in the financial market. We also highlight the many different metrics that exhibitors, sponsors and attendees use to determine the success of shows. We discuss what messaging we think worked best from vendors and key points made by speakers and presenters around CDN, AI, CTV, niche OTT services and where we see the need for improvement in transparency across the industry.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we highlight DIRECTV's expanding RSN bundling options, which cover 18 MLB, 16 NBA, and 10 NHL franchises and the addition of Max Basic with Ads to its MyEntertainment Genre Pack. We also highlight the MLB TV streaming outage on opening day, JioHotstar's announcement that JioHotstar now has over 100 million subscribers, and Netflix's news that it is now streaming HDR10+ content for AV1-enabled devices. Finally, we detail the launch of EdgeCast Cloud Services from Parler Cloud Technologies and Bitmovin's news of reaching free cash flow in 2024, with 2025 revenue expected to be in the $30M+ range.
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This week, we discuss JioHotstar's live stream of the ICC Champions Trophy Final, with a reported 60 million concurrent streams and why the industry needs to stop putting so much clout on concurrent or AMA numbers without any other details on the quality of the stream. We also detail the F1 TV Premium tier, offering 4K video and multiview functionality for an additional $6 monthly, and Comcast's deal with the International Olympic Committee to keep NBC and Peacock as the U.S. TV and streaming home of the Olympic Games through 2036. Finally, we detail some new platform improvements rolled out by Max and why it doesn't matter if Apple loses money on its Apple TV+ service.
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This week, we talk about the problems with Hulu's Oscars live stream and why streaming cannot take the place of broadcast distribution in terms of scalability and dependability. We also point out the likelihood of MSG Networks and/or its affiliates declaring bankruptcy and the potential consequences for their streaming business. We discuss the announcement that all Elite Wrestling PPV events will soon be available on Prime Video, and Netflix plans to live stream another boxing match later in the year. Lastly, we discuss Fox Nation's new subscriber figures, the largest CTV device botnet ever discovered and made public, and MLB's commissioner's difficulties in getting all the teams to cooperate for a new DTC MLB service without blackout restrictions.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss the Q4 earnings numbers tied to subscribers and profitability from Fubo, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and EchoStar. We also highlight the latest sports news from Disney, DAZN, LALIGA, Fox, LFP, and Sky. We detail the new $35 entertainment package from DIRECTV, which includes 43 linear channels and Disney+, Hulu+ and Max streaming services. Finally, we cover the news that Amazon will launch a live, linear TV channel for Prime Video members in Germany and Austria and highlight how CDN77's revenue grew to $175 million in 2024 while being cash-flow positive.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss all the latest sports news, including ESPN and MLB ending their contract early, the excellent looking live stream of the NASCAR Daytona 500 on Max and SURJ's investment in DAZN, rumored to be $1 billion. We also highlight the news that DIRECTV's MySports package will include 140 NBC affiliates, Prime Video offering Ligue 1 matches via PPV, reports that ESPN has walked away from F1 negotiations, and Bassmaster tournaments now streaming on the Roku Channel. Finally, we cover Q4 and full-year earnings from Akamai, who provided an update on its delivery business for 2025 and beyond.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we review FOX and Tubi's Super Bowl stream, detailing the video quality, latency, playback, viewership numbers and overall event success. We also detail Q4 and full-year earnings from Roku, AMC Networks, Altice, Fastly and Harmonic, which saw mixed results. We highlight the launch of JioHotstar, which resulted in the merger between Hotstar and JioCinema, subscriber numbers from Philo, the Apple TV app launching on Android and the changes taking place at Brightcove due to the acquisition by Bending Spoons.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we detail the launch of competing $70 sports streaming packages from Comcast’s Xfinity and DirecTV and FOX's plans to launch a DTC streaming service. We also cover the latest earnings from Comcast, Disney and Alphabet, with Disney+ losing 700,000 subscribers, Peacock's DTC business losing $436M, and YouTube seeing advertising revenue of $10.4 billion, with growth driven by the 2024 U.S. election. We also discussed the latest cord-cutting numbers from Charter, Comcast, and Verizon, which have lost nearly half a million cord-cutters combined. Finally, we detail Parler's $7.5 million acquisition of select Edgio assets.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss all the latest NFL streaming news, including Amazon's exclusive NFL Wild Card playoff game, which reached an all-time high of 24.6M viewers, details from FOX on their 1080p upscaled 4k HDR stream and their plans to make the stream available on Tubi. We also detail the network shutdown of Limelight Networks as part of Edgio's bankruptcy, what it means for the CDN industry, and the thousands of employees who have worked at the company over the past 23 years. Finally, we cover some news about Apple TV+, Altice, and the launch of a new video distribution patent pool by Access Advance.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, I discuss the Disney and Fubo deal, what it means for subscribers and the impact of Venu Sports no longer launching in the market. I detail the deal terms and what's being misreported, separating facts from guesses. I also discuss viewership numbers from Netflix's debut of WWE’s Monday Night Raw, final global viewership numbers for Netflix's NFL games on Christmas and complete NFL season viewership data on Peacock. Finally, I highlight Diamond Sports Group's emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, DAZN's plans to acquire Foxtel, MSG Networks blackout dispute with Altice and TV news from the CES show.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
For this special podcast episode, we review Netflix's streaming of the NFL games on Christmas, detailing some tech details related to the stream quality, latency, player functionality, reported user feedback, and viewership statistics for the U.S. market. We compare the 27 million peak viewers in the U.S. stat to previous NFL games across broadcast, Prime Video and Peacock and why viewership was down compared to broadcast. We also discuss why Netflix's success on Christmas wasn’t just a big day for the company individually but for the entire industry.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we detail the news of more layoffs by streaming vendors and what it means for the industry going into the new year as everyone looks to be more operationally efficient in their spending. We also cover the latest price increase by YouTube TV, pushing the service to $82.99 a month, FIFA's broadcast deal with DAZN, and Amazon's latest TNF viewership numbers of 18.48 million viewers, making it the most-watched TNF on Prime. Finally, we discuss WBD's plans to create a new corporate structure that separates linear networks from streaming and studios, which is expected to be completed by mid-2025.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we detail Akamai's successful $125 million bid for customer contracts from Edgio's security and content delivery businesses as part of Edgio's bankruptcy auction. We discuss Akamai's projected $89-$111 million in revenue over the next five quarters from the contracts and what the deal means for the broader CDN market. We also debunk some reported comments associated with the news and the impact on Microsoft's Azure CDN. Finally, we discuss news involving the Venu Sports and Fubo dispute, Netflix's commercial distribution agreement with EverPass Media for its NFL games on Christmas and quick highlights of some OTT and broadcast announcements.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
In regulatory filings, more details have emerged in Bending Spoons plans to acquire Brightcove, including some terms for employees who stay on with the new company, the number of aggregate shares of company common stock tied to RSU awards, the exact number of Brightcove employees, a disclosure of a "material weakness in internal control over financial reporting,” and other company details. In this special podcast episode, we discuss all the numbers and provide insights into what the deal could mean for Brightcove's future.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we detail all the misinformation after Netflix's live boxing event, the danger of not checking sources, and who you trust for news. We discuss the current state of Netflix's business and how the company is playing the long game - chess over checkers. We also highlight the latest content news from JioCinema, MLB, Sling TV, Disney, Amazon, NBA and Hulu. Finally, we focus on the latest broadcast TV news, which includes Comcast's decision to spin out its NBCU cable assets and DirecTV abandoning its acquisition of Dish assets.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we detail all the important numbers from Q3 earnings tied to profitability, capex spending, MAUs and subscriber additions tied to streaming services from Paramount, Tubi, AMC Networks and Vizio, along with infrastructure players Vimeo, Brightcove, Akamai, Fastly and Cloudflare. We also discuss the latest content news from UFC, The Tennis Channel, Netflix, Sky and FOX and highlight CDN Medianova's round of funding. Finally, we break down the impact of the Fed's interest rates on your job and your employers' ability to borrow capital and expand their workforce, invest in R&D and launch new products and services versus not being able to afford interest payments and doing layoffs.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, I recap all the streaming subscriber and pay TV numbers from Q3 earnings and profit and loss financials from Roku, Fubo, Peacock, YouTube, Sky, Verizon and others. I also highlight cloud services revenue from Amazon, Microsoft and Google, with AWS hitting a record $100 billion in revenue for the past 12 months. I discuss why Instagram lowers video quality for unpopular videos and disagree with their statement that people interact with videos based on their content, not their quality. I detail the report that Disney's exclusive NFL game on ESPN+ peaked at only 1.8M viewers and Roku's decision to stop reporting quarterly updates on streaming households and, by extension, ARPU, beginning with Roku's Q1 2025 earnings results.
- Peacock added 3M subscribers, but 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 $𝟰𝟯𝟲𝗠
- Fubo's Sports FAST channel 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 in Q3
- Verizon, Comcast and Charter 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝟳𝟮𝟳,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗧𝗩 subs in Q3
- AWS hit $𝟭𝟬𝟬𝗕 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 for the past 12 months
- As Amazon builds out for AI, it 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁 $𝟮𝟮.𝟲𝗕 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘅, up 81% YoY
- The average Roku household streams 𝟰.𝟭 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘆
- Since 2020, Meta's Reality Labs unit has an operating 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 $𝟱𝟴 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻
- 𝟯𝟱% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 spent on YouTube watching the Olympics was on TV screens
- Sky UK had an 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 £𝟮𝟮𝟰𝗠, nearly doubling its 2022 loss of £111M
- Samsung says it has 𝟴𝟴𝗠 𝗠𝗔𝗨𝘀 for its Samsung TV Plus FAST service
- Fubo had a 𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 $𝟱𝟰.𝟳𝗠 in Q3, up from a net loss of $25.8M in Q2
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss the key takeaways from Netflix's earnings tied to its upcoming first-party ad tech platform, subscriber gains in the quarter, and its latest reported engagement metric of two hours a day per paid membership. We also cover the latest news from the messy world of RSNs, including the new report that Peacock will begin offering NBC-owned RSNs in early 2025 and the terrible launch of the Gotham Sports App by YES Network and MSG Networks. In basketball news, we detail the new player features coming to the NBA League Pass for the 2024-25 season that will allow users to watch up to four games simultaneously with multiview, and we highlight WNBA Playoffs viewership stats from ESPN. Finally, we discuss how using AI to generate a podcast equals poor results since it is not authentic, won’t resonate with listeners and doesn't build a relationship with the audience.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss DirecTV’s plan to launch a FAST platform and how it might benefit its brand even as it joins a crowded market of FAST services. We also highlight why it’s smart for Apple to make Apple TV+ content available to as many viewers as possible via its deal with Prime Video, which will go live as a Prime Video channel later this month. We provide some of the new details released by ESPN's president about their ESPN app due to launch in 2025, which will offer multiview, sports betting capabilities, fantasy data, advanced stats, and ticketing and merchandise. Finally, we discuss the merger of JW Player and Connatix, which shared no details on the deal, making it unclear what the short or long-term value might be for the combined entity.
Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor: Integrated Digital Solutions
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss what could happen to DTC services Sling TV and DIRECTV STREAM if the planned deal for EchoStar to sell Dish to DirecTV gets approved. We also highlight the news that Skydance is in talks with the NFL to purchase the NFL Network and the latest on Diamond Sports Group's decision to release all but one of its MLB contracts in the hopes of getting approval for its bankruptcy reorganization plan. We detail Paramount Global’s decision to drop Nielsen as its main viewer measurement currency in certain instances, with Paramount saying that in some cases, Nielsen's fees already exceed the total advertising revenue of the network being measured.
We detail the misconceptions about Netflix and Amazon’s advertising businesses and discuss why Prime Video is expected to add more ad inventory to Prime Video while not changing its plans to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers. Finally, we give out some numbers tied to the news that Comcast will deploy Qwilt’s open caching platform inside its network at hundreds of locations over the rollout, with the first locations going live in the next 1-2 months.
Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor: Integrated Digital Solutions
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, Mark Donnigan and I recap news from IBC about using cloud-based compute services for video workflows, encoding optimization, AV1/codec adoption, live encoding use cases, and AI's potential impact on encoding platforms. We also give updates on the Venu/Fubo lawsuit, price increases for NBA League Pass, the upgraded Roku Ultra device, Google rebranding their FAST channels, and some viewership numbers from Peacock. Finally, we discuss some interesting statements from Netflix regarding their ad tier, the NFL games on Christmas and how they view one-off sporting events versus full seasons.
Companies mentioned include Akamai, Amagi, AOM, ATEME, AWS, Bitmovin, Brightcove, CDN77, Disney+ Hotstar, Dolby, Edgio, Harmonic, iSIZE, Neilsen, Netflix, NETINT, NVIDIA, THEO Technologies, Visionular, WaveOne, YouTube.
Thanks to this week's podcast sponsors: Integrated Digital Solutions and Netskrt Systems.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, I break down news related to the start of the NFL season, including audience figures from NBC Sports, ESPN, and Amazon, as well as my testing of NFL streaming on Peacock, YouTube TV, Fubo, YouTube TV, Paramount+, Sling TV, and FOX Sports. I also review the most recent information regarding the Venu Sports injunction appeal expedited hearing, for which the opening brief is due this week. The specifics of the distribution agreements between Disney and DirecTV, as well as WBD and Charter, are also discussed. In conclusion, I address Edgio's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, how the procedure works, and the potential results for the company and its business lines. I also address several misunderstandings around the filing, what it means overall for the CDN industry and what the outcome could be.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we detail the latest updates surrounding the Paramount and Skydance merger, the Fubo and Venu Sports pretrial conference on September 12 and the NBA asking New York’s Supreme Court to dismiss Warner Bros. Discovery’s matching rights lawsuit against the league. We highlight the report that Amazon no longer plans to invest $115 million into Bally Sports, Diamond Sports Group agreeing to honor its legacy TV agreements with most of its NBA and NHL partners and Disney's decision to close all its TV Everywhere apps later this month. Finally, we break out the new multiview options for NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers, Twitch's plans to raise the cost of new Tier 1 and gift subscriptions and why Netflix’s stock price hit a three-year high in August.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
Michelle Noon, founder and managing partner of private equity firm Clearhaven Partners, joined me for a detailed conversation on the current state of the financing market tied to valuations, interest rates, and balance sheets. Michelle discusses how operators and investors balance growth versus profitability, the importance of recurring revenue with high predictability, the true cost of debt and how the market is now rewarding companies for generating cash flow.
Michelle discusses how management teams are now being forced to focus on managing their capital structures at the potential expense of business operations and how this can impact focus and business results. Finally, Michelle lays out a perspective on valuation multiples based on various business factors, touches on how she sees the investments in AI playing out and explains why Clearhaven invested in SundaySky, Wowza and recently acquired Zixi.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week we discuss the latest temporary injunction against Venu Sports and what it may mean for Disney, FOX, WBD and Fubo. We also cover the latest pricing increase from YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket and new Sling TV and Verizon bundling options. We detail the layoffs at Paramount and the closing of Paramount Television Studios and how many in the media continue defining the "success" of streaming services while neglecting their financials. Finally, we highlight some Olympic viewing numbers across NBCU digital platforms and Disney’s new hire for their chief product and technology officer for entertainment and ESPN.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we recap the key points from Q2 earnings involving media companies and vendors, highlighting DTC subscriber additions and losses, profit and loss, cord-cutting, WBD and Paramount writing down the value of their TV businesses, and highlight how media stocks have performed over the past 12 months. We also explain crucial financial terms like GAAP, non-GAAP, EBITDA, OIBDA, and EPS, making it easier to understand how these companies report their finances to Wall Street.
On the vendor side, we detail how security and compute revenue now represent 66% of Akamai’s total revenue, Fastly cutting full-year guidance and laying off 11% of the company, Brightcove and Kaltura’s revenue growth being flat and the challenges some vendors are having in growing their media businesses while continuing their efforts to keep costs down.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we detail the key data and numbers from Roku, Comcast, Charter, Fubo, Vimeo, Harmonic, and Alphabet's Q2 earnings. We also discuss the most recent developments in content news, including Venu's pricing, the NBA agreement that permits Disney to air alternate broadcasts, the $4.7 billion antitrust conviction against the NFL that was overturned, and Diamond Sports' agreement to bring its RSNs back to Comcast's cable TV subscribers.
We also detail Netflix’s news that it is seeking to raise $1.8 billion in a new debt offering, Disney’s price increases, Dolby suing Roku, Amazon suing Nokia, Gcore raising $60 million in series A funding, and Dolby acquiring THEO Technologies.
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This week, we detail all of the numbers you need to know from Netflix's Q2 earnings and discuss why Netflix's ad business is not struggling like some in the media suggest. We also highlight interesting comments from Netflix about their upcoming live events, their lack of need to bundle with other services and how fast their ad business is growing.
We also review all the headlines related to European football, such as the partnership between CBS Sports and Serie A, the acquisition of Ligue 1 by DAZN and beIN, and FIFA's Club World Cup rights auction. We also dissect the data from FOX Sports, which released information on streaming viewership for the UEFA EURO 2024 Finals independently of pay TV for the first time. Lastly, we showcase the newest streaming services and packages from Verizon, Optimum, and MAX.
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This week, we discuss the reports that the NBA has concluded agreements totaling $76 billion that would keep ABC/ESPN as the home of the NBA Finals for 11 seasons while adding NBC and Amazon Prime Video as new partners. But the completed contract must still be sent to TNT Sports, giving WBD five days to match Amazon's offer. We also point out a number of the unanswered questions surrounding the merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global, such as the NFL's ability to renegotiate its contract with CBS at its discretion under the new ownership.
We also detail the new streaming service from Hallmark+ and EverPass Media news that will offer NFL ‘Sunday Ticket’ streaming in bars, restaurants and other businesses. Finally, we give a rundown of the witness list DOJ published by the DOJ for its upcoming antitrust trial against Google late last week and give out some of the latest pay TV and streaming viewership numbers from ITV, ESPN, FOX Sports, and CBS.
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This week, we highlight all the sports news related to FIFA, FOX, Disney, NHL, WBD and ITV. We also delve into the NFL's ongoing legal battle over its Sunday Ticket trial, emphasizing the significance of the league's decision to appeal the ruling, which could potentially extend the case until 2026. We break down the latest rumors around Paramount Global and discuss their new Paramount+ pricing, which kicks in on August 20th.
We also detail the latest pay TV and streaming viewership numbers from Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals (7.7 million viewers, peaking at 10.3 million), England’s match with Slovenia on ITV and ITVX (9.2 million viewers), and CNN's presidential debate (8.7 million on pay TV, 2.3 million concurrent streaming).
Finally, we discuss Twelve Labs raising $50 million in series A funding in June after raising $17 million through seed rounds. I also highlight what impressed me from my day-long visit with Tata Consultancy Services Media & Entertainment Business Unit and the scale of the projects they are involved in, especially around data, advertising and AI.
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In this comprehensive podcast update on the CDN market, I separate facts from opinions, providing a detailed analysis of the latest trends. I cover everything from CDN pricing trends, market sizing, traffic and revenue growth rates, DIY initiatives (TikTok, Disney, Apple, Netflix), tech trends and demands across 4K, ULL, CMCD, bitrate optimization, multi-CDN, Open Caching deployments, changes in performance testing, to unique delivery challenges in regions like India.
Revenue numbers for CDN vendors, including Akamai, AWS, Cloudflare, CDN77, Edgio and Fastly, are broken out, along with where the numbers come from. Other CDNs discussed include Comcast Technology Solutions, Google Cloud Media CDN, Netskrt, Orange, Qwilt, Tata and others.
I discuss the potential impact of market consolidation, Netflix streaming NFL games on Christmas, and the trend that will continue with customers looking to save on delivery costs. I also highlight bad data and red flags within reports in the market so you know what to avoid and data to stay away from.
I mentioned many numbers in the podcast, nearly all from public sources, and I believe I got them right. But if I misspoke, I welcome any corrections. If you have any questions, please put them in the comments section or contact me anytime. (dan@danrayburn.com)
My thanks to the nearly twenty CDN vendors, customers, sports leagues, OTT platforms, carriers and DIY content owners I spoke to in the week before the podcast.
The podcast transcript provided by my podcasting platform has many mistakes, so I will work on editing it and posting a transcript when I can.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss ad tech and how some SSPs are packaging CTV inventory into curated, omnichannel deals, resulting in CTV inventory being attached to less desirable content. While SSP auctions allow buyers to tailor bids to media quality, buyers could bid highly on packages with only some premium inventory. We also detail the report that Disney has been striking deals that call for significant rollbacks in CPM rates, discounting them by as much as 10-15%. With Amazon Prime Video’s recent decision to make its basic streaming service ad-supported and Netflix offering ads, there is a significant increase in digital video inventory available, driving down pricing.
We also show that nothing comes close to the TV viewership of NFL games compared to sports viewership numbers from the NHL, MLB, WNBA, NBA, Formula 1, U.S. Open, Indy 500, UFL and Premier League. We break out the average TV viewership numbers for NFL games across all broadcast channels for the 2022-2023 season and what will change this year when both NFL Christmas games will be on Netflix, resulting in what we expect to be the largest live-streaming event ever in the US.
Finally, we talk about the history of StackPath and its announcement it has shut down the company and will liquidate its assets.
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This week, we recap details from the ongoing Sunday Ticket trial, including the news that the NFL rejected ESPN's proposed reduced price of $70 for the entire 2023 season for Sunday Ticket, along with single-team packages. Trial evidence also showed that Fox considered Sunday Ticket an "existential threat" to its business, asking the NFL in 2021 that Sunday Ticket not be allowed to grow more than 20% of subscriptions beyond its current level. We also discuss the contents of a second letter from House Representatives to Disney, Fox, and WBD about Venu Sports' business, deeming Venu Sports' response to their first inquiry "insufficient" on collusion, privacy, and pricing concerns.
In addition, we highlight Private Equity firm Clearhaven Partners' acquisition of IP video transport vendor Zixi and CTV-focused DSP Madhive's acquisition of omnichannel marketing platform Frequence. Finally, we break down all the latest content licensing deals from Netflix, WBD, Showmax, INDYCAR, Rogers, Warner Bros. Discovery and the new advertising network from Google TV.
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This week, we recap all the recent sports news involving FIFA, DAZN, IPL, NBA, WNBA, Apple TV, NBA, NHL, Peacock, Indianapolis 500, U.S. Soccer, WBD, Wimbledon, Sky Sports and the Olympics. We highlight some of the recently released sports viewership stats across streaming and pay TV, discuss the recent price hikes by Max and Spotify, and Amazon's acquisition of video streaming service MX Player. Finally, we explain why the number of app downloads is a worthless metric for tracking usage, ARPU, engagement, subscriber lifetime value, or any other real metric tracked and utilized by streaming companies with Wall Street.
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This week, we discuss some of Netflix's latest data on its ad-supported business, including usage, monthly active users and the news that it will launch an ad tech platform to control its ad buying, placement, and targeting. We also cover news from YouTube's Brandcast, announcing that viewers watch more than 1 billion hours of content on TV screens daily. We discuss why FOX's CEO said 90% of viewing time on Tubi comes from VOD content, not their FAST channels and why I think FAST won't be profitable for all but the major content owners. We break out the nearly 2 million live linear TV losses in Q1 across pay TV and vMVPDs and how consumers continue to move from a deep linear channel lineup to specific live content. Finally, we discuss why Nielsen's new Media Distributor Gauge is flawed in viewership data when Nielsen compares companies, like The Walt Disney Company, to single streaming services, like Prime Video.
We also quickly recap earnings from Vizio, Brightcove, Akamai, WBD, and EchoStar and highlight a new patent lawsuit filed against Google regarding caching and content delivery methods dating back to Sandpiper Networks.
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This week, we breakdown all the P&L numbers from the Q1 earnings across OTT platforms and streaming vendors. We highlight that while Disney+ and Hulu had an operating income profit of $47M, the rest of Disney's business didn't fare well, with linear TV operating income slumping 22% and linear network revenue across Disney’s portfolio fell 8% (excluding ESPN). We discuss why simply cutting costs isn't enough and that Wall Street wants to see growth, which is why Disney's stock was down 10% after earnings.
We detail Vimeo's Q1 earnings but, more importantly, debate what the future holds for the company. While Vimeo expects an operating loss of only about $3 million for full year 2024, their projected revenue guidance means revenue would be down 8% to 4% year over year. We go through all the infrastructure numbers from Fastly, Cloudflare and AWS, with the most crucial being that AWS's growth rate puts it on a $100 billion annual revenue run rate. Also interesting to note was Amazon's CEO saying that AI will drive "tens of billions of dollars" of revenue in the next several years.
Finally, we quickly recap news from Paramount, Roku, Altice, Crunchyroll, Fubo and Netskrt.
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Fubo’s Co-Founder and CEO, David Gandler, sits down for an in-depth discussion about their lawsuit filed against Disney, FOX, and WBD, its Q1 earnings numbers, industry challenges around content licensing pricing and bundling and Fubo’s goal to get to profitability in 2025.
David defines antitrust, why Fubo believes the JV is anticompetitive and how the suit's outcome could impact the entire industry. We also highlight why so many carriage disputes are happening, leading to a fragmentation of sports content and an unfriendly fan experience. We discuss the pricing and bundling of vMVPD services, including how Fubo picks RSNs to work with and why pricing for OTT services never goes down.
Finally, David recaps Fubo’s most recent earnings, including its subscriber growth numbers, lower net loss, the recent reduction of its debt, and Fubo's operating plan as they work towards profitability.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we recap all the Q1 subscriber and P&L numbers you need to know across Peacock, Paramount+ and Roku, breaking down profitability, losses, subscriber additions, ARPU and free cash flow. We cover the latest cord cutting numbers from Verizon, Comcast and Charter, who lost 938,000 pay TV subs in the quarter combined. We also discuss some recent numbers from WBD about their expansion of Max in LATAM, Prime Video getting the National Monday Night NHL Games in Canada, and the latest RSN and sports news.
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This week, we did a mini-review of the NAB Show Streaming Summit and some topics we heard discussed around the difficulty in scaling streaming services for low latency and QoE. We also cover Netflix’s Q1 earnings and excellent user growth, adding 9.3 million subs, which was tempered by the news that they will stop reporting quarterly membership numbers and ARM a year from now. We highlight the latest rumors about Paramount Global, with it being reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global are interested in the company, and detail the restrictions and complications on the companies if such a deal were to occur.
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This week, we discuss the latest news around Disney, including their plans to crack down on password sharing in June in a "few" countries and markets, with a "full" rollout in September. We detail how complex ESPN’s DTC offering is becoming, with Disney announcing that its new ESPN streaming service will launch in the fall of 2025 and will be offered as part of the Disney+ bundle, which will give Disney three separate ESPN sports streaming services in the market. We also detail sports news from Formula One’s US-based owner, Liberty Media, announcing a takeover of MotoGP’s parent company and the "rumor" that Amazon might get the rights to take over the entire NHL Monday night package from Rogers in Canada, including playoffs, for the remaining two years of Rogers’ contract. Finally, we highlight the NBA teaming up with Roku to launch its first-ever FAST channel, Diamond Sports Group renewing its distribution deal with Charter Communications, and DAZN announcing an exclusive deal with the PGA TOUR across the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.
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Step up to the plate with us this week as we tackle the complex maze of baseball streaming. We cover the latest baseball streaming news with Fubo adding RSNs, Hulu+ Live TV adding the MLB Network, and discuss the terrible fan experience with some MLB teams requiring fans to access five different networks to stream games. We also highlight other sports news, including Peacock's exclusive streaming deal for the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Brazil and Amazon's sublicensing deal with Viaplay to broadcast 38 live Premier League games a season in Sweden and Denmark. We break down the launch of Hulu on Disney+ in the U.S. for Disney bundled subscribers, and why we think the report that YouTube TV will reach profitability in 2024 isn't accurate. Finally, we debunk the ridiculous report suggesting that because Bitmovin's live encoder is now deployed on Akamai, it "raises M&A eyebrows" for them to be acquired.
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This week, we detail WBD's planned international expansion of Max, which will make the OTT service available in 25 countries in Europe and 65 countries and territories worldwide. We also highlight comments made by the NFL's Chief Business Officer regarding the newly announced WBD, FOX and Disney sports JV, which is missing over half of all NFL games. We discussed the latest rumors regarding a potential sale of Paramount Global, with Skydance still conducting due diligence and having yet to submit a final offer. We detail the new YouTube TV multiview functionality on iPhones and iPads and Peacock's new upcoming enhanced four-view experience called "Discovery Multiview," coming in time for the Olympic Games in Paris that will be supported across smart TVs, streaming devices, web browsers and tablets. Finally, we discuss Kingsoft Cloud's Q4 CDN revenue, which decreased by nearly 10% compared to the previous quarter and some changes coming to Comcast's internal CDN.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This special podcast takes you inside the NAB Show Streaming Summit with a preview of all the content, speakers and expert strategies you’ll learn at the event. Hear what the keynote fireside chats will cover with Paramount Global, Prime Video and NBCU. We also give an overview of the new AI Demo Track and break down all the sessions tied to sports, content bundling, churn and retention, and streamlining video workflow strategies. Finally, we highlight case studies from NFL, SiriusXM, Disney+ Hotstar, and Sinclair and detail why you can’t miss the day one Happy Hour event. And if you're feeling the sting of recent layoffs or seeking career growth, join me for an empowering talk on how to find a job, advance your career, set yourself up for success and stand out amongst the crowd.
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This week, we detail how SeaChange, which once dominated the cable TV operator market and had over $216 million in revenue, will have its assets acquired for $30 million. We break down the numbers you need to know from Fubo's full-year 2023 earnings, ending with 1.61M subscribers and reaffirming their expectation to reach positive cash flow and adjusted EBITDA in 2025. We also detail Paramount's full-year 2023 earnings, ending with 67.5M subscribers and DTC losses of $1.6B, forecasting profitability for Paramount+ domestically in 2025. Finally, we discuss some of the latest news from Disney, including Bog Iger's remarks about the mistakes they made around the launch of Disney+, including not having the right tech to lower customer acquisition and retention costs and acknowledging that the company is behind Netflix in terms of technical capabilities.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we break down all the numbers from Warner Bros. Discovery's full year 2023 earnings, including DTC profitability in 2023, exclusive NBA negotiations, international expansion of Max, and their disciplined approach to investing in subscriber growth, mindful of lifetime value to subscriber acquisition cost ratios. We also highlight why Fubo is suing Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery over their recently announced JV deal to offer a sports streaming service and the overlapping distinct authority that the FTC and DOJ have to challenge anti-competitive practices. Finally, we detail earnings from Vimeo, which projects only 4-8% of revenue growth in 2024 and Brightcove, whose projected 2024 revenue growth would be flat or slightly down over 2023.
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This week, we cover infrastructure news and Q4 and full-year earnings from Akamai, Fastly, and Broadpeak, highlighting overall CDN industry revenue growth, pricing trends, and Akamai's continued dominance of the content delivery market. We also discuss the Super Bowl stream on Paramount+, my 8.5 million AMA viewership number, and reported news that Amazon secured an exclusive NFL playoff game for Prime Video in 2025.
We detail why Roku's stock is getting hammered, even with the company beating all of the street's expectations in their Q4 earning results with revenue up 14% year-over-year, active accounts growing 14% year-over-year to 80 million, and their achievement of positive adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow for the full year 2023, ahead of schedule. Finally, the plot thickens as we examine the Disney, Fox, and WBD streaming partnership, the DOJ's potential scrutiny, and predictions of how giants like the NFL might play their hand next.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss the key numbers from Disney's latest earnings, including subs, ARPU and D2C profitability projections. We detail what the ESPN brand could look like with their comments that they will bring its ESPN DTC app to the market in the fall or late August of 2025, including integrated fantasy betting. We debate what their newly announced plans to offer a joint sports streaming service with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery means for the streaming and pay TV industry and why they made a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games.
Finally, we break down all the cord-cutting numbers from Comcast, Charter, and Verizon, highlight YouTube TV's subscriber count of 8 million and discuss MLB's goal of introducing a DTC streaming package that would include, at a minimum, roughly half of the teams, by 2025.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week, we discuss the key takeaways from Q4 earnings across OTT platforms and streaming vendors, including Apple seeing a "huge opportunity" with AI, YouTube's ad revenue growth of 15% and AWS closing out 2023 with $90.8 billion in cloud revenue. We discuss new numbers released by Amazon, which spent $18.9 billion on content in 2023, of which "approximately $7 billion" was spent on Amazon originals and live sports.
We also highlight the latest pay TV losses from Charter, nearly 1 million Xumo Stream Box's deployed, Plex's new round of funding, and Harmonic's update on the strategic review process of their video business. As Lumen officially shuts down its CDN and sells off some assets, we detail the history of its CDN business and its contribution to the industry for so many years. Finally, we discuss why 2024 is going to get a lot worse for layoffs across the video industry, streaming, pay TV, vMVPD, broadcasters, and content owners.
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The Netflix episode "Woooooo!" This week, we discuss Netflix’s record Q4 earnings, their free cash flow of $6.9 billion for 2023, their growing AVOD business and their off-the-top rope deal with the WWE as they continue to dominate the industry. We discuss how the WWE deal with "scripted entertainment” differs from sports content, how it will expand Netflix’s advertising business, and what it might mean for a more significant content deal with the WWE when Peacock’s domestic WWE Network deal expires in March 2026.
We highlight new data from Netflix showing that 40% of all Netflix sign-ups are for their AVOD plan in markets where it is offered and the reason why Netflix plans to retire their Basic plan in some of their ad countries. We debate the growth Netflix could have with AVOD in the short and long term, especially with T-Mobile having just converted Netflix’s users to the ads plan in their "Netflix On Us" bundle.
Finally, we discuss what Netflix said about their shift in the mix of content spend, their historical bias to build and not buy content assets, why they are not interested in some of the big linear assets being shopped and the work they are doing to improve ad targeting, relevance and measurement.
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This week, we discuss the use cases for Apple Vision Pro and why it will not become the future of video viewing for consumers at scale. We also break down the Diamond Sports Group complex proposed restructuring plan, Amazon's commitment to make a minority investment, and the potential repercussions for Prime Video customers who will be able to purchase DTC access to stream local Diamond channels at a still-to-be-announced price. Finally, we highlight the deal between Qwilt and Cirion Technologies, which will result in Qwilt taking over the former Lumen CDN PoP infrastructure and running their edge cache software and cloud services across what was the Lumen CDN footprint in LATAM.
We also mention some executives with new positions, including Walker Jacobs at DAZN, Michal Tsur leaving Kaltura, Stephanie Mitchko at AMC Networks, and Courtney Sanchez at Tubi.
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This week, we break down all the latest sports viewership numbers from ESPN, FOX Sports, CBS Sports, and NBC Sports. We also highlight the new joint venture by YES Network and MSG Networks, the launch of an Innovation Lab by Major League Soccer and details around the Super Bowl stream, which will not stream in 4K on Paramount+ and will be in 1080P60 HDR.
We detail the latest APRU numbers across the primary OTT services and why, with all the OTT price increases in 2023 and the recent launch of new AVOD tiers, the ARPU metric is becoming one of the most critical data points Wall Street is closely tracking. We also mention Fubo's $5/month price increase and Sony's latest stat that Crunchyroll has 13 million paid subscribers.
Finally, we discuss Netflix's 23 million global monthly active users for their advertising-supported plan and the stat that 85% of Netflix's AVOD subscribers are streaming for more than two hours per day.
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This week, we review what's behind all the industry layoffs as companies reset the cost bar on CAPEX and OPEX expenses. With full-year 2023 financials in the book, some companies didn't hit the revenue, efficiency, and cost savings goals they had expected, prompting layoffs to start the year. We also detail how some vendors are restructuring their debt with Fubo, the most recent example, which will pay a higher interest rate in exchange for pushing debt out by three years and getting to profitability faster.
We detail the 2023 domestic box office revenue numbers, which topped $9.03 billion, an improvement on the $7.4 billion total ticket sales from 2022 and the great year that IMAX had financially. On the sports front, we discuss the NCAA's nearly billion-dollar handshake with ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery's plans to continue to give away its B/R Sports Add-On for several more months before they start charging consumers.
Finally, we mention some executive changes at VideoAmp, Prime Video, Brightcove and Edgio.
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This week, I reviewed Peacock's exclusive NFL game stream with some users having a poor quality video experience and detailed why I think Peacock's strategy failed with their ad-free fourth quarter. I also break down the viewership numbers reported by NBC Sports and highlight how sports is a costly and unproven part of Peacock's subscriber acquisition strategy, with no ability to scale sports content globally.
I discuss, with numbers, why the rumors of Warner Bros. Discovery buying Paramount would not make sense from a financial standpoint since the deal would likely be a stock-for-stock deal, with the combined companies having about $60 billion in debt. I also detail how, from a regulatory standpoint, it would involve merging two of the five remaining major movie studios and two major television studios, creating a very high concentration of linear network ownership, including a significant consolidation of major sports rights.
Finally, I highlight what changes I would like to see in the streaming media industry in 2024, including better innovation in the pricing and packaging of streaming content and more professionalism from those within the industry.
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This week we discuss, how in a blow to Amazon and DAZN, pay TV broadcaster Sky won broadcast rights to show a record number of Premier League matches in a new four-year deal. We also break down Paramount’s balance sheet to refute the reports they are nearing bankruptcy and highlight Peacock’s latest data of 30 million paying subscribers, their $10 ARPU, and their two upcoming exclusive NFL games. We detail Twilio’s announced layoffs and the shutting down of their Programmable Video product, a 17% workforce reduction announced by Spotify, along with Netflix's recent outage and the lack of transparency in their "What We Watched” report.
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This week we discuss some of the latest news and rumors around bundling and aggregation of streaming services, the impact that wholesale rates have on DTC profitability, and the lack of data in the market to prove that bundling reduces churn. We also cover the viewership numbers from Prime Video's first NFL Black Friday game, Amazon's new licensing deal with NASCAR, and Charter's recently launched mobile broadband service that limits video streaming quality to 480p.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
Avi Saxena, CTO and Tyler Whitworth, CPO at Warner Bros. Discovery, join me for a detailed conversation about the technical video stack at Max. Learn how they approach the user experience when it comes to their apps, latency, adding live sports and news to the platform, device support, 4K, advertising, personalization, and how they measure QoE. We also discuss what’s ahead for the service, the technical challenges in ad delivery, expanding into LATAM, and the skills they are looking for when they hire developers and engineers across the WBD organization.
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Larry Allen, VP/GM, of Data and Addressable Enablement at Comcast Advertising joins me for a detailed discussion on how the shift in viewing habits to all screens is making it difficult to provide cohesive cross-media measurement. We discuss the impact of the loss of third-party cookies, the challenges and opportunities that exist with measurement at scale, including with FAST services, and the potential role of AI tech to fill in measurement gaps. Finally, we highlight why the industry needs a clear set of guidelines on how the industry wants to approach measurement across inventory owners and distributors to provide a common language for measurement cross-platforms.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week we cover all the latest news in the world of sports streaming tied to Apple, Amazon, ESPN, Disney+ Hotstar, Fubo, Max, Peacock, and YouTube TV. We also discuss content licensing and viewership stats across the NFL, NBA, Formula 1, and MLS. Some highlights include:
- Apple reported that they had more than a million viewers to watch the biggest MLS games this season and the rumors that Apple is eyeing Formula 1 as its next big sports investment
- The latest in the NBA media negotiations and why the NBA needs to package national TV rights with local-market rights
- Peacock's first-ever exclusive live-streaming NFL Playoff game on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, and what the viewership might be
- Disney+ Hotstar news that they hit 59 million concurrent viewers for the World Cup 2023 cricket finals on November 19
- NBC Sports latest stats on the largest streaming audience ever for a regular-season Sunday NFL game on NBC Sports (1.85M AMA) and their most-streamed college football simulcast (605,000 AMA)
- Comcast reported that Amazon's TNF games comprise roughly 25% of all Internet traffic on Thursday nights across their network
- Fox saying it has no intention of taking its premium sports content DTC any time soon, with cable revenues continuing to deliver a lucrative revenue stream for the broadcaster
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This week, we examine the Q3 financial results of OTT industry heavyweights Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, DISH, and Vizio, along with streaming providers Akamai, Brightcove, Kaltura, Comscore and Vimeo. We go over some of the most important conclusions, such as Disney+ having 5 million AVOD customers and ESPN+ making $33 million in profit. We go into detail on how WBD paid off an astounding $12 billion in debt this year and anticipates producing at least $5 billion in free cash flow. The company is attempting to position itself as an acquirer, as evidenced by the $111 million in positive EBITDA that their DTC sector generated during the quarter. We conclude with all the P&L data from streaming providers in the industry that you should know, including an examination of CDN77's remarkable revenue growth and the current macroeconomic environment's potential impact on the industry.
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This week we detail the Q3 earnings numbers you need to know tied to Paramount+, Peacock, Fubo, AMC+, Roku and Brightcove including subscriber counts and DTC profit and loss. We also draw attention to the roughly one million new Comcast, Verizon, Charter, and Altice pay TV customers who have cut the cords. We talk about the announcement from Netflix that their ad tier now boasts 15 million monthly active users worldwide; Harmonic's strategic review of their video division; Bitmovin revealing that their revenue for the upcoming year will be in the 30s million; and Nokia suing Amazon and HP for allegedly violating patents related to H.264 and H.265 video decoding.
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This week we break down the numbers from Netflix’s Q3 earnings, their content spend for 2024, what their ad business looks like today and the reasons why many are undervaluing Netflix's prospects for AVOD in the coming years. We also talk about YouTube's statement indicating that they most likely won't participate in the upcoming round of bidding for NBA broadcast rights and we highlight ESPN's newly released revenue figures. In conclusion, we discuss Lumen's departure from the CDN sector and the recent patent litigation filed by Sling TV and Dish Network against BritBox.
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Diane Strutner, CEO of Datazoom, joins me for a detailed discussion on the current state of advertising data and the complex road ahead as inventory moves to digital and CTV. We discuss the seismic industry shift from siloed to a converged currency models, and the ensuing challenges in valuing digital and streaming ad impressions. Learn the crucial distinctions between accreditation and certification, particularly in relation to how they relate to audience measurement, and the impact on advertisers.
The conversation takes a turn towards transparency, or lack thereof, in Nielsen's methodology and their conspicuous absence from new industry initiatives and committees. Diane emphasizes understanding true ROI, and the inherent risks of decision-making without adequate revenue insights, and the lack of data that is behind enormous funding decisions, and publishing and media & entertainment’s push for profitability.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week we discuss the rumors that Apple is weighing an annual bid of $2 billion for Formula 1 racing, with the opportunity to purchase global rights after five years. We also detail how Candle Media's earnings are predicted to be between $140 and $170 million, which is less than the $330 million initial expectation. According to reports, Candle Media spent $900 million for Hello Sunshine and $3 billion for Moonbug Entertainment. Finally, we detail how Taylor Swift has already sold more than $100 million worth of advance tickets at AMC Theatres as she continues her worldwide domination across all forms of media.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week we detail the language in the new terms announced by the WGA in their deal with the studios (AMPTA) that have come as a result of the writers strike. The new deal provides no real transparency into viewership numbers outside of total hours streamed and only for self-produced high budget streaming programs. We also discuss Amazon's news that starting in early 2024 Prime Video shows and movies will include limited advertisements. Finally, we provide some details on the recent ruling from a German court that Netflix is infringing on Broadcom's video patent related to HEVC.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week I break down the economic and financial factors that are directly impacting the growth and restraints in the streaming media industry. Learn why companies are doing more with less, reducing and consolidating their spending on services like storage and delivery, and the market factors that are influencing their decisions. From banking interest rates for new money, tighter budgets, and lengthier sales processes, this new way of doing business is now the new norm.
I also cover some recent comments from ESPN’s chairman discussing the importance of linear to US sports broadcasters, the triggers that would make ESPN go DTC faster, and why he says ESPN doesn’t necessarily feel any urgency. His overall takeaway is that professional sports leagues say that they prioritize linear because of the exposure and the reach and yet, the same spots leagues are taking big money from Amazon, Apple, and Google while giving them some games as a streaming exclusive.
Also mentioned: Amazon and Nielsen’s Thursday Night Football stats; Warner Bros. Discovery’s new sports tier for Max; and SK Telecom and Netflix’s new partnership that has ended their dispute over network traffic costs.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week I recap the opening weekend of the NFL season reviewing the streaming services across YouTube (NFL Sunday Ticket), ESPN (Monday Night Football), Amazon, (Thursday Night Football), and Peacock (Sunday Night Football). I document why YouTube came out on top, the problems Amazon and Peacock had, and the complete outages that took place on Xfinity and Shaw.
I also discuss the patent suit that Sling TV and DISH Technologies filed against fuboTV alleging infringement on eight patents related to multi-bitrate streaming, with the oldest patent dating back to Move Networks technology. And I briefly cover news from Apple that the new A17 Pro chip will support AV1 video via a dedicated AV1 decoder in the new iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Podcast produced by Security Halt Media
This week we detail how the current model of licensing broadcast networks to pay TV distributors is completely broken. With a recent blackout on Spectrum due to a licensing dispute with Disney and a current blackout on DISH due to their dispute with Hearst, the methodology of how content is valued needs to change. We discuss what consumers want from streaming services, how they want to aggregate them, the business models that work best, and the ridiculous fragmentation fans have when watching sports-related content.
We also highlight the recently announced layoffs from Roku, Nielsen and the new financial numbers that Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and others have put out tied to revenue and free cash flow, due to the impact of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
Dan Robbins, VP of Ad Marketing and Partner Solutions at Roku joins me for a discussion about the latest challenges and opportunities with advertising across SVOD and FAST services. We discuss the measurement side of advertising, the powerful role of big data and integrated platforms in delivering accurate and consistent results and what brands are demanding for targeting. Dan also details Roku's vision for TV advertising, new creative ad formats and why Roku decided to build Roku branded TV's with a third-party manufacturer. Learn the complexities of the rapidly evolving advertising market and the multitude of opportunities waiting to be seized.
This week we expose the flawed comparisons of bundled streaming services to pay TV, with Nielsen improperly comparing linear TV to YouTube, but excluding vMVPD services like Sling TV and Hulu + Live TV in their ratings. We also break down the new NFL Sunday Ticket bundle with Max, new student pricing, and multi-view combinations, and speculate on the future potential for platform customization and interactive features available on mobile and TV. Wrapping up our discussion, we discuss the potential of streaming services to reach profitability and the possible future where pay TV operators stop making profits from pay TV services.
This week we break down Disney's recent financials and news from their earnings including their DTC revenue and losses; subscriber churn, the announcement of higher pricing for their ad-free tiers, ESPN+ and Hulu + Live TV, as well as their plans to crack down on password sharing next year. We also detail the numbers from other earnings including Paramount’s addition of 700,000 Paramount + subs, Sling TV’s loss of 97,000 subs, and Vizio’s AVOD revenue of $142.3M, which was up 28% from the previous year.
Also discussed is the latest sports streaming news across the industry including the report that Warner Bros. Discovery plans to simulcast live MLB playoffs on cable TV and Max streaming in October, as the debut of a new sports tier, called Bleacher Report, and plans to charge users more if they want to watch sports on Max. We also detail the latest from the NFL, which is raising the monthly prices of their NFL+ plans and for the first time will allow NFL Network and NFL RedZone to be viewed on a TV and PC.
Finally, we touch on funding news by Visionular, Akamai's impressive Q2 earnings and Everpass Media's distribution deal with NBCUniversal.
This week we break down all the important numbers you need to know regarding Q2 earnings from OTT platforms and streaming vendors. Hear about profitability/loss and subscriber gains/losses for Warner Bros. Discovery (Max), Comcast (Peacock), Fubo, Roku, Brightcove, Vimeo, Verizon, Charter, Kaltura, Fastly and Cloudflare. We also pose tough questions about New Relic's valuation following its acquisition and the implications for other vendors in the industry.
This week we deliver fresh insights on Netflix's password sharing crackdown, analyzing the effects of the introduction of the ad-supported tier, the adjustment of pricing and plans, and how consumer behavior and engagement metrics are driving their decisions. We also discuss the news around Disney's intention to pull back spending and content creation for the Star Wars and Marvel franchises along with Bob Igor’s comments that linear TV channels like ESPN and ABC “may not be core" to their business. Learn how these industry powerhouses are strategically working to bundle, package, and license content while keeping their audiences engaged.
This episode offers a deep dive into the murky waters of ad fraud detailing the allegations against YouTube. Dr. Fou, an expert in ad fraud joins me as we head straight into the eye of the storm, exploring the latest report alleging Google's TrueView ads appear muted and on autoplay on third-party websites. Discover how these misrepresentations are impacting advertisers' trust, why YouTube's reply to the allegations ignored the issues, and what this could mean for YouTube's revenue.
We also detail challenges in the overall video advertising industry when it comes to detecting ad fraud, why advertisers don’t have much incentive to fix it, the lack of clear measurement, methodology, and transparency in reporting and the impact of AI on the market.
If you're interested in understanding the complexities of ad fraud in the online video advertising market and the challenges and trust issues that plague the industry, or if you're an advertiser wanting to ensure your campaigns are not misrepresented, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
Research report and data from Adalytics: https://adalytics.io/blog/invalid-google-video-partner-trueview-ads
Google's reply to the data: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/transparency-and-brand-safety-on-google-video-partners/
This week we discuss the topic of FAST and how as an industry, we have almost no details on revenue growth amongst the FAST platforms. With Plex’s recent round of layoffs and too many FAST channels in the market, we make the case that popularity, without profitably, is a problem for FAST operators. We also discuss YouTube TV's business including their outage that took place during the NBA playoffs, their experiments with ad-blockers, and their decision to drop SNY and the MLB network, and what this means for consumers. Finally, we break down why Microsoft announced it will shut down Azure Media Services in 2024 and exit the video workflow business.
This week we peel back the layers of NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV dissecting the potential implications and benefits for the streaming media industry. We discuss the criticality of promptly addressing technical glitches before mainstream media taints the image of streaming technology. Learn how YouTube TV's new 'multiview' feature could amp up the NFL Sunday Ticket experience, or just add another layer of complexity.
We also scrutinize Netflix's future advertising plans and their proposed creation of a new ad format similar to a half-hour commercial drawn out over days. Also covered is the rollout of YES Network's single-screen interactive stats on connected devices in partnership with Ease Live. Tune in as we delve into the fiery debate taking place in Europe with ISPs suggesting that content providers including Netflix, Apple, and Google should pay ISPs who carry their video traffic. I also call out Sandvine for continuing to publish garbage data on the topic, when they have a direct conflict of interest by using the debate to push the sales of their data platform.
What do TikTok's video lengths and user engagement tell us about the future of content consumption? Join us this week as we uncover the surprising data behind this social media giant and its innovative audience. We'll also dive into the growing trend of long-form content including movies and TV shows being chopped up into bite-sized pieces for a more interactive and engaging viewing experience.
As the demand to get to profitability with DTC services grows, content owners are slashing millions in infrastructure costs through optimization of their video workflows, especially around encoding, storage and delivery. We discuss how advanced codecs and content adaptive technologies are enabling reduced bit rates without sacrificing quality. You will also learn about Netflix's multi-year technology and workflow transformation, and the increasing importance of purpose-built silicon in the race for 4K streaming.
Lastly, we tackle the issues of media inaccuracies and AI hype within the industry. From the sensationalized reporting surrounding Disney's CFO's leave of absence to Microsoft's questionable AI claims, we emphasize the importance of accurate information and transparency. Discover the potential impact of AI on the streaming industry and Microsoft's relationship with Open AI – all in this eye-opening episode.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the recent increase in Netflix's stock price which hit a 52-week high, all based on "assumptions" in new sign-ups based on four-day’s worth of data from third-party firm Antenna. We also question if YouTube TV is cracking down on password sharing ahead of NFL Sunday Ticket, with more users reporting pop-up messages reminding them that they need to return to their home location. We discuss how Telly, the company that plans to give away a dual-screen TV for free, has the ability to deactivate the TV if consumers don't use the TV as they want them to. Finally, we detail the launch of a new commercial CDN offering from Orange, for CDN services within France specifically.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Orange, IPL, Antenna, YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket, Telly, Vizio, Vimeo, Edgio.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the Netflix password sharing notifications that have started rolling out in 103 countries and territories and the challenges users are having in understanding how Netflix will enforce the rules and what exactly classifies as a violation. We also detail the roll out of Max, with less than .1% of HBO Max accounts having technical issues and highlight some new details from YouTube TV around NFL Sunday Ticket regarding simultaneous stream counts, multiview and video quality. We also breakdown the laughable comments by Elon Musk and others at Twitter who suggested they "broke the internet" and "melted their servers", due to 600,000 users trying to stream live the audio of Ron DeSantis announcing his 2024 presidential bid on Twitter Spaces.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Disney, Twitter, Max, YouTube TV, Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max, AOM, Beamr.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week I discuss the technical issues that YouTube TV, Apple TV and Netflix all had in the past 30-days with a live event/stream on their platform. I also break down all the key numbers from Disney’s earnings including the 3.8 million sequential decline of Disney+ Hotstar subs, their comments that the price increase for Disney+ without ads had no meaningful negative impact on churn, and the latest non-news on ESPN going DTC. Also highlighted are comments from FOX’s CEO on why they don’t have a D2C sports offering and Netflix’s announcement that their ad-supported plan has nearly 5M monthly active users globally.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Disney, ESPN, Hulu, Peacock, NFL, IPL, FOX, Apple TV, YouTube TV, MLS Season Pass.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we highlight the Q1 earnings news from Brightcove (will lay off 10% of company), Vimeo (CEO could get $800,000 bonus), Paramount (+ added 4.1M subs), Comcast (Peacock subs up 2M), Warner Bros. Discovery (expects DTC business to be profitable this year) and the latest cord cutting numbers with over 1M pay TV losses in Q1.
We also discuss problems we are seeing with many resumes and LinkedIn pages by those looking for new jobs in the industry. We share feedback on what you should be doing if you are looking for a new job and how you should be setting yourself up for success.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we highlight some of the news from the NAB Show and detail the technologies and business models we heard talked about the most. We also discuss the trends we saw at the show, vendor messaging, specific data shared from speakers and what impressed us. We also cover some numbers you need to know on cord cutting, P&L and ARRU from earnings related to Roku, Comcast (Peacock), Amazon, Verizon, Meta, Netflix and others.
Companies and services mentioned: Roku, Netflix, Amazon, Verizon, Peacock, HBO Max, Comcast, Brightcove, Harmonic, Haivision, Amagi, IMAX, Bitmovin.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the number from Viacom18 of 16 million concurrent streams for the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Jio Cinema, highlighting that the bitrate was around 1Mbps, making comparisons to other events difficult. We also discuss potential new DTC streaming strategies the WWE and UFC could take since their rights deals with ESPN, FOX and NBC Universal all expire by 2026. We recap some industry news that Apple has acquired Wave One, a startup specializing in AI-based video compression with a method for analyzing video files and learning the best way to compress them. And the news from AMD of a new media acceleration solution, that’s targeting video streaming applications that are highly personalized and interactive by nature, demanding low to ultra-low latency.
Companies and services mentioned: Viacom18, Jio Cinema, Endeavor, UFC, WWE, NBC Universal, Peacock, FOX, Disney, MLB, WWE, CBS, Pac-12, Roku, Apple TV, Netflix, Wave One, Apple, AMD, IMAX.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the recent price increase at YouTube TV which will now start at $73 a month, which in some cases, is only a few dollars cheaper than cable TV in a triple-play bundle. We also highlight some recent news from Apple including rumors they may be partnering with studios to put more titles in theaters; Paramount+ announcing it will offer mobile-only plans in Brazil and Mexico; a detailed report on the challenges Twitch is facing; and a notice of proposed rulemaking from the FTC it dubs “click to cancel,” requiring companies to make ending a subscription equivalently simple to signing up for one.
Companies and services mentioned: Apple TV+, Paramount+, YouTube TV, Twitch, Netflix, Microsoft, MLB, Fire TV, MLB, FTC.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we review Netflix’s success with their first live event from both a video quality and user interface standpoint and discuss what live streaming means to Netflix’s business since most consumers are not going to regularly tune into Netflix on a scheduled time. We also highlight a lot of interesting comments made by Disney’s CEO around the pricing and bundling of Disney+, how they are "very carefully” studying the streaming business to decide what to do with Hulu and his thoughts on what growth for Disney’s DTC business looks like going forward.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, ESPN, HBO Max, Warner Bros. Discovery, TikTok.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we detail the numbers you need to know from the Q4/full-year earnings of Warner Bros. Discovery, Vimeo, fuboTV, Vizio, Brightcove, DISH and Altice. We highlight revenue growth, free cash flow, pay TV subs lost, streaming subs gained and ARPU. We also cover some of the news around sports streaming and OTT services from MSG+, RSN licensing, NFL Sunday Ticket and Indian Premier League cricket.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, HBO Max, fuboTV, Warner Bros. Discovery, MSG+, Brightcove, Vimeo, DISH, Altice, YouTube TV, Tubi, Tubular Labs and Chartbeat.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the problems Netflix’s is having in Canada with their new account sharing rules that are confusing, incomplete and conflicting. We also discuss the latency of the Super Bowl stream and why lower latency doesn’t equal more viewers, longer viewing times, or more ads delivered. Also detailed are all the numbers you need to know from Paramount, Roku, Akamai and Fastly’s earnings including sub growth, year-over-year revenue growth and profit and loss.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, FOX Sports, Roku, NBC Sports, FanDuel, NFL, Paramount, Nielsen, Amazon Fire TV, Disney, YouTube, DIRECTV, Akamai, Fastly.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
Gil Rudge, SVP, Video Products and Solutions at Harmonic joins me for a discussion about some of the latest deployment trends for cloud-based video workflows. We discuss the lack of adoption of 4K; the complexity of live sporting events; the trade-off between on-prem versus the cloud; and the success Harmonic has shown in diversifying the company’s revenue from hardware to the cloud.
This week we breakdown all the numbers from Disney's Q4 calendar 2022 earnings including subscriber losses with Disney+ (2.4M); Gains at Hulu (800K) and ESPN+ (600K); announcement of 7,000 layoffs; loss of $1.1B from DTC business; latest ARPU numbers; the re-org of Disney into three divisions and the CEO's comments that Disney is not considering a spinoff of ESPN. We also discuss Sling's newly launched FAST service called "Sling Stream" and discuss why pay TV will not be "dead" in three years like some executives are suggesting.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Disney, AMC Theaters, Sling, Amazon Prime Video, Yahoo, Zoom, ESPN, Hulu.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we highlight the key numbers you need to know from Q4 2022 earnings results from Google (YouTube revenue growth declined), Amazon (AWS revenue growth of 20%), Comcast (now has 20M Peacock subs but lost $978M), Apple (Revenue down 5% y/o/y), Verizon (Lost 80, 000 pay TV subs), Charter (Lost 145,000 pay TV subs) and additional news around Netflix, Paramount+, World Cup, Liliac Cloud and Harmonic.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Comcast, Apple, YouTube, Amazon, Peacock, Paramount+, Showtime, World Cup, F5, Struum, Liliac Cloud, Verizon, Charter, Harmonic, AWS, Prime Video, CloudFront.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
Kevin McGurn, President of Sales and Distribution for Vevo joins me for a discussion around Vevo's FAST strategy. Kevin discusses the success Vevo is seeing with regards to their content programming and how it changes per region; their monetization strategy with advertising; how they are getting such high engagement numbers; the importance of multi-platform distribution; and why the largest volume of their viewership happens on the large screen.
This week I highlight all the key numbers you need to know from Netflix’s earnings including subscriber numbers, free-cash-flow, paid sharing and projected numbers around AVOD revenue. I also give my review of HBO Max's first live sporting event on the platform with the US women's national team soccer match against New Zealand. Finally, I run through all the new sports licensing deals with NBCUniversal, (U.S. Soccer Federation), Viacom18 (Women’s Indian Premier League) and the rumors Apple will bid on the Premier League domestic television rights that come up for renewal in 2025.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, HBO Max, Nielsen, JW Player, InPlayer, DAZN, Amazon Prime Video, NBCUniversal, Peacock TV, Viacom18, Apple, Sky Sports, BT Sport, Alphabet, Microsoft.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we highlight the price increases from fuboTV, DirecTV Stream and HBO Max’s ad-free plan, with many live linear plans now being more expensive than cable TV. We also discuss news from FOX Sports who said their NFL Playoffs/Super Bowl broadcast schedule will not be broadcast or streamed in native 4K, but rather will be captured and produced in 1080p HDR and upscaled to 4K. We breakdown the new subscriber numbers from DAZN and their announcement that it now has 15 million premium paying subscribers and highlight their financial numbers reported by the media. Finally, we debate how many FAST channels are considered too many with Samsung announcing their Samsung TV Plus service now has over 1,800 channels globally and more than 200 in the US alone.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, HBO Max, fuboTV, DirecTV Stream, DAZN, Curiosity Stream, Samsung TV Plus, NBC Sports, Sunday Night Football, FOX Sports, BSD Crown, Amazon, Twitch, DirecTV.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we highlight some of the layoffs across the industry (Vimeo, Amazon, Kaltura, Amdocs, JWP) and why getting to positive cash flow for vendors is and should be the number one goal in 2023. We also detail the latest ARPU numbers from OTT services and some TV news from CES, with Roku announcing the first-ever smart TV designed and built by Roku and a still unnamed partner. Finally, we discuss the extremely fragmented landscape for video advertising metrics, the news of Nielsen ONE and how every major media company has struck deals with measurement firms like VideoAmp, EDO, Comscore, and iSpot to replace or supplement Nielsen.
Companies and services mentioned: Vimeo, Kaltura, JPW, Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Nielsen, Videoamp, Amdocs, Transmit Live, Warner Bros. Discovery, Roku, Samsung, Google TV, EDO, Comscore, iSpot.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we highlight some of the tech details released around the NFL Sunday Ticket package coming to YouTube TV, which won't allow consumers to purchase the package per team or per game. We also discuss YouTube confirming that 4K video quality was not required as part of their deal with the NFL and what we think that impact could be. Also covered are the acquisitions of eCDN Ramp by Vbrick, The Switch by Tata Communications and Qumu by Enghouse Systems. We close out the podcast with our thoughts on how companies will grow in 2023, what the market drivers and restraints will be and how companies can and will grow in the New Year.
Companies and services mentioned: YouTube TV, Netflix, NFL Sunday Ticket, Amazon Prime, Comcast, Disney, Apple, ESPN+, JioCinema, Video, Qumu, Ramp, Vbrick, The Switch, API. video.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week I highlight some of the recent news around Netflix's AVOD business and the media's ridiculous suggestion that Netflix is struggling after only six weeks. I also discuss why Warner Bros. Discovery has recently decided to license certain HBO and HBO Max original programming to third party FAST services, as a smart way to save money on residuals while making money on syndication. Also detailed are a news items from Peacock TV, fuboTV, Edgio, and Vimeo.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Peacock TV, HBO Max, fuboTV, Edgio, Vimeo, Warner Bros. Discovery, JetBlue.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the launch of AVOD on Disney+; the news by Paramount’s CEO of declining advertising revenue in this quarter; Netflix’s comment that licensing sports content isn’t profitable; NBCU’s announcement that Peacock has more than 18 million paid subscribers; how Netflix’s open source deal with GPAC gives them a competitive advantage for video packaging; and we detail Caesars streaming an NFL game via live low latency in the Caesars Sportsbook app.
Companies and services mentioned: Disney, Netflix, Peacock TV, Apple, Paramount, Microsoft, Caesars, Activision Blizzard, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, FTC.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown many of the World Cup TV and streaming viewership numbers from around the world, with most outlets not breaking out streaming only data. We also discuss the latest comments from Disney and Netflix's CEOs around their ad supported models. Also covered, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports Q3 earnings (Net loss of $1.2B); Yahoo's 30-year deal with Taboola; NFL TV viewership numbers and the latest conflicting numbers around churn.
Companies and services mentioned: Disney, Netflix, Apple, MLB, Sinclair, Diamond Sports, Ballys Sports+, Yahoo, Taboola, Paramount, Antenna, Warner Bros Discovery, World Cup, BBC, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, NFL.
Link to World Cup numbers: https://www.streamingmediablog.com/2022/12/worldcup-viewership.html
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss Bob Iger coming back to Disney as the CEO and the impact it could have around Disney’s DTC business involving bundling, pricing, sports licensing and improving Disney's balance sheet. We also highlight the new details Apple released around their MLS streaming service, MLS Season Pass, which will offer 1080p/60 video, launching in February for $15 a month or $100 for the year. Also included in the discussion is a list of all the Black Friday streaming deals and the negative impact that has on ARPU for streaming services.
Companies, and services mentioned: Disney, Netflix, WarnerBros. Discovery, Disney+, Apple TV+, MLS, MLB, Hulu, Peacock TV, Paramount+, Discovery+, Roku, DISH, Amagi.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the recent comments from Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO around profitability, retention, windowing, bundling and pricing of HBO Max and Discovery+. Profitability, not purely sub count is how they benchmark for success. We also discuss his comments on how collapsing all windows, starving linear and theatrical and spending money with abandon, while making a fraction in return on the service of growing sub numbers, has ultimately proven to be deeply flawed. On the topic of churn, we point out what the industry is getting wrong with their assumptions and highlight the recent comments from Disney’s CEO, who said that price increases don’t meaningfully increase churn or cancellations. We also recap Q3 earnings from Disney, Vizio, Akamai, Edgio, Kaltura.
Companies, and services mentioned: Disney, Netflix, WarnerBros. Discovery, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Peacock TV, Vizio, LG, Akamai, Amagi, Edgio, Kaltura, FTX.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown all the key numbers you need to know from Q3 2022 earnings from OTT companies and streaming vendors including Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Roku, Fubo, WarnerBros. Discovery, FOX, Vimeo, Brightcove, Fastly, Cloudflare, Altice, DISH, Lionsgate and AMC Networks. Learn the latest D2C subscriber numbers, ARPU per user and how much money OTT platforms are still losing (Disney lost $1.47B, Paramount lost $343M).
Companies, and services mentioned: Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Roku, Fubo, WarnerBros. Discovery, FOX, Vimeo, Brightcove, Fastly, Cloudflare, Altice, DISH, Lionsgate, AMC Networks, Charter, Xumo, Tubi, NPR+.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown Fubo's decision to close and exit the Sportsbook market along with DAZN's comments that betting within streaming services isn't a reality in the next few years. We also highlight some new sports viewership numbers from NBC Sports and NFL; cover some recent pay TV losses by pay TV providers; detail Apple's new Apple TV boxes and discuss the NBA's new app that has 12-seconds of latency. Finally, while almost no video vendors are profitable, let alone seeing a positive return on their stock price over the past 12-18 months, we detail the numbers that make Harmonic the exception.
Companies, and services mentioned: Netflix, NBC Sports, Apple TV, Harmonic, Vimeo, NBA, NFL+, MLB, Amazon Prime Video, Verizon, DAZN, Fubo, Disney.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown Netflix's soon to be released AVOD offering and the fact that the video quality is limited to 720p with no ability for downloads. Are consumers willing to sacrifice video quality for price? Will the streaming industry need to re-think how they define video "quality" if consumers are willing to accept 720p as "good enough"? We also discuss Netflix's measurement deals announced with Nielsen, BRB, IAS and DoubleVerify and what this means for advertisers. We also cover what some of the largest live streaming events on the Internet have generated from a viewership standpoint.
Companies, and services mentioned: Netflix, Peacock TV, Nielsen, DoubleVerify, Beamr, Roku, Apple TV, Disney+, BBC, Integral Ad Science, NBC Sports, Amazon Prime Video, Riot Games, Akamai, IPL.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown Nielsen’s confusing streaming rankings, which aren't accurately comparing shows based on the same metrics. We also highlight Peacock's latest paid sub numbers (15 million); Google's expanded cloud deal with MLB; Mux's recent round of layoffs; Vizio's FAST ad revenue and Roku's removal of all SDK1 channels. We also discuss how many companies that say they are looking to hire are poor with their follow up, list jobs no longer open and need to do a better job of putting people first.
Companies, and services mentioned: Peacock, Comcast, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, MLB, Google Cloud, Nielsen, Netflix, Disney+, PlayStation 5, ByteDance, Vizio, Roku, Amazon, eBay, Mux.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the viewership numbers from Amazon’s first Thursday Night Football game and the differences between all the numbers reported. (11.8M, 13M, 15.3M) We also discuss the news of Google adding HEVC support in Chrome and some cost details given out by Twitch of how expensive it is to deliver HD, low latency, always available live video to nearly every corner of the world. Finally, we highlight IMAX’s acquisition of SSIMWAVE and their goal to bring a specific level of video quality to consumers at home.
Companies, and services mentioned: Amazon Prime Video, NFL, NBC Sports, DIRECTV, NFL+, NFL Sunday Ticket, CBS Sports, Bally Sports, Twitch, Chrome, IMAX, SSIMWAVE, Diamond Sports, Nielsen.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown Amazon's stream of their NFL Thursday Night Football game on September 15th and the wide variety of user experiences that were reported, both good and bad. We discuss the issue that some ISPs had resulting in poor video quality, the terrible job by Amazon support, a large group of people reporting audio and video issues and a host of other comments from viewers. We also highlight how the Amazon game is an example of why streaming will not replace cable TV as a broadcast medium with the same reliability, scalability and stability.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week I’m joined by a special guest Barry Tishgart, who just left Disney Streaming Services as a SVP and GM of Technology Services. Barry joins me to discuss the current state of the sports streaming business including RSN licensing, bundling, pricing, distribution, video quality and what the consumer sports experience will look like in the future.
Companies, and services mentioned: Amazon Prime Video, NFL, ESPN+, MLB, Nielsen, Peacock TV, NBC Sports, Bally Sports+, Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the recent news of Amazon’s plans to use Nielsen for TV measurement of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video and highlight problems the streaming industry faces in defining what success looks like. With no standards or agreed upon methodology, definitions or user metrics, the streaming industry is struggling to measure and define viewership from one service to another. We also recap the Walmart+ and Paramount deal; new sports licensing deals with Big Ten Conference and the UEFA Champions League and discuss more of what Netflix’s AVOD offering could look like.
Companies, and services mentioned: Amazon Prime Video, NFL, Netflix, Walmart, Nielsen, FOX, CBS, Disney, Peacock, Lionsgate, Big Ten Conference, ESPN, Paramount+, UEFA Champions League, DAZN, fuboTV.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we recap all the news from Disney's April-June earnings including their D2C business losing over $1B in the quarter; their addition of 14.4M Disney+ subs globally; Hulu and Disney+ price raises; Hulu losing 3.4M SVOD subs and 100,000 Live TV subs and their launch of Disney+ with ads in December. We also cover the numbers you need to know from Akamai (Revenue up 6% y/o/y), Edgio (Initial 2023 revenue outlook of between $550-$560 million), Vizio (Platform+ net revenue up 69% y/o/y), and Trade Desk earnings (revenue grew 35% y/o/y ).
Companies, and services mentioned: Disney, Netflix, Hulu, Tubi, Fox, ESPN+, Paramount+, Disney + Hotstar, Indian Premium League, Vizio, The Trade Desk, Edgio, Akamai, Roblox, Coinbase.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss why FAST services are overrated; the news that HBO Max and Discovery+ will launch as a single service in the U.S. next summer; we highlight the key data you need to know from Q2 earnings from Paramount (added 4.9M Paramount+ subs), fuboTV, (lost 70,000 subs), Lionsgate (added 1.8M Starz subs) and cover earnings from streaming vendors including Fastly, Brightcove and Vimeo. We also discuss why WPP, which is the world's biggest advertising agency group, raised its revenue growth targets for 2022.
Companies, and services mentioned: Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max, Discovery+, fuboTV, Netflix, Tubi, Pluto TV, Paramount+, Sling TV, AMC Networks, F1, Lionsgate, Starz, Roku, Canal+, WPP, Liberty Media, Altice, Fastly, Cloudflare, Vimeo, Brightcove.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the key numbers you need to know from Q2 earnings at Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Comcast, Roku, Charter, Meta, Microsoft and Samsung. We cover the "significant slowdown in TV advertising” seen by Roku and others; Meta's price per ad falling by 14% ; Peacock TV subs being flat quarter-over-quarter; cord cutting from Charter (lost 240,000 pay TV subs) and Comcast (lost 521,000 pay TV subs); and YouTube's slowest ad revenue growth in over two years.
Companies, and services mentioned: YouTube, Netflix, Apple, Meta, Comcast, Charter, Peacock TV, Alphabet, Microsoft, Panapto, Kaltura, Shofify, Google Cloud, Quest 2, Samsung, AWS, Roku, Amazon, Apple TV+, NFL, Amazon Prime Video.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the latest advertising numbers from Twitter and Snap's Q2 earnings, which saw slowing demand for their platforms and had declining revenue. We also highlight the rate of Verizon's cord-cutting numbers, with the company losing 86,000 pay TV subscribers in Q2 and have now lost 8.1% of all their pay TV subs in the last 12-months. Also discussed, Qwilt's deal with the NCTC to deploy CDN caches inside 100+ rural ISPs that combined, reach 34 million households.
Companies, and services mentioned: Disney, ESPN+, Apple TV, fuboTV, Verizon, Twitter, Snap, MLB, ESPN+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Qwilt, Vimeo.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the key takeaways from Netflix's Q2 earnings report including subscriber losses for two-quarters in a row, what Netflix expects for growth going forward and the current state of Netflix's balance sheet. We also detail what we've learned about their plans to offer an ad-supported tier and why we believe this is a real opportunity for Netflix, rather than a challenge as some are suggesting.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown a preview of what to look for in Netflix’s Q2 2021 earnings including subscriber losses/gains, ARPU and an expected update on their advertising strategy. We also discuss what the impact of Stranger Things Season 4 might be on churn and retention being Netflix split the release of the series across two financial quarters. We also detail the IPL Media streaming rights (2023-2027) auction won by Viacom18 and why Disney said they didn't compete on the rights, at the priced needed to win the auction, based on the content not offering enough long-term value to their Disney+ Hotstar service.
Companies, and services mentioned: Netflix, Disney, Viacom18, Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Fire TV.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown some financial news including the proposed sale of Deltatre, which is expected to generate $180 million of revenue in 2022 and Pixelot's raise of $161 million in funding. We also discuss Limelight’s final sale price for Edgecast, which ended up valuing the company at $135 million. Mark and I also breakdown Netflix’s confirmation that it is not buying Roku, details on how the Apple and MLS deal will work for viewers, and we highlight what NBCUniversal’s CEO said about Peacock no longer being free for Comcast customers in the future.
Companies, and services mentioned: Netflix, Roku, Peacock, Deltatre, Endeavor Streaming, Firstlight Media, Edgio, Pixelot, Apple, MLS, Bally Sports Plus, NBC Sports, ESPN+, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, Sling TV, Adobe.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
On this episode, we discuss how sports events (NBA, NHL, Indy 500, PGA, Premiere League) are seeing record viewership on cable TV, with sports leagues and broadcasters making no mention of streaming viewership. We also discuss the new NESN 360 sports streaming service and the impact of Disney potentially losing the IPL (Indian Premiere League), which would impact Disney+ Hotstar’s growth. We also talk about funding problems some streaming vendors are having, with the larger impact in the financial markets making it difficult to secure capital.
Companies, and services mentioned: Disney+, Netflix, NESN 360, Netflix, Roku, NBA, NHL, Indy 500, PGA, Premiere League, Apple TV+, Melvin Capital, Tiger Global Management.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
With more streaming services adding AVOD plans, this week we breakdown ARPU amongst streaming services, which now have to be properly compared between SVOD, AVOD and a combo of the two. We also highlight new information given out by Disney and Netflix around their ad-supported plans, Telestream's acquisition of Encoding.com, the new NFL+ service and Paramount's thoughts on the windowing of movies. We also detail some of the problems companies are facing, across all sectors, when it comes to setting proper growth expectations on Wall Street and why some companies are being forced to cut costs and lay people off, or slow hiring.
Companies, and services mentioned: Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, NFL+, Netflix, Roku, HBO Max, Vizio, Paramount, Peacock TV, fuboTV, Spotify, Pluto TV, Telestream, Akamai, Encoding.com, FIFA, Snap, Edgecast, Limelight Networks, Melvin Capital.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown Q1 2022 calendar earnings from Disney, fuboTV and DISH including subscriber gains/losses, ARPU and revenue growth rate. We also detail some engagement numbers highlighting what engagement looks like across gaming (Roblox, Activision Blizzard), trading (Robinhood, Coinbase), social (Facebook) and other platforms showing how consumer's behaviors have changed since the pandemic.
Companies, and services mentioned: Netflix, Disney, fuboTV, DISH, Sling TV, AMC, Hulu, EPSN+, Hotstar, YouTube TV, Vizio, Facebook, Roblox, Peloton, Carvana, Coinbase, Activision Blizzard, Robinhood, Charter, Call Of Duty.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the key numbers you need to know from Q1 earrings reports including updated subscriber and ARPU numbers from Paramount+, Roku, Peacock TV and cord cutting numbers from Charter, Comcast and Verizon. We also detail the revenue growth rate, GAAP net loss/gain from cloud vendors and streaming vendors including Akamai, Alphabet, Brightcove, Fastly, Limelight, Microsoft, Vimeo. Come up to speed on important Q1 earnings you should know about, all in 30-minutes.
Companies, and services mentioned: Comcast, Peacock TV, Paramount+, Roku, Amazon, Fastly, Limelight, Akamai, Brightcove, WicketLabs, Microsoft, Amazon Prime Video, NFL, Alphabet, YouTube TV, Vimeo, Charter, Verizon.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss some of the news from the NAB Show, detail some of the products and services we saw on the exhibit floor and talk about the hottest topics discussed at the Streaming Summit. We also detail attendee numbers, some of the NAB's plans for the new show in NYC in October, how engineering teams are building out video applications and what the future of the media business looks like.
Companies, and services mentioned: Meta, Agora, FOX Sports, LaLiga, Hulu, Sling TV, Netflix, HBO Max, Eluvio, Livepeer, Brightcove, Mux.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
On Monday April 25th, Google announced a new commercial CDN offering called "Media CDN", as part of their Google Cloud platform. For this special podcast, I sat down with David Reisfeld, Customer Engineering Manager, Network Specialist at Google to discuss the news. We cover why Google is entering the CDN market, what their new service consists of, how Media CDN is leveraging YouTube's infrastructure, the importance of Media CDN to Google's Cloud platform and what their product roadmap looks like for the rest of the year.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown Roku’s business model discussing their challenges but also the large opportunity they have in the market when it comes to the strength of their advertising platform. We also discuss Roku’s ARPU, international growth and the success they have seen in their OS platform for TV manufacturers. We also highlight some AVOD news in the market and discuss Netflix adding an ad supported tier (before Netflix earnings came out).
Companies, and services mentioned: Roku, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Apple, Facebook.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the holy grail of of the streaming media industry, a single platform to aggregate streaming media services. With new Discover and Universal Watchlist functionality from Plex and news from Verizon about their +Play platform to centralize subscription services, we debate what might really take place in the market. We also cover some streaming viewership numbers from March Madness, the news of Disney+ getting live content with Dancing With the Stars and breakdown some of the technical limitations of the MLB stream on Apple TV+.
Correction: The MLB games on Apple TV+ will be free for the "first 12 weeks", not just the first game like I suggested.
Companies, and services mentioned: Apple TV+, MLB, Disney+, Plex, Verizon, Netflix, Peacock TV, NFL.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the complex streaming sports licensing business and the challenge sports fans now have in finding and consuming games from MLB and the NFL. With both league's doing exclusive streaming only deals for distribution, many consumers will now need cable or cable like bundles to get access to all games. With MLB on Apple TV+, Peacock, ESPN, TBS and some RSN services, it's getting to be a complex mess. The NFL is also getting more complex with Thursday night games now exclusive to Amazon Prime Video and won't be broadcast anywhere else, even in local markets. We debate what the impact could to the NFL and MLB when it comes to the future of fan viewership and engagement.
Companies, and services mentioned: Apple TV+, MLB, NFL, Amazon Prime Video, MLB.TV, Sinclair, Peacock, ESPN, TBS, MoviePass.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we debate the real impact that password sharing could have on revenue and ARPU of streaming services. We also try and decipher confusing data from Antenna on the conversion rate from free trials to paid subscribers. We question who’s watching AVOD services when so much of the content is old and not exclusive to any single platform and discuss what the financial impact could be to OTT services when adding a lower priced ad-supported tier. And we touch on the launch of CNN+ and wonder who the target demographic is for the service when so much news content is now just commentary.
Companies, and services mentioned: Netflix, Antenna, YouTube TV, Pluto TV, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, CNN+, Roku, Xumo, Tubi, IMDb TV, Vizio, Discovery.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we preview some of the speakers and content that will be at the NAB Show Streaming Summit, taking place April 25-26 in Las Vegas. Hear what companies like Netflix, HBO Max, Paramount+, Disney, Fire TV, FOX, MotorTrend, La Liga, DAZN and others will be discussing and some of the main topics that will be covered in the program. We also discuss how industry conferences have changed since the pandemic, the role of hybrid events, what show organizers are doing well and what others need to improve on.
Companies, and services mentioned: Netflix, HBO Max, Paramount+, Disney, DAZN, fuboTV, Oracle, Red Bull Racing, AWS, Salesforce, Korea Content Platform, Adobe, Dolby, Samsung, LG, Demuxed, Roku, Fire TV, Vizio.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the Apple and MLB deal and debate the importance of sports streaming to the content strategy of Apple TV+ going forward. We also highlight what the deal might mean for other sports streaming companies like Sinclair’s DTC service, which will have go-fenced games from some MLB teams and we talk about the difficulty consumers are having in finding sports content from one league on a single platform. The discussion also breaks down the news by Verizon of a new platform called +play, which will allow consumers to purchase and manage some of their favorite subscriptions across entertainment, audio, gaming, fitness, music, all with a single point of billing.
Companies, and services mentioned: Apple, MLB, Sinclair, Apple TV+, MLB.TV, Netflix, Hulu, Verizon, Roku, Vizio, LG, Samsung, CNN+, Verizon Fios, Disney, NBCU, Peacock TV, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video, Antenna, FOX Nation, Sony.
Questions or feedback? Contact: dan@danrayburn.com
For this special edition of my podcast, I sit down with Limelight’s CEO Bob Lyons to discuss the details around their news to acquire Edgecast from Apollo Funds in an all stock deal valued at approximately $300 million (1x Edgecast revenue) and to rebrand the combined companies as Edgio. We also discuss the current state of the CDN market including the competitive landscape, pricing trends, the expected mix of Limelight's revenue between CDN and security as well as what Limelight’s product strategy looks like going forward.
Note: The podcast was recorded the night before the news was announced, so any impact to Limelight's stock price on Monday March 6th is not covered. The new website for the combined companies will be www.edg.io
This week we highlight HBO Max entering the live sports market with the news that they will broadcast more than twenty Women’s and Men’s National U.S. Soccer matches each year. We also discuss what Disney’s new ad-supported subscription for Disney+ might look like, when the option launches in late 2022. We also break down AppLovin’s acquisition of CTV platform Wurl for $430 million, based on projected 2023 revenue of $75 million and the challenges and opportunities for the entire CTV market going forward.
Companies, and services mentioned: HBO Max, WarnerMedia, Netflix, Turner Sports, Disney+, Paramount+, Netflix, Vizio, Pluto TV, AppLovin, Wurl, Human, fuboTV, Roku, Samsung, LG, NBC Sports.
Articles Mentioned
- AppLovin, which announced their plans to acquire Wurl for $430 million has now disclosed Wurl revenue. Wurl is projected to do $75 million in revenue by 2023.
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Vizio Q4 Earnings: Platform+ revenue of $105.1M, up 74%; SmartCast Active Accounts grew 24% to 15.1M; ARPU of $21.68, up 67%; Total revenue of $628.8M, down from $734.3M y/o/y.
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Turner Sports and the U.S. Soccer Federation have reached an eight-year multimedia rights agreement that will make TNT/TBS and HBO Max the exclusive English-language home to more than 20 Women’s and Men’s National Team matches each year.
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the 70,000 subscriber losses from Sling TV in Q4, the injection of $4.3B into DAZN and the upcoming soft launch of Bally Sports RSN streaming service. We also cover the key numbers you need to know from FuboTV, who ended 2021 with 1.13M subs and Discovery, who wrapped up 2021 with 22M D2C subs. We also discuss what’s behind so many streaming vendors slashing revenue growth projections for this year when compared to 2021.
Companies, and services mentioned: DAZN, FuboTV, Sinclair, Bally Sports, BT Sports, DISH, Sling TV, Discovery, HBO Max, Sabio, Vidillion, Haivision, AVIWEST, Kaltura, Brightcove, Fastly, Vimeo, Agora, Limelight Networks, Akamai, Qumu, Hopin.
Articles Mentioned
- Discovery Q4 2021 Earnings: Gained 2M paying D2C subs, ended 2021 with 22M; Expects merger with Warner Bros. to close in Q2
- DISH Q4 2021 Earnings: Lost 70,000 Sling TV subscribers in Q4 to end 2021 with 2.49M Sling TV subscribers; Total revenue in Q4 of $4.45B, flat y/o/y - FuboTV Full Year 2021 Earnings: Ended 2021 with 1.13M subs; Projects to end 2022 with 1.74M total subs; Total 2021 revenue of $637M, up 144% y/o/y; Net loss of $383M for the year- Sinclair says the DTC “soft launch" of 5 Bally Sports RSNs with MLB teams is expected in Q2 of this year, with full launch and the addition of NBA and NHL teams to take place in Q3 of this year
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the confusing streaming numbers given out by NBC Sports from the Super Bowl and cover what you need to know about revenue growth, profit/loss, market cap and revenue guidance based on earnings from Roku, Paramount, Fastly, Akamai and Brightcove. We also call out Phenix for their bogus ultra-low latency claims around the Super Bowl and the narrative they are pushing with the media claiming “sports streaming is broken”, when it isn’t. Finally, we cover the latest impact to streaming media related stocks which had another bad week, with some seeing big declines in their stock price.
Companies, services and people mentioned: NBC Sports, Peacock TV, Paramount+, AMC Networks, Roku, Akamai, Fastly, Brightcove, Kaltura, Phenix, Chas Mastin, Alex Zambelli, Will Law, Catie Keck.
Articles Mentioned
- Q4 Earnings: Key Numbers From Brightcove, Akamai, Fastly, Cloudflare and Vimeo
- NBC Sports Confusing Super Bowl Streaming Numbers
- The Super Bowl Didn’t Offer Ultra-Low Latency Streaming Because There Was No Business Value In Offering It
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown earnings from Disney including the new subscriber numbers and ARPU they announced for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, while also losing $593 million in their D2C business in Q4 2021. We also detail earnings at Vimeo along with some major problems in their business and multiple changes they announced regarding their go-to-market strategy. Other news highlighted include revenue numbers from FOX Corporation, new bundling pricing from fuboTV, Brightcove's appointment of a new CEO and the problem many in the media and industry have separating facts versus opinions.
Companies and services mentioned: Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, Disney Streaming Services, FOX Corporation, Tubi, Vimeo, Brightcove, fuboTV, Needham & Co., Netflix, Allure Security, Discovery, WarnerMedia, Innovid, TVSquared, Roku, Peloton.
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown earnings from Amazon, Meta and Alphabet including Amazon's disclosure of revenue from its fast-growing advertising business, AWS revenue growth of 40% and Amazon raising their Prime membership fee. We also cover Apple’s negative impact on Meta’s business, estimated to be in the order of $10 billion in 2022, and YouTube's ad revenue of $8.6 billion, up 25%. We also cover Brightcove's acquisition of audience insight platform Wicket Labs and Dolby’s acquisition of ultra-low-latency video platform Millicast.
Companies and services mentioned: Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, YouTube, Discovery, HBO Max, Starz, Brightcove, Millicast, Lionsgate, Apple, Wicket Labs, Dolby, AWS, Instagram, BT Group, WarnerMedia, Comcast.
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown Q4 earnings data from Comcast, Verizon, Apple, AT&T and Charter and discuss different pricing and bundling trends of OTT services. We also highlight new subscriber numbers given out on Peacock TV and HBO Max as well as the latest number of pay TV losses reported by the cable operators. We also debate the global TAM for streaming media households, estimated by Netflix to be 600-800 million, and question why if that number is accurate, Netflix is having trouble growing faster in low-penetration regions such as Europe and APAC.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Comcast, Peacock TV, Apple TV+, Verizon, Charter, HBO Max, Discovery, Disney+, Spotify, AT&T, Hulu.
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown Netflix's Q4 earnings after watching the stock drop over $100 the next day, also causing new 52-week lows for stocks from Disney, Roku and fuboTV. We also discuss the proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, announced on the same day that the DOJ and FTC discussed plans to update and modernize merger enforcement guidelines, something that could mean more rigorous scrutiny of major tech and media transactions. Other news highlighted includes Limelight Networks earnings, the rumor of DAZN in talks to acquire British channel producer BT Sports for $800 million and fuboTV raising their RSN Fee in New England.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Disney, Roku, fuboTV, Limelight Networks, DAZN, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Discovery, WarnerMedia, Amazon, MGM, Vimeo, Peacock TV, Apple, Amazon, NHL.
Executives mentioned: Bryan Walls, Eric Iverson, Eric Black, Lexie Knauer, Lisa Bennett.
Links to articles mentioned:
Netflix Q4 2021 Earnings: Added 8.3M subs; has 222M total subs. Forecasts Q1 2022 paid net adds of 2.5M. Full year revenue of $30B
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_netflix-streamingmedia-activity-6890038907413876737-pHIp
Limelight Q4 2021 Earnings: Revenue of $62.9M, up 14% y/o/y, GAAP net loss of $7.7M; Total 2021 revenue of $217.6M
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_limelight-networks-reports-record-fourth-activity-6890320324928634881-i2b-
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we talk about industry challenges with churn and retention and highlight some of the major problems when it comes to the methodology being used to compare services. We also discuss Netflix's recent price increase and the potential impact it could have on their subscriber growth. We also cover the recent sports licensing deals with the news that ViacomCBS secured the exclusive rights to stream English Premier League soccer; Sinclair announced a new distribution rights agreement with the NBA and we've read rumors of Apple talking to MLB. We also highlight new subscriber numbers from fuboTV, the growth of IMAX's revenue in 2021 and our take on the attendance numbers from the CES Show.
Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, ViacomCBS, Paramount+, Discovery, Sinclair Broadcast Group, fuboTV, IMAX, Vimeo, Roku, NBA, Apple, MLB, V-Nova, Disney, Salesforce.
Links to articles mentioned:
Over 58% of OTT Services Surveyed Have “Limited” to “No” Insight Into The Main Reasons for Churn
https://www.streamingmediablog.com/2022/01/churn-retention-challenges.html
LCEVC must compete against all other standards, starting with AV1 which is a royalty-free codec
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6887822698634870784/
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we breakdown the latest HBO Max/HB0 subscribers numbers just released by AT&T and question how the industry should define sub growth. While 73.8M sounds like a big number, the service had 61M at the end of 2020 and won’t have day-in-date releases this year. We also debate some of the latest “estimates” released on vMVPD subscriber growth and highlight the challenges faced with vMVPD packages now averaging $65 a month. We also touch on some of the latest numbers given out at the CES show around Five TV device sales and Google TV adoption.
Companies and services mentioned: HBO Max, Fire TV, Peacock TV, Sling TV, Hulu, Disney, Netflix, Discovery, WarnerMedia, Apple, Roku, Samsung, TCL, Google TV, YouTube TV, fuobTV, Philo, DIRECTV STREAM, PlayStation Vue, ESPN+, Comcast, AT&T, Fastly, Cloudflare, Brightcove, Limelight Networks, Haivision, Kaltura, Qumu, Vimeo, Twitter, Akamai.
Executives mentioned: Jay Utz, Noah Levine, Robert Coon, Guy Paskar, David Belson.
Links to articles mentioned:
AT&T says they ended 2021 with "approximately 73.8 million total global HBO Max and HBO subscribers
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_hbomax-streamingmedia-activity-6884528669679747072-gVXM
Growth of vMVPD Services Stalling: Sling TV Added Only 260,000 Subs in 4 Years
https://www.streamingmediablog.com/2021/02/vmvpd-stalling.html
Amazon says they have now sold over 150 million Fire TV devices globally
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_fire-tv-is-on-the-move-in-2022-activity-6884522654821302272-BgbL
NBCU says that Premium Peacock customers will be able to stream every minute of every live event of the 2022 Winter Olympics, "All in One Place"
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_peacocktv-nbcuniversal-nbcsports-activity-6884599211048890369-ZtmV
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss how the industry gushes about video advertising growth, without really addressing the problems around personalization, measurement, formats and low CPM rates. We also discuss the growth of AVOD services and question how many can exist when they are offering essentially the same thing — a bundled offering of free networks with a lot of old movies and TV shows and syndicated programming. We also debate which content companies might get acquired in 2022 including Starz, AMC and ViacomCBS.
Companies and services mentioned: Tubi, Pluto TV, Starz, AMC Networks, ViacomCBS, TikTok, Noggin, Comcast, Sony Pictures, MLB.TV, Amazon IMDb TV, Roku, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Samsung TV, LG, Amazon, MGM.
Executives mentioned: Darren Lepke, Stephen Condon, Yueshi Shen, Andy Beach.
Links to articles mentioned:
Video Advertising Experiences Got More Annoying and More Frequent in 2021
https://www.streamingmediablog.com/2021/12/video-ad-experiences.html
Streaming wars drive media groups to spend more than $100bn on new content
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_streaming-wars-drive-media-groups-to-spend-activity-6882089080708972544-c7D1
Ad-Supported Video On Demand Is The TV Disruptor For 2022
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jeremiahmcmillan_ad-supported-video-on-demand-is-the-tv-disruptor-activity-6881641152739733504--dKA
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com
This week we discuss the problem with Nielsen's reporting and how the industry should define churn and retention; the importance of HBO Max and Disney defaulting to a single video stack; how some vendors are overestimating their valuations; and why Roku and Google's dispute isn't over.
Companies and services mentioned: Roku, Google, Disney Streaming Services, Hulu, HBO Max, NFL, ESPN, Amazon, NFL, YouTube, WarnerMedia, Discovery, Nielsen, SiriusXM, Vudu, Hive Streaming, Firstlight Media, Vimeo, Mux, Hopin, Brightcove, Fastly, Panopto.
Executives mentioned: Joseph Inzerillo, Jonathan Stock, Rick McConnell, Mike Green, Nathan Veer, Doug Castoldi, Tony Miranz.
Questions or feedback? Contact us at dan@danrayburn.com