Though surveys show U.S. consumers overwhelmingly think it’s important to support small businesses during COVID-19, shoppers are relying on Amazon “more than ever,” reported Convey Tuesday. The delivery experience management company canvassed 1,100 shoppers online, finding 42% say they buy most goods on Amazon, up 83% since the start of the crisis. Nearly half shop frequently at Amazon because they trust their packages will be delivered when promised. Fifty-two percent say Amazon “has a positive impact on the retail industry,” up 14 points. Thirty-six percent say Amazon has a positive impact on the environment.
MVPDs lost 7.2 million subscribers last year, reported Kagan Monday, saying virtual MVPD services “blunted the overall erosion” of consumers with a package of live linear channels, but the 2.7 million new vMVPD subscribers fell far short of offsetting cable, telco and satellite cancellations. MVPD losses slowed in Q4 to 1.5 million, but the full-year decline “underscored that the impacts of the pandemic amplified cord cutting instead of insulating an industry built around home entertainment.” For Q4, the vMVPD segment didn’t hold its momentum, gaining 223,000 subscribers to finish the year with 12.5 million. Some 6.8 million households cut the cord last year, said analyst Tony Lenoir. Fewer than 67% of U.S. households have a traditional pay-TV or vMVPD service with a package of live, linear channels, Kagan said, and fewer than 57% subscribe to traditional pay TV.
Verizon Wireless customers can get discounted telehealth services through Hoy Health, the carrier announced Monday. A sign-up link appeared to have glitches Monday, but a Verizon spokesperson said the site is "up and running."
The Recording Academy will partner with the Berklee College of Music and Arizona State University to launch a study into women’s representation “spanning all sectors of the music industry,” said the organizations Friday. Building on previous research, the study's main goals will be to “further establish a baseline analysis” on female representation, plus “learn more about the available talent pool of women in music, and set priorities around music creators and aspects of mentorship,” they said. Data collected will be used to generate “actionable items and solutions” to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion,” they said.
Boost Mobile began selling Motorola's 4G moto g power online Friday for $99. The 6.6-inch Android smartphone has a 5,000 mAh battery and 48-megapixel triple camera system, said the carrier. Boost prepaid plans start at $10 a month.
Top U.S. pay-TV providers lost 5.1 million net video subscribers in 2020, up from the 4.8 million pro forma net loss in 2019, Leichtman Research Group said Thursday. The top providers collectively have about 81.3 million subs, with the seven largest cable companies having 43.9 million, direct broadcast satellite 21.8 million, telcos 7.9 million and the top publicly reporting virtual MVPDs 7.7 million. DBS lost about 3.4 million subs in 2020, compared with 3.7 million in losses the previous year. The seven largest cablers lost 1.92 million in 2020 vs. 1.56 million in losses a year earlier. Slowing their losses were telcos, with 405,000 lost video subs in 2020 vs. 630,000 lost in 2019. VMVPDs Hulu+, Live TV, Sling TV, AT&T TV Now and fuboTV added 640,000 subs in 2020, compared with 1.1 million net adds in 2019.
ViacomCBS launched its “reimagined” streaming service, Paramount+, Thursday, replacing CBS AllAccess. Consumers can subscribe directly. The $9.99 monthly premium tier has live sports, breaking news and commercial-free, on-demand entertainment including exclusive content and library shows and music with 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision, plus mobile downloads, said ViacomCBS. The ad-supported $5.99 tier, including live CBS programming, is available until June, when new subscribers will be offered an ad-free version for $4.99 minus the live local CBS programming. Viacom CBS told existing subscribers they will be automatically rolled over to Paramount+, and the limited-commercials plan will be discontinued later this year, replaced by the $4.99 service. CBS Sports touted the launch. Roku announced the service, hoping to steer its customers to Paramount+ through its platform. Sixteen original series will be offered this year, said ViacomCBS.
T-Mobile unveiled a suite of offerings Thursday targeting business customers as part of the carrier's "WFX" work from anywhere platform. The offering includes unlimited 5G, home broadband and T-Mobile Collaborate, “a suite of mobile-first, cloud-based tools for business calling, messaging and conferencing from virtually any device, anywhere.” The pandemic “pushed the fast forward button on the future of work, giving us a decade’s worth of progress in a year’s time. And it’s clear that work will never be the same,” said CEO Mike Sievert.
The COVID-19 pandemic fortified online shopping, which grew 22% last year, said the National Retail Federation Wednesday. It's expected to grow 18-23% in 2021 as many consumers new to e-commerce last year “are likely to continue shopping online," said Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz.
A recent pilot by a top-five U.S. streaming service that used targeted Gracenote program images instead of standard images resulted in an 11% increase in time spent watching titles and a 7.7% lift in titles watched, said the company Wednesday. The Nielsen unit is using video descriptors to improve providers’ content discovery and third-party recommendation results.