LONDON—A new study from Omdia finds that nearly three in four U.S. TV viewers regularly use their smartphones for other media while watching television. The finding highlights the growing competition for audience attention between TV and mobile video, the research firm said.

The study also found that this isn’t simply an issue for younger age groups. Simultaneous media use is becoming increasingly widespread across older age groups, Omdia reported:

• Among 55-to-64-year-olds, simultaneous media use has risen from 42% in 2023 to 56% in 2026.
• Among 45–to-54-year-olds, it has increased from 62% to 73% over the same period.
• Among 35-to-44-year-olds, the direction is also upward, from 69% to 76% over that span.

The findings highlight how competition for viewers’ attention is extending beyond TV programs and streaming services to the smartphone screen. Short-form video, in particular, is increasingly competing for viewers’ attention even while the television remains on.

“We don’t have a content problem. We have an attention problem,” said María Rúa Aguete, global head of media and entertainment at Omdia. “Three in four U.S. TV viewers are using their phones while watching TV, and increasingly what they are doing is watching more video. The battle is no longer simply TV versus mobile. Both screens are on. The question is, which one has your attention?”

Short-form and vertical video are playing an increasingly significant role in this shift, the data shows.

Viewers are becoming accustomed to highly personalized, instantly accessible video experiences on smartphones, adding another source of competition for traditional television and streaming services.

For broadcasters, streaming platforms, advertisers and content owners, this changing behavior reinforces the need to consider TV and mobile as part of the same viewing experience, as audiences increasingly move their attention between the two, the Omdia researchers explained.

“The future isn’t TV versus mobile. It’s TV and mobile,” Rúa Aguete said. “The companies that understand how audiences move between those screens, and how to capture attention on both, will be best positioned to win.”

The findings are based on Omdia’s latest research into changing video consumption habits, the attention economy and the growth of short-form and vertical video, presented by Rúa Aguete at IBC2026 in Amsterdam.

HBO Max is embracing vertical video as part of its efforts to make it easier to discover new content and improve the user experience on mobile devices with the launch of two new features that provide U.S. subscribers with new ways to browse, sample, and explore its premium library of programming.

“HBO Max Shorts” is designed to help users discover something to watch by highlighting iconic and memorable scenes from the HBO Max library in a vertical, scrollable feed.

Users can tap the “Shorts” icon on the bottom navigation menu to browse trailers, clips, and bonus content, making it easier to discover a new favorite series or film. Content within a user’s feed is customized to individual tastes and preferences based on watch history. If a title sparks a user’s interest, they can start watching immediately or add it to “My List” directly from the feed.

This feature is initially being tested with select iOS users in the U.S. and then will be rolled out across more devices and markets.

The clips for this feature are powered by an AI tool built in-house, which helps human editors select and verticalize content by using machine learning algorithms that utilize scene-level metadata to comb through thousands of hours of titles and suggests the most compelling, high-impact scenes for discovery.

Once the tool has suggested these clips, HBO Max editors decide which best represent the stories viewers love and capture jaw dropping moments, pivotal plot twists, and visually stunning sequences. These clips are then rendered in a new vertical video experience to ensure seamless playback.

Looking ahead, "HBO Max Shorts” will expand to include additional devices and markets, incorporate sports content, and refine as users interact with the feature.

"We're thrilled to launch this application of AI to accelerate the creation of these clips and look forward to quickly expanding to make even more of our amazing content offering discoverable through this new feature,” explained Deepna Devkar, senior vice president of machine learning engineering at HBO Max.

Along with the new vertical shorts feed, HBO Max also announced an experimental conversational search experience.

Initially available for adult users in the U.S., on Android mobile and accessible from the search page under “Ask HBO Max,” this experience uses natural language understanding and semantic search to interpret the intent behind a query and recommend relevant videos, even when the exact search terms aren't present in the metadata.

Select subscribers can now search for terms such as “in the mood for a comedy” or "dysfunctional family drama" or "best movie for a girls night in,” to find relevant content. Availability of this feature will also eventually be rolled out to more devices and markets.

“These new mobile features build on intuitive, familiar behaviors subscribers use every day. Both ‘HBO Max Shorts’ and ‘conversational search’ translate those behaviors into new ways to discover programming across the HBO Max service, making it easier and more seamless for subscribers to find something to watch," said Liesel Kipp, executive vice president, product management, Warner Bros. Discovery.

The “5G Broadcast vs. ATSC 3.0” conversation is often framed as a binary choice: embrace 3GPP and abandon ATSC 3.0 or defend ATSC 3.0 as if mobile-first delivery is someone else’s problem. That framing is outdated — and it is needlessly slowing deployment.

ATSC 3.0 was designed from the beginning as an IP-native, one-to-many platform capable of delivering a wide variety of services to fixed, portable, and mobile receivers. In that sense, it is already the better “broadcast-IP” foundation. Meanwhile, 3GPP contributes a familiar mobile services vocabulary and a powerful toolchain for building applications and workflows that the wireless ecosystem understands.

We do not have to choose. We can put them together — now — because there is a documented, repeatable way to time-multiplex LTE-based 5G Broadcast payload windows inside an ATSC 3.0 RF channel while keeping primary ATSC 3.0 services intact.

ATSC 3.0 Was Built for Flexible IP Services, Including Mobile
ATSC 3.0 is not a “prettier TV” standard. It provides a service delivery architecture designed to support multiple service types and multiple receiver classes. That flexibility allows broadcasters to deliver — in the same RF channel — combinations of video, audio, files, software updates, map data, public safety objects, and enterprise payloads, with robustness tuned per service.

This matters because the datacasting opportunity is not limited to the living-room screen. The winning market is cross-device: vehicles, tablets, gateways, industrial IoT, digital signage, and yes, phones — wherever one-to-many economics and resilience beat unicast.

So, when someone says, “we need 5G Broadcast to get into the datacasting world,” the right response is: ATSC 3.0 already provides the broadcast downlink, and it was designed to carry IP services to fixed, portable, and mobile receivers at scale better than any other broadcast standard.

The path ahead is straightforward if one wishes: share a single RF channel in time. During one window, transmit a valid ATSC 3.0 frame. During another window, transmit the LTE-based 5G Broadcast waveform. Receivers on both sides see a predictable cadence. Coexistence is time sliced — not theoretical.

The sidebar below details the three engineering parameters that govern this scheduling — the challenge is coordination, not physics.

The Device Reality: ‘Chips in Phones’ for ATSC 3.0 Exist Today
A lot of the current rhetoric is framed as a race: which technology will reach commercial handheld devices first? That question misses something important: ATSC 3.0 demodulator chipsets optimized for handheld/mobile receivers exist today, including implementations coming out of the Saankhya Labs lineage (now Tejas Networks). They are designed to output IP streams and to fit within the size and power constraints of mobile and portable devices.

At ONE Media, we have worked across multiple vendors to design and build phones and tablets with what we shorthand as “chips in phones.” That phrase does not mean “a chip alone.” It means the full reception system: demodulator, RF front-end components (antenna, filter, LNA, matching), integration, and the software stack required to make reception a product feature — not a lab demo.

This is why the right question is not merely “will a 5G Broadcast modem appear in a system-on chip?” A baseband capability is not the same as a complete, properly enabled reception subsystem for broadcast bands. The phrase that matters is still “chips in phones” — meaning a whole receiver and antenna system that actually works.

What Really Holds Back the U.S —And Why India Can Unlock It
In the United States, getting any new receive feature into mainstream mobile devices is multifaceted. Three factors matter most:

A business proposition that drives commercial success (clear use cases, measurable value, repeatable revenue).

A business reason for mobile network operators (MNOs) to allow and support it. In practice, nothing significant lands in a U.S. carrier handset portfolio without their direction.

Sufficient success in the business proposition to drive a “bring your own device” pathway —where properly enabled devices enter the market via retail and enterprise channels, not only carrier certification.

This is exactly where the third condition—a BYOD pathway built on market-proven devices — makes India’s Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) trajectory so important. Success at real scale in a major market creates supply chain momentum: reference designs, manufacturing volume, and confidence that can spill into other regions — including the U.S. — via BYOD and enterprise procurement. If India normalizes “chips in phones” for ATSC 3.0-based D2M, it becomes much harder to argue that U.S. markets cannot follow.

A Constructive Plan to Get the Show on the Road
Some 5G Broadcast proponents privately admit their push is partly a hedge: "What if 5G Broadcast gets into phones first?" Hedging is rational—but it shouldn't freeze the deployed broadcast ecosystem while chasing a lengthy regulatory process: new waveform authorizations, service rule updates, contentious policy debates.

The subtext is often that broadcasters should adopt a new waveform while shedding the public interest obligations that historically justified broadcast spectrum. That's a non-starter. Expanding into datacasting should extend broadcasting's public-interest value — not escape it. Instead of debating which logo wins, align on a three-phase deployment plan that gives everyone wins:

• Phase 1 (now): Ship ATSC 3.0 datacasting outcomes at scale
  Launch IP data services using existing ATSC 3.0 deployments. Pick two or three high-value use cases (software/firmware updates, map and data refresh, edge caching for streaming, public safety objects) and deliver them with clear APIs, security primitives, and measurable SLAs. Build the business case in-market. This is exactly what Edgebeam is doing — today!
• Phase 2 (next): Publish a coexistence profile for “ATSC bearer + 5G Broadcast windows”
  Define the scheduling profile (cycle lengths, allowable jitter budgets, configuration guardrails) and publish a simple interop test plan so transmitters, analyzers, and receivers can validate behavior consistently. This is how you turn “clever” into “deployable.”
• Phase 3 (later): Expand handheld device pathways where they truly add value
  Use India-led scale and proven business outcomes to expand “chips in phones” adoption, including BYOD and enterprise channels. Where MNO support is required, approach it with a demonstrated business case and a clear public-interest story — not hypotheticals.

Conclusion
The industry does not need another standards feud. It needs deployment, results, and visible wins. ATSC 3.0 was designed to carry IP services to fixed, portable, and mobile receivers — and mobile-grade ATSC 3.0 receiver subsystems exist today. At the same time, the technical path to carry LTE-based 5G Broadcast windows inside an ATSC 3.0 RF channel is now documented and repeatable.

So let’s stop debating hypotheticals, publish the coexistence profile, modernize the infrastructure where needed, and ship.

Mark Aitken is senior vice president at Sinclair Broadcast Group and President of ONE Media.

Netflix is expanding its video game offerings from mobile into TV by launching party games that its subscribers can play on smart TVs.

While Netflix has been offering games for a while, those games were only available on mobile.

In the initial launch of TV games, Netflix is focusing on the social features of television with party games.

Users still can't play any of the existing mobile games, which include "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas", "Oxenfree", and "Heads Up!" on TV.

Users can scroll to the ‘Games’ tab on their TV, pick a game and use their phone as the controller for games like "LEGO Party!", "Pictionary: Game Night", "Boggle Party", "Tetris Time Warp", and a fresh take on the social deduction genre "Party Crashers: Fool Your Friends".

The feature is currently available in the U.S. on select TVs.

In a blog post, Netflix said that it plans to add more games and markets in the future.

MIAMI—In a notable example of how broadcasters are rethinking the way they develop and produce content, Telemundo Studios announced an expansion of its alternative content production and has unveiled plans for innovative mobile-first formats that offer vertical, short-form content targeting a new generation of Spanish-language audiences.

Telemundo’s new mobile-first slate launches with “María, Mother of God”, which the network is calling the first-ever biblical vertical series, co-produced with VIP 2000 TV.

The full franchise will be unveiled at Content Americas 2026, where buyers will be given an exclusive first look at the slate.

“With this new mobile-first portfolio, we’re building on Telemundo’s legacy of Spanish-language drama while adapting to the evolving ways audiences prefer to watch content today,” said Javier Pons, chief content officer & head of Telemundo Studios. “The slate launches with new originals like `María, Mother of God’ as part of a four-title lineup, reaffirming our role as the home of Spanish-language scripted content, regardless of screen or format.”

More specifically, Telemundo said the new portfolio of mobile-first content will feature a wide range of content designed to appeal to diverse audiences, from reimagined versions of Telemundo hits like `Armas de Mujer' and `Diario de un Gigoló' to original productions developed specifically for this new format. This approach ensures audiences can rediscover iconic stories while also engaging with fresh, compelling content that reflects contemporary viewing preferences, Telemundo said.

“María, Mother of God”, a coproduction between Telemundo and VIP 2000 TV, is a 25-episode vertical series reimagine one of the Bible’s most iconic love stories for a new generation. It also marks the debut of a planned franchise of biblical love stories, with upcoming titles including Moses & Zipporah, Sanson & Dalila and John the Baptist & Salome, Telemundo said.

“This project reflects our passion for creating meaningful content that inspires, regardless of religion or age," said María Eugenia Muci, content director at VIP 2000 TV. "We are confident these stories, told from a fresh, fast, and emotionally powerful perspective, will resonate with new audiences. This co-production with Telemundo Studios continues the vertical journey that VIP 2000 TV began earlier this year in Miami, reinforcing our commitment to innovative formats. Each franchise brings its own unique and special voice. At VIP, religious content has always been a cornerstone of our catalog and co-productions, and we believe deeply in the value of this niche. That is why these biblical love stories have all the elements to achieve global success,”

SEATTLE—LumaTouch is partnering with CNN Academy to improve mobile storytelling techniques and support training across all of CNN Academy’s training simulations, master classes, courses and workshops.

As a result of this partnership, LumaTouch’s LumaFusion, a professional multitrack editing platform for mobile devices, will become the exclusive video editing application taught across CNN Academy training programs.

CNN Academy was established to nurture the skills and talent of the next generation of journalists and content creators, offering advanced training and mentorship across multiple continents.

“This partnership marks a significant step in bridging the gap between media training and practical application in today’s rapidly-evolving digital landscape.” LoumaTouch Co-Founder Terri Morgan, co-founder of LumaTouch.

As part of the agreement, LumaTouch has also worked closely with CNN Academy in a number of areas:

• Co-Developed Course Development: CNN Academy and LumaTouch have jointly developed a course on Mobile Storytelling, featuring best practices and tutorials on using the LumaFusion app. This course will be made available to all CNN Academy Hub users.
• Training Support: LumaTouch is providing LumaFusion training support throughout the CNN Academy programs, including virtual workshops, Q&A sessions and resource materials.
• LumaFusion Free for All: CNN Academy Students: LumaTouch is also providing the LumaFusion mobile video editing app free of charge to all CNN Academy students for the duration of their participation in the program.

CNN Academy is CNN’s international training program, designed to nurture the next generation of journalists by offering hands-on learning, mentorship, and access to real-world newsroom experiences. For more information, please visit https://academy.cnn.com.

For more information about LumaTouch please visit luma-touch.com .

MUMBAI, India & BALTIMORE—In a development that could advance efforts to bring NextGen TV to cellphones, FreeStream Technologies, Lava International and HMD have announced launch plans for Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) phones in the runup to large-scale field trials in India.

Direct-to-Mobile is a broadcasting technology based on ATSC 3.0 D2M that uses terrestrial TV broadcast airwaves to deliver live TV, video, audio & text messages, entertainment, sports, educational programming and emergency alerts directly to phones without the need for Wi-Fi or internet service.

Low-cost feature phones, smartphones and tablets using Tejas Networks (Saankhya Labs) SL-3000 D2M chipsets have been previously announced.

In addition, Tejas Networks has developed a suite of infrastructure hardware and software products for D2M deployment in collaboration with Sinclair, Inc.

This technology has been under test in live networks by Prasar Bharati in partnership with IIT Kanpur, where FreeStream was incubated, and Tejas Networks over the past several years.

Backers of NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 hope the D2M phones will bring the technology to the large Indian market, which has 1.05 billion cellphone users. Adoption there could also help put ATSC 3.0 D2M technologies on a trajectory that might bring affordable handsets with ATSC 3.0 receivers to the U.S. market.

Sinclair President and CEO Chris Ripley said: “Large-scale adoption of ATSC 3.0 in affordable mobile devices vindicates Sinclair’s forethought in leading U.S. and global deployment of this broadcast standard as ‘mobile first’ and in investing in Made by India technology. To meet future 6G goals, we are spearheading the next release of the standard ‘Broadcast to Everything’ (B2X) which will unleash next generation broadcast apps for numerous verticals.”

“We are pleased that Lava and HMD are doing the groundwork to rapidly create a viable device ecosystem for a nationwide deployment road map,” added Sumeet Nindrajog, director of Free Stream Technologies. “Their willingness to supply in scale is the best vote of confidence for the future success of D2M.”

Incubated at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK), Free Stream Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is focused on developing, deploying, and managing nationwide network infrastructure for cutting-edge Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) broadcast technology and related platform services.

Lava International Limited, headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, is a mobile handset and solutions company. The company’s corporate office and manufacturing facility is equipped with a production capacity of 42.52 million handsets per year.

Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, HMD Oy (“HMD”) is the exclusive licensee of the Nokia brand for phones and tablets. HMD designs and markets a range of smartphones and feature phones and an expanding portfolio of innovative service offerings.

STAMFORD, Conn., and PHILADELPHIA—Charter Communications and Comcast have announced that Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile have launched satellite-based services.

The services are being done in partnership with Skylo, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) service provider. They are now available on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9 devices and will provide customers with access to emergency messaging services when their device is not connected to either a cellular or WiFi network.

The ability to send and receive SMS text messages over satellite service on Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9 devices is expected to be added in the coming weeks.

In addition to Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9, both Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile customers already have access to emergency messaging via satellite backup service on select Apple and Google devices, provided directly by the manufacturers.

“The availability of satellite backup service provides Spectrum Mobile customers with a sense of security, knowing they can stay connected even in the most remote locations,” said Danny Bowman, executive vice president, product, Charter Communications. “We are delivering cutting-edge technology that continues to empower our customers with the confidence that their communication needs are always met, no matter where they are."

“Today, our wireless customers already benefit from the nation’s largest and fastest converged network in and out of the home with over tens of millions of hotspots delivering up to gig speeds,” said Emily Waldorf, senior vice president, consumer products, Comcast. “And now, we’re excited to further enhance our connectivity experiences with these satellite-based services to help our Xfinity Mobile customers stay connected in situations where they need it most.”

"We understand how crucial it is to stay connected,” added Paul Hanton, vice president of Skylo's Global Carrier Partnerships. “Skylo’s groundbreaking satellite network, combined with the reach of Charter and Comcast, will bring enhanced coverage to countless individuals. We're proud to be building a future where everyone can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with reliable, always-on connectivity."

Skylo plans to make its services available on additional devices in the future. Satellite-based services are already being offered to Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile customers through a select number of other devices, including iPhone 14, 15 and 16 operating on iOS 18 software. These services are provided directly by the manufacturers and specific services available to customers vary by device type.

The operators also reported that their business mobile services, Spectrum Business and Comcast Business Mobile, will benefit from the satellite services from Skylo. Customers from each of these consumer and business mobile services have the nation’s largest WiFi network and most reliable 5G at their fingertips, with at least 87 percent of mobile traffic traveling over each company’s respective WiFi networks.

For more information visit Spectrum.com/mobile or Xfinity.com/mobile.

A new study from the Dell’Oro Group has found that the slump in telecom equipment sales that started in the second half of 2023 has extended into the first half of 2024. 

Preliminary findings indicate that worldwide telecom equipment revenues across the six telecom programs tracked at Dell’Oro Group—Broadband Access, Microwave & Optical Transport, Mobile Core Network (MCN), Radio Access Network (RAN), and SP Router & Switch—declined 16% year-over-year (Y/Y) in 2Q24, recording a fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit contractions. The researchers reported that abysmal results are prompted by excess inventory, weaker demand in China, challenging 5G comparisons, and elevated uncertainty.

The slowdown was also broad-based in the second quarter of 2024, reflecting slower revenue growth on a year over year in all regions, including North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and CALA (Caribbean and Latin America). 

Varied momentum in activity in the first half was particularly significant in China – the total telecom equipment market in China stumbled in the second quarter, declining 17% YoY.

The downward pressure was not confined to a specific technology, and initial readings show that all six telecom programs declined in the second quarter. In addition to the wireless programs (RAN and MCN), which are still impacted by slower 5G deployments, spending on SP Routers fell by a third in 2Q24.

The study found that supplier rankings were mostly unchanged. The top 7 suppliers in 1H24 accounted for 80% of the worldwide telecom equipment market and included Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson, ZTE, Cisco, Ciena, and Samsung. Huawei and ZTE combined gained nearly 3 percentage points of share between 2023 and 1H24.

Supplier positions differ slightly when we exclude the Chinese market. Even with the ongoing efforts by the US government to curb Huawei’s rise, Huawei is still well positioned in the broader telecom equipment market, excluding China, which is up roughly two percentage points relative to 2019 levels.

Even with the second half expected to account for 54% of full-year revenues, the researchers are predicting that market conditions are expected to remain challenging in 2024. The analyst team collectively forecasts global telecom equipment revenues to contract 8 to 10% in 2024, down from the 4% decline in 2023.

BENGALURU & DEHLI, India & BALTIMORE, Md.—The long-awaited dream of Next-Gen TV reception on mobile phones took a big step forward today with the joint announcement that Saankhya Labs and Sinclair are collaborating on the design and launch of a variety of Direct-to-Mobile broadcast consumer devices in India.

With 1.05 billion cell phone users in India, the announcement could Next-Gen TV in cell phones on a trajectory that may one day see affordable handsets with ATSC 3.0 receivers becoming available to U.S. consumers.

The devices being produced in India will be powered by Saankhya’s Pruthvi-3 ATSC 3.0 chipsets. The company has done pioneering work on bringing to market broadcast radio heads for cellularization of single frequency networks (SFNs) and building the Mark One reference design of a 3.0-enabled D2M smartphone, Sinclair said. 

“As India’s foremost fabless chip company, Saankhya is delighted to see this path breaking D2M technology getting one step closer to launch,” said Parag Naik, founder and CEO of Saankhya Labs. “For rapid proliferation of the device ecosystem, we are actively working with a number of mobile device suppliers to develop solutions that integrate our award-winning Software Defined Radio (SDR) chipsets. As an end-to-end originator and supplier of D2M technology – chipsets, radios, software and network infrastructure, we are fully equipped to rapidly validate end-to-end performance and gear up for launch.”  

The consumer D2M trials, expected to begin in the first half of 2025, will include smartphones, USB dongle accessories, set-top box/gateways and low-cost featurephones. The goal is so demonstrate interworking with mobile system-on-a-chip from suppliers with a combined global market share of 70%, it said.

“I firmly believe that low-cost featurephones will be the biggest driver for domestic demand in India since 4G/5G, incentivizing over 300 million featurephone users to shift to broadcast-enabled phones at a low incremental cost. We expect to launch these devices for trials in the first half of 2025. This competitive market segment can be expected to produce affordable phones for the Indian and global markets,” said Sinclair president and CEO Chris Ripley. “ATSC 3.0’s time and frequency interleaving feature provides excellent mobile performance, which is why we played a foundational role in the creation and deployment of the standard for next generation broadcast.”  

Leading brands recognize the consumer value proposition of D2M service and are gearing up to meet the requirements of the Indian market, said Sumeet Nindrajog, director of FreeStream, India’s first and only Chips to Platform Deep Tech startup. "D2M will ride on the tremendous momentum to expand the mobile technology supply chain in India. As India’s first Chips-to-Platform DeepTech startup, FreeStream is working on putting together a D2M ecosystem that will realize PM Modi’s vision of India’s Techade.” 

More information is available on the Sinclair and Saankhya Labs websites. 

IRVINE, Calif.—In a sign of how important advertising has become to makers of TV sets, Vizio has announced that its popular WatchFree+ service is now available on the Vizio mobile app for iOS and Android devices. 

The move, which allows users access over 300 channels on mobile devices even if they don’t have a Vizio TV, will expand the reach of the WatchFree+ free streaming service and make it more valuable to advertisers. 

“Consumers have shown us how much they love WatchFree+, making it the number two most watched, free, ad-supported app on the Vizio platform, and we’re absolutely thrilled to make the service available to everyone in the Vizio mobile app– whether they have a Vizio TV or not,” said Katherine Pond, group vice president of platform content & partnerships at Vizio. “Making great entertainment affordable and accessible to everyone has always been core to our mission, and we are excited to offer even more users access to the amazing content and great experience that WatchFree+ offers.”

Packed with more than 260 free, live entertainment and 40 local channels, including top sports, news, entertainment, and kids content, WatchFree+ users can now access hours of bingeable content wherever they may be.

With the launch, WatchFree+ now allows users to pick up where they left off on their Vizio TV at home directly on their phone, so they never miss a second of their favorite show. Users can continue watching the latest news from CNN Headlines during their morning commute or catch up on their fan-favorite series such as Bachelor Nation or The Walking Dead Universe while they wait to board a plane. WatchFree+ users can also personalize their binging experience by favoriting their top channels and browsing through customized recommendations directly in the app. With 24 categories to choose from, users can easily jump to their favorite with a simple click. 

WatchFree+ is available to everyone in the Vizio app with a free Vizio Account on iOS and Android devices in the United States. To learn more about WatchFree+, and Vizio’s lineup of televisions and soundbars, visit vizio.com.  

MONTRÉAL—Cogeco Communications Inc. has announced that Breezeline, its U.S. business unit offering broadband services in 13 states, will be adding mobile phone services to its product offering.

Breezeline Mobile will be available to Breezeline's broadband customers starting this spring through a Mobile Virtual Network Operator ("MVNO") agreement with an industry-leading mobile network.

"We are thrilled to announce the launch of mobile services within our Breezeline operating regions," said Frédéric Perron, president and CEO of Cogeco. "This important new service will not only help us expand our product offering, but will also allow us to better meet the growing needs of our customers who wish to bundle a flexible and reliable mobility offering with their broadband service."

"Our customers have told us they find value in bundled services and prefer doing business with Breezeline because of the exceptional customer experience," added Frank van der Post, president of Breezeline. "Breezeline Mobile will provide choice, reliable network coverage, flexible plans, and bundled savings for Breezeline customers."

LOS ANGELES—As broadcasters look for ways to better engage audiences and reverse declining ratings, VersusGame and ABC are reporting some of the results of their collaboration to offer “gamified content” for the 20th Season of The Bachelorette. 

The effort was created to bring a new layer of excitement and engagement to the hit reality show, by allowing fans to immerse themselves in the drama like never before, the network and Versus Game said. 

The heart of this partnership was the introduction of exclusive interactive games posted weekly and available from the official show page. These games were designed to not only capture the essence of the show, but also encourage the audience to act on their predictions and opinions throughout the entire season. Fans were encouraged to participate in predicting outcomes, analyzing cast members' choices, and voicing their opinions on leading lady Charity's journey in a fun and competitive environment, VersusGame said. 

This produced some notable engagement metrics. 

The first-click engagement rate reached 94.5%, underscoring the immediate appeal and captivating nature of the interactive games. Moreover, the partnership achieved a peak average session time of 6 minutes and 57 seconds, which highlighted the appeal of the interactive experience as they indulged in predicting the unfolding drama of The Bachelorette, VersusGame reported. 

In addition, the sign-up to gameplay rate reached an hefty 54.49%, highlighting the strong desire of fans to actively put their predictions to the test. A staggering 45% of viewers who encountered the interactive games actually participated, VersusGame said. 

"The response to our collaboration with ABC for Season 20 of The Bachelorette has been nothing short of extraordinary," said John Vitti, CEO of VersusGame. "The integration of gamified content within the already impressive Bachelorette ecosystem has added an appealing layer of interactiveness to the show for its dedicated audience. We're thrilled to have contributed to providing ABC viewers with a unique opportunity to be a part of the action."

On the Bachelorette-branded Minigames hub, viewers could dive into the relevant and intriguing games. The game environment became a valuable additional part of the viewing experience, with its seamless integration into the show's main page on ABC's official website, abc.com/shows/the-bachelorette. The partnership's innovation extended beyond the screen, as fans eagerly embraced the opportunity to become active participants in the unfolding narrative, VersusGame said. 

NEEDHAM, Mass.—After reporting declining smartphone shipments for most of 2023, the International Data Corporation (IDC) is predicting that worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to see 7.3% year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2023 (4Q23). 

IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker forecast for the holiday quarter follows the modest improvement in 3Q23 without further inventory buildup, which has led some channels and major OEMs to ramp up their business plans for the months ahead. 

IDC is also predicting that the market recovery will continue in 2024 with 3.8% growth expected, followed by low single-digit growth for the rest of the forecast period, resulting in a five-year compound annual growth rate of 1.4%.

Despite improved expectations for 4Q23, worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to decline 3.5% year over year in 2023 to 1.16 billion units. The revised forecast for 2023 is an improvement over the decline of 4.7% forecast earlier in the year.

"The tide has finally turned and it feels safe to say the worst is behind us," said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "While the rate of recovery varies across regions, the changed sentiment is most apparent in China, where consumers are finally coming out of their shells and spending on devices, fueled by the excitement from Huawei's resurgence, which is in turn expected to have a positive impact on the larger Android market in the long-term. More importantly, as we enter the new era of low single-digit growth and lengthened refresh cycles, it is clear the market is maturing. While the total available market will remain below pre-pandemic shipment levels throughout the forecast, the bright side is that average selling prices (ASPs) and market value will remain notably higher than before."

Smartphone average sale price (ASP) is also expected to rise by 5.5% in 2023 to $438, marking a fourth consecutive year of growth as the premium market continues to grow across all regions. However, ASP growth is expected to taper off and gradually decline to $396 by 2027, which remains higher than prior forecasts. 

From an operating systems (OS) perspective, iOS remains more resilient to macro challenges with 0.6% growth, achieving a record share of 19.6% this year, while Android is forecast to decline 4.4%. Over the long term, Android will grow slightly faster than iOS, increasing its share of the market to 81.3% by the end of the forecast period.

"Despite another lackluster year for smartphones, 5G adoption continues to be a bright spot in the overall market," said Anthony Scarsella, research director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "With 5G devices becoming less relevant in most developed markets, the growth of 5G in emerging markets will play a crucial part in the rebound next year and throughout the forecast period. Global 5G shipments are expected to grow 11% in 2023 and 20% in 2024. Moreover, the share of 5G smartphones will jump from 61% in 2023 to 83% by 2027. While the smartphone will witness a small 1.4% CAGR from 2022-2027, 5G shipments will demonstrate an impressive 11.1% growth rate for the same period."

New research continues to highlight a generational shift in the importance of the TV screen and traditional TV viewing among younger viewers aged 13 to 24, the so-called Gen Z cohort. 

New TV research from Hub finds that the focus on the “streaming wars” overlooks a more existential change in entertainment ecosystem, with younger consumers 13-24 spending only 17% of their time viewing TV shows while viewers 35+ say they spend more time with TV than any other screen and that they spend about 43% of their total screen time watching TV.  

Among viewers 35+, only about a fifth of their time goes to gaming or “non-premium” online video on platforms like YouTube or TikTok. Among those aged 13-24 this proportion is inverted:  they estimate less than a fifth of their screen time (17%) is spent on TV shows. They spend more than twice that on gaming and non-premium video combined, a new Hub survey found. 

“The ‘streaming wars’ monopolize the spotlight when it comes to predicting the fortunes of media companies in the future,” said Jon Giegengack, principal at Hub.  “But this obscures an even more important shift:  the next generation of TV consumers are just less engaged with traditional TV itself. Gaming and social video are the focus of their entertainment lifestyles. There’s no reason to assume they’ll grow out of these habits as they age. Media organizations need to adapt to these changes in order to meet tomorrow’s viewers on the devices and platforms where they will spend most of their time.”

The report doesn’t address how much of this shift may reflect changes in lifestyles as consumers age. Younger viewers may be less likely to own and have control over TV sets and that their viewing habits may change as they grow older, establish families, have kids and own TV sets that become the center of family viewing habits. 

The researchers also noted that for decades, TV has been the center of the entertainment ecosystem.  But for Gen Z consumers, it’s just one of several ways they spend their time.

While the TV screen is the home base for premium video content, Gen Z allocate as much time or more to content on other devices, the Hub survey found. 

This disparity in content between the youngest consumers and their older counterparts is mirrored in the screens they use.  Both groups allocate about a fifth of their total screen time to content on a smart TV.  But otherwise, device usage of the two groups is very different.

Viewers age 35+ estimate they spend about a third of their total screen time watching content through a pay TV set top box and only 12% to entertainment on a phone. Those age 13-24 allocate the most time (30%) to content on their smartphone, and only 8% to content through a cable box.

TikTok has quickly become an entertainment hub for young consumers, the researchers also noted.  

YouTube remains the biggest player in “non-premium” online video:  more than 80 percent of respondents use it regularly.  But TikTok has become indispensable to many young viewers, in a relatively short period of time.  Among those age 13-24, two-thirds have used TikTok in the past week (second only to YouTube), the researchers said. 

Among those using TikTok, 72% say they watch it every day (compared with just 48% of YouTube users in that age group) and among those who use both, more than half (51%) say they’d choose TikTok over YouTube if they could only have one.

The data cited here come from Hub’s “Video Redefined” study, conducted among 1,900 US consumers age 13-74.  The data was collected in December 2022.

ATLANTA & LAS VEGAS—Cox Communications announced the successful national launch of Cox Mobile, the company's new mobile phone service available to Cox Internet customers in Cox markets nationwide at this year’s CES.

With unlimited talk and text and no term agreements, Cox Mobile offers consumer two data plans—a Pay As You Gig and a Gig Unlimited plan. Customers also have access to a network with unbeatable 5G reliability, as well as the ability to stay connected with Cox Internet at home and with more than 4 million of Cox's on-the-go wifi hotspots, the company reported during a breakfast event in Las Vegas announcing the service and some of its other plans for the year..

"The convergence of wired and mobile communications has never been more important. Customers recognize Cox as a reliable provider of connectivity, so introducing a mobile phone offering was a natural extension of our services," said Mark Greatrex, president of Cox Communications. "With Cox Mobile, we are offering new mobile phone options for consumers; ones that offer flexibility, reliability and the opportunity to save money."

ADDISON, Texas—Some important hints on how consumers will be managing their cable and telecommunications services as the pandemic wanes can be found in new research from Parks Associates that shows more consumers are embracing a double play bundle of broadband and mobile services. 

As of Q1 2021, 41% of US broadband households had a standalone broadband service, paying an average of $64 per month, reports Parks in its “Consumer Insights Dashboard,” which tracks consumer adoption of home services, including home internet, pay-TV, and mobile services.

That stands in stark contrast to three years ago, when the percentage of US broadband households with standalone broadband service stood at 33% in Q1 2018. 

The increase in standalone services comes in a period where the popularity of pay-TV bundles has declined. 

These consumers are also paying more, on average $64 per month for standalone broadband service in Q1 2021, up from $39 per broadband household in 2011, a 64% growth rate, Parks noted. 

“Falling pay-TV subscriptions among consumers are negatively impacting bundles with other services—bundles with four or five services in particular are losing their value,” said Kristen Hanich, senior analyst, Parks Associates. “However, a growing crossover between mobile and home broadband services is helping to stem the gap. The fastest growing segment of these bundles is a standard double-play combining home internet and mobile service.”

Consumers are also placing a greater emphasis on high-quality broadband and mobile services, which is building value in bundling these services. Both the residential broadband and mobile industries experienced substantial growth during 2020 and into the first half of 2021, with demand particularly strong for high-speed internet and fiber connections, Parks reported. 

Currently 19% of US broadband households bundle mobile and home internet services, paying an average of $128 per month.

Going forward, 24% of US broadband households reported plans to upgrade their home broadband in the next six months, which would drive broadband service ARPU upwards 5% year-over-year. Adoption of residential security services has also continued to increase following the COVID-19 pandemic, creating additional bundling opportunities among connectivity and peace-of-mind services heading into the second half of 2021.

“Consumers require strong uplink, good downlink, and high reliability for remote working, so providers cannot limit promotions to download speeds only—strong two-way speeds are critical, and with a hybrid workforce increasingly likely, this trend will only intensify,” Hanich said.

ADDISON, Texas—When it comes to viewing online content, the TV is still the preferred tool to do so. However, a shift could be coming as Generation Z tends to spend a greater share of their time watching content on a mobile device.

Based on a new study by Parks Associates, the idea of what people prefer to watch online video content on and the amount of time they are actually spending does not necessarily equate. About 80% of heads of U.S. broadband households say that a connected TV is their primary viewing source, while only 15% say that mobile is their preferred option (third behind PCs). However, among all respondents, mobile made up a 23% share of online video viewing; TV was at 50%.

Those numbers differ among generations. With Gen Z, Parks Associates found that a 41% share of their viewing time is spent on mobile. Connected TV (26%) actually comes in third, trailing PCs (33%) as well.

“High preference for mobile devices among members of Generation Z strongly suggests use of mobile devices will continue to grow as this generation ages into adulthood,” Parks Associates said.

More than half of all consumers view video on a mobile device in some form or fashion, according to Parks Associates. However, most of it is social video viewing (34%); VOD viewing makes up 25% and live TV viewing just 11%.

Using multiple devices to view content is likely moving forward, Parks Associates projects. It found that for those whose primary device is a smartphone or tablet, only 11% view exclusively on that platform. Even when TV is the primary option, only 28% of people viewed content exclusively on a TV.

For more information, visit Parks Associates’ website. 

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—About 76% of global wireless bandwidth will be used for video delivery by 2025, according to the new annual Ericsson Mobility Report. The monthly use of 164 exabytes (equivalent to a billion gigabytes) compares to video's current level of 63% (33 EB) and reflects greater use of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and the continuing expansion of 5G technology, the report says. Ericsson's forecast expects 2.8 billion global 5G subscriptions by the end of 2025, compared to 190 million at the end of this year.

Ericsson's report acknowledges that it has "slightly decreased our 5G subscriptions forecast for 2020 and 2021 in North America," compared to previous estimates, although it offers no reasons other than "LTE will remain the dominant mobile access technology" for the next few years and "is projected to peak in 2022." Ericsson predicts that "5G subscription uptake is expected to be significantly faster than that of LTE" after its 2009 debut.

Video traffic in mobile networks will grow by around 30% annually during the next five years, Ericsson says, driven "by the increase of embedded video in many online applications, growth of video-on-demand (VOD) streaming services ... and viewing time per subscriber." It also cites "the evolution towards higher screen resolutions on smart devices" and "the increasing penetration of video-capable smart devices."

The growing impact of wireless video becomes even more significant when compared to the forecasts of exactly 10 years ago this month, when Cisco's Video Network Index for the year 2020 predicted that video would consume 79% of internet traffic—almost entirely using wireline facilities.

The primary drivers for video traffic growth include the growing role of video in online content such as news, advertising and social media as well as video streaming and sharing services, according to Ericsson's analysis. It also cites:

• Changing user behavior
• Increased segment penetration, not just early adopters
• Evolving devices with larger screens and higher resolutions
• Increased network performance through evolved 4G deployments
• Emerging immersive media formats and applications, such as high definition and ultra HD, 360-degree video, augmented and virtual reality

The report also cites that decades-old visionary goal: "video being consumed anywhere, any time" (although it overlooked the "any device" trope).

Ericsson expects that video streaming via wireless networks will rely on higher resolution quality than the current 480p format.

"With smartphones and networks improving constantly, streaming in HD (720p) and Full HD (1080p) is becoming more common," the report says. "More immersive media formats and applications are expected to become a significant factor contributing to mobile data traffic growth, as 5G networks will provide the performance needed for a good user experience. For example, watching a streamed e-sports event in multi-view would consume about 7GB per hour, while a high-quality AR/VR stream with a media (bit) rate of 25Mbps would consume as much as 12GB per hour."

This year's forecast slightly ups the outlook that Ericsson predicted a year ago, when it expected 5G to account for 55% of North American mobile subscriptions by 2024.

COVID-19 IMPACT

Ericsson's report begins with an examination of the role of networks and digital infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic, described by Fredrik Jejdling, Ericsson's executive VP and head of business area networks. He cites the impact of novel coronavirus starting early this year, including lockdown restrictions and new work-from-home "digital behaviors."

The report explains that, "in markets with limited penetration of fixed residential networks, the mobile data demand increase was especially high" and that in some markets "service providers made temporary changes to data plans [such as]... unlimited data for a certain period of time." The report also cites, "up to 90% increase in Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) calls for some service providers" and an "increase of 20% to 70% in voice due to more and longer calls. Data traffic increased due to more bidirectional and streaming services."

EXPANDEDED ROLE FOR FIXED WIRELESS ACCESS 

FWA connections are forecast to reach nearly 160 million by end of 2025 – totaling about 25% percent of global mobile network data traffic. At the end of 2019, global FWA data traffic was estimated to have been around 15% of the global total. It is now projected to grow nearly 8 fold to reach 53 exabytes in 2025, representing 25% of the global total mobile network data traffic.

"FWA delivered over 4G or 5G is an increasingly cost-efficient alternative for providing broadband," says the report, citing factors that are driving the FWA market, including growing demand for digital services and government-sponsored programs and subsidies in some countries.

Online video provides consumers with the convenience to watch what they want, when they want, provided everything goes according to plan. As the recent Disney+ launch showed, streaming can also provide a great deal of pain when users click the “play” button and then experience buffering.

Unsure if their video will begin in 1 second, 10 seconds or perhaps never, viewers are forced to wait, reboot their service, or choose another video. More than one-third of U.S. viewers feel this frustration, contributing to churn and cutting into profit.

A well-funded, beloved brand like Disney will survive these early buffering issues, but as competition ramps up, these problems have the potential to hurt other VOD providers much worse than they have in the past. Streaming services must grasp how big the buffering issue is and take steps to reduce its negative impact, before it potentially puts them out of business.

THE MOBILE EXPERIENCE

Nowhere is this more important than in mobile, which accounted for 22% of streaming hours in Q3 2019, according to Conviva. While mobile’s share of viewing hours is less than half of connected TV, its rate of growth was still 33% in the quarter, which is not insignificant.

The trouble is that mobile viewership is more likely to introduce buffering issues. More often than not, buffering is a result of poor internet connection. Viewers want to see content while they’re on the go, but movement means they are often in and out of strong signal throughout their journey. In fact, motion isn’t even required: it can be difficult to get a strong cellular signal inside a building, and even hotels can have spotty in-room Wi-Fi service.

Mobile streaming quality is getting better, but not enough to meet viewer expectations. According to the same Conviva study, mid-stream buffering on mobile devices improved by 34% year-over-year. Unfortunately, video start failures improved by just 2% in mobile, well below the rate of improvement in PC and connected TV. Video start time was also a mere 4% faster, hardly a great leap. It would be foolish for streaming providers to pat themselves on the back for improving the mid-stream experience when so many viewers still have trouble getting videos to start playing in the first place.

THE COST OF BUFFERING

These start-time issues have a domino effect, eating into potential time those viewers could spend watching content. A “rebuffering ratio” (the percentage of time a viewer spends waiting, as opposed to watching video) of less than 1% results in 2.9 billion viewing hours lost to buffering in one quarter.

Buffering’s impact on the viewer experience only gets worse when ads are introduced, as 39.6% of streaming ads actually failed to load in Q3 2019. If pre-roll ad delays reach 5 seconds, 13.6% of viewers abandon the stream. This results in less available ad inventory, cutting into ad-supported VOD profits and prohibiting advertisers from reaching valuable audiences. Advertisers aren’t going to pay if their ads are responsible for killing viewer engagement, rather than inspiring it. Just like viewers, advertisers are going to seek out frictionless experiences to get their money’s worth.

While buffering is a common part of the streaming video experience, it still has the potential to erode viewers’ good will. It may be outside of VOD providers’ control, but consumers aren’t always aware of who’s to blame. They focus their anger on the brand name in front of them, which is the provider itself. Buffering happens, but VOD providers can’t simply accept buffering as inevitable, less they face this ire from choice-rich consumers.

That’s because above all else, subscription and ad-supported VOD services are all competing for viewer engagement and time. The average household subscribes to three video services, and even with programming getting spread out across more services, it’s unlikely that viewers will add more subscriptions. Capture viewer attention, and that viewer will continue paying a monthly subscription or engaging with ad-supported content, while also spending less time with competing services. Failure to fight buffering—and the poor experience that it brings—is just giving the viewer a reason to cancel their subscription. And the result could be catastrophic for a VOD provider going forward.

Dan Taitz is president of video technology company Penthera.

FOSTER CITY, Calif.—As streaming continues to build in popularity, so too does the video quality offered by the platforms, with the largest gain seen among PCs and mobile devices.

These are part of the findings from the “State of Streaming” report for the third quarter 2019 put out by Conviva.

On a year-to-year comparison, video quality overall improved for streaming, with video start failures down 10%, video start times occurring 6% faster, there is 33% less buffering and the picture quality, which is based on bitrate, 3% better. Streaming on PCs had the most consistent improvement, seeing 17% fewer video start failures, 23% faster video start times and 26% less buffering. Mobile’s biggest gain was the decrease in buffering (34%), but video start failures and start times improvements were smaller (down 2% and 4%, respectively).

However, the quality of video ads did not see improvement in Q3. Conviva found that 39.6% of all streaming ad attempts failed, while it could take up 16.1 seconds for an ad to start and there was 45.9% ad buffering. Between 9 and 20% of viewers dropped a stream when an ad popped up. After four ads, 54% of audiences would drop, however not in sports, as viewers became less likely to drop after the first ad.

Overall, Conviva found that the amount of time spent streaming in Q3 was up 53% over the same period last year, the majority of which (63%) is on-demand over TVs, PCs and mobile devices.

Additional findings included NFL fans making moves toward streaming for game action. Q3 saw a 77% increase in streaming plays and 50% in time overall. Mobile saw the largest growth at 109%, while TV came in at 66% growth; PCs saw a decline of 11%. Mobile viewing is mostly just to watch game highlights, while streaming through social media varies on platform depending on what team someone is a fan of.

Roku also was the leading device for streaming (44% of market share), but Amazon Fire TV saw the largest growth rate for viewing time at 78%.

“Streaming is quickly becoming the new normal,” said Bill Demas, Conviva CEO. “As a result, we will continue to see new upstarts in the category accompanied by traditional media companies and big brand advertisers embracing the potential of the market. This is an industry undergoing massive growth and what happens in the next 18 months will shape what, how and when we watch content in the future.”

The full report can be found here.

HUNT VALLEY, Md.—Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ONE Media 3.0 subsidiary has announced the completion of a series of ATSC 3.0 tests in August that validate the broadcast group’s “mobile first” strategy that leverages advanced compression, modulation and HDR technology to broadcast robust OTA signals to mobile devices and simultaneously deliver 4K UHD with HDR with enhancement data delivered via the internet.

Conducted Aug. 19-22 in the Baltimore area, the tests relied on Technicolor SL-HDR1, Scalable High Efficiency Video Compression (SHVC) and Layer Division Multiplexing (LDM) to maximize the efficient use of available OTA bits and guarantee the highest quality delivery of content by taking advantage of the internet.

The testing, done in partnership with Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), InterDigital and Technicolor, underscored “that we have both the technologies and business objectives that can realize and sustain substantial future value for video services,” said Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media 3.0.

SHVC compression enables delivery of a base layer of bits, used during the tests to deliver 540p and 740p over the air. The same layer also delivered a standard dynamic range (SDR) base layer with Rec. 709 color space via SL-HDR1.

The tests relied on an LTE broadband network to deliver the SHVC enhancement layer, including SL-HDR1 high dynamic range with Rec. 2020 color space.

This base-plus-enhancement layer approach offers a number advantages, including making it possible for broadcasters to make the fullest use of their over-the-air bits while continuing to provide partners, such as MVPDs, with the highest quality service to deliver to their customers, said Aitken.

“It’s no secret that wireless bits are more valuable than wired bits,” Aitken said in a phone interview with TVTechnology.

He pointed to the difference in retail pricing wireless carriers charge for data plans versus the price of broadband to the home charged by cable operators and others as an example.

Various configurations were used in the testing. One delivered four independent SHVC video services carried by two LDM PLPs (physical layer pipes) on one 6MHz channel, which were successfully received by various devices moving in a vehicle. Other mobile and fixed devices received both LDM PLPs and displayed four services at 1080p HD HDR.

Live content for the tests came from TBD Network and Stadium Sports Network and other challenging sports, movie and entertainment content chosen to stress the SHVC compression used.

For all experiments, equipment from Cobalt Digital leveraging Technicolor Intelligent Tone Management technology was used to convert source content from SDR to HDR.

Another test delivered 540p video via 3.0 delivered and 1080p HD HDR via the enhancement layer carried on an LTE link. The test demonstrated the ability to switch seamlessly between 3.0 broadcast and broadband. Other experiments focused on combining 720p mobile and 4K UHD fixed reception.

During his interview, Aitken emphasized that the technology used in the tests is commercially available, and not simply a “science project.”

Sung-Ik Park, project leader for ETRI expressed pleasure over the successful tests. “Among the many unique capabilities of the Next Gen standard is the mechanism to converge broadcast and broadband seamlessly, which will be an excellent enhancement in the 5G era," he said.

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo.

Although the U.S. video and TV industry saw a meager 1 percent growth in consumer spending in 2018, the small uptick masks a “seismic” shift in how viewers consume television, according Futuresource Consulting.

That shift is being driven by several phenomenons, according to the market researcher: The increasing presence of connected devices, the rise of subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, and perhaps most importantly, the increasing consolidation in the media industry that is being driven by these changes.

“There’s no doubt that 2018 was a significant year for the US video and TV industries,” comments David Sidebottom, Principal Consultant at Futuresource Consulting. “The entertainment landscape was redefined with companies changing their strategies and undergoing some major M&A activity. Disney’s proposed acquisition of Fox and confirmation of its direct-to-consumer service, Disney+, along with the completion of AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, were key moments in a turbulent twelve months. Internationally, Comcast’s acquisition of Sky brings two like-minded companies together, both considered to have best-in-class pay-TV service offerings. It also provides Comcast with wider geographical reach and entry into key European markets. Such acquisitions and collaboration will help redefine customer relationships and play a pivotal role in the battle for the living room, but the dust isn’t going to settle any time soon.”

But despite the ongoing consolidation, Futuresource expects the market will become more fragmented, something that Sidebottom attributes to increasing concerns about private data.

“Many consumers don’t like the idea of relying solely on one company to control the living room and smart home,” says Sidebottom. “They may feel uncomfortable with a single brand being responsible for so much of their personal data. As a result, the wider sector will stay competitive, but there will no doubt be further consolidation. Those with big aspirations of becoming super aggregators of services will need deep pockets and the determination to evolve beyond entertainment.”

The strength of SVOD is reflected in the fact that, for the first time ever, SVOD revenues exceeded video rental and purchase revenues for the first time. Futuresource predicts that SVOD revenues will have risen 30 percent in 2018 while it expects a 2 percent decline in pay-TV revenues for 2018 to $97 billion. Futuresource says pay-TV will continue to play a significant role for the near future, however, accounting for more than two-thirds of total entertainment spending through 2022.

Futuresource also thinks the TV set will continue to be a key driver in streaming adoption. “Despite the growth in second screen viewing, the TV screen remains the preferred viewing platform for premium streaming services,” the researcher said. 

Time spent in the top five video streaming apps in 2018 was up 140 per cent compared to 2016, according to App Annie’s State of Mobile 2019 report.

The research indicates shifting consumption habits from desktop and television to mobile. “Convenience trumps all, even the smaller screen size,” the report states.

YouTube is found to dominate time spent globally in streaming apps (except in China), accounting for nine in every 10
minutes spent in the top 5 video streaming apps.

Globally, over $2.2 billion was spent on the top five streaming services in 2018, with Netflix holding its top position as the most lucrative video streaming app worldwide.

The report also finds that sport is a large draw for consumers to streaming services, citing the 2018 Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup 2018.

In addition, the analysis suggests that 10 minutes of every hour spent consuming media in 2019 will be streaming video on mobile.

You can download the full report here.

A new report says 51 per cent of global viewers are now streaming content via their mobile phone every week.

Brightcove's 2018 Global Streaming Habits Survey suggests the figure is edging ever closer to the number of viewers streaming content via their TV - 58 per cent.

When compared to how millennials consume content, mobile phone streaming is ahead by just one percentage point - 73 per cent to 72 per cent.

The report also found advertisements and technical issues are the key spoilers for live streaming experiences, with too many ads (37 per cent) and poor image or video quality (35 per cent) being the top reasons for respondents having abandoned a live stream, followed by buffering (33 per cent) and the live stream crashing (32 per cent).

“Across all generations, consuming online video is now an integral part of our daily entertainment routines. Today, we’re seeing technology-savvy consumers stepping into decision making roles, making it even more critical to understand the motivations behind these decisions,” said Sara Larsen, CMO, Brightcove.

“Today’s reality is every generation is consuming online video more than ever, so we want to ensure our customers have the knowledge and data needed to reach massive cross-generational audiences in a way that allows them to better connect with their viewers.”

Facing a generation that’s cutting the cable cord but is glued to its iPhones, the ABC Owned Stations Group is creating a new brand designed to appeal to mobile millennials.

The new brand, dubbed 'Localish,' focuses on hyper-local stories produced by the stations with a national appeal, distributed on digital and social platforms.

Like other traditional media organizations, the ABC stations are looking to remain relevant to younger, digital native consumers.

“Localish is built around the idea of producing content for this mobile-first audience whose interests might be a bit different than what we produce day-to-day,” said Wendy McMahon, president of ABC Owned Stations.

“This is a new venture to create an environment where we can experiment with new kinds of storytelling and new kinds of distribution.”

In addition to being among the top-rated broadcasters in their markets, the eight ABC stations have a big digital presence and massive social footprints. That makes them well equipped to serve what it seems as a demand for local programming and information.

McMahon says that nearly 50% of all Google searches have local intent and there’s been a 900% increase in search inquiries using the words “near me.”

”We believe in the mission of the ABC Owned Television Stations, which is to inform and reflect and to serve our communities.” she said. “We have so many amazing people in each of our communities. These fantastic stories of either hope or things to do with your family and your friends on weekends, that’s every bit as important to our communities on a day to day basis as some of the harder news stories that we produce.”

The first series produced under the Localish brand is More in Common, a series about celebrating unexpected connections between people. The show has been appearing on Facebook Watch’s new news section and attracted more than 9 million video views and 95,000 followers.

With the official launch this week of Localish, three more series are being added:

• Secretly Awesome, which introduces viewers to spots locals love

• My Go-To, which features local influencers bringing viewers into their favorite hangouts

• Worth the Wait, which tells whether the the long lines at the hotspots are really worth it.

“We often say this brand is very much created by for and about millennials. The content is produced in a way that is digital, mobile and video first. There’s an addressable audience of about 63 million people. So there is a real need and intent for this type of content,” says Jennifer Mitchell, senior VP content development, ABC Owned Television Station Group.

ABC did some research and found that millennials feel better about their communities they live in than the world at large. “We are better positioned to serve this need given the deep connections that we have and have had for decades in our local communities,” Mitchell said.

Other shows due to launch in October are based on data that shows that certain categories are interesting to Localish’s target audience. They include Staycation, a travel series, Bite Sized, about food and Pumped, a fitness series.

The content can be found on the the ABC.com website, the network’s iOS and Android apps and its over-the-top platforms including Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It will also be on Facebook Watch, Twitter, YouTube Instagram and syndicated via Oath and Apple News.

“We’re also thinking about a strategic play around over the top, meaning we may be thinking about popping up an OTT channel,” McMahon said.

Localish is looking to have a dual revenue stream. Some distributors, including Facebook Watch are paying for content and negotiations are underway to get fees from other platforms. Localish will also have national and local advertising,with enhanced targeting available on the local front.

“We are in the branded content business,” McMahon added. “That’s an opportunity for a product that wants to be a part of this very advertiser-friendly brand.

The ABC Stations will be promoting the new Localish content in its newscasts and other programming. Promotion and content will also appear on the stations’ digital sites, social handles and apps.

“In addition to being the market leaders in their respective DMAs they’re also a tremendous megaphone,” McMahon said. “Because of the connection that we have with our communities, our audiences trust that when we invite them to participate and be a part of something, we tend to get support there.”

Localish will also be supported by other Disney properties, including ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, Nightline and the Disney Digital Network.

There will also be paid media supporting the launch, with much of that social platforms.

“We’re talking about holding events in some of our markets and inviting people and businesses that have been featured in some of the content to attend, along with some of the influencers we’re working with as part of these series,” Mitchell added.

NEW YORK--CBS Corporation and the National Football League have announced an extended agreement to stream all NFL ON CBS games on “CBS All Access” through the 2022 season. CBS will also now expand its NFL game streaming access for “CBS All Access” subscribers and TV Everywhere to include mobile devices beginning this season, adding to its distribution across other connected device platforms.

The entire 2018 NFL ON CBS schedule, highlighted by Super Bowl LIII, will be streamed live on all “CBS All Access” platforms, including on mobile devices via the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, online at CBS.com, and on connected devices including Roku Players, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Fire TV, Samsung Smart TVs and Amazon Channels. “CBS All Access” subscribers will receive the NFL ON CBS games that are broadcast in their local market.

[Read: CBS All Access Scores NFL Games]

In addition to extending “CBS All Access” streaming rights to mobile devices for the first time, NFL ON CBS authenticated streaming rights will extend to mobile for its cable, satellite, telco and vMVPD partners beginning this season.

CBS began streaming NFL ON CBS games to “CBS All Access” subscribers on connected TVs, tablets and computers during the 2016 season. 

STOCKHOLM—TV viewing is on the move, literally. In eighth edition of its ConsumerLab TV and Media Report, Ericsson has learned that the traditional ways of watching TV are shifting. Among their findings are that more people are going mobile, on-demand continues to rise and that virtual reality will continue to make inroads with consumers.

By the time we reach 2020, Ericsson says that 50 percent of TV and video viewing will be mobile, with viewers watching on a tablet, laptop or smartphone screen; an 85 percent increase since 2010. The smartphone will particularly be popular, representing about a quarter of total TV viewing. Already, 70 percent of consumers say they now watch video on their smartphones, double what it was in 2012.

Ericsson reports that a consumer’s time spent watching TV and video content has hit an all-time high of 30 hours a week, including traditional linear, on-demand, and downloaded or recorded content. It’s on-demand content that is charging out ahead, with nearly 60 percent of viewers saying they prefer on-demand viewing over scheduled linear TV viewing. The number of on-demand services used by the average consumer has gone up from 1.6 in 2012 to 3.8 in 2017; two in five consumers said they already pay for on-demand TV services and 32 percent plan to increase their on-demand spending within the next year.

These trends are clearly evident in 16-19-year-olds, who are 33 hours a week view the most content of any age group. Ericsson found that more than half of the age group watches content on-demand and more than 60 percent of viewing hours spent on a mobile device.

While viewing time is up, so is the amount of time spent searching for content, per the report. The average time spent searching for content has increased nearly an hour a day, 13 percent higher than last year. Six in 10 consumers now consider content discovery “very important” when subscribing for a new service; 70 percent want universal search for all TV and video.

Consumers are also expected to continue to support VR, with a reported third of consumers projected to be VR users by 2020. Though there are still challenges. The price of headsets is an issue for 55 percent of consumers and more than half want more immersive content to be available. The idea of a VR bundle from TV and video providers is something of interest for a third of respondents.

The full report is available here.

While the list is largely consistent with 2016’s report, CTA identified a few notable changes within its annual top five rankings of most frequently owned tech devices in U.S. households:

1. Televisions: While household ownership remains steady at 96 percent owning at least one TV, the total number of units owned (308 million) decreased by three percent YOY, reflecting a very slight decrease in the number of TVs in use per household.
2. Smartphones: With smartphones reaching a record level of household penetration (80 percent), they jumped solidly into second place among the country’s most frequently owned tech products; the total number of smartphones owned also increased significantly to 238 million (up 13 percent).
3. DVD/Blu-ray players: After ranking second on this list for several years, household ownership levels dropped seven percentage points YOY (70 percent) and unit ownership fell 14 percentage points (142 million).
4. Wired headphones and earbuds: With the addition of earbuds, household ownership of this category now sits at 70 percent, boosting this audio technology up one spot from last year’s report; these are the country’s most frequently owned tech product by unit (352 million).
5. Notebooks, laptops or netbooks: While household ownership increased slightly (69 percent, up one percentage point), the category fell one spot in the rankings despite a 12 percent YOY jump in unit ownership.
   

ARLINGTON, VA.—Smartphones are now in 80 percent of U.S. homes, a six percentage point increase year-over-year. U.S. consumers now own 27 million more smartphones than they did just last year, according to new research from the Consumer Technology Association, which also indicated that TVs remain the most popular technology, with at least one in 96 percent of U.S. homes.

“Three of the top five most frequently owned technology devices are products with screens—televisions, smartphones and laptops—and those numbers will continue to grow as one-third of consumers tell us they’ll buy at least one smartphone in 2017, and one-fifth say they plan to buy a television or laptop in the coming year,” said Steve Koenig, senior director of market research for the CTA. “U.S. consumers are quickly embracing the rapid rise of today’s ‘screen culture,’ demonstrating their appetite for connected devices that enable easy and accessible consumption of content of all types.”

While CTA forecasts overall industry growth in 2016, the strong household penetration of mature categories, such as tablets, televisions, PCs and laptops, and continued industry innovation are declining or slowing growth and placing pressure on margins for some manufacturers and retailers. For example, despite a projected 65 percent increase in revenue for Ultra High-Definition TVs in 2016, CTA expects revenue for the overall TV market to not increase this year.

Smartphones and in-vehicle communications/safety systems saw the largest gains in household ownership among connected devices —both increasing by six percentage points YOY. Almost half (45 percent) of U.S. households now have at least one vehicle with a driver-assistive safety or communication system such as back-up sensors, rearview cameras or hands-free calling. Smart home devices, smart TVs, smartwatches, wearable activity trackers and wireless speakers each saw an increase in household ownership of four percent YOY.

Among emerging technologies, 4K Ultra HD television is enjoying the fastest growth in ownership. CTA’s research analysis shows 16 percent of U.S. households now own a 4K UHDTV, up nine percentage points YOY and 11 percent of U.S. households plan to purchase a 4K UHDTV in the coming year. Other emerging technologies expected to experience significant YOY ownership growth in the year to come include voice-activated digital assistants, drones and virtual reality headsets.

The 19th Annual Consumer Technology Ownership and Market Potential Study ascertains ownership and purchase intent of consumer technology products among U.S. households across various categories. The report was administered via a dual-frame telephone interview to 2,014 U.S. adults between Feb. 2-13, 2017. It is designed and formulated by CTA Market Research. The complete study is available for free for CTA member companies at CTA.tech/membership. Non-members may purchase the study at the CTA store.

Concurrently, statistics visualizer Statista reported that Americans spend 2 hours, 37 minutes a day, on average, on mobile electronics devices, up 80 percent over four years. (See graphic below.) Find more statistics at Statista

SEATTLE—Take it from a former news shooter: we news photogs are tough on equipment. We may take extra care with the camera and its lens. But other parts of our kit, including lights, batteries and camera support equipment, are going to get thrown around. So makers of gear on the go have to design ruggedness into those devices.

LIGHTING EQUIPMENT

One of the specs that buyers of news field gear look for when evaluating equipment is an IP65 rating, which means that the unit is dustproof and can withstand spray from waterjets for 15 minutes from any angle. That doesn’t allow immersion in water, though some manufacturers give anecdotal examples where a device was retrieved from a pond, dried out and put back in service. (Your results may differ.)

Flutoc Starmaker LED panel Getting the IP65 sand and waterproof rating means “you have to send your lights to a qualified, certified laboratory,” said Fluotec chief marketing officer Jose Noriega. He said it took the company nearly a year to design the Starmaker fixture to meet the test’s requirements. Since then it’s had a lot of news photog testing by storm-chasers.

Videssence looked at the detachable barn doors on many field lighting fixtures and saw a weakness. So on their Little Vid 50W LED fixture, barn doors are not removable. “That way the news guys can’t lose them when they’re working fast,” said Gary Thomas, the company’s national sales manager. The hinges on the barn doors can also be tightened with a screwdriver.

Litepanels’ Brick fixture sports a cast aluminum body that comprises the back and the sides. “There is nothing in the body to break apart,” said Byron Brown, global product manager. “And then there’s a one-piece lens that isn’t glued in place but uses an Oring and bolts into the aluminum body.”

“During development there’s a lot of environmental testing,” he said, “which is every bit as important as the optical and color performance.”

Walter Lefler, co-founder and chief technical officer at AAdynTech, said his response to any customer who dropped one of the company’s Jab Hurricane fixtures into water was the same as the food on the floor five-second rule: “If you pick it up in five seconds, you can still eat it.” A five second dunking should still allow the light to still be used—which it did—according to Lefler.

The soft illumination of a fluorescent tube lighting fixture is well known, but the fragility of those tubes has kept news photogs from deploying them in the field. BB&S Lighting developed its LED-based Pipeline system with the form factor of a fluorescent tube, but with a toughness that would give any light a run for its money. “It’s built with an all-aluminum backchannel, so you can’t bend it,” said company partner Toby Sali. “You can drive your car over it and not crush it.”

Cineo’s president and chief executive officer Rich Pierceall pointed to the Maverick as his company’s “tough-as-nails” news light. “Our products are built of anodized aluminum, which we find is the best balance between weight and structural rigidity,” he said. “And one way of keeping the on-light controls from being damaged is to recess them to keep them from being bumped.”

Frezzi’s SunLight LED fixture Pierceall said Cineo now offers strong but lightweight corrugated plastic cases a news cameraman is more likely to use to carry and protect his lights.

When Frezzi designed its new SunLight LED fixture, the housing followed company history, said Kevin Crawford, COO and vice president of engineering. “Lighting, for us has always been all metal chassis, aluminum or stainless steel, no plastics,” he said. “We also seal all the electronics inside the light, and we go to great pains with double wall housing so if there’s any water that gets in, it won’t reach any of the sensitive electronics.”

POWER SUPPLIES

With all the attention that fires from lithium ion batteries have drawn, makers of battery packs for news photographers have gone the extra mile to make sure that damage to the outside doesn’t cause the LI cells inside to burst into flame.

IDX HL9 battery packs IDX Systems designed its HL9 battery packs to be hermetically sealed. “The sealant process keeps the housing, the casing completely sealed,” said George Kusaba, marketing specialist. “This helps in terms of just keeping dust out, and keeping the internal structure of the battery safe, even if the case is dropped.”

On its newer battery packs, small molded ribs are wrapped around the inside of the battery. “They kind of just hold the cells in place,” Kusaba said. “So if it were to be dropped, it would provide structural support.”

Anton/Bauer’s product manager Andrew Butler noted that in addition to the ruggedness of battery pack cases, they need “a lot of levels of electronic safety protection built into them.” As an example, if one cell degenerates it will draw power from other cells around it, which can begin a cascade. “So our batteries are designed to avoid that propagation, with fusing between the cells.” He said that one final measure of safety is a current interruption device. “It’s basically a diaphragm that disconnects the internal electrodes of the battery from the outside, and it renders the battery completely inert.”

Kevin Crawford of Frezzi echoed the importance of electronic protection so that a lithium ion battery pack takes itself offline if its operation gets out of specification. And he remembered that less attention was needed in the cell packing when NiCad batteries were used. “With lithium ion cells, we use a special technique and foam so assure there’s no movement inside.”

Libec’s RSP-750 tripod systemTRIPOD SYSTEMS

Jose Larios head of sales and marketing for Libec, pointed to his company’s RSP-750 tripod system as the news cameraman’s camera support that can stand up to rough treatment. “[Both the carbon fiber and aluminum] legs can withstand hits and so on, and not bend or break. At worst, they might get a small scratch.”

And though Libec hasn’t had any returns because of damage to its RSP head in the five years it’s been sold, they designed it for quick repair. “The head’s designed sectionally, so for example if it falls and gets a really hard impact, and something chips, you’re able to replace just that section, you don’t have to replace the whole head,” he said. “It’s not going to be a very large cost; you just have to replace that section.”

Shotoku has had a lot of experience building tripod systems for outdoor broadcast remotes before it undertook design on its SH 100 tripod system, aimed at news shooters. “We kind of back-engineered from that point of view,” said Graham Ramsey, senior advisor at Shotoku Broadcast Systems. “We’ve learned it’s better for the knob to break than for the internals to break. Replacing a knob is quite easy. Sacrificial failure of the knob is better than causing damage internally.”

Providers of field news gear put their prototypes through a series of tests to make sure they’ll hold up. According to Sachtler’s Tobias Keuthen, director and global product marketing management at The Vitec Group, they test their Video 18 tripod leg brakes through 30-thousand cycles. “That means that you open the clamps, you release the legs, you push the legs back in and close the clamp again, 30,000 times,” he said. “And we do this under different environments.”

Gus Harilaou, regional manager, The Americas, for Miller Camera Support said the company’s System ArrowX 3 Sprinter II is ready for rough treatment. “We do not use any plastics or composites,” he said. “Everything’s machined metal. Even with the constant banging around, it doesn’t really affect or damage the head internally.”

STOCKHOLM—Ericsson has released its bi-annual Mobility Report and it highlights the change in video consumption as a result of smart devices, most notably in teens. The report forecasts that the annual rate of growth of mobile video traffic is expected to be around 55 percent through 2021, when it is expected to make up about 70 percent of all mobile data traffic.

Ericsson’s report states, that since 2011, younger generations have helped lead an increase in streamed video viewing. From 2011-2015, the report says that there has been an 85 percent increase of teens watching TV/video content on smartphones, while a nearly 50 percent decrease in time watching traditional TV. Teens watching on mobile screens also tend to do so more at all parts of the day. Teen’s usage of cellular data for smartphones grew a reported 127 percent from July 2014-October 2015. And while the 30-35 age group had a greater increase over that same time period, overall video consumption was a fifth of the teen’s.

“While TV and video viewership is changing for everyone, it’s telling that today’s teens are driving this evolving behavior from traditional TV viewing to streaming video on their smartphones,” said Elisabetta Romano, vice president and head of TV and Media at Ericsson.

It’s not just with smartphones, as the report points out, video is the largest contributor to traffic volumes for mobile PC (41 percent), smartphones (43 percent), and tablets (55 percent). YouTube is still the most popular source of video traffic for mobile networks, accounting between 50 and 70 percent of total video traffic regardless of terminal type. The growth of mobile video traffic has also been boosted by the embedding of videos on social media and web pages.

Ericsson concludes with its report on mobile video traffic that mobility is no longer an optional extra for viewers.

To see Ericsson’s full mobility report, click here.

NEW YORK—Using the stage of Fox’s broadcast of “Grease Live!” back in January, Viacom Media Networks Music and Entertainment Group launched its Atlas remote production unit equipped with Lawo’s mc266 audio console.

The Atlas mobile audio production unit is made up of two 53-foot trailers. It features an installed mc266 console that consists of a main section with central mix positioning containing 48 faders. The console also comes with two 16 fader wings mounted left and right that can be used to from an 80 fader mixing desk or as auxiliary mix positions. The system infrastructure supports 384 channels and includes 240 mic pre-amps.

In addition, Lawo’s Nova 73 routing technology is part of the console core where all audio routing is performed and can be controlled by either the A1 or the EIC from multiple points within the truck or remotely. Three DALLIS Stageboxes and a plug-in server were also provided by Lawo.

According to Lawo, this is the latest collaboration with Viacom’s remote production units, currently appearing on five audio production units.

WATERLOO, ONTARIO—Dejero has released a new update to its Live+ Mobile app for journalists. Among the new features are improved stabilization abilities, an enhanced audio meter, and support for new microphones and real-time analytics.

With the new version of the Live+, users can enable image stabilization on iPhone 5s and up. In addition, Dejero has boosted the app’s audio meter to better reflect the sound environment, according to the company. Support for mics with lighter connector cables is also a new feature for the app.

In addition, the company has announced that the app now supports real-time analytics in Live+ Control, Dejero’s cloud-based management system. The new feature analyzes both live and historical stream performance data, including network connections and glass-to-glass latency.

Dejero is expected to demonstrate the updated Live+ at Mojocon in Dublin.

SYDNEY—Australian-based Technical Direction Company is hitting the road with what the company says is its first mobile outside broadcast vehicle offering full HD broadcast and production facilities. TDC’s HD01 is equipped with products from Sony, Imagine Communications, Riedel, Fujinon, Miller and Yamaha.

TDC HD01

Among the gear installed in the OB vehicle is Imagine’s 256x256 Platinum router with built-in multiviewers. Mixing is provided by Yamaha’s CL5, with the Yamaha QL1 serving as sub-mix and backup. Sony provided its 3ME MVS-6530 vision switcher, as well as OLED monitors throughout the truck. Fujinon lenses and Miller tripod support were added for TDC’s HDC-1700 cameras and 4K/Super Slomo HDC-4300 cameras. In addition, Riedel communications equipment was put in place and the truck is wired to support eight and 12 channel EVS systems.

TDC provides broadcast and video technology systems for TV shows, theater, concerts and outdoor events.

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE—Fans will be able to travel down the mountain with the skiers competing in the 2016 Kandahar Men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup by using the Vogo Sport mobile sports replay application. Mobile technology provider Vogo is working with Chamonix Mont-Blanc Sports Club to offer the mobile application to fans.

By utilizing Vogo Sport, fans in the finishing corral will be able to access live footage from different cameras throughout the slope to their smartphones or tablets. Replay, slow motion and zoom options are also available via the Vogo Sport application.

The app is free for spectators and is available for download through the Apple App Store or Google Play store.

The 2016 Kandahar Men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup will take place Feb. 19-20 in the Chamonix Mont-Blanc Valley in France.

NEW YORK—A couple of major snow storms hit both the East Coast and the Midwest in recent weeks. To get necessary emergency weather information, the Television Bureau of Advertising revealed as part of an analysis, people often turn to their local TV stations’ digital platforms, creating large traffic spikes for the stations’ online and mobile sites.

During Winter Storm Jonas, station websites for East Coast broadcasters like WGAL, covering Harrisonburg, Lancaster, Lebanon and York, Pa., generated 10 million page views and 1.7 million sessions, according to the analysis, more than five times its normal traffic. The report also indicates that WBAL in Baltimore doubled its app users, tripled its total online sessions, and had quadrupled its page views.

In the Midwest, during a winter storm that took place on Feb. 2, markets also saw mass jumps in traffic. The website of KQDS in Duluth, Minn., had a 400 percent increase in page views from the previous day. KAAL in Rochester, Minn., saw its site and app traffic more than double compared to the previous day, and increase six times from the daily average in January. Stations in Minneapolis and Sioux Falls, S.D., tripled in page views and number of visits.

These results appear to back-up the study “American Conversation” by Keller Fray, which claims people seeking local and regional news visit local TV station websites more frequently than social media platforms, national TV websites and all other Internet sites.

“Data confirms that when vital information is most in demand, local residents not only predominantly rely on local broadcast TV for local and regional news updates, they are also utilizing local TV station websites as a primary source for timely updates and information, especially during weather emergencies” said Steve Lanzano, president and CEO of TVB.

HAMBURG, GERMANY—IBM asked more than 5,000 C-level executives from 70 countries which technologies they thought would be most important in the next three to five years. Guess what’s No. 1. Statista’s Felix Richter charted the results:




See more visualized data at Statista.

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—Ericsson is forcasting 150 million 5G mobile subscriptions by 2021 in its latest Mobility Report. South Korea, Japan, China and the United States are predicted to lead with initial and fastest 5G uptake.

The report indicates a significant increase in mobile video consumption, which is expected to drive around six times higher traffic volumes per smartphone in North America and Europe between 2015 and 2021. North America data traffic per active smartphone is projected to grow from 3.8 to 22 GB per month by 2021; in Western Europe, the increase is from 2 to 18 GB per month.

Ericsson says that there are 20 new mobile broadband subscriptions activated every second. As of now, there are the same amount of mobile subscriptions as there are people on the planet. By next year, Ericsson says smartphone subscriptions will hit the 4 billion mark.

Rima Qureshi, senior vice president and chief strategy officer of Ericsson, says 5G will enable new types of Internet-based services.

“For example, Ericsson has built a prototype testbed for applying 5G networking functions and data analytics to public transport, which can save resources, reduce congestion, and lower environmental impact. ICT transformation will become even more common across industries as 5G moves from vision to reality in the coming years.”

Other highlights from the latest Ericsson Mobility Report include:

• Video dominates data traffic: Global mobile data traffic is forecast to grow 10x by 2021, and video is forecast to account for 70 percent of total mobile traffic in the same year. In many networks today, YouTube accounts for up to 70 percent of all video traffic, while Netflix's share of video traffic can reach as high as 20 percent in markets where it is available.
  
• Mainland China overtakes the United States as world's largest LTE market: By the end of 2015, Mainland China will have 350 million LTE subscriptions - nearly 35 percent of the world's total LTE subscriptions. The market is predicted to have 1.2 billion LTE subscriptions by 2021.
  
• Africa becomes an increasingly connected continent: Five years ago (2010) there were 500 million mobile subscriptions across Africa; by the end of 2015 this number will double to 1 billion. Increased connectivity improves the prospect of financial inclusion for the 70 percent unbanked through mobile money services starting to take form across Africa.
  
• Information and communications technology powers the low-carbon economy:ICT will enable savings in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions across all other industrial sectors. The total emission reduction could be up to 10 gigatonnes of CO2e, representing about 15 percent of global GHG emissions in 2030—more than the current carbon footprint of the United States and European Union combined.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.—TVU Networks is getting in the huddle with the Carolina Panthers, as the live IP video technology provider will help capture and transmit video from post-game press conferences and interviews. To do so, the Panthers have deployed the TVUPack wireless uplink backpack during the weekly Game Day wrap-up show.

The TVUPack is a modular IP newsgathering product that enables broadcasters to capture and broadcast live HD video over multiple cellular, satellite, microwave, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max and BGAN connections. TVUPack features proprietary Inverse StatMux Plus technology designed to deliver HD quality picture with under one second latency.

TVU Networks is based in Mountain View, Calif.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.—Television Broadcast Satellite, a 24-hour news network in Taiwan, has announced it is deploying TVU Network’s TVU One and TVU Anywhere app to expand its mobile IP video transmission capabilities. TVBS previously used TVU’s TVUPack cellular uplink backpacks.

TVU One

TVU One is a live, mobile IP newsgathering transmitter that uses the same transmission resiliency, performance, video picture quality and sub-second latency as the TVUPack, but in a smaller, lightweight and compact form factor. TVU One also features TVU’s Inverse StatMux Plus.

The TVU Anywhere is a smart device-based app that allows broadcasters to use their smartphones or laptops as a high quality, low latency video transmitter.

Located in Mountain View, Calif., TVU Networks is a provider of IP-based live video technologies.

AMSTERDAM—European Broadcast Development, a service company for the Italian media and broadcast industry, has announced it is going with TVU to supply and replace current live mobile video content equipment. EBD will now employ TVU’s TVU One, TVUPack and TVU MLink.

TVUPack

TVU One is a compact mobile IP newsgathering transmitter based off of the TVUPack backpack transmitter. The TVUPack enables broadcasters to capture and broadcast live HD video over multiple cellular, satellite, microwave, Wi-Fi, WiMax and BGAN connections. The TVU MLink is a one RU unit that brings cellular 3G/4G LTE transmission capabilities to satellite and microwave vehicles and trucks. All three products feature TVU’s Inverse StatMux Plus.

TVU is a provider of IP-based live video technology based in Mountain View, Calif.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

STOCKHOLM—Ericsson has released the 2015 edition of its annual Ericsson ConsumerLab TV & Media Report and the big winner this year is video on-demand. According to the report, VOD now represents 35 percent of all TV and video viewing. The report also revealed new numbers on viewership on smartphones and for user-generated content.

Ericsson found that consumers are spending on average six hours per week watching streamed on-demand content; more than double what it was in 2011. Including recorded and downloaded content, the report claims that every third viewing hour is spent watching VOD.

The report also indicated a growth in the number of people watching content on their mobile devices. A total of 61 percent of consumers watch content on their smartphone, an increase of 71 percent since 2012. Teenagers spend nearly two –thirds of their time watching TV and video on a mobile device when the numbers from smartphones, tablets and laptops are combined.

The growth of user-generated content was also a topic of Ericsson’s report, showing a growth in share of consumers’ viewing time. The report shows that one in 10 people watch YouTube more than three hours a day, and one in three consider it important to access user-generated content on their home TV. Educational and instructional videos have also seen an increase in viewership from sites like YouTube, with an average of 73 minutes/week being watch by consumers.

“The continued rise of streamed video on demand and UCG services reflects the importance of three specific factors to today’s viewers: great content, flexibility, and a high-quality overall experience,” said Anders Erlandsson, senior advisor, Ericsson ConsumerLab.

Additional findings from the report include bingeing habits, content searches, linear TV popularity, and OTT vs. pay-TV. The full report can be viewed here.

NEW YORK—As NBC’s iconic “Saturday Night Live” approached its 40th anniversary earlier this year, the idea of creating an app came up. But, says Michael Martin, senior vice president, product, technology & operations at NBC Entertainment Digital, they had to think long and hard about whether to proceed. “Consumers are much more discerning and careful as to whether they want to go through the steps of downloading an app and taking up phone storage,” he says. “The bar is pretty high nowadays.” Discoverability is also an issue; experts estimate there are more than 3 million total apps for Apple and Android.

A successful app, Martin and his group decided, had to fulfill two criteria: It had to perform a utility really well and communicate that utility easily, and the assets had to be unique enough to merit its own app. Forty years of SNL has produced 800 episodes with roughly 6,000 individual comedy sketches. But the library had already been digitally available for some time, and Martin was troubled at how viewers consumed the content. “Fundamentally people were snacking on that content,” he said. “The consumption would be to watch one or less than one clip of the newest, latest, most topical video.”

Michael Martin, senior vice president, product, technology & operations at NBC Entertainment Digital

A MYRIAD OF DESCRIPTIONS
How to make every season and every sketch more discoverable and valuable was the challenge. One advantage the digital group had was NBC’s 40 years of audience research. The first important piece of information gleaned was just how much more varied the sketches were, by season, cast members, guest stars, topics, categories and many other factors. “We realized that there were scores, if not hundreds of facets that could describe an individual sketch,” he says. “We needed something different than the typical recommendation engines, based on commonality in consumption patterns. Those patterns didn’t hold for this content.”

They hired what they called a “metadata army” of people who took four months to go through all 6,000 sketches, recataloguing them for the hundreds of defined facets. “The semantic model is very flexible,” said Martin. “It isn’t just the facets that are important but their relationship to one another.” The sketches were ultimately connected by 33,000 relationships. “It became an incredibly dense model, so we can take some of what we learned from audience research and put a prediction engine on top of it,” he adds.

Eddie Lee, vice president of technology for NBC Entertainment Digital, was responsible for building the prediction engine from scratch. “We tried to apply and re-use some of the traditional, off-the-shelf recommendation engines, but they couldn’t deal with our model,” Lee says.

The app and website—powered by the MarkLogic Enterprise NoSQL database platform— integrate, manage and search the database. “Building the prediction engine took two to three months, constructing and iterating it,” he said. “It included connection between the CMS [content management system] and the database, built on top of MarkLogic using our resources and our set of rules.” The system also has enterprise traits for security, data integrity, and scalability.

More than 100 million clips have been streamed since the SNL Official App was released in February.

SWIPING FOR APPROVAL
Also critical was an interface mechanism that let users interact with the content, and, the team hoped, turn a snack into a meal. The User Experience team came up with a gesture-based function that provided real- time feedback to the engine. “We didn’t want to give the user a choice of thumbs up or thumbs down,” Martin said. “The user wouldn’t just perceive that as work but it’s too simplistic to get the outcome we were looking for.”
Instead, if the viewer swipes left, he or she gets a new video. “If you’ve watched 75 percent of that first video, we assume that you liked most of it and will harvest facets that we’ll serve in the second and third video,” says Martin. “If you swipe it very quickly, we assume that you didn’t like that one whatsoever and revise the model accordingly. And if you swipe five or six videos very quickly, we’ll put you on another path, in a totally non-technical way.”

Swiping up and down to add to favorites is another way that the app signals viewer preferences about the sketches. “We built that interface into a product in a way that we don’t have to spend any time up front to explain it to the consumer,” said Martin. “But it also results in a high-quality data stream.” He also notes that the data is completely anonymous. The UE design was recently nominated for an Interactive Emmy for outstanding user interface.

The response to the app has been stronger than Martin and his team could have anticipated. “We had over 100 million clips streamed to the app,” he said. “Most critical, we definitely unlocked binging. On average, people who were consuming less than one sketch in the past are now watching several to a dozen sketches.”

Since its February release, the team has continually updated the app and is now at version 1.3.1. “We’ve extended capabilities and added new features and polished some things to make predictions better,” Martin said. And the team has also prepared some entirely new features for the opening of SNL’s 41st season, Oct. 3. “We are adding new social features so people can share their personalized experiences with family and friends,” Martin added. “We’re also looking for the opportunity to get the cast and show more involved in curating and highlighting content. And our emoji library will expand to include new cast members.”

The app is free and available on iOS and Android (www.nbc.com/saturday-nightlive/app).

LOS ANGELES—Fox Sports Digital has announced that is has acquired assets from StraightCast Media, which was founded by former NFL players Jeb Terry and Ryan Nece. In addition to the acquisition, Fox Sports Digital has appointed Terry as its new vice president of program management.

One of the StraightCast Media assets that Fox has acquired as part of this deal is Gridiron Grunts, a mobile app that captures video that can be shared across multiple platforms. NFL players have used the app to share game previews, behind-the-scenes insight, and as a forum to answer fan questions.

Fox Sports partnered with StraightCast during the 2014 NFL season for a segment on its “Fox NFL Sunday” program. Fox now plans to expand StraightCast Media’s reach to other sports, including MLB, UFC, soccer and golf.

Tom Butts,

Editor-in-Chief

tbutts@nbmedia.com
Most broadcasters who are integrating more social media into their programming—both on-air and online—are doing so in managed and measured ways that emphasize relevancy and effectiveness. In other words, before taking the plunge, TV stations are trying to determine what is “just enough” or “too much,” as well as formulating specific plans when engaging with their audiences through services such as Facebook, Twitter and similar popular networks.

This is the conclusion of last month’s report from the Radio Television Digital News Association, in which the organization partnered with Hofstra University to survey about 150 TV news directors about the growing use of social media in broadcasts. The annual survey showed that stations are developing specific plans for dealing with social media, including setting up schedules for staffers to post (with a de-emphasis on automation and emphasizing more targeted efforts), and hiring new staffers focused solely on social media. A common element however, is that most are moving forward with specific goals in mind. Some stations are more interested in engaging with their audience through online “conversations” while others are using social networks to provide a behind-the-scenes look at their facilities. Twitter seemed to be the most popular social media network, although Facebook also rated high.

TBS staff members work on social media postings.
Sports networks are also measuring the effectiveness of their social media efforts. ESPN is well known for its active engagement with its audience via social networks but regional sports networks are also getting better connected with their viewers as well. As Mark Smith reports on our p. 1 story on social networking in sports programming, network directors are trying to strike a balance between knowing when and where to integrate it into their schedules. Some are incorporating it into all of their programming while others reserve it for special events. “There’s a fine line between using it to enhance your broadcast and overdoing it,” said one RSN producer.

The same RTDNA survey also asked stations about their mobile efforts and found that, unexpectedly, stations have slightly pulled back on their mobile efforts than in the previous annual survey. Last year, more respondents were focused on developing strategies while this year, the emphasis was on execution. Weather and mobile news streaming apps were the most popular services cited in the survey.

As the RTDNA survey illustrateS, broadcasters are not standing still when it comes to using social media and mobile apps. But unlike their online counterparts who often burn out too quickly, they’re planning ahead, and using their expertise in programming and demographics to more fully engage with their viewers.

ALAMEDA, CALIF. – Clear-Com is now shipping the Agent-IC, a new mobile app that allows users to access the Eclipse-HX Matrix intercom systems remotely from an iPhone or iPad. The app is able to connect studio staff and OB teams in remote locations, or crews working live events.

Agent-IC app for iPad and iPhone

Agent-IC comes with point-to-point calling, point-to-multi-point group calling, partyline, PTT, local-cross point audio level control and notification functions. Eclipse-HX manages the app with central administration control and comes with secure NSA-approved audio encryption.

The interface is designed like a dedicated intercom panel, which allows users to monitor and/or contribute to assigned matrix resources. The app features G.722 codec and is accessible via multiple IP networks, with user selectable optimization for network conditions.

Agent-IC can be downloaded directly from the App Store by iPhone and iPad users with iOS 8.0 or later. It will also be present at IBC 2015 at the Clear-Com booth, 10.D29.

PORTLAND, ORE. & LONDON – Looking to get its over-the-top TV and mobile services off the ground, Sky, a U.K. pay TV provider, has gone with Elemental Technologies to process and deliver Now TV and Sky Go.

Now TV is Sky’s OTT TV service; Sky Go is its mobile service. The Sky OTT service infrastructure now uses Elemental Live as the video processing engine in a workflow controlled by Elemental Conductor. Sky channel IP inputs will be fed to Elemental Live software during live streaming, which will encode original and aggregated linear content in real time for delivery to mobile devices and the web. The Sky VOD workflow uses Elemental Server systems to transcode content into multiple formats and encrypt it for high-quality, protected output to consumer devices over the Sky Content Delivery Network.

A supplier of software-defined video solutions for multiscreen content delivery, Elemental Technologies is based in Portland, Ore. 

LONDON – Motive Television PLC has announced that is has developed the Mobile Personal Video Recorder for ATSC. Based on proprietary Motive software, Mobile PVR has the ability to time shift over-the-air programs seen on tablets and mobile devices, and works with the TabletTV app and TPOD.

TabletTV features the One-Touch Recording feature, which permits pausing, playing and recording current programs, but Mobile PVR now allows users to schedule recordings up to seven days in advance and then watch them at their convenience.

Mobile PVR will be introduced as a BETA version in July to existing users of TabletTV. It will become available to the general public in September.

Motive Television is a provider of technology for the broadcast and pay TV industry that is based in the U.K.