YouTube's subscription VOD service YouTube TV is adding a pair of Spanish-language packages, Spanish Plan and Spanish Plus, it blogged Tuesday. The $35/month Spanish Plan has more than two dozen Spanish language channels and doesn't require subscription to the YouTube TV base plan. The $15/month Spanish Plus add-on to the base plan also features close to two dozen Spanish language channels.

AMC Entertainment won’t stop trying to "convince" some of the major streaming services to introduce their movies theatrically, said CEO Adam Aron on a Q1 earnings call Monday. “We have had conversations over the years with Netflix, Amazon and Apple,” he said. “We continue to make it very clear that we would be very pleased to show some of their bigger, better movies. But in doing so, we have to respect our long-standing industry partners, the major studios. We can't have one set of rules for the major studios and a separate set of rules for streamers.” The $187.4 million domestic opening last weekend of Disney's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is proof “all those who doubted the consumer appeal of movie theaters” were wrong, said Aron. “We can say to our shareholders with some glee and delight that the resilience of movie theaters is right now on clear display and that the future of the cinema is bright,” he said. Some on Wall Street and in the media “have been filling our heads for two years now about the rise of streaming and the corresponding end of theaters,” he said. “This won't be the first time or the last time that conventional wisdom will be proven to be filled with so much folly.”

Discovery+ is now available as a premium subscription on The Roku Channel for U.S. subscribers, said the companies Tuesday. Roku users can subscribe to the ad-free ($6.99) and ad-supported ($4.99) versions of the streaming service directly through The Roku Channel.

Connecticut legislators passed a bill requiring cable customers who subscribe to internet and video streaming services to pay a fee supporting community access TV. The fee currently is assessed only to cable TV subscribers. The Senate voted 36-0 and the House voted 79-65 Wednesday to pass SB-278, which goes next to Gov. Ned Lamont (D). Also that day, the Connecticut legislature sent Lamont a comprehensive privacy bill passed last week (see 2204290036).

FuboTV launched enhanced custom targeting for advertisers to be able to “follow the audience” across its content portfolio, it announced at the Interactive Advertising Bureau NewFronts Thursday. FuboTV can create custom audience segments based on its first-party data to target users based on the exact content and amount of time they are watching, anywhere on the platform, said the virtual MVPD. Advertisers can target and reach dedicated football fans even outside of football-specific content, it said, and the offering can identify and reach purchase intenders using existing first-party addressable, contextual, behavioral and demographic targeting capabilities. The company also announced original programming with R.J. Hampton and more content from returning original series Getcha Popcorn Ready with T.O. & Hatch and No Chill with Gilbert Arenas.

The level of spending at fuboTV is “well above what investors believe is warranted,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Wednesday, saying the company has “a lot to prove,” He cited fuboTV’s Q4 buy of Molotov (see 2112080030), saying the French live TV streamer’s subscription average revenue per user (ARPU) is less than half that of fuboTV: “It is clear that FUBO management believes the French market is an immense opportunity, and as the year progresses, our skepticism may fade, but for the time being, we question whether the opportunity was worth the high price paid for the Molotov business.” Over the last three weeks of 2021, 3 million Molotov viewers generated $211,000 in ad revenue, or 7 cents per viewer, Pachter said, calling it "a tiny fraction" of fuboTV’s North America ARPU. The virtual MVPD continues to build its subscriber base while growing revenue through value-added products, improving ad targeting and leveraging the sports betting opportunity, Pachter said. Wedbush expects fuboTV to drive betting activity from its existing subscriber base by using excess ad inventory, home screen banner ads and in-app mobile promotions. “We remain believers in the fuboTV model” and “if given enough time, management will prove its strategy right,” said the analyst, pegging a “break-even point” in 2025 on a 3 million subscriber base. FuboTV is due to report Q1 earnings Thursday.

Roku has a new program for retailers to pair shoppable ads with Roku Pay so they can sell products from TV ads, it announced at its first in-person Interactive Advertising Bureau NewFront in New York Tuesday. It also announced a collaboration with Microsoft to explore how TV advertising -- linear and streaming -- affects online searches. It highlighted The Roku Channel as its home of free and premium entertainment on the platform, saying it was a top-five channel on the Roku platform in the U.S. by active account reach and streaming hour engagement in Q1. The company unveiled new Roku Original programming featuring celebrities Kevin Hart, David Castaneda, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Zoe Lister-Jones, Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse and others. Roku Brand Studio announced a partnership with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine to bring brands into 12 short-form films across drama, comedy, documentary and animation genres; it also noted an exclusive partnership with Variety to share the top 10 Roku searches each month.

The Apple Music app will be available on the Roku streaming platform, Roku announced Monday. Current Apple Music subscribers can access the app with their existing log-in credentials, Roku said. Roku users without a subscription can access over 90 million songs and 30,000 playlists ad-free. Users can also watch music videos in 4K on compatible devices, it said. Apple Music subscribers can listen to music from their own library and can access Apple Music original shows, concerts, exclusives and personalized recommendations, it said. Roku users can sign up for a one-month Apple Music trial that goes up to $9.99 monthly post-trial. The app was due to be available via download on Monday.

Immersive feature films “will always be the straw that stirs the drink for Imax," said CEO Rich Gelfond on a Q1 earnings call Thursday. A “blockbuster pipeline” of movies for 2022, beginning with the release in May of Doctor Strange and Top Gun: Maverick, is “a significant opportunity to further drive box office revenue and capture market share,” he said. “In my 28 years with the company, this is one of the best blockbusters slates I've ever seen.” Streaming services face intensifying competitive pressures and “renewed questions around the economic model for the streaming business, which could provide a tailwind for theatrical releases,” said Gelfond. “We've long held that as the virus is brought under control, and people felt increasingly safe, consumers would be drawn back to communal out-of-home entertainment experiences,” including moviegoing, he said, citing the box office success of Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Batman.

Podcasts will account for over a quarter of ad spending on digital audio services this year and more than a third of spending by the end of 2026, said eMarketer Tuesday. Spending will rise from $1.3 billion this year to over $2.6 billion by 2024 and $3 billion in 2026, it said. Most digital audio monetization will continue to come from recorded music for the foreseeable future, but podcasts are becoming an increasingly important part of multimedia ad campaigns, said the analytics firm. Over half of advertisers in a poll of 255 said they plan to bump their podcast ad spend this year, it said.