Ten years after it launched its Chromecast streaming stick, Google has announced that it will no longer support the first generation dongle that retailed for $35. 

According to a notice posted on the Google website at the end of April, "support for Chromecast (1st gen) has ended, which means these devices no longer receive software or security updates, and Google does not provide technical support for them. Users may notice a degradation in performance." 

Chromecast, which unlike its competitors Apple TV and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick TV, simply streamcasted from PCs or laptops to a TV’s HDMI port and did not house streaming apps like Netflix or YouTube. Three generations of Chromecast—the original from 2013 and updates in 2015 (its first 4K version) and 2018—were released and Google reportedly shipped 55 million by 2017.

A new version “Chomecast with Google TV” was launched in 2020 and—like a Fire TV stick, sports its own UI offering the usual lineup of apps and a remote control. That device, which is still supported, runs on the Android TV OS.

LOS ANGELES—Quibi has added a new feature that provides additional viewing capabilities to what was at first supposed to be a mobile-only streaming service. According to Quibi’s Chief Product Officer Tom Conrad, the latest version of Quibi has Apple AirPlay capability for iOS devices.

Conrad announced the news on Twitter, also sharing that they are working to add Chromecast in June.

This meets the time frame that Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg announced in April, where he said some Quibi users will be able to cast content to TVs in May.

Quibi’s streaming service offers 10-minute episodes of content that were designed to be consumed while people were on the go. But as the coronavirus has limited travel, many subscribers were calling for the ability to watch Quibi’s content on their TVs.

Streaming provider fuboTV announced that it plans to carry Fox Sports’ (FS1) UHD-HDR coverage of selected NCAA football games starting with San Diego State-Stanford matchup on Aug. 31.Other games to be covered in ultra-high definition, high dynamic range include W. Michigan vs. Michigan Sept. 8 and Fresno State at UCLA on Sept. 15, as well as other PAC12 and Big 10 games during the season.

The collaboration extends fuboTV’s relationship with Fox Sports when fuboTV launched its 4K HDR Beta service carrying FS1’s coverage of the World Cup in July as well as FS1’s coverage of a recent Yankees-Red Sox duel in UHD HDR. This is the second year FS1 has covered NCAA football games in UHD HDR. 

[Read: Dish Kicks Off 4K Broadcasts Of Fox Sports College Football]

To view the games in fuboTV’s 4K HDR10 Beta format, subscribers will need to have a 4K HDR-enabled television, HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 compatible cable and run the fuboTV app on a streaming device that supports the format, which includes Android Mobile Phones with HDR10 displays and Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV and Roku devices. Bandwidth speeds of 30Mbps-40Mbps or higher are recommended. 4K HDR-capable TVs may also need calibration to present the content correctly. For subscribers without 4K HDR hardware, this content will continue to be available in its usual formats.

fuboTV says it will also offer additional sports and, for the first time, entertainment programming in 4K HDR Beta in the coming months. 

Television use grew in April for the second straight month, thanks to a huge increase in viewing on connected devices.

Despite the talk during last week's upfront presentations about reducing commercial loads to advertisers, the amount of commercial content rose 2.4 percent in April to 11.1 minutes per hour,

Overall viewing was up 1 percent in April, according to an analysis of Nielsen data by Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research Group. Viewing was down, however, among adults 18 to 49, a key demographic for ad sales, by 3 percent.

Consumption on connected devices such as the Roku platform, Apple TV and Chromecast was up 38 percent from a year ago. Such over-the top viewing accounted for 9.7 percent of all viewing and 14.4 percent among adults 18 to 49.

 Viacom had the largest share of C3 commercial impressions at 15.6 percent, although that was down from 15.8 percent a year ago.  

Commercial impressions were down among viewers in the 18 to 49 demographic by 3.3 percent in primetime and by 6.4 percent in total day. Commercial impressions were up at Time Warner- and Disney-owned networks thanks largely to the NBA playoffs.

“Overall, our interpretation is that while TV in its totality may be relatively stable, results remain negative for ad-supported national TV as a medium, consistent with recent trends,” Wieser said.

“Viewing of unrated programming through internet-connected devices and of premium video on PCs, tablets and mobile phones [is] undoubtedly accounting for some of these declines, and probably would bring year-over-year trends closer to flat figures if related data were included in standard measures of viewership,” Wieser said, adding, “However, it doesn’t seem likely that this data will be included in any comprehensive, industry-wide total audience metric any time soon.”  

NEW YORK—TV metric provider Nielsen announced that, effective April 25, 2016, it will make brand-level data for streaming video devices and game consoles available. The sampling will include connected peripherals such as Xbox, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, PlayStation, Nintendo and Wii boxes. In addition, Nielsen will add information from enabled smart TVs.

Clients will be able to track how many homes across the country own TV-connected devices, which brands that they own, and the growth of these brands over time. Clients will also be able to study how much time people spend with these devices overall and, for Nielsen measured content, link viewing to programs to these specific devices.

This new data is from Nielsen’s national television panel. The 40,000 households that comprise the National panel contain over 100,000 TV sets and over 50,000 TV connected devices measured by Nielsen, the firm said.

In addition to brand-level data, Nielsen is creating a new viewing source bucket called Total Use of Television that adds TV-connected device usage to traditional television usage for a complete view of the use of the TV set.

“The granularity of the brand-level data for TV-connected devices provides clients with in-depth insights into which devices consumers are using to access video content through their TV screens,” said Sara Erichson, executive vice president of Client Solutions and Audience Insights for Nielsen. “The ability to know how many consumers use which brands of TV connected devices, for how often and for how long, is critical for clients who need to make informed content decisions and understand their total audience.”

TOM’S PERSONAL YACHT, THE SCOOBY DOO—2015 will be remembered for a lot of significant events in our industry—the continuing development of ATSC 3.0, the explosion of interest in virtual and augmented reality as well as drones, the rapid drop in the price of UHDTV sets and the inevitability of the FCC’s spectrum auctions. But probably the biggest development that—in some ways—upended our industry this year was the increasing acceptance and programming strength of over the top services.

Netflix, Amazon, Yahoo, Hulu… who would have thought as recently as five years ago that these services would have some of the most innovative programming on television? If you doubt the strength of OTT, you don’t have to look much further than the Emmy Awards, where—in relation to overall viewership—programming from these streaming services dominated the list of nominations. And binge watching? That was a concept that was almost completely unknown as recently as a couple years ago.

How many TV lovers will see these under the Christmas tree this year?

The traditional broadcast networks have made valiant attempts to join the OTT frenzy by launching their own streaming services. ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS have all launched streaming services in recent years and with Hulu jointly owned by ABC, Fox and NBC, one would think that the networks have a secure foothold on streaming popularity. But in reality, if all your streaming services are offering the same programming that you can get for free over-the-air, that’s not necessarily a winning combination, except maybe to cord-cutters. And as for that trend, the jury is still out as to how much of an impact it is having.

CBS’s announcement last month that it would produce a new “Star Trek” series that would only be available on its All Access streaming service was probably the best evidence yet that OTT is finally coming into its own. The announcement lended credence to some media critics’ contention that the reason that OTT-only programming—like the original programming explosion that started on premium cable networks nearly two decades ago—is more innovative and groundbreaking than network primetime programming, which is hampered by FCC decency regulations and the need to appeal to the widest possible audience, (the success of Fox’s “Empire” notwithstanding).

To say that OTT has not had much of an impact on our industry is to deny reality. And its impact is being felt worldwide. In a report issued last April, Juniper Research estimated that the pay-TV OTT market could be worth $31.6 billion by 2019, up from just $8 billion in 2014. U.K.-based Paywizard, in its recent report “OTT Isn’t Just for Christmas,” estimates that more than 50 percent of consumers will go OTT during the holiday season. Despite the increasing popularity of streaming boxes from Roku, Apple TV and Google Chromecast, the majority—66 percent—will view streaming services over mobile devices, (although it does add that 80 percent of those surveyed use the traditional TV set as their main viewing device). And of the 69 percent of respondents planning to sign up for OTT, 41 percent will subscribe to multiple services.

Despite the rosy outlook, the research firm adds that almost a third of current subscribers and more than half of those signing up this holiday season plan to cancel such services after six months. A quarter of the respondents citie that the services are “too expensive” as the main reason for cancellation. How OTT services retain those subscribers is the next big challenge.

So although there may be some bumps along the road, it’s obvious that the developments that took place in 2015—particularly on the programming side—prove that OTT will continue to have a major impact on how the television industry evolves.