Mansha Daswani

LOS ANGELES: Dana Walden, Gary Newman, Josh Sapan, Randy Falco, Susanne Daniels and Eva Longoria have been named as this year's recipients of NATPE’s Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards.

SNL Kagan reports that the U.S. cable, DTH and telco sectors lost a whopping 430,000 customers in the third quarter, bringing the year-to-date drop to 1.3 million. Cable operators shed 94,000 total video customers, the best Q3 performance for the sector since 2006.

An increasing number of U.S. audiences are opting to subscribe to more than one SVOD service, GfK research indicates, with that number rising from 10 percent of the viewing population to 16 percent in three years. The data was released in a new report from GfK’s The Home Technology Monitor, which describes these subs as “self-bundling” viewers, paying for combinations of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and other streaming services.

The new Magid Media Futures survey reports that 42 percent of American consumers between the ages of 8 and 64 are very or somewhat interested in VR content, from movies and TV shows to gaming and travel experiences. At the other end of the spectrum, 24 percent of those surveyed reported having no interest at all in VR.

Media rights will be the largest contributor to sports revenues in North America by 2018, PwC reports, with live streaming helping to fuel competition in the sector. At the Gate and Beyond explores the North American sports market through 2020. PwC valued the North American sports market at $63.9 billion in 2015, forecasting this will rise to $75.7 billion in 2020.

NEW YORK: VH1 Classic is being rebranded as MTV Classic, with a programming lineup to feature hits from the 1990s and early 2000s like Beavis & Butt-head and Laguna Beach.

Second-quarter deal volume in the entertainment, media and communications sector in the U.S. rose by 3 percent to 188 announced transactions, PwC reports. Deal value was also up, hitting $41 billion, the highest it's been in 12 months.

NEW YORK: Spike has ordered a ten-part, half-hour game show that it is billing as "Cash Cab meets karaoke," to be produced by CORE Media Group.

BELLEVUE/NEW YORK: Apollo Global Management has announced the acquisition of Outerwall, parent company of the Redbox DVD-rental business, for $1.6 billion.

LOS ANGELES: MarVista Entertainment has added to its distribution portfolio 14 new movies, including several that are slated to air in the U.S. on Lifetime, Hallmark and UP.