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The company has bumped up the global launch of Disney+ by a week. It will now roll out in eight countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland on March 24, the company announced Tuesday. Disney didn’t explain why the launch date was moved up from March 31.

The free streaming platform now exceeds 1.6 million downloads, offers 100 linear channels, including a new 2020 election live-feed channel, and rolls out local on demand viewing of hit broadcast syndication TV shows.

The streamer offered a peek at its upcoming shows at TCA, but its future is still cloudy.

Last May, YouTube made a major shift with its original programming strategy, putting all of its original shows free in front of its paywall and streaming them with advertising. Less than a year later, the platform has plans to double its original output this year while continuing to offer both ad-supported (free) and ad-free (subscription) options.

The effort by TV signal streamer Locast.com to raise $500,000 to fight a lawsuit filed by the broadcast networks has so far raised only a fraction of its goal. Almost a a month in, Locast’s gofundme page has raised only $10,948, and only about $1,000 in the past 10 days.

The Media Rating Council today revoked accreditation for measurement services from Extreme Reach, Hulu and Protected Media, and denied accreditation for a service from DoubleVerify. It also granted accreditation for services from C3 Metrics, Hulu and Flashtalking.

Fresh off seven seasons of HBO stalwart Veep, she has signed a sweeping overall deal with the tech giant and streaming platform. Under the multiple-year agreement — which should be seen as a massive “get” for Apple video heads Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht — the Emmy-winning actress will develop new projects exclusively for Apple — as both an executive producer and star.

NBCUniversal on Thursday afternoon revealed details of its plan for new streaming service Peacock that differ from other streaming services. Networks typically offer free access to TV episodes the day after their broadcasts through their own apps and Hulu. Peacock will offer next-day access to first-year shows for free. For returning shows, it will be part of a premium offering that costs $5 with ads and $10 without.

Hulu is preparing to roll out new forms of advertising this year — one which will allow viewers to have more say in the ads that play, and another that lets the viewer engage with the brand in question, either by getting information sent directly to their mobile phone or by using QR codes. In later months, It is also considering digital product insertion to enhance the ad opportunities within its own original programming.

Netflix will spend $17.3 billion on content in 2020, according to a new forecast by Dan Salmon, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets. The company spent a bit more than $15 billion in 2019. Salmon sees the tally rising past $26 billion by 2026.

Broadcasters must deal with a host of complexities in delivering consistent video quality to their OTT viewers. Vendors are trying to help — and cut monitoring costs — with a range of technologies including monitoring by exception, real-time distribution alerts and using machine learning.

Comcast Corp. will reveal details today of Peacock, its belated entry into the streaming wars, as it harnesses its NBCUniversal library and invests in new content in an effort to capture viewers abandoning cable TV.

House Energy & Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) signaled Wednesday that the government needs to start looking at the employment and ownership diversity of over-the-top content providers.

Building on the HBO Max feature Let Them All Talk, Steven Soderbergh will create and develop new projects for the streamer and HBO itself. Warner Bros. will also have a first-look option on all of his films.

Further illustrating the hot demand for the November debut of the Disney+ streaming service, mobile industry analytics firm Sensor Tower said the Disney+ mobile app was downloaded for iOS and Android devices around 31 million times in the fourth quarter.

The HBO Max team is looking at ways to make the streaming service more mobile-friendly than some of its subscription video competitors. If AT&T can build an app that can successfully leans into mobile, it may be able to capture an audience that Netflix and Hulu have intentionally been less focused on, at least to date.

Monday night wasn’t the best of nights for the ESPN app. The much anticipated National Championship game between Clemson and LSU was malfunctioning on ESPN streaming services for most of the first half. Numerous fans took to social media to complain that when they logged into both ESPN+ and the ESPN app to access the game, they were met with an error message.

When movie fans check out the annual Oscar showcases at two major theater chains, AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas, the lineup of best picture nominees will be incomplete. After Netflix received 24 Oscar nominations on Monday — the most of any studio and the highest level to date for the streaming giant — both chains said that they wouldn’t screen its movies.

Steve Chung, chief digital officer for Fox Television Stations, says the group’s first foray into OTT is a deliberate attempt to break from the pack with an emphasis on live programming and interactivity in an AVOD model. With Fox Soul, which launched this week, Chung says Fox has laid the foundation to spin up other streaming efforts nimbly and quickly.

Netflix has turned in its best performance in the rankings of distributors with Oscar nominations — 24 compared to 15 last year. It has secured the top spot for the first time. Disney ends up right behind with 23, between the studio’s 10 noms, six each for 20th Century Fox and Searchlight, and another for Disney-owned National Geographic’s The Cave. Disney, by the way, had 17 noms last year, with Fox Searchlight turning in that number also.

The new OTT offering targeting African Americans is live, interactive and advertising supported.

The Critics’ Choice Awards, hosted by Taye Diggs, were handed out on Sunday night and on the TV side, Fleabag nabbed the trophy for Best Comedy Series while Succession went home with Best Drama.

ViacomCBS-owned streaming services CBS All Access and Showtime OTT have reached a collective 10 million subscribers, said ViacomCBS chief digital officer and CBS Interactive chief exec Marc DeBevoise at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. That’s up from 8 million at last update. “We’re in a great position to hit our goals of 25 million subscribers by 2022,” he said

A year ago at CES, TiVo demonstrated how popular OTT devices, such as Roku and Apple TV, could let users enjoy access the content on the TiVo DVR in their living room from other rooms in the house, or out of the home. But this week at CES 2020, Ted Malone, VP of products and services for TiVo, conceded that apps for OTT players are nowhere close to being deployed.

Xandr, AT&T’s ad-tech unit, officially unveiled its new pause ads during CES this week, and is now actively marketing the format to brands. Epix, Starz and AT&T Mobility are among the beta partners running pause ads that have been appearing on AT&T Now and DirecTV since the fourth quarter.