Digital TV News: Hulu

US media players get on AVOD bandwagon as market revenue soars
Dec 10, 2019 – AVOD service providers in the U.S. are bracing themselves as media giants including Disney+ and Apple TV+ join the latest wave of competitors. These huge media firms are upping the ante, drawn by an increasingly lucrative market, according to IHS Markit.
News categories: IHS Markit, Sarah Henschel, Kia Ling Teoh, Digital TV, Market Research, OTT, USA

VIZIO SmartCast TVs to get Chromecast built-in update with Disney+ support
Nov 19, 2019 – VIZIO has announced a Chromecast built-in update, rolling out from December, that will allow users to cast Disney+ content to their VIZIO SmartCast TVs. Viewers can already watch content from the Disney+ app using Apple AirPlay 2.
News categories: VIZIO, Bill Baxter, Digital TV

Rakuten Viki selects BuyDRM's KeyOS MultiKey Service
Nov 14, 2019 – BuyDRM has announced that Rakuten Viki has chosen the KeyOS MultiKey Service to secure the delivery of premium content on the Viki.com platform. Rakuten Viki’s users will receive DRM license keys to playback content from the MultiKey Service platform.
News categories: BuyDRM, Viki, Christopher Levy, Omkiran Sharma, DRM, OTT, Worldwide

Major U.S. pay-TV providers lost 1.74 million subscribers in 3Q 2019
Nov 13, 2019 – Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has found that the largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. – representing about 93% of the market – lost about 1,740,000 net video subscribers in 3Q 2019, compared to a pro forma net loss of about 975,000 subscribers in 3Q 2018.
News categories: Leichtman Research, Bruce Leichtman, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Market Research, OTT, Satellite, Subscribers, USA

Bitmovin receives €20 million of funding from EIB
Nov 12, 2019 – The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing financing of up to €20 million to Bitmovin. The project will allow Bitmovin to strengthen its R&D and product development team in Austria and support investments in sales and marketing.
News categories: Bitmovin, EIB, Stefan Lederer, Andrew McDowell, Austria, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Finance, Worldwide

Disney+ gets some traction, Apple TV lags in streaming wars
Nov 12, 2019 – Eagle Alpha has surveyed 5 million tweets from Twitter users in North America, excluding retweets, that mentioned Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV Plus, Hulu or Roku, to update its ongoing analysis of streaming video providers.
News categories: Eagle Alpha, Dean Barr, Big Data, Canada, Digital TV, Market Research, OTT, USA

Disney+ launches in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands
Nov 12, 2019 – Disney+, from The Walt Disney Company, is now live in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands, bringing together for the first time a lineup of content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and more.
News categories: The Walt Disney Company, Robert A. Iger, Apps, Canada, Digital TV, Netherlands, OTT, USA

U.S. Connected TV ad spending will grow nearly 40% in 2019
Nov 5, 2019 – Connected TV advertising is a small, but rapidly growing portion of digital advertising, and is competing directly with traditional TV advertising. eMarketer expects the channel to grow 37.6% this year to reach $6.94 billion.
News categories: eMarketer, Eric Haggstrom, Advertising, Digital TV, Market Research, OTT, USA

Quality of UI more important than recommendations in video service satisfaction
Oct 14, 2019 – Research from Parks Associates finds that 70% of US broadband households with a major video service consider its UI to be 'good', with 48% rating it 'very good', and these scores impact their willingness to recommend the service to others.
News categories: Parks Associates, Kristen Hanich, Digital TV, Market Research, USA, UX