Analysis

U.S. television advertising revenue took a hit last month, impacted by weak ratings for NFL football, coupled with having four fewer games in November, according to Standard Media Index (SMI).

Brands will spend $139.2 million to sponsor televised awards shows this year, according to research from IEG, a 4.3 percent increase on last year's tally. The increase exceeds the projected 4.2 percent increase in entertainment spending, but is behind the 4.5 percent increase in overall North American sponsorship spending, IEG notes.

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.

The ten leading pay-TV services in the U.S. shed 73,000 subscribers between them in the third quarter of 2016, according to informitv's latest Multiscreen Index.

Parks Associates has updated its top 10 list for subscription OTT video services, based on the number of subscribers, with Netflix holding the lead spot while Sling TV, Showtime and CBS moved up or entered the list over the past year.

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.

Magid’s annual Magid Media Futures survey has revealed that more respondents than ever intend to cut the pay-TV cord, canceling their pay-TV service and not signing up for a new one. This year, 5.7 percent of respondents said they were “very likely” to cut the cord. This compares to 3.8 percent of pay-TV subscribers last year and under 2 percent when Magid first conducted the study in 2011.

OTT video service adoption has increased 12 percent among U.S. broadband households since 2014, according to Parks Associates data. Parks Associates notes that adoption of OTT video subscriptions has increased by 12 percent since Q3 2014, with the number of available services and consumer awareness both increasing, despite password sharing growing by approximately 8 percent over that same time.