Discovery Communications, in a joint venture with TEN: The Enthusiast Network (TEN), is creating an automobile content-centric TEN that combines Discovery's Velocity automotive network with TEN's automotive digital, direct-to-consumer, social and live event content, as well as TEN's Motor Trend YouTube channel and over-the-top service, Discovery said in a news release Thursday. Discovery said it will have majority control of the venture and an option to acquire 100 percent. TEN's print business won't be part of the joint venture, though the agreement will allow cross-promotion, Discovery said. The deal will see Velocity content added to TEN's Motor Trend OnDemand subscription VOD service, making it Discovery's first direct-to-consumer push, the company said. It said Discovery Chief Commercial Officer Paul Guyardo will be CEO and chairman of the joint venture, with TEN President Scott Dickey and Bob Scanlon, who will be president of Velocity and TEN Video Content, reporting to him.

Hulu users' loyalty to it over traditional pay-TV tops Netflix and Amazon Prime users' and could help that service convert its subscription VOD users to Hulu Live TV subscribers, The Diffusion Group said in a news release Wednesday. TDG said 67 percent of Hulu users who also subscribe to a traditional pay-TV service say that, if forced to choose, they would stick with SVOD, compared with 52 percent of Netflix dual-service users and 49 percent of Amazon Prime dual-service users. TDG said Hulu, with its emphasis on broadcast and cable TV shows over movies, makes it a better substitute for live legacy pay-TV than Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Streaming services like Netflix often push their own content over licensed content in their recommendations, and while some say that could be harming consumers, and video streaming businesses themselves suffer harm if they aren't able to boost content, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Monday. With many programmers limiting what they license to subscription VOD services, Netflix has dramatically boosted its original content, making the persuasion of subscribers to watch more of that and less licensed content "a strategic imperative," nScreenMedia said.

Google's YouTube Red subscription VOD service hasn't been a success since its 2015 launch, but has big potential, nScreenMedia's Lloyd Dixon blogged Thursday. Its estimated 1.5 million subscribers would seem like a success, but that's less than 0.1 percent of YouTube's total monthly user base, and on the iTunes app store it ranks far below Netflix and Hulu, he said. Red being advertising-free is of limited appeal since ad-blocking software is widely used, and its original content -- while perhaps enticing to younger demographics -- is limited, said the analyst: Subscription VOD growth is slowing in the U.S., which could limit YouTube Red growth. But he said the huge YouTube user base is a big opportunity. Google didn't comment Friday.

ZoneTV will launch a customizable lineup of linear TV channels this fall, it said in a news release Tuesday. It said the channels will feature ZoneTV-licensed digital content that will be curated into specialized channels for pay-TV subscribers. But it said its service -- using video monetization services company Ooyala and Microsoft's Video Indexer -- will combine linear, on-demand and customized choices into ZoneTV's Dynamic Channels offering.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich of Tampa threw out three counterclaims brought by UlaiTV and PlanetiTV against Dish Network, which is suing them for copyright infringement. In an order (in Pacer) Friday, the court said defendants Tele-Center and Planet Telecom -- allegedly behind the UlaiTV set-tops and accompanying UlaiTV and AlhaiTV streaming services -- failed to prove counterclaims of conversion, trespass and breach of contract by Dish, granting them 14 days to re-plead. Dish's 2016 complaint said defendants, via UlaiTV and AlhaiTV, retransmitted channels to which Dish had exclusive license. Francis Lakel, counsel for the defendants, emailed Monday they would resubmit at least the breach of contract and conversion counterclaims, and said he's researching the argument given for denying the trespass counterclaim.

Japan is the strictest nation for law enforcement of copyright infringement, threatening throttled speeds, a 2 million yen fine (roughly $18,000) and up to two years in prison for downloading pirated content, and up to 10 years for uploading, blogged anti-piracy tech firm Red Points CEO Laura Urquizu Monday. She said Germany has strict laws on torrenting, and the U.K. and the U.S. use a "medium-strict" approach to monitoring peer-to-peer networks and using pressure on ISPs to block sites. Netherlands, at the lax end, is changing, with anti-piracy group BREIN becoming more aggressive in court, she said. Nations like Canada, Brazil and India have "ultra-lax copyright laws and/or enforcement." Enough circumvention techniques allowing pirating to continue no matter how strict copyright law and enforcement may be where pirates live, she said.

To steer people from violent extremist propaganda, YouTube rolled out a feature wherein searches for certain keywords will display a playlist of videos aimed at debunking violent extremist recruiting narratives, it blogged Thursday. It said the feature comes from the joint Jigsaw/Moonshot CVE Redirect Method, which redirects people from violent extremist propaganda and toward video content confronting those messages. YouTube said it hopes in coming weeks to expand the new functionality with more search queries in other languages, use machine learning to update the search query terms dynamically, expand the Redirect Method in Europe and work with nongovernmental organizations to develop video content aimed at countering violent extremist messaging.

Google's YouTube TV virtual MVPD service expanded to an additional 10 metro areas, it tweeted Thursday, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. YouTube TV launched in April in the Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco markets (see 1704050049).

Forensic watermarking paired with detection and enforcement services is the best way to battle online piracy, yet content owners and pay-media providers sometimes aren't aligned on that model, Irdeto Senior Vice President-Global Sales Bengt Jonsson blogged Thursday. While content owners want watermarking detection and enforcement services, pay-media providers often employ just watermarking for ease and cost, he said: The onus may be on vendors to come up with products that deliver both.