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Bundle up! RCN, Grande Communications and Wave Broadband have introduced a bundle for broadband-only customers that includes the TiVo Stream 4K, an Android TV-powered device launched in May for $49.99, free for 12 months. “We’re committed to seeking out innovative integrations and partnerships to provide customers choices – it’s a tenet of our organization,” said Chris Fenger, COO of RCN, Grande and Wave. “As a broadband company, our goal is to offer flexible, affordable services so that customers have multiple avenues of getting the entertainment they really want. The TiVo Stream 4K offering works quite well into our strategy moving forward.”

Facebook’s Audience Network will exclusively use bidding to fill ads in iOS apps, starting in 2Q21. The move comes ahead of Apple’s iOS14 updates that will affect the ability to collect Identifier for Advertisers data. “Bidding can help publishers ensure they are getting the best price for every impression – even as networks adapt to improve performance – and will help reduce costly time spent managing waterfalls,” Facebook said. “Upcoming versions of iOS 14 are likely to create a two-tier system for developers – higher valued impressions and averaged out, less predictable lower value impressions.” For now, Facebook will continue to support waterfall buying and bidding for Android apps.

California’s enforcement of its net neutrality law would do “immediate and irreparable harm,” trade groups American Cable Association, CTIA, NCTA and USTelcom said in papers filed with a federal judge. The law prohibits broadband providers from blocking or throttling traffic, charging higher fees for fast-lane service, and exempting their content from data caps. Restricting the ability to exempt video streams from data caps leaves carriers the choice of enforcement action, or ending current practices, which would result in “monetary losses, foregone business opportunities and innovative offerings, and loss of customer goodwill,” say the groups.

Gen Z app and desktop platform Squad announced its partnership with Snap Inc. for Camera Kit, enabling the integration of Snap’s Lens carousel user experience and AR creation and technology platform into the Squad camera. “We’re incredibly excited to bring lenses to Squad’s audio and video rooms,” said Esther Crawford, Squad CEO and Co-Founder. “Snap’s Camera Kit platform gives our team and community a suite of tools for bringing AR experiences to life. This partnership unlocks a new mode for creating, sharing, and expressing individuality while hanging out and watching videos together.”

Apple unveiled its first 5G-enabled iPhones during a virtual event on Tuesday, marking “the beginning of a new era for iPhone,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. The iPhone 12 has a new design, a super retina XDR display and comes in five colors. The $799 smartphone also includes a new chip, A14 Bionic, for faster processing and graphics. A new smaller iPhone, the iPhone Mini, will go for $699, while the iPhone Pro Max is priced at $1099, and the iPhone 12 Pro will cost $999. Apple also introduced a new smart speaker, called HomePod Mini, for $99.

Microsoft took down the servers behind Trickbot, a huge malware network that Microsoft said could have affected the election. “Adversaries can use ransomware to infect a computer system used to maintain voter rolls or report on election-night results, seizing those systems at a prescribed hour optimized to sow chaos and distrust,” said Microsoft VP of security Tom Burt in a blog post. Trickbot has not only been used to spread ransomware, but to spread malicious emails containing malware intended to draw victims with messaging around Black Lives Matter and COVID-19, said Microsoft.

YXfitness, a home-fitness solution, has launched MYX Media, a hub for original content. Members can stream content, including news network Newsy, outside of their structured workouts. They can go on a scenic virtual ride, connect with coaches during Coach Diaries, and learn from industry experts in MYX’s Mat Chat original series. All content streams from MYX’s 21.5” HD swivel screen, while simultaneously displaying real-time heart-rate data.

Peacock accounted for 17.2% of new streaming subscriptions in 3Q20, according to the latest Entertainment on Demand research by Kantar, which also found that 10% of new subscriptions in the third quarter were switched, or taken by households who cancelled one SVOD service to make way for another. In additional findings:
· Amazon Prime Video dropped to #2 spot among new subs, with 16% share in the quarter, down from 23% the previous quarter, while HBO Max saw steady growth as #3 with 11.3% share.
· Disney+ and Netflix’s share of new subscriptions slipped to single digits, as the newer launches of Peacock and HBO Max grabbed consumer attention. However, Netflix’ churn rate remained low, at just 4.1%.
· Hulu’s share of new SVOD additions remaining essentially static at 10%, with overall subscriber numbers edging up in 3Q20. Cord-cutting remains a key draw to Hulu, with 45% of the services subscribers holding cable TV versus an SVOD market average of 53%.

Gaming talent show Top Gamers Academy counted 850,000 average daily views of the livestream on Twitch and YouTube, and 6.7 million live views accumulated in the first week of broadcasting. TGA is produced by Gestmusic and Webedia Spain.

Seventeen percent of US internet users viewed one or more AVOD services in the past month, according to Ampere Analysis, versus 13% in 3Q19. Ampere noted that AVOD users are on average older than SVOD viewers – 44% of AVOD users were 45-64, compared to 36% for AVOD, with half of AVOD households making less than 30%, versus a third of SVOD users.

ADVERTISING

YouTube’s streaming TV inventory will be measured in Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings and Total Ad Ratings. The first phase of measurement will be enabled in the first half of 2021 with YouTube TV, then extend to the YouTube app on connected TVs in the US. “Because connected TV is addressable by nature, expanding our relationship with Google to measure YouTube audiences on connected devices is an important step to deliver cross media ad measurement and comparability between CTV and addressable on linear TV,” said Scott Brown, GM of Audience Measurement at Nielsen.

Google announced improvements to Attribution in Google Ads, including coverage for YouTube ads and a significant expansion in the availability of data-driven attribution. “DDA requires a certain volume of data in order for us to build a precise model, but to make DDA available to more advertisers, we’re lowering the data requirements for eligibility,” said John Chen, Group Product Manager, in a blog post. “With this change, each conversion action in your Google Ads account that has at least 3,000 ad interactions and at least 300 conversions within 30 days will be eligible for DDA. This is possible due to ongoing improvements to the machine learning algorithms we use to train data-driven attribution models, so we can do more with less data without sacrificing precision.”

Vivendi-owned video platform Dailymotion has launched a premium video ad inventory marketplace with up to 100% viewability guaranteed in collaboration with Moat by Oracle Data Cloud. The Dailymotion Viewability Guaranteed Marketplace Powered by Moat marks the first time Dailymotion’s global network of over 7,000 premium publishers are able to offer a guarantee based on Moat-certified viewability metrics. “This collaboration provides our demand partners with the metrics needed to measure campaign effectiveness and inform future decisions,” said Bichoi Bastha, Chief Revenue and Business Officer at Dailymotion. “At the same time, it highlights the unique value our advertising solutions provide.”

Thirty-nine percent of marketers and publishers don’t have a firm plan in place to prepare for the end of third-party cookies, according to a study from LiveIntent that polled senior marketers and publishers from mid-to-small sized firms. And of the 61% of respondents who do have a plan in place, 48% do not have confidence in it. Nearly two-thirds (64%) are at least somewhat concerned about the future of advertising as it relates to the phasing out of the third-party cookie, and 34% reported feeling email was most important for both identity and monetization.

FreeWheel, A Comcast Company announced that agencies using their Strata Platform’s ePort platform broke spend records in orders sent to local broadcasters and rep firms in the month of September. “Since early spring, proprietary FreeWheel data has shown record increases in viewership, including a 32% growth in ad views. However, advertising budgets were in decline as brands and agencies struggled with the pandemic,” said Michael McHugh, VP, Media eBusiness at FreeWheel. “Our latest data is a clear sign that these trends are reversing – and local advertising is coming back into balance. Consumers are increasingly turning to local programming to find out what’s happening in their communities, and the advertisers are following.”

Taboola introduced The Taboola Creative Shop, a global program aimed at helping brands and media agencies execute and optimize advertising campaigns. The Taboola Creative Shop leverages data from ad campaigns that have run on Taboola’s network of publishers, as well as thousands of ongoing A/B tests, coupling this dataset with a team of data analysts, content strategists, copywriters, graphic designers and video editors to provide brands with strategies and assets. “Testing, learning and continually improving advertising performance is more important now than ever before,” said Adam Singolda, CEO, Taboola. “We’ve learned that consumer response to every element of an ad differs significantly over time and across marketing channels.”

Video ad company Pixability announced the wide release of an enhanced BrandShield solution for brand suitable campaigns at scale with maximum performance on YouTube. “For more than eight years, Pixability’s technology has ensured that every YouTube campaign we’ve powered has been both safe and brand suitable for advertisers,” said David George, CEO of Pixability. “We’re excited to announce our platform’s expanded capabilities and to share this technology with agencies and brands who are running their own self-serve campaigns on DV360 and Google Ads.”

TAPTAP Digital and Broadsign rolled out a new ad tech integration that opens up Broadsign Reach’s global network of programmatic digital-out-of-home inventory and dynamic creative capabilities to media buyers using the Sonata suite of omnichannel advertising solutions. The move combines the Broadsign Reach Supply Side Platform with TAPTAP’s Sonata Demand-Side-Platform and Data Management Platform.

Prime Focus Technologies inked a deal to automate and manage compliance operations workflows for A+E Networks UK using its CLEAR Media ERP. CLEAR will become the hub interfacing with upstream systems and downstream vendors of A+E Networks UK and offer a single dashboard for visibility into compliance operations.

ironSource Aura, the engagement platform for mobile carriers and OEMs, announced a partnership with Orange France, who will be utilizing the ironSource Aura solution on its Android B2C handsets across France. Through the integration, Aura provides Orange France with the capability to optimize the device experience and provide valuable content, apps and services to its users from the moment of device setup, and throughout the lifecycle of the device. The platform is designed to elevate engagement between Orange and its users through the smart offering of select apps and services.