AT&T and Hulu signed a deal to bring the subscription streaming service to the carrier's customers through AT&T’s websites and mobile applications, said the telco in a news release. AT&T customers will be able to browse Hulu programs and watch them through an app for mobile-device viewing or an AT&T website for Internet viewing, it said. AT&T and Hulu are exploring the possibility of bringing a Hulu app to TV, said the telco Wednesday. The mobile offering will be available to AT&T customers later this year, it said.

CBS said consumers can now show content from CBS.com and the CBS app on TVs using Google’s Chromecast. A news release said the service will cost $5.99 a month and give consumers access to more than 7,000 on-demand episodes from the current season, previous seasons and classic shows, as well as the ability to stream local CBS stations live in more than 20 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, with more to be added each month, said the broadcaster.

TCL said seven new TCL Roku TVs will be available later this month in stores and online. The company announced three HDTV models in March in the 3700 series of Roku TVs and will add to those with three HD models in the 3800 series and four models in the 3850 Decorator series. TCL launched Roku TV to address “the way consumers use TV today” with an emphasis on streaming “instead of as an afterthought,” said Chris Larson, vice president, TCL North America. The shift in consumer behavior “has only accelerated since the launch,” with streaming becoming more popular with consumers who are demanding smaller channel packages and supplementing the packages with streaming, Larson said Wednesday. Roku TV offers more than 2,000 streaming channels, he said. All TCL Roku TVs have the Netflix Recommended TV designation indicating they offer “easy access to Internet TV services, faster performance, and new features that enable a next-generation smart TV experience,” said TCL. Models in the 3800 series of HDTVs include the 32-inch 32S3800 ($229), 40-inch 40FS3800 ($339) and 50-inch 50FS3800 ($479). The flagship series, with a metallic gunmetal finish and aluminum pedestal stand, includes the 32-inch 32S3850 ($249), 40-inch 40FS3850 ($359), 50-inch 50FS3850 ($529) and 55-inch 55FS3850 ($699), the company said.

Linksys announced availability of its first multi-user MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple-Input, Multiple Output) 802.11ac Wave 2 router Thursday. The Linksys Max-Stream AC2600 is said to provide uninterrupted Wi-Fi connectivity to all devices in the home and function as if multiple devices have their own dedicated router, Linksys said. With MU-MIMO, members of a household can play video games, listen to music, check email, shop and stream movies simultaneously, the company said. The router’s four removable external antennas are adjustable for maximum coverage, and beamforming technology concentrates the Wi-Fi signal to each device for stronger performance and increased mobile speed and range, the company said. Citing a study it commissioned from International Data Corp., Linksys said most Internet households need a higher capacity router. It said 84 percent of respondents were streaming movies and TV shows while streaming music, playing games or surfing the Internet. Nearly half of the routers running Wi-Fi were at least 12 years old, Linksys said, while two-thirds of respondents said they had at least five connected devices in use simultaneously. More than half of survey respondents said they frequently or always experienced buffering or other performance issues while on their home network, it said. Some 84 percent of respondents said they would pay an average $84 more on a router to eliminate performance problems, it said. Suggested retail price of the Linksys AC2600 is $279.

Up to 90 percent of consumers are open to “cutting the cord” and canceling pay-TV subscriptions in favor of over-the-top (OTT) services under the right circumstances, Limelight said Wednesday in a study. Flexibility of on-demand viewing and cost are the main drivers of the shift to OTT services, Limelight said. Millennials -- consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 -- appear to be “leading this change,” with Limelight finding that they watch on average four to seven hours of online video per week -- almost twice that of all other age groups. Personal computers are still the top choice for consuming online video, but younger viewers are 10 percent more likely to watch online video on a smartphone than other age groups, Limelight said.

Hulu reached a deal with five pay-TV providers to offer its subscription streaming service directly to their subscribers on set-top boxes, Hulu said in a news release Wednesday. The multichannel video programming distributors are Armstrong, Atlantic Broadband, Mediacom, Midcontinent Communications and WideOpenWest, it said: "Customers who subscribe to Hulu will be able to view Hulu's full library of content in addition to live and on-demand TV."

Netflix pressed concerns to the FCC about AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV and the deal's potential market fallout. The combined company would have "increased incentive and ability to harm online video distributors (OVDs) and other edge-based Internet content" that it sees as competitive threats to its broadband and video services, Netflix said in a Monday ex parte filing about a meeting Thursday. Netflix said the FCC should reject the deal "as currently proposed," without making recommendations for conditions. Many believe the deal is likely to be approved by the FCC and the Department of Justice (see 1504270065), and AT&T said it expects the transaction to be completed this quarter (see 1504220069). With the abandonment of Comcast/Time Warner Cable, Netflix said AT&T would become the largest multichannel video programming distributor and, after making further investments, the largest ISP. "These two dynamics create a powerful incentive for AT&T to protect its investment in DirecTV's bundled programming by using its ability to harm OVDs to prevent or delay cord-cutting and cord-shaving," Netflix said. Netflix said AT&T has shown it can damage OVDs by "leveraging its control over interconnection to degrade its own customers' access to Netflix's service." AT&T also seems interested in using data caps and usage-based pricing methods, which it could apply "discriminatorily" to favor its own services, Netflix said. If AT&T can exploit interconnection or data caps to slow OVD development and the shift away from traditional video/broadband bundles, it could preserve its market advantage, Netflix said. Netflix disputed AT&T's April 21 filing that said the telco lacks incentives to harm competitors. AT&T's planned $48 billion purchase of a DirecTV satellite-TV business that profits by selling programming bundles "will result in a powerful incentive to protect that model from a shift by consumers toward on-demand, over-the-top content," Netflix said. AT&T declined to comment. Its April 21 filing blamed network congestion on Netflix and its backbone provider Cogent, not on AT&T capacity limits. "Netflix insisted on funneling its traffic to AT&T through only a handful of peers, including Cogent, because, as Netflix has stated, these few providers offered the best bids in terms of price and service," AT&T said. "As one network analyst has explained, 'Netflix chose to create, and use paths that [it] knew were congested, simply because they were cheaper than using paths that were less congested.' This strategy apparently overwhelmed Netflix’s chosen low price providers, causing congestion and impacting service quality for its customers." The American Cable Association and the Writers Guild of America, West also expressed various concerns about, and recommended conditions for, AT&T/DirecTV (here and here).

Netflix will be available to Mediacom customers on their TiVo set-top boxes, Mediacom said in a news release Tuesday. The deal includes a direct interconnection, with construction costs paid by Mediacom, said Group Vice President-Legal Affairs Tom Larsen. The connection is expected to be completed this summer, the release said. To use the Netflix app, Mediacom’s TiVo customers will need a Netflix subscription.

Amazon and JetBlue said JetBlue will begin allowing Amazon Prime customers later this year to use its free in-flight Fly-Fi Wi-Fi service to access Amazon’s online video and music library. JetBlue had restricted HD video streaming to customers who bought the airline’s $9-per-hour premium Wi-Fi service because of capacity issues. JetBlue customers who don’t subscribe to Amazon Prime will be able to use Fly-Fi to buy and stream Amazon Instant Video content, the companies said Tuesday. Fly-Fi connectivity will be available in all of JetBlue’s Airbus A321 and A320 aircraft this year, and in all Embraer E190 aircraft in 2016, the airline said. JetBlue said it has no plans to block customers from using other streaming services like Netflix via Fly-Fi, but won’t be able to guarantee connectivity.

U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment content rose only 0.23 percent in Q1 to $4.6 billion from the year-ago quarter as double-digit increases in electronic sell-through and subscription streaming helped negate a double-digit decline in sell-through of packaged goods, the Digital Entertainment Group said Wednesday. Subscription VOD was Q1's big winner, rising 22.9 percent to $1.14 billion, while electronic sell-through jumped 22.3 percent to $430.9 million, DEG said. “Consumers electronically purchased significantly more catalog and family films, underscoring their preference for enjoying and collecting filmed entertainment digitally,” DEG said. Sell-through of physical media declined 13.3 percent to $1.58 billion, DEG said, though it accentuated the finding that Blu-ray players, including set-tops and game consoles, are installed in more than 90 million U.S. homes. It said HDTV penetration has grown to nearly 105 million U.S. homes. Wednesday's release of DEG’s report on the rapid rise of SVOD consumer spending in Q1 happened to coincide with Hulu's announcement Wednesday that within the first 90 days of 2015, total streams on its service increased 77 percent over the year-ago period. Viewers year to date have streamed more than 700 million hours of premium content on Hulu, it said. On average, each Hulu viewer is watching at least 30 percent more content on the service than a year ago, it said. “Every category of measurement including hours watched and hours streamed is up dramatically year over year,” Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins said in a statement.