SVOD

The company witnessed a 40% rise to total 17 million subscribers last year — up 5 million — versus 2016, for all its subscription video-on-demand and its newer Hulu with Live TV products.

At the start of a busy CES as well as a transformative period when Disney moves to take majority control of the company, Hulu today announced that it ended fiscal 2017 with more than 17 million total subscribers in the U.S. The figure, which includes all SVOD and live TV plans, represents an increase of more than 40% — or 5 million — since Hulu last reported subscriber numbers in the spring of 2016.

Juniper Resiearch finds that SVOD services will be a key driver of growth, with major OTT players such as Netflix and Amazon committing budgets of more than $5 billion to original content over the coming year.

The move makes the young-skewing channel the fifth major broadcast network to stream live on the platform.

The failure of NBC’s comedy SVOD service, Seeso, is largely the result of a failed strategy of simply taking linear content online, Barclays contends. “In our opinion, most media companies are looking at OTT as a defense mechanism to solve for the loss of legacy distribution due to cord-cutting and shaving,” said a Barclays investor note, spearheaded by analyst Kannan Venkateshwar.

Fox did not follow Disney’s lead last night in announcing new subscription streaming services for its content. But CEO James Murdoch told analysts Wednesday that he’s “very open minded about an independently priced, direct to consumer offering and we’re certainly mindful of what we see in the marketplace and how these things are progressing for other firms out there.”

Highlighting the steep cost of the original programming arms race currently unfolding in the SVOD market, Hulu’s losses through the first six months of 2017 have spiked 81% to $353 million. The data comes courtesy of BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield, who looked at SEC data filed by Hulu parents Fox, Walt Disney, Comcast and Time Warner.

Hearst is out in front of a recent $133 million funding round for SVOD service iflix that is fending off the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in emerging markets. Along with Hearst, Singapore-based EDBI and clients of DBS private bank are new investors in iflix, and are joined by existing investors Evolution Media, Sky PLC, Catcha Group, Liberty Global, Jungle Ventures and PLDT Inc.

Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step and Perfect Strangers are among the comedies coming to the streamer. The deal totals more than 800 episodes of the five series and marks the streaming debut of the beloved family friendly lineup that ran on ABC in 1989-2000 (and again in 2003-05).

Vimeo, which had been gearing up to launch a subscription VOD service, will no longer proceed with the plans. “Vimeo has confirmed that it has decided not to proceed in offering a subscription-based original program service scheduled to begin in ’18,” a spokesperson for the video-streaming service, owned by Barry Diller’s IAC, said in a statement.

Time Warner’s Turner and Warner Bros. will test the subscription VOD waters for ‘toon fans with the launch of Boomerang, a service starting at $5 per month that will include more than 1,000 episodes of classic and current series.

The two companies team up to offer a new premium on-demand movie service that will tap a base of more than 50 million Hispanic consumers in the U.S.

A survey of TV consumers says most will pay up to $15 for their monthly Netflix service. TiVo’s Digitalsmiths says 39% of those surveyed will not pay more than $12 to $15 for subscription video-on-demand service. Current Netflix monthly pricing ranges for around $7.99 to $11.99 a month, depending on the service.

Cox Communications confirmed that it’s preparing to test launch a new Spanish-language SVOD site named Glosi. “Glosi is a Hispanic-focused video streaming service and online portal with thousands of hours of exclusive content and original programming,” said Cox rep Todd Smith.

As subscription video-on-demand services have grown — now with more than a 50% penetration of U.S. TV homes — some traditional TV networks have seen viewing gains. Looking at year-over-year viewing growth among people in homes with a SVOD service, CBS, Crown Media and Time Warner cable networks witnessed the highest rise in total day 18-49 viewing from Oct. 1, 2015 to Feb. 21, 2016 — improving 13.2%, 7.2%, and 1.4%, respectively.

Eighty-one percent of U.S. homes have either set-top DVR technology; subscription video-on-demand service Netflix; or use video-on-demand from a pay TV provider.

Subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have shot up since 2010, which would seem to threaten premium cable networks. But their ranks are growing too. Comparing the big ones.

Hulu has picked up rerun rights to 14 seasons — and counting — of CBS’s veteran procedural drama CSI. The deal marks the first SVOD licensing pact for the series that ranked as primetime’s most-watched drama during the first seven years of its run. Episodes from 14 seasons will be available on Hulu Plus as an SVOD exclusive starting in early April.

Nielsen plans to start measuring SVOD services next month for the first time, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing Nielsen client documents. Nielsen meters can measure viewership without the OK from Netflix, Amazon Prime and the like — by analyzing a program’s audio components to identify which shows are being streamed. Nielsen’s new plan could offer the first solid viewership numbers for such online-only series as Netflix’s House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black and Amazon’s Alpha House.

In what is believed to be the first SVOD deal for a broadcast series made before its premiere, Netflix has reached an agreement with Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution for the upcoming Fox drama series Gotham. Under the pact, Netflix will become the exclusive subscription video on demand home of the Warner Bros. TV-produced Batman prequel in the U.S. as well as in each of the territories in which the streaming network operates and select other territories in which it plans to launch services.

CBS is expected to announce an SVOD deal for the Tom Selleck crime drama as well as pacts with both WGN America and Ion.

The subscription video-on-demand service is spending $1 billion this year to acquire programming to beef up its offerings, with an increased emphasis on syndicated fare. But while Netflix may be throwing around a lot of dollars, it isn’t competing with TV stations and basic cable networks for A-list, off-net sitcoms like Warner Bros.’ Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory — at least not yet.