Roku’s fourth quarter revenue for 2019, $411.2 million, was up 49%, driven by a 71% pop in advertising revenue. The company said it added a record 4.6 million incremental active streaming accounts in Q4, ending 2019 with 36.9 million active accounts (up 36% year-over-year). Streaming hours increased by 16.3 billion over last year, up 68% year-over-year to a record 40.3 billion in 2019.

Google closed a $2.6 billion deal to acquire data analytics startup Looker. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, noted in a blog post that the analytic arm would continue to support multiple cloud vendors beyond Google. “Google Cloud and Looker share a common philosophy around delivering open solutions and supporting customers wherever they are – be it on Google Cloud, in other public clouds, or on premises. As more organizations adopt a multi-cloud strategy, Looker customers and partners can expect continued support of all cloud data management systems like Amazon Redshift, Azure SQL, Snowflake, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and Teradata,” said Kurian.

Google also announced it will discontinue Google Station, a program launched in 2015 to provide free wi-fi in railway stations in India and other public places in areas around the world. The goal was to introduce the internet to users who wouldn’t have to worry about how much data they used. With mobile data prices now less expensive, coupled with the difficulty of finding a sustainable business model, the tech giant is calling it quits later this year.

A+E Networks has partnered with technology provider Asus for its HISTORYTalks event, “Leadership & Legacy,” taking place February 29 in NYC. “HISTORY is known as a premier, trusted storytelling brand – and we’ll bring those attributes to HISTORYTalks in part through our strategic partnership with ASUS,” said Lance Still, SVP, Consumer Enterprises, A+E Networks. “Their technological auspices will enhance on-site operations driving the power of our creative storytelling and the overall guest experience.” A custom behind-the-scenes piece, created by HISTORY in collaboration with Asus, will be featured at the event, showcasing the Asus products being used by HISTORY to create and edit the video content seen by audience members.

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S20 phones at its Samsung Unpacked event. The refresh for the Galaxy models includes the Galaxy S20 Ultra, almost 7 inches. The highest end model offers a 100x zoom camera, 108-megapixel photos, integrates two forms of 5G and offers 8K video recording, among other advances. Samsung has already introduced its new Galaxy Z flip folding phone with an Oscars ad.

Median monthly usage by broadband subscribers in 2020 is on a trajectory to surpass 250 GB for the first time, according to the Q4 2019 OVBI (OpenVault Broadband Industry) report, which notes that a 24.4% increase in average provisioned speed, from 103.1 Mbps to 128.3 Mbps, in 2019 was slightly outpaced by a 27.3% increase in average consumption, from 270.2 GB to 344 GB. OpenVault projects that by the end of 2020 “power usage” of more than 1 TB per month will account for at least 12% of all subscribers, a 60% increase from EOY 2019, and that “extreme power usage” of more than 2TB will reach 1.4% of subscribers, an 80% increase from EOY 2019. “These trends are critically important planning metrics for operators to consider,” especially those using slower DSL, early generation DOCSIS, or wireless-based platforms, the report says. “As these operators upgrade their networks, they can use predictive modeling to better plan for the impact on their network.”

Four Chinese military hackers were charged over the 2017 Equifax cyberattack that affected 147 million credit reports. The indictment by US prosecutors said the hackers were part of a Beijing-backed group, APT10, that has been blamed for past attacks. “We hold [the Chinese military] hackers accountable for their criminal actions, and we remind the Chinese government that we have the capability to remove the internet’s cloak of anonymity and find the hackers that nation repeatedly deploys against us,” said attorney general William Barr.

Mobile web traffic has grown by 30.6% since 2017, according to the “2020 State of Digital” report from SimilarWeb, but overall time by mobile users spent on websites dropped by 49 seconds. Versus desktop, mobile was found to be the dominant platform for adult sites, gambling sites, food and drink, pets and animals, healthy, community, sports and lifestyle. The news was different for news sites – traffic to the top 100 media publications was down by 7% since 2017.

Audio entertainment company SiriusXM has invested $75 million in SoundCloud, the open audio platform. “SoundCloud’s three consecutive years of strong financial performance directly reflect the success of our creator-led growth strategy,” said Kerry Trainor, CEO, SoundCloud. “We have an exciting roadmap focused on deepening the connections between creators and listeners that fuel creator discovery, career growth and the evolution of music culture on SoundCloud.” For more, go here.

Twitter is teaming with the US Census Bureau to reduce the spread of misinformation around the 2020 population count with the launch of a new tool. When someone searches for certain keywords associated with the Census, a prompt will direct them to the official Census site. Twitter also partnered with the bureau in November to host training at TwitterDC that educated civil society partners about the platform’s civic integrity policies and best practice content tactics.

Perion Network announced that CodeFuel, its search technology division, has launched Privado Private Search Engine. To ensure a search query is not associated with a specific user, Privado generates an anonymous ID, and users are presented with contextual information to their search queries, powered by Bing. “Search monetization is a core pillar in Perion’s strategy of delivering cross channel client value”, said Doron Gerstel, CEO of Perion. “We are excited about the new level of cooperation with Microsoft Advertising, bringing to the market a new experience for consumers who are looking to protect their privacy. With this recent launch, we expect to amplify the reach of our search offering.”

Merkle, a data-driven performance marketing company, announced the launch of identity resolution and data platform Merkury, designed to power the creation of first-party, “private identity graphs” for brands and publishers. “Consumer privacy and the death of the third-party cookie are changing the rules for digital and cross-channel marketing,” said John Lee, President of Merkury. “Going forward, both marketers and publishers will begin with their first-party relationships to create owned, private identity graphs that generate addressability while maintaining their own intellectual property. These brands will be able to network their private graphs with partners and publishers in a way that increases addressability for all in a privacy-safe way.”

STREAMING

Streaming made up 19% of TV viewing in OTT US homes during 4Q19, according to Nielsen’s Total Audience Report. Netflix accounted for 31% of that streaming time, followed by 21% for YouTube, 12% for Hulu, 8% for Amazon and 28% for other services. The report found 91% of respondents subscribed to a paid streaming service, and 30% subscribed to three or more. It was the first time Nielsen used smart TV data from Gracenote for the report.

Maestro has rolled out a suite of new automation tools to help broadcasters incorporate interactivity into their streaming strategies, technology first put to use during the 62nd Grammy Awards on the Red Carpet Livestream as part of a partnership with IBM and the Recording Academy. IBM Watson programmatically detected artists on the red carpet and generated relevant insights then used Maestro APIs with Lightstream integration to publish them into the stream in real-time. “Livestreaming experiences are continuing to differentiate from traditional TV broadcasts and data is the engine of change. New live interactive formats, personalized experiences, and automated workflows are three key areas we are focused on,” said Ari Evans, Founder and CEO.

ADVERTISING

Pixability, a provider of insights and optimizations for video advertising on YouTube and Connected TV, announced the launch of BrandTrack, a software solution built to help marketers measure brand performance on YouTube and shift strategies based on what is working to drive better outcomes. An interactive dashboard analyzes and benchmarks brands by vertical on YouTube, enabling marketers to track channel growth, estimated ad spend by competitors, sentiment toward their brand, top videos by industry and other key metrics. The tool also provides best practice metrics based on the most successful publishing tactics used in each specific industry. “As we continue to see huge shifts away from linear TV into digital video advertising, YouTube will be a critical part of every brand’s marketing strategy,” said Jeremy Cornfeldt, CEO at iProspect. “Pixability’s BrandTrack gives marketers and agencies a comprehensive way to track a brand’s presence on YouTube and learn from other brands.”

Vistar Media, specialist in programmatic technology for digital out-of-home, is teaming with Foursquare, the independent location technology platform, to allow brands to measure the effectiveness of DOOH advertising in driving foot traffic to store locations with Foursquare’s omnichannel foot traffic solution, Placed powered by Foursquare, at scale. “Brands today need to understand the impact of their entire media investment, so the ability to offer our foot traffic measurement further into DOOH media is a win for advertisers,” said Jim Watson, VP of Client Solutions, at Foursquare.

Media and marketing services company ENGINE, in partnership with Clickagy, a data intelligence company, announced the launch of its “Attitude Based Audience” capability, which leverages survey research to enable digital marketers to reach consumers online an average of 25% more effectively than traditional audience targeting solutions. The new capability draws upon ENGINE’s research and data competencies and Clickagy’s data intelligence assets to build audiences via first-hand consumer testament. ENGINE starts with a representative sample of consumers that express the attitude, intention or sentiment an advertiser is attempting to target, and then uses machine learning to identify the digital behaviors in Clickagy’s ecosystem that provide the strongest signal of the desired attitude, intention or sentiment. For more, go here.

Verizon Media is teaming with digital out of home marketplace VIOOH to bring the digital assets of JCDeaux into its DSP. The partnership gives advertisers access to new DOOH inventory through Verizon Media’s unified DSP for campaigns across video, mobile, display, native, connected TV, audio and DOOH. The inventory will be available in over 60 cities across seven countries.