Dish Network is expanding the international programming available on it and its Sling TV service through a long-term renewal agreement with Asia TV USA, part of India's Zee group, Dish said in a news release Thursday. Dish said the renewal will keep the 10 Zee-branded channels it already offers and add 27 more Zee channels. Dish said it and Sling also will be the exclusive U.S. providers of Zee's on-demand library of films and video titles, with Sling eventually becoming the exclusive over-the-top U.S. provider for Zee's South Asian channels except for one as Zee moves viewers from its direct-to-consumer services to Sling TV or authenticated access.

Commercial-free streaming services like Amazon and Netflix may need to incorporate advertising as content and production costs rise but subscribers already are paying at or close to what they feel the services are worth, market researcher GfK said in a news release Wednesday. Hulu already is ad supported. According to GfK, $10-$11 is the maximum most subscribers would pay monthly for Amazon Prime or Netflix, and cost was the most important attribute in choosing a streaming service. The firm said cost was cited by 75 percent of people surveyed, followed by availability of specific programs -- cited by 69 percent -- and availability of new movies, at 68 percent. Having original/exclusive content ranked ninth, cited by 47 percent of users of major streaming services, GfK said, saying the proportion of Amazon Prime and Netflix users citing original content as a reason for using the services is growing. David Tice, GfK senior vice president-Media and Entertainment team, said Hulu and other ad-supported services offer premium "ad-free" options, and Amazon Prime and Netflix "may need to introduce ‘ad-inclusive’ subscriptions to hold the line on monthly subscription costs for their price-sensitive customer segments.” Amazon and Netflix representatives didn't comment.

Dish Network began shipping the $99 HopperGo, a personal mobile video drive it announced at CES (see 1601060011). The 64 GB device can store up to 100 hours of recorded video content from a Hopper 3 or Hopper 2 DVR for offline viewing, said Dish Thursday. HopperGo creates its own private wireless cloud that supports simultaneous viewing of different programs on up to five mobile devices via the Dish Anywhere app, said the company. It’s compatible with Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, plus Kindle Fire tablets, Dish said. The battery-powered device can stream for up to four hours on a charge, it said.

Streaming network Crackle and Branded Entertainment Network signed a deal for Crackle to use BEN technology and analytics for better advertising, marketing and branded integration campaigns, BEN said in a news release Wednesday. "Global brands and agencies have increasingly invested in branded integrations in premium content," said Gary Shenk, CEO of the advertising integration services company. "In working with BEN, Crackle will be able to build upon its marketing and advertising capabilities and add immense value to its original content.”

Netflix “is a great partner, and at the same time they’re a competitor to us,” CBS CEO Leslie Moonves told the Needham Emerging Technology Conference Thursday in New York. In that dualality, Netflix typifies “a number of other companies in our universe,” Moonves said. CBS will continue to sell its content to Netflix, he said. “We’ve generally sold them library or shows that are coming off the air, and we’ve had a very successful relationship with them. On the other side of the coin, they’re producing 35 original television shows, so they’re a competitor in terms of getting the best producers.” At CBS, “we like doing business” with Netflix, “we will continue to do business with them,” Moonves said. “By the way, we talk to Hulu, we talk to Netflix, we talk to Amazon -- we sell to everybody.” However, CBS also chose “to go our own way” with the CBS All Access over-the-top service, he said. “We own the IP for Star Trek, which is obviously a huge property, and instead of selling it to Netflix or Amazon -- both had wanted it -- we said that was going to be the first original series on All Access. It will be on the air in January, and we think it will contribute to millions of new subscribers going there.” CBS announced in November that a “totally new” Star Trek TV series would debut in January and that after the debut episode, all first-run episodes would air exclusively on CBS All Access. Moonves won’t disclose ratings data on CBS All Access for as long as Netflix declines to do so for its OTT service, he said. “We’ve been saying that for a long time,” he said. “They’re playing Hide the Weenie,” so why should CBS report viewership data for CBS All Access content? he said. “They’re declaring shows hits that could be watched by 10 people.” Netflix representatives didn’t comment.

Roku continued as the top streaming media player brand in the U.S. between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016 with 30 percent market share, said Parks Associates. Amazon moved into a “virtual tie” for second with Google at 22 percent of sales, it said, and Apple TV was fourth at 20 percent. The top four had 94 percent of streaming media player sales during the period, up from 86 percent in 2014, Parks said. Amazon benefited from promoting its Fire TV devices in tandem with its Prime Video service and premium subscriptions through its Streaming Partners program. Apple had the biggest increase in unit sales on the launch of its long-awaited refresh of Apple TV, growing sales 50 percent over 2014. Roku and Amazon, meanwhile, benefit from offering multiple form factors: boxes and sticks, said analyst Barbara Kraus. A third of Roku sales for the period were sticks, compared with three-quarters of Amazon sales, she said. Thirty-six percent of U.S. broadband households own streaming media players, and Parks estimates 86 million streaming media players will be sold globally in 2019.

NBCUniversal's approach for Olympics coverage this summer will be "a glimpse" of how it will approach TV in the future, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said at NCTA's INTX 2016 show in Boston Monday. The 1996 Atlanta Olympics -- the last "live" Olympics where U.S. programming wasn't hampered by time-zone differences -- saw a total of 172 hours of programming on one network, Robert said. For Rio de Janeiro, NBCU will use 11 of its networks for 6,200 hours of programming, including live streaming of every event, he said. Through its cloud-based X1 platform, the company plans a variety of interactive features whereby viewers can search for content or information by sport, athlete or nation, Roberts said. He said roughly 35 percent of its customers use its X1 platform, with that expected to grow to 50 percent by the Olympics. Asked whether making content available in so many ways cannibalizes prime-time ratings, Roberts said, "Our experience has been if you put more in the top of the funnel what comes out in prime time will be greater than if you just had a single feed." Two-way capabilities have always been the competitive advantage cable has over satellite, and technology has caught up to the point where cable companies can now use it in such applications as voice commands and interspersing streaming video, he said. Roberts also said Comcast is heading to a model where all customer transactions, including signing up for service, can be done digitally. He also said Comcast is interested in making its X1 platform -- already licensed to Cox Communications (see 1507230038) -- available globally. Roberts said Comcast has no plans to get into an over-the-top model and compete outside its cable footprint. From its service trucks to its call centers, he said, "we have a clear value-add in market."

Amazon launched a “self-service” program dubbed Amazon Video Direct (AVD) that allows video creators to make streaming content available to Amazon customers. Video providers can choose how to distribute their content: to Prime members for free; as an add-on subscription through Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program, as a one-time rental or purchase or advertising-supported from Amazon. To help video providers optimize the way they offer content under the program, Amazon supplies them with performance metrics, such as number of minutes a title was streamed, projected revenue, payment history or number of subscribers, Amazon said Tuesday. Under the AVD Stars program, which also launched Tuesday, video creators receive a share of $1 million per month based on customer engagement with their titles, said Amazon, which will distribute to creators a monthly bonus from a designated fund based on the top 100 AVD titles in Prime Video, plus other revenue earned. Video creators and providers who use AVD to make their titles available in Prime Video will be automatically enrolled, it said. The AVD Stars fund will make the first bonus distributions based on June 1-30 streaming activity, Amazon said. AVD launch partners are Baby Einstein, Business Insider, CJ Entertainment America, Conde Nast Entertainment, HowStuffWorks, Kin Community, Kinonation, Jash, Journeyman Pictures, Machinima, Mashable, Mattel, Pro Guitar Lessons, Samuel Goldwyn Films, StyleHaul, Synergetic Distribution, The Guardian, TYT Network and XiveTV.

Netflix unwrapped a data calculator tool that lets subscribers see how much data they're using when streaming video on cellular networks. In a blog post, Eddy Wu, director-product innovation, said the tool’s default setting lets users stream about three hours of TV shows and movies per gigabyte of data, translating to a bitrate of roughly 600 kbps. Testing showed that on cellular networks, this setting "balances good video quality with lower data usage to help avoid exceeding data caps and incurring overage fees,” said Wu. Users with a higher data cap on their mobile plan can adjust the setting to stream at higher bitrates, he said. Netflix’s goal is to give users "more control and greater choice” in managing their data usage regardless of data plan, he said. Users need to update their Netflix app to the most recent version to access the cellular data usage function. Bitrates could change over time, said Wu, because Netflix is “always working on ways to improve picture quality while streaming more efficiently.” Actual data usage can vary based on device and network conditions, and the mobile carrier may affect data usage even if users select a higher bitrate setting in the app, he said. The setting affects data usage while viewing content on a mobile device over a cellar network but doesn’t affect Wi-Fi streaming, he said. “Three cheers for Netflix for user empowerment, but there’s no principled reason why broadband operators shouldn’t be able to give users the same option,” responded Berin Szóka, president of TechFreedom. “The rhetoric for ‘net neutrality’ has always been about user empowerment. But the FCC wound up writing a hard-line rule that seems to completely ban broadband providers from adjusting video quality even if users want that. That’s crazy."

The popularity of streaming media sticks is putting pressure on the streaming media adapter category at large, said an ABI report Wednesday. Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV first drew attention for their tiny stick form factors, but pricing, more than design, is their primary appeal to consumers, said analyst Michael Inouye. In China, Inouye said, the stick form factor is less popular than a box or puck design “because pricing between these device types is relatively similar.” User interfaces could help Apple and other streaming media adaptor companies differentiate products such as Apple TV, “but it is a difficult move,” Inouye said. Voice support has gained popularity quickly and a touch interface for media adapters “has potential,” but neither has made “significant headway” in TV or gaming markets, Inouye said. Ultra HD could become a way for streaming media adapter companies to differentiate and create pricing tiers within their product lines, Inouye said, and whole smart home integration could expand the category’s potential. Gaming, however, doesn’t appear to be a differentiating option for streaming media adapters, with the category already well served by consoles, PCs and mobile devices, he said.