Meanwhile, North Dakota’s official COVID-19 contact tracing app shared some users’ location data with Foursquare and Google, reported Jumbo Privacy, despite a policy that said data would not be shared with third parties. “We will be working with our state partners to be more explicit in our privacy policy,” said app developer ProudCrowd. “It is important to note that our agreement with Foursquare does not allow them to collect Care19 data or use it in any form, beyond simply determining nearby businesses and returning that to us.”

Netflix announced it is checking in with customers who haven’t watched anything in a year or more to see if they want to keep their membership. If the streamer doesn’t hear back, they’ll cancel the subscription. “You know that sinking feeling when you realize you signed up for something but haven’t used it in ages? At Netflix, the last thing we want is people paying for something they’re not using,” the company said. It’s not a move likely to have much impact on the bottom line – inactive accounts represent less than half of 1% of Netflix’s overall member base. But it will help some people who aren’t keeping a close eye on their subscriptions. “We hope this new approach saves people some hard earned cash,” said Eddy Wu, Director, Product Innovation.

In more positive Netflix news, a new study from J.D. Power says the streamer has significantly fewer technical issues than its competitors – an average 0.07 problems per hour streamed. Amazon Prime Video and Hulu had a (still low) 0.11 incidents reported, Disney+ had 0.12 and YouTube 0.13. Asked which service they would keep if they could keep only one, about 54% named Netflix, 17% chose Amazon, 13% said Hulu and 4% named Disney+.

Hulu is redesigning its user interface so viewers can navigate in a pattern that matches Disney+ and ESPN, and moving categories of content like TV, Movies and Sports to the master navigation to make discovery easier. “With our growing audience, we’re constantly thinking about creating the best possible experience for our viewers, by getting them to the content they want to watch quickly while also helping them discover their next favorite movie or series to binge,” wrote Jason Wong, Director of Product Management, in a blog post. “We listened to feedback from our viewers and heard they loved how easy it was to continue watching the shows and movies they love, but not as easy to discover new content.” The updates will be available to some Roku and Apple viewers now, and roll out over coming months.

Facebook added a new feature to Messenger aimed at making it more difficult for malicious parties to pose as other people, and protect minors. Accounts will be scanned for suspicious activity (like accounts sending an unusually large number of requests in a short time). If suspicious activity is found, a chat window will give options for blocking or ignoring the user. The new feature also educates people under 18 to be cautious when interacting with an adult they may not know, and empowers them to take action before responding to a message.

Facebook and Instagram rolled out a tool enabling businesses suffering during COVID-19 to create Facebook Shops. A business can create a virtual mall for free, by uploading its catalog, selecting products and customizing the Shop with a cover image and accent colors. Wall Street approved – Facebook stock rose 5.5% after the announcement.

Facebook also announced the general availability of Oculus for Business, giving businesses enterprise software, licenses and support for their VR efforts. The news came shortly after Facebook revealed it has sold about $100 million in Quest VR content over the past year. Twenty titles drew at least $1 million each, with 10 of those surpassing $2 million in sales. During 1Q20, “other” revenue, driven mainly by Oculus products, was up 80% year-over-year to $297 million.

VirBELA, an immersive technology platform for business, events and education, and entertainment company Appreciated Media Holdings have teamed to build a customizable virtual film studio, Pinnacle Virtual Film Studios, to deliver content without the need for travel or physical contact. Plans call for production/office spaces for over 50 independent film and television companies.

Comcast announced it is offering free 5G network service for both its Xfinity Mobile by-the-gig and its $45-a-month unlimited plan users, two months after Charter Communications began offering its customers 5G access. Comcast sells two 5G-capable smart phones, the Samsung Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20.

STREAMING

US OTT revenue is projected to grow from $35 billion in 2019 to $68 billion by 2020, reported Digital TV Research. Estimates have SVOD doubling from $48.2 billion to $97.5 billion, with its share of total revenue remaining at 58%, while AVOD grows by 120%, from $24.3 billion to $53.5 billion, for 32% of total revenue. As for this year, “SVOD has boomed during the lockdown, thanks to the rollout of Disney+,” said Simon Murray, principal analysit for Digital TV Research. “However, advertising confidence has been hit. We expect lower growth for AVOD in 2020 – but recovery thereafter.”

OTE Group’s pay-TV platform COSMOTE TV has gone live with Synamedia’s Media Streamer CDN platform for its new streaming service. Synamdia’s virtualized Media Streamer platform is deployed on a distributed private cloud architecture, providing edge caching and streaming through a network of deployed locally across cities throughout Greece.

Fubo Sports Network has launched on Pluto TV. “In challenging times like these, with many live sporting events on hold, our current channel lineup featuring classic live sporting events, news, documentaries/series and sports-themed movies, have proven to be a great alternative for fans in search of what to watch,” said Amy Kuessner, Pluto TV’s SVP, Content Strategy and Global Partnerships. “We are incredibly excited to welcome the fubo Sports Network to Pluto TV as it brings even greater dimension to our sports programming and fanfare to all who revel in watching the competitive arena.”

The world’s most watched YouTube channel, CoComelon, will launch on The Roku Channel. Available through the Kids & Family experience on The Roku Channel, the launch marks the first time CoComelon programming will be available outside of YouTube.

Insight TV, a provider of action sports and adventure lifestyle content for millennials, is now part of the lineup of channels available on VIZIO SmartCast TV. VIZIO SmartCast is also featuring Insight TV’s suite of digital channels, including action-focused channel inTrouble and science/technology/knowledge channel inWonder.

Reading subscription service Scribd has launched an entertainment bundle, “Scribd Perks.” Included with the $9.99 monthly subscription fee, Scribd users will receive unlimited access to CuriosityStream; curated cinema service MUBI; brain training app Peak; Pandora; CONtv+ and more.

The AT&T TV app, missing from the Roku app store since January, is back. “We are delighted that we reached a mutual win-win agreement with AT&T to distribute AT&T Now and AT&T TV Now on the Roku platform,” said a Roku spokesperson.

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Effectv, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, hopes to steer car advertisers in a new direction with its Virtual Automotive Showroom. Auto makers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic can feature their cars on a full-scale, voice-activated virtual showroom for free on Comcast’s Xfinity X1, and customers can explore new vehicles on their television by saying “Auto Showroom.” “The automotive industry is facing challenges they’ve never seen before,” said Melanie Hamilton, Head of Enterprise Sales for Effectv. “We created the Virtual Automotive Showroom as a way to help Tier 1 automotive brands during this difficult time.”

Verizon Media has joined DPAA, the marketing association representing out-of-home advertising and content. “Out-of-home has been one of the fastest-growing media channels, and we think its best days are still ahead,” said Ivan Markman, Chief Business Officer at Verizon Media. “Advertisers want to be able to reach consumers across screens wherever they may be, which also includes DOOH placements within grocery stores, pharmacies and patient out-care centers that are all seeing an influx of foot traffic. As stay-at-home orders begin to lift, people once again will be out and about, and out-of-home, with its well-placed screens and programmatic capabilities, is in a solid position to help brands extend their share of voice with consumers.”

Conviva announced the launch of Conviva TikTok Analytics, a tool offering social marketers insights and data to help evaluate the success of their TikTok campaigns. The Conviva Social Insights dashboard measures TikTok campaigns alongside Facebook, Instagram, Stories, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube. “Conviva Social Insights delivers customers a clear window into social performance across each of the leading platforms, now including TikTok, so they can assess how to allocate time and resources into making more engaging content for their audiences,” said Conviva.

TVSquared and Hudson MX have partnered to enable automated, performance-based media for local TV advertising. Agencies that make buys through the Hudson MX platform will be able to access TVSquared to measure campaign performance, impressions and business outcomes in real time. “Our partnership is creating a new currency for local TV. Hudson MX advertisers can now buy based on performance, GRPs or impressions, which offers more flexibility than ever before. This is the future of TV media buying,” said Jo Kinsella, President of TVSquared. “Hudson MX has overhauled old, inefficient buying processes that have defined this space for decades. At TVSquared, we’ve brought the need for real-time proof of performance to the forefront. As two disrupters, we are hyper-focused on moving the industry forward for the benefit of advertisers, and this partnership is doing just that.”

Video advertising platform SpotX announced the expansion of its comprehensive Measurement and Attribution Suite, aimed at allowing advertisers to accurately attribute ad spend across video channels, including CTV. SpotX says its relationships with 11 leading measurement and analytics companies enables it to provide a 360-degree view of campaign KPIs. SpotX has relationships with 11 leading measurement and analytics companies including Comscore, Kantar, Nielsen, STAQ, and Tru Optik. Kantar and Comscore also act as brand lift partners, allowing advertisers to gauge how viewers feel about a brand, measure brand recognition, and test creative assets. Through attribution relationships with NCSolutions, NinthDecimal, Placed powered by Foursquare, and PlaceIQ, brands can measure foot traffic to brick and mortar locations and in-store purchases from digital video ads.

With the surge in consumption of ad-supported OTT during coronavirus lockdown, Tru Optik is making its Cross-Screen Audience Validation campaign-measurement service available for free. “In March, across leading AdTech platforms and premium publishers nearly 20 percent of the advertisers using third party data for Connected TV targeting were doing so for the first time,” said Andre Swanston, CEO, Tru Optik. “With the massive increase in OTT consumption, the industry can’t afford for measurement to stand in the way of marketers doing what is best for their brands…. We believe allowing advertisers to validate their campaign delivery against the same truth set most widely used to plan and execute targeted OTT campaigns is a significant step.”

With browser companies killing off cookies – and no cookies in OTT – Lotame announced the launch of Lotame Panorama, a suite of data enrichment solutions that use first-, second- and third-party data to create and analyze addressable audiences across the cookie-challenged web (Safari, Firefox, and Chrome), mobile app, and OTT environments. “First-party data is a valuable asset, but unfortunately it doesn’t provide the scale marketers need,” said Jason Downie, CRO at Lotame. “Bridging together customers’ online and offline lives has been a persistent industry dilemma that was made even more complicated with recent browser changes. To solve for this, we developed Panorama which enables a fuller view of activity that is actionable across a connected ecosystem, even in cookie-challenged or first-party-cookie-only environments.”

Centro announced the release of new products and upgrades aimed at helping advertisers with automation and visualization for campaign reporting, workflow management and forecasting. Key elements include a feature that reduces the time needed by agencies to collect, organize and prepare data for client “wrap-up” reports. Users can auto-generate a PowerPoint showing post- or mid-campaign performance data from direct buying, programmatic advertising, paid search and paid social – in a few clicks. Also, for advanced presentation creators, the platform is now connected with Google Data Studio. Campaign data from Centro’s platform now port into it, and is shared by agencies with their stakeholders online.

YouTube relaunched its premium advertising program with a “reimagination and unification” of solutions like Google Preferred and prime packs, in a new, brand-safe global content solution for brands call YouTube Select. “To help you find the right content for your brand, YouTube Select surfaces a diverse mix of content packages called lineups – each tailored to globally and locally relevant needs like beauty & fashion, entertainment, technology, sports and everything in between,” said Vishal Sharma, VP, Product Management, YouTube Ads, in a blog post. Advertisers in the US can target a dedicated streaming TV lineup that will include YouTube Originals, live sports, movies, news and content from popular creators.

Oracle is expanding its Moat Measurement suite with Oracle Data Cloud to include Moat Reach, a tool that shows near real-time audience reach across digital, mobile, and TV. Moat Reach integrates Moat Analytics’ digital impression data with second-by-second TV ad viewership data from iSpot.tv against the people and households in the Oracle ID Graph, allowing marketers to measure valid and viewable across TV and digital channels. “True cross-platform measurement — understanding which real people actually receive which ads across platforms — is one of the most foundational questions of advertising,” said Kevin Whitcher, VP of product management at Oracle Data Cloud.

Telestream, a provider of workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring and test and measurement solutions for the production and distribution of video, announced its new Vantage Ad-ID Integration, enabling Vantage to validate that the correct ads are being played out in the right place at the right time. The new feature can be integrated into standard Vantage workflow and can be used as part of commercial spot ingest for television or cable operations. “The Telestream and Ad-ID integration streamlines workflows by reducing the need to rekey information associated to a valid Ad-ID code,” said Scott Matics, Director of Product Management, Telestream. “It also provides standardized metadata to Telestream and other members of the supply chain who can leverage the data to better ensure that the correct ad is reaching the right consumer.”