Episode 135: Disney Layoffs; Sports Streaming News; BBC Low Latency Trial; Wowza Makes AI Tech Acquisition

This week, we highlight the details surrounding the MLS commissioner's disclosure that MLS Season Pass is averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match on Apple TV, representing a nearly 50% increase from 2024. For earnings, we cover Q2 ad revenue on YouTube, up 13% YoY and Alphabet's plan to increase capex investment in 2025 to approximately $85 billion, in addition to the cord-cutting numbers from Charter and Verizon. We cover the latest rumors of the NFL’s interest in acquiring an equity stake in ESPN, HBO Max's expansion to more than 90 markets, and Paramount and Skydance's merger receiving FCC approval. We detail viewership figures from Netflix's latest boxing event, along with TV and streaming viewership numbers across baseball, golf, tennis, car racing, hockey and DAZN's video workflow for its successful stream coverage of the FIFA Club World Cup. Finally, we discuss why companies conduct layoffs even amid record profits, the impact of AI investments, and why, despite many talking about strategy, a company's culture eats the best strategy all day.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we highlight the key numbers and comments from Netflix's Q2 earnings, covering finances, ad growth, live event strategy, competition, AI, and content strategy. We detail the financial metrics tied to revenue, free cash flow, debt, and estimated full-year 2025 revenue guidance. We discuss all the comments from Netflix's management team regarding measuring household engagement, its upcoming interactive ad launch, the impact of the recent price hike, its deal with TF1, and the acquisition of content assets. We also detail NBCU's decision to raise Peacock’s monthly subscription by $3, as well as the new US-based SVOD service from the BBC. Finally, we discuss Deltatre's plans to acquire Endeavor Streaming, which raises questions about the state of Deltatre's business, as no metrics have been provided since its acquisition in 2022.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we highlight Disney's new content bundling deals with Charter and ITV, as well as Paramount's new agreement with DIRECTV. We discuss Amazon's investment in AI to help remaster SD content into HD, and what we think the impact of AI can be in the video streaming workflow. We also discuss why the media is getting it wrong when they suggest that Google has won the living room, as YouTube tightens its enforcement of its monetization guidelines. We break down the latest rumors that Apple will acquire Formula 1 content and why Apple's F1 movie was about more than just content, since it ties into the hardware of the iPhone. Finally, we discuss some recent online comments about ultra-low-latency deployments for media use cases, which overlook any tangible or measurable business benefits.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This special CDN focused podcast details the latest on delivery pricing and industry trends. I discuss delivery commits, QoE measurement, DIY deployments, HD HDR bitrates, and the impact of vendors exiting the market. I also cover how content owners perform capacity planning at the ASN level, leaching, latency, and why multicasting and P2P won't positively impact the industry. The data comes from my CDN pricing survey, as well as hosting panels and private events at the NAB Show Streaming Summit in April, which included OTT platforms, content owners, broadcasters, sports leagues, and others.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we highlight all the sports news from Peacock, Pac-12, ESPN, Optus Sport, Amazon, IMG, and NASCAR, detailing viewership stats and new licensing deals. We also cover the recent layoffs at Disney, the BBC's low latency live streaming trial, and the current ad loads of Max, Prime Video and Peacock. Finally, we cover some vendor news, including Wowza's acquisition of AI tech company AVA Intellect, and discuss some recent data I collected on the use of AI in the streaming video workflow.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we cover a lot of news, stats and numbers across WBD, Disney, Netflix, YouTube, MGM, Amazon, F1, DAZN, NFL, Verizon, Starz, Roku, TikTok, Apple TV, Premier League, JioHotstar, Paramount and other sports and OTT services. We also discuss the changes taking place at Qwilt, including the appointment of a new CEO, the assets of Phenix Real Time Solutions being put up for auction, and Bending Spoons' plans for Brightcove’s product roadmap. Correction: About 14 minutes in, when discussing WBD, I said Disney+ when I meant to say Discovery+. My apologies for the confusion.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we cover the news from the Upfronts, with Netflix and Amazon announcing updated ad-tier user numbers, YouTube disclosing ad conversions on Shorts, and some of the new ad formats coming to OTT platforms. We also detail the upcoming DTC offerings from ESPN and FOX, as well as YouTube's plans to stream an exclusive NFL game for free in September. Finally, we highlight Charter's announcement of its plans to acquire Cox Communications, Warner Bros. Discovery's rebranding of Max to HBO Max this summer, and Sony's announcement of updated subscriber numbers for Crunchyroll. Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we highlight the key Q1 earnings numbers from Disney, WBD, Paramount, AMC Networks, Altice, EchoStar, Vimeo, Kaltura, Akamai, Fastly and Cloudflare. We detail the numbers tied to DTC subscribers additions/losses, profitability, bundling, capex and content spend, and the impact of earnings on stock prices. We also break out the 1.73M cord cutters across pay TV providers and vMVPDs, along with sports news from MLB, NFL, MLS, FanDuel Sports Network, JioStar, Disney and Comcast.Correction: Disney has not announced a spinout of its linear assets.Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we detail Roku's revenue growth of 16% YoY, with the number of streaming hours growing by 5.1B hours YoY. We also highlight Roku's announcement that more than a third of streaming households in the U.S. streamed monthly from its content row in Q1, with a total of more than 125 million people every day. We detail Fubo's earnings, with North America subscribers declining 2.7% YoY to 1.47M and a net profit for the quarter of $188.5M, due to the positive impact of the Venu Sports litigation. Finally, we touch on revenue numbers tied to AWS and Harmonic, some new TikTok data, and why Nielsen's new Gauge chart tied to ad-supported streaming services is flawed and misrepresents the streaming market. Podcast produced by Security Halt Media

This week, we detail Comcast's Q1 earnings, including Peacock's sub gains, thanks to the Charter bundle, with revenue up 16%, on an EBITDA loss of $215M, down from $639M YoY. We also cover all the pay TV losses from Comcast, Verizon, and Charter in the quarter, as well as Comcast's worst broadband losses ever in a quarter. We highlight MSG Networks deal with its lender JPMorgan that allows the RSN to avoid bankruptcy, and the NFL's Commissioner stating that he expects the NFL to return to scheduling a Christmas Day tripleheader in the future. Finally, we discuss Max's password sharing crackdown, YouTube's announcement of 20 million videos uploaded daily, and Twitter having been found guilty of patent infringement relating to streaming technology involving Vine and Periscope. Podcast produced by Security Halt Media