SANTA MONICA, Calif.—In a bid to create a new revenue stream, Snapchat has launched a new $3.99 a month subscription service Snapchat+. 

The service has launched in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, with more territories to follow, the company said. 

The company’s stock has lost about one third of its value in the last six months, and the company has been under pressure to boost revenue, which is currently based on advertising. 

The new service will include ads but offer subscribers “a collection of exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features available in Snapchat,” the company said. “This subscription will allow us to deliver new Snapchat features to some of the most passionate members of our community and allow us to provide prioritized support.”

The service is targeted to avid users and joins subscription services recently launched by Twitter and Telegraph. 

Currently more than 332 million people worldwide use Snapchat every day, the company said. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—TVU Networks and monetization platform InPlayer have formed a strategic partnership to offer existing and future TVU customers access to InPlayer’s pay-per-view and subscription tools, TVU said this week. TVU will highlight the partnership at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

The partnership, which makes the InPlayer platform available for use with any TVU product, creates a complete production, streaming and monetization workflow, it said.

“This partnership enables our customers and prospective customers to turn content they produce into a direct, revenue stream,” said Paul Shen, CEO of TVU Networks. “This integration breaks down barriers for our clients and creates new business opportunities for them. Our relationship with InPlayer is at the heart of TVU – to empower content creators.”

InPlayer will enable video producers and others to generate pay-per-view and subscription revenue from fans of their content. The scalable platform manages the complete monetization process, including authentication, entitlement, payment and customer support, TVU said.

A variety of tools to help users maximize transactions, including support for discount and access codes, free trials, merchandise, syndication, live chat and fan engagement, gift vouchers and donations. API-driven, the InPlayer platform offers users customizations and white label options, it said.

“Within the sports world, it’s becoming more commonplace for content owners to take their video and other assets direct to the fan," said Edit Kovács, Chief Product Officer InPlayer. “With the TVU Networks/InPlayer combination, any owner, event or organization has a complete workflow to bring that content directly to the viewer.”

See TVU Networks in NAB Show booth W3806. 

More information is available on the company’s website.

SEATTLE—Amazon Prime subscriptions has surpassed the 200 million mark, according to a recent shareholders letter. This letter is the last from Jeff Bezos before he steps down as CEO of Amazon.

Amazon Prime is the membership platform that gives users access to special deals through the Amazon website and access to the Amazon Prime Video streaming service.

Reports had Amazon Prime subscription numbers at around 150 million prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. So in the last year they have added 50 million subscribers. That is an increased growth rate, according to Yahoo Finance reporter Daniel Howley, who said it took Amazon two years to get from 100 million subscribers to 150 million.

In the ongoing streaming wars, the 200 million subscription figure puts Amazon Prime just behind Netflix, which reported it passed the 200 million subscription mark in January. Meanwhile, Disney+ has experienced major growth in its year-plus of existence, hitting 100 million subscribers in March.

Globally, there are now a reported 1 billion streaming subscriptions. 

NEW YORK—fuboTV shared its second quarter 2020 financial results, where it hopes that the adage of “you have to spend money to make money” proves true as its operating costs mitigated year-over-year growths in revenue.

The total operating expenses for fuboTV in the quarter were $111.5 million. These included a $9.1 million increase in subscriber expenses to $53.1 million and an increase of general and administrative expenses of $8.2 million ($17.3 million including stock-based compensation), an increase of $5.4 million. This led to a net loss of $99.8 million for Q2 despite reporting $44.2 million in revenue, up 53% year-over-year.

That $44.2 million was driven by subscriber growth, with subscription revenue increasing 51% year-over-year to $39.5 million. At the end of Q2, fuboTV had 286,126 paid subscribers, up 47% from the same time last year. Advertising revenue also increased year-over-year by 71% for a total of $4.3 million.

Additional data shared by fuboTV includes the total content hours streamed by fuboTV users (both paid and free trial), which totaled 98.6 million hours, was up 83% from Q2 2019.

This is the first financial report from fuboTV since it merged with FaceBank Group in April of this year.

In a letter to shareholders, fuboTV CEO David Gandler said the company was on the “path to profitability,” saying that they expect to close the third quarter 2020 with 340,000-350,000 total subscriptions. The company also recently closed a multi-year carriage agreement with Disney Media Networks, including ESPN, and has been growing out its fubo Sports Network ad-supported linear channel with new content, per Gandler.

For more information, visit ir.fubo.tv.  

NEW YORK—fuboTV, a vMVPD streaming service, has reported significant growth in both its number of subscribers and its total revenue from the first quarter of 2020, which ended on March 31.

Financial filings shared by FaceBank Group Inc., which merged with fuboTV in April of this year, show that the streaming service’s revenue for Q1 was $51 million, a 78% increase from Q1 2019. The company cites growth in subscriptions, subscription Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and advertising sales as key contributors to the increase. Specifically, the number of paid subscribers at the end of Q1 was 287,316, an increase of 37% year-over-year, while the ARPU per month was $54.16, an increase of 25% year-over-year.

Other key statistics from the filing detail that the total streaming hours by fuboTV users (paid and free trial) in the first quarter increased 120% to 107.2 million hours. Monthly active users watched 120 hours per month on average in the quarter, an increase of 52% from 2019. Additionally, fuboTV says that early findings from Q2 2020, while most people have sheltered at home due to COVID-19, shows viewing hours have peaked at 8.5 hours per day and 145 hours per month.

Other financial news from fuboTV includes the strengthening of the company’s balance sheet with an additional $46 million in equity funding from institutional and private investors since the merger with FaceBank, including $20 million from Credit Suisse Capital.

fuboTV also recently signed a deal with the Walt Disney Company to add ESPN and other Disney-owned content to its programming.

“We believe fuboTV is at the forefront of the streaming revolution and has a significant advantage not only over peers in the vMVPD space but also over traditional cable television,” said David Gandler, fuboTV CEO, in a letter to shareholders. “We believe consumers will continue to choose streaming over traditional pay television because of this more personalized, premium viewing experience that is also less expensive.”

For more information, visit www.fubo.tv.  

Portland, OR – November 25, 2019 –Red Giant today announced the availability of Red Giant Complete for individuals, students and teachers. Expanding its software licensing options, Red Giant Complete is a subscription service that gives editors, motion designers and VFX artists all Red Giant tools at one low price – Trapcode Suite, Magic Bullet Suite, Universe, VFX Suite and Shooter Suite. With Red Giant Complete, annual subscribers will have the most up-to-date versions of all tools, saving thousands of dollars over traditional perpetual licenses.

Watch now:Red Giant Complete

“Red Giant Complete has been available to our volume customers for years, with thousands of licenses in use at broadcast networks, film studios and universities. And now, due to popular demand, we're really excited to offer subscription licensing to all of our customers,” says Chad Bechert, CEO of Red Giant. “At the same time, nothing has changed. While we think Red Giant Complete is an incredible deal, we know some customers are more comfortable buying software the traditional way. We want to make sure our community of talented artists has what it needs, so we’re continuing to offer perpetual licenses at their usual prices.”

Red Giant Complete is $599 a year for individuals or $299 for students and teachers. Check out the Red Giant blog to learn more about how to switch over to Red Giant Complete and why now is the best time to make the switch, with a special, limited-time-only introductory offer for established Suite customers (see more details below).

The Benefits of Red Giant Complete

· All Access – Red Giant Complete gives artists full access to the complete set of Red Giant tools – including all four product suites and Universe.

· Up-to-Date – Red Giant Complete includes free upgrades, so users will always have the latest editing, motion graphics and VFX tools, the moment they are updated.

· Big Savings – With Red Giant Complete, individuals, students and teachers will save thousands of dollars. Buying all Red Giant tools would normally cost $3,495. With subscription pricing it would take over 5 years to pay the same amount for perpetual licenses – and that wouldn’t include upgrade costs.

Red Giant Complete includes:

· Trapcode Suite (reg. $999): The industry’s most essential tools for creating 3D motion graphics and visual effects in Adobe® After Effects®, now with the Dynamic Fluids™ physics engine.

· Magic Bullet Suite (reg. $899): Widely used for color correction, finishing and film looks, Magic Bullet Suite 13 gives editors and filmmakers everything needed to make footage look great, right on editing timelines.

· Universe (reg. $199/year): Red Giant’s collection of over 80 GPU-accelerated plugins for editors and motion graphics artists.

· VFX Suite (reg. $999): The all-new suite of keying, tracking, cleanup and visual effects compositing tools, all right inside Adobe After Effects.

· Shooter Suite (reg. $399): Shooter Suite 13.0 is a set of purpose-built applications, including the industry-leading PluralEyes, that give directors of photography, videographers, shooters and filmmakers the ability to bring footage from set to post.

Total if purchased separately: $3,495

Red Giant Complete: $599/YEAR

Upgrade Now for 50% Off Red Giant Complete

For those with current Red Giant licenses for any product suite, or an active subscription to Universe, Red Giant is offering a special upgrade to Red Giant Complete for just $299 - that’s 50% off the first year of Red Giant Complete*.

· Use Coupon Code: RGC50

· Upgrade Offer Ends: 2/25/20

Students and teachers who own any Red Giant Suite or have an active subscription to Universe, Red Giant is offering a special upgrade to Red Giant Complete for just $149.

· Use Coupon Code: RGC50A

· Upgrade Offer Ends: 2/25/20

* The offer of 50% off Red Giant Complete for individuals, students and teachers is valid for only the first year of an annual subscription.

Red Giant Complete for Volume Customers

If you are a business buying five or more licenses, check out Red Giant’s Volume Program (https://www.redgiant.com/volume/), which includes additional business-focused features such as floating licenses, remote deployment, advanced support, training and more.

Compatibility

Red Giant Complete is made up of several different suites, each with its own set of tools and relative compatibility info. Every tool runs on Mac and Windows and is compatible with Adobe After Effects, while some of the tools also work in additional host-applications. Visit the Red Giant compatibility page to learn more about each product.

The Red Pledge

Red Pledge is Red Giant’s commitment to customer happiness, with no purchasing hassles. Learn about the Red Pledge guarantee at www.redgiant.com/company/red-pledge/.

Request a Red Giant Complete Media Review Kit

Members of the media are invited to review Red Giant Complete as well as any individual tools or product suites from Red Giant. For more information or to request a product review kit, please contact Megan Linebarger at megan@zazilmediagroup.com.

About Red Giant

Red Giant is a software company made up of talented artists and technologists who collaborate to create unique tools for filmmakers, editors, VFX artists, and motion designers. Our company culture is focused on finding balance between work and life – we call it “the double bottom line” – this philosophy helps us ignore complexity in favor of building simple tools that yield giant results. Over the last decade, our products (like Magic Bullet, Trapcode, Universe and PluralEyes) have become the standard in film and broadcast post-production. With over 250,000 users, it’s nearly impossible to watch 20 minutes of TV without seeing our software in use. From our experiences as artists and filmmakers, we aspire to not only provide tools for artists, but inspiration as well. Watch our films, learn from over 200 free tutorials, or try our software at www.redgiant.com.

Press Contact

Megan Linebarger

Zazil Media Group

(e) megan@zazilmediagroup.com

(p) +1 (617) 480-3674

NEW YORK—When 2019 comes to a close, Netflix will still be the most popular OTT streaming service in the U.S., but it isn’t all sunshine and roses according to a new report from eMarketer. Netflix will have 158.8 million viewers of the 182.5 million people using OTT services in 2019 (87%), and yet its share of the market has declined as other services, most notably Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, have made inroads.

In 2014, Netflix had a 90% share of the streaming market. Now, even as its subscriber base is expected to grow from 158.8 million this year to 177.5 million by 2023, its share of the total market is expected to continue to decrease to a projected 86.3% in 2023.

Hulu is one of the streamers taking the biggest bite out of Netflix’s share. Estimates from eMarketer expect Hulu to reach 75.8 million viewers in 2019, 41.5% of the subscription OTT market and a 17.5% growth in viewers year-over-year with 2018—though that is down from the growth Hulu say in 2018, when it shot up 49.6%.

Amazon Prime Video is slated to remain the second most-popular service behind Netflix, with 96.5 million subscribers (52.9% market share). OTT subscribers across all of the services account for 55.3% of the U.S. population, says eMarketer.

“The market for streaming video has been driven by an explosion in high-end original content and low subscription costs relative to traditional pay TV,” said Eric Haggstrom, eMarketer forecasting analysis. “A strong customer appetite for new shows and movies has driven viewer growth for services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, as well as the broader market.”

That appetite will continue to be satiated with the launches of new streaming services from Disney (which also owns Hulu), Apple and NBC Universal, which will all start to earn their own shares of the market. Haggstrom concludes that the biggest challenge to Netflix may come from Disney.

“While there is no true ‘Netflix killer’ on the market, Disney’s upcoming bundle with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ probably comes closest,” he said. “Netflix’s answer has been to stick to what made it the market leader—outspending the competition on both licensed and original content, offering customers a competitive price.”

For more information, the full report is available here.

About 18% of U.S. broadband households canceled a over-the-top video service, a rate that has held steady over the past three years, according to research from Parks Associates.

OTT video subscriptions are relatively new compared to traditional pay-TV and while they are growing quickly, data about churn rates is still emerging.

Parks says that the average subscription length for OTT video services is 30 months, with the top services, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, having more stability.

Churn is important because video service spend a lot to add subscribers and holding onto these mostly young consumers pays off financially.

"With OTT service penetration starting to plateau at around 65% adoption among U.S. broadband households, the OTT video market is reaching a level of saturation for the services currently available to consumers," said Hunter Sappington, a research analyst at Parks Associates. "In an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace where subscriber acquisition costs are high, this plateau highlights the need for services to focus on retention rather than solely acquisition. Successful services can encourage retention in several ways, such as community building, continuously offering new and fresh content, and improving their user experience."

Parks says that more than 85% of U.S. millennials currently subscribe to at least one OTT video service.

The firm estimates that by 2022, more than 265 million households worldwide will have more than 400 million OTT video service subscriptions.

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The top U.S. pay TV providers turned in an improved Q1 2018, but the results weren’t good enough to avoid a net subscriber loss, according to a new analysis from Leichtman Research Group.  

The largest MVPDs, representing about 95 percent of the market, shed about 305,000 net video subs in Q1 2018, compared to a pro forma loss of about 515,000 subs in the year-ago period, LRG said.

“Traditional” pay TV services, excluding internet-delivered services, lost 710,000 subs in Q1, improved from a year-ago loss of 780,000. Among individual market segments, the top six U.S. cable operators lost about 285,000 video subs in Q1, widened from a loss of 115,000 a year earlier.

Dish Network and DirecTV lost 375,000 satellite TV subs in Q1, versus a year-ago loss of 340,000. The top telco TV providers lost just 50,000 video subs in the period, improving greatly from losses of 325,000 subs in Q1 2017. LRG said Q1 marked the fewest sub losses in that segment in any quarter since Q3 2015.

Read: Millions Flee Pay-TV; Revenues Slide, Say Researchers]

Dish’s Sling TV and AT&T’s DirecTV Now, the top publicly reporting OTT TV service providers, combined to tack on 405,000 subs in Q1, up from 265,000 net adds in Q1 2017, LRG said.

With all segments factored in, the largest U.S. pay TV providers now account for 91.9 million subs – 47.8 million for the top cable MSOs, 31.1 million for satellite TV, 9.2 million, and 3.8 million for Sling TV and DirecTV Now.

Recent estimates that include subs for other OTT TV services such as YouTube TV, fuboTV, Hulu live TV, PlayStation Vue and Philo, put the virtual MVPD sub total at north of 5 million.

“The number of pay TV subscribers for the top providers peaked six years ago. Since 1Q 2012, top providers have lost about 3.4 million total pay-TV subscribers,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said in a statement. “Since the industry’s peak, traditional services have lost about 7.2 million subscribers, while the top publicly reporting Internet-delivered services gained about 3.8 million subscribers.”

WASHINGTON—The FCC last week revised its annual filing rules to relieve certain television broadcasters of their obligation to submit Schedule G, which details how they use their DTV bitstreams.

In a Report and Order released April 13, the commission modified its rules to require only licensees and permittees that provide “feeable” ancillary or supplementary services—and thus must pay a 5 percent fee on gross revenues earned from those services—to file Schedule G.

Prior to the rule change, all DTV stations offering ancillary or supplementary services were required every year to file, regardless of whether they earned revenue from the services or not.

[Read: FCC Waives Ancillary/Supplementary Service Reports]

A review of 2017 Schedule G filings conducted by Media Bureau staff found that of the more than 6,000 DTV stations required to file Schedule G prior to the rule change only 12 actually earned revenue from their ancillary or supplementary services.

Parties replying to a public notice launching an FCC review of media regulations last spring urged the agency to change the rule as part of its Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative, the Report and Order said.

“We find persuasive commenters’ unanimous assertions that requiring all DTV stations to file this form, regardless of whether they have provided ancillary or supplementary services or received revenue from those services, imposes unnecessary regulatory burdens and wastes resources,” the agency said in its Report and Order.

BOSTON—HEVC Advance has eliminated the subscription and title-by-title content distribution categories from its patent license as a way to accelerate HEVC adoption and advance its use in OTA broadcasting, internet streaming, cable TV and satellite distribution, the independent licensing administrator said today.

HEVC Advance specified that it will immediately cease seeking royalty fees for non-physical HEVC content distribution, including internet streaming, cable TV, OTA broadcasting and satellite TV.

“By eliminating non-physical HEVC content distribution from our license, we are transforming to meet the needs of distributors looking to adopt HEVC and bring the incredible bandwidth savings and clarity of 4K UHD to consumers," said HEVC Advance CEO Pete Moller in a press release from organization.

[Report: HEVC Poised to Become Codec of Choice]

The licensing administrator also announced discounts for certain lower-priced connected home and other devices as well as other royalty reductions.

To learn more, visit the HEVC Advance website.