Verizon is rolling out new packages of its skinny bundle Fios Custom TV offering, it said in a news release Friday. The new Custom TV plans are Essentials, which has a variety of content, and the sports-centric Sports & More. Each of those comes with the Fios TV Local package, which includes local broadcast channels and other programming, it said. Tami Erwin, president-consumer and mass business, said customer feedback since the launch of Custom TV last year spawned the new packages.

Cablevision's Optimum TV customers now can stream CBS live online and on mobile devices, as the cable company is the first operator to provide access to live streaming on CBS.com and the CBS app, the companies said Tuesday. The live feed includes CBS daytime, primetime and late-night programming, plus local news and sports and special events, they said. Cablevision Executive Vice President-Programming Tom Montemagno said the cable company "now holds distribution rights for all of CBS’s streaming platforms, demonstrating our commitment to providing customers with the ability to watch the high-quality content they desire on their own terms.” The two announced last year that a new multiyear carriage agreement between them also let Optimum Online customers have access to CBS All Access and Showtime Internet services (see 1508250019).

Cinemax added a stand-alone over-the-top offering via Sling TV for $10 a month, Sling TV said in a news release Thursday. Previously, Cinemax and its Max Go app offering were available only to cable subscribers, Sling TV said.

The global success of Netflix “has attracted the attention of attackers” in the form of malware and phishing email campaigns targeting Netflix users’ information, Lionel Payet, Symantec threat intelligence officer, said in a Thursday blog post. “The details are then added to a growing black market that claims to provide cheaper access to the service,” Payet said. Netflix subscriptions allow one to four users on the same account, he said. This means that an attacker could use a phishing campaign to “piggyback on a user’s subscription without their knowledge,” he said. “In these phishing campaigns, attackers redirect users to a fake Netflix website to trick users into providing their login credentials, personal information, and payment cards details. These tactics are not uncommon; cybercriminals are still using them on a daily basis.” The bigger problem is that the attackers “may not just keep this access for themselves,” he said. “There is an underground economy targeting users who wish to access Netflix for free or a reduced price. The products could even allow customers to open their own illegal store.” The most common illicit offers are for access to existing Netflix accounts, Payet said. “These accounts either provide a month of viewing or give full access to the premium service. In most advertisements for these services, the seller asks the buyer not to change any information on the accounts, such as the password, as it may render them unusable. This is because a password change would alert the user who had their account stolen of the compromise.” For their own protection, Symantec “advises users to only download the Netflix application from official sources,” he said. “Additionally, users should not take advantage of services that appear to offer Netflix for free or a reduced price, as they may contain malicious files or steal data.” Netflix representatives didn’t comment.

Fifty-seven percent of U.S. households subscribe to VOD from Amazon, Hulu or Netflix, and 48 percent of U.S. adults stream at least one of the services monthly, a Leichtman Research Group report said. Some 81 percent of U.S. households have a DVR, subscribe to Netflix or use VOD from a cable or telco provider; 30 percent use two of the services; and 13 percent use all three, Leichtman said. Seventy-seven percent of consumers 18-24 stream a VOD service monthly, compared with 63 percent in the 25-44 age group, 50 percent aged 45-54 and 23 percent 55 and over, the researcher said. The number of adults streaming from Netflix on a weekly basis is now 37 percent, up from 8 percent in 2010, Leichtman said, and 83 percent of Netflix streaming users watch their Netflix content on TV. Other findings: 64 percent of pay TV subscribers have a DVR, up from 45 percent in 2010; 65 percent of households with annual incomes above $75,000 have a DVR; and 61 percent of all cable subscribers have used VOD from their current provider. The December phone survey canvassed 1,214 adults ages 18 and older in continental U.S TV households. Margin of error is 2.8 percent.

Amazon said Spotify is now available on Echo and can be controlled by asking Alexa to play an artist, genre or playlist through the speaker. Echo also supports Spotify Connect, allowing users to transfer and control their listening experience from the Spotify app, Amazon said Wednesday. Spotify users can link their $10-per-month Spotify Premium account using the Alexa app, while new users can try the streaming music service for free for 30 days, Amazon said. Spotify could end up competing with Amazon’s own premium streaming music service, if a report published by the New York Post last week has legs. The Post called Amazon a potential “Spotify-killer” based on reports the company had held meetings in the past few weeks to discuss licensing tunes for an upcoming subscription music service that would “ape streaming music market leaders Spotify and Apple Music.” Amazon’s current Prime Music service comes free with an Amazon Prime Membership but is limited to roughly a million music tracks versus Spotify’s 30-million-plus library. Echo users can also play music from Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Prime Music and TuneIn. Amazon didn’t comment.

Sky will be the first user of Roku's hybrid set-top box that allows TV services to offer both linear and streaming programming, Roku said in a news release Friday. The Roku Powered set-top will be part of Sky's Now TV service in the U.K., Roku said.

The volume of streaming video that T-Mobile subscribers are watching is up sharply with the Binge On free video service, the carrier said Thursday in a news release. Customers on qualifying data plans already are watching more than twice the video they did before, T-Mobile said. Since the service was launched, subscribers have streamed 34 million gigabytes for free, the carrier said. T-Mobile also said it added Amazon Video, Fox News, Univision and the WWE Network to the list of providers offered on the service. “Binge On is our most disruptive Un-carrier move yet,” said T-Mobile CEO John Legere. “It has literally changed the way millions of people are watching video.” Some net neutrality advocates have questioned whether zero-rated services like Binge On violate the FCC's net neutrality rules (see 1601080030).

IBM said it acquired Ustream, which provides cloud-based live and on-demand video streaming services to 80 million viewers every month, for an undisclosed sum. Ustream, whose customers include The Discovery Channel, Facebook, NASA, Nike and Samsung, will become part of IBM's Cloud Video Services unit, the company said in a Thursday news release. IBM said the new unit will target the estimated $105 billion cloud-based video services and software market, which includes webcasts, conference keynotes, training and education, webinars and how-to videos. IBM said it will provide a portfolio of "video services that spans open API [application programming interface] development, digital and visual analytics, simplified management and consistent delivery across global industries."

Netflix plans to begin blocking virtual private network proxy servers in the next few weeks from accessing the company’s systems. It said Thursday that the VPN blocking signals its willingness to “continue to respect and enforce” geography-based content licensing. “We are making progress in licensing content across the world and, as of last week, now offer the Netflix service in 190 countries, but we have a ways to go before we can offer people the same films and TV series everywhere,” said Vice President-Content Delivery Architecture David Fullagar in a blog post. “Over time, we anticipate being able to do so.” Netflix’s announcement came days after CEO Reed Hastings effectively endorsed consumers’ sharing of their Netflix account information as a “positive thing” during CES.