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Amazon’s Wheel of Time premieres in Nov

Amazon Prime Video has announced that fantasy series The Wheel of Time, based on the best-selling book series by Robert Jordan, will premiere on the streaming platform in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide on November 19th. The show will launch with three episodes, with a new episode then available every following Friday, leading […]

September 3, 2021By Nik Roseveare

Forecast: US SVoD subs 450m by 2026

Gross SVoD subscriptions [for movies, linear channels and TV episodes – excluding other platforms such as sports] in the US will climb by 33 per cent from 338 million at end-2021 to 450 million in 2026, according to the North America SVOD Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research. About 87 per cent of […]

September 2, 2021

Research: US SVoD subs remain steady

Findings from Leichtman Research Group’s study, Emerging Video Services 2021, indicate that 78 per cent of all US households have a subscription video on-Demand (SVoD) service from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and/or Hulu – compared to 78 per cent in 2020, 74 per cent in 2019, and 59 per cent in 2016. Among those that have […]

September 2, 2021

Japan: Disney+ adding Star brand in October

The Disney+ service in Japan will expand its general entertainment content with the introduction of the Star brand on October 27th. With the addition of Star to the current line-up of content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic, Disney+ Japan will feature over 16,000 titles. The Star brand features thousands of hours […]

September 2, 2021By Nik Roseveare

HBO Max app on VIZIO SmartCast

Connected entertainment specialist VIZIO and WarnerMedia have confirmed that the HBO Max app is now available on VIZIO SmartCast, giving millions of SmartCast viewers in the US access to the HBO Max app directly on their VIZIO SmartCast TVs with just a few clicks or a simple voice command. VIZIO SmartCast audiences who subscribe to […]

September 2, 2021

Disney+ to premiere Diary of a Wimpy Kid on Dec 3

Disney+ has announced that the all-new animated movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid will premiere exclusively on the streaming service on December 3rd. The movie is based on the first book in Jeff Kinney’s global bestselling series. It tells the story of Greg Heffley, a scrawny but ambitious kid with an active imagination and big […]

September 2, 2021By Nik Roseveare

HBO Max starts European rollout this autumn

WarnerMedia has confirmed that is will launch its HBO Max streaming service in the Nordics and Spain this autumn, followed by Central and Eastern Europe and Portugal in 2022. The anouncement was made by Priya Dogra, president at WarnerMedia EMEA and Asia (excluding China) and Christina Sulebakk, general manager at HBO Max EMEA at a […]

September 1, 2021

France: SVoD growth stalls  

The second quarter of 2021 has seen the first stall in the development of SVoD in France after a 2020 marked by a signification increase of SVoD market penetration. According to OTT figures released by NPA Conseil, SVoD’s rate of subscriptions to one service at least among French Internet users above 15 years old dipped […]

September 1, 2021From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

UK consults on VoD audience protection

The UK government is considering how better to level the regulatory playing field between mainstream VoD services and traditional broadcasters and is seeking views on the matter in a consultation. This could mean aligning the content standards rules for on-demand TV services with those for traditional linear TV such as BBC 1 and Sky. Now […]

September 1, 2021By Colin Mann

Disney closing Hotstar in US

Disney is to close down its Hotstar streaming service in the United States in late 2022, but has yet to confirm an end date. It is streamlining its streaming services by moving content over to Hulu and ESPN+. “The move from Hotstar, a premium brand for South Asian content, to ESPN+ and Hulu in the […]

September 1, 2021By Colin Mann