The Fox Nation direct-to-consumer subscription VOD service is now available on FuboTV, Fox National President Jason Klarman announced Thursday. The $5.99 monthly SVOD service includes Fox’s original news and entertainment series plus prime-time shows on demand the next day. Subscribers can access Fox Nation on the FuboTV app on smart TVs, smartphones, tablets and the web.

Household penetration of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services has doubled in the past year, Comcast Advertising said Thursday. Six in 10 households with connected TVs are using FAST services exclusively or in addition to other services "without the costs or logins required for linear TV or paid streaming," it emailed, saying FAST gives consumers streaming video with “linear-style channels” that encourage a lean-back experience and content discovery “that mimics traditional TV viewing." Comcast said the average Xumo user spends about 104 minutes within the Comcast-owned platform once she has entered. Many consumers may be landing on FAST channels without realizing it, since many are programmed directly into the channel guide by TV manufacturers, Comcast said. Some 70% of Xumo users are cord cutters, using the service as a complement to subscription VOD services, the company said. Comcast Advertising President James Rooke called FAST services a “valuable complement to traditional TV and other [advertising-based] VOD streaming options as part of a holistic multi-screen media plan.”

There appears to be conditional acceptance among Netflix subscribers in the U.S. of the company’s plans to explore launching a lower-priced ad-supported VOD tier, reported Simon-Kucher Thursday. The marketing consultant canvassed 1,000 U.S. consumers in April and May, and among Netflix subscribers in that group, more than three-quarters said they would keep their accounts if Netflix introduces an AVOD tier, said the consultant. For 14% of the sample, acceptance of Netflix’s move into advertising was conditioned on the expectation of no price increases for at least a year, it said. Netflix plans to debut its AVOD offering in early 2023, starting in countries with more "mature" ad markets, said the company this week (see 2207200001).

Netflix picked Microsoft as its “global advertising technology and sales partner,” as it works to launch the ad-supported streaming tier it announced in April (see 2204200002), blogged Chief Operating and Product Officer Greg Peters Wednesday. “Microsoft has the proven ability to support all our advertising needs as we work together to build a new ad-supported offering,” said Peters. “It’s very early days and we have much to work through,” but the long-term goal is “more choice for consumers and a premium, better-than-linear TV brand experience for advertisers,” said Peters. Terms of the arrangement with Microsoft weren’t disclosed. Netflix reports Q2 results Tuesday.

Livestreaming of events is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of sportscasting, Intertrust said Tuesday. A broad majority of fans watching on traditional TV channels want to move to livestreamed viewing, which enables such features as watch parties and enhanced viewing via virtual reality, it said. Broadcast TV sports programming has been a breakwall against what might otherwise be a more serious decline in legacy TV viewership, it said. Over-the-top ad revenue is starting to rival subscription revenue, it said.

Streaming platform LiveOne will collaborate with Zync to deliver personalized in-car audio and video music entertainment to Zync-enabled Mercedes-Benz vehicles starting in late 2022, said the companies Tuesday. The content will include live and on-demand concerts, music documentaries and pay-per-view events, they said. Additional vehicle deployments will be announced later this year, they said.

Napster Music’s newly published Litepaper V1 outlines plans to apply Web3 technology to its existing business and “millions of users,” it said Wednesday. The company created a new entity, Napster Innovation Foundation, to issue "$NAPSTER tokens using the Algorand blockchain protocol to streamline its existing platform functionality" and create new options for monetization. "We’re entering the streaming-plus era of music," said Napster interim CEO Emmy Lovell, saying streaming music is "one of the few scaled business sectors where adoption of blockchain tech actually makes immediate sense for everyone." Web3 has a chance to “deepen, extend and improve the music ecosystem," she said. Napster 3.0 will launch as a decentralized, music-first ecosystem benefiting fans, music makers and rights holders, said the company.

Roku is adding NBC local news channels from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington, D.C.; Hartford, Connecticut, and South Florida to The Roku Channel, it announced with NBCUniversal Tuesday. Additional channels will be added to The Roku Channel's Live TV Guide in coming months. The Roku Channel’s Live TV guide has more than 300 linear channels.

Cost jumped from the No. 4 to the No. 2 reason consumers canceled a subscription VOD service in April, reported NPD Group Thursday. “In the last several months consumers have had to navigate rising prices in many facets of their lives and SVOD services are part of that mix, with companies like Netflix and Amazon raising their subscription rates,” said analyst John Buffone. Though SVOD service costs are still dramatically lower than in traditional pay TV, providers need to recognize that price sensitivity is growing “so they can adjust their offerings to retain their subscriber base,” Buffone said. The survey also found consumers are increasingly signing up for services based on promotions or discount offers. In the April 5- 21 survey period, the top reason cited for SVOD users signing up for a service was because of a free trial. Content remained critical to SVOD considerations: A specific TV show or movie drove a third of SVOD sign-ups, driven by younger viewers, Buffone said. “Consumers are creating a value equation to determine what services they ‘need’ versus those they cancel, especially as they return to experiential activities,” said the analyst. Ad-supported tiers can be a way to cut costs without losing access to content, he noted. Understanding how consumers value content will be “key in determining tier structure and pricing strategies,” he said. Customers paying a premium for an ad-free streaming experience engage with the service more frequently, with 28% reporting using the service every day or most days vs. 20% of the ad-supported subscribers, NPD said. The survey included over 5,000 U.S. consumers 18 and older.

TikTok TV is now available on Vizio’s SmartCast platform, Vizio said Thursday. To help users discover the app, Vizio will highlight TikTok TV content on the home page in a dedicated carousel showcasing trending genres, it said. The TV app offers AutoPlay, which serves a continuous content feed without interruptions between TikTok videos, it said. Vizio users with a TikTok account can link their accounts to see content from their For You and Following feeds.