Wavefront TV’s Take – Week of 8/17

Wavefront TV’s take on last week:

A relatively slow news week on the CTV front. Not a surprise though – the dog days of August are here, M&A season hasn’t hit its’ stride yet, fall programming has yet to start in earnest, and the simultaneous coverage of Covid/Election is going to dominate the next 6 months. That said, the passing of Sumner Redstone does hold some symbolism as the old guard of broadcast media gives way to the future.

Viacom is a true giant in the world of entertainment, but it’s future is as an omni-channel platform is still coming into view (as we’ve noted here). The Viacom of tomorrow certainly won’t look like the Viacom of yesterday, which makes his passing that much more representative of the shifting sands of media. 

 Now, on to the news…

 Wavefront TV’s take: CTV is going to be big…..and broadcast TV is getting smaller. 

Analyst OTT revenues hit 83bn

Nielson streaming grows to 25 of TV usage in 2q

q2 sees top ten TV providers in US lose 1.52mn subs

 Wavefront TV’s take: With sports back on the air, ESPN is going to try to claw its’ way back, $1 at a time. 

ESPN hikes streaming service price by 1 with sports returning 1.1477218

 Wavefront TV’s take: Hulu makes an interesting move in offering discounts for annual plans.

HBO Peacock Apple TV

 Wavefront TV’s take: Fubu’s growth is expensive. 

FUBO TV reveals strong q2 2020

FUBO TV posts $100M q2 loss as it seeks up listing on major stock exchange

 Wavefront TV’s take: Quibi news! Now they are at least buying ads to promote their service. 

QUIBI looking to buy streaming conversation ads digital video streaming