Welcome to the latest installment of Dan Rayburn's Streaming Insights & Intelligence, a weekly insights column on StreamTV Insider where the industry analyst puts facts and figures to the news you need to know about. Join the discussion on LinkedIn and check back each week as he unpacks key industry happenings.
For the week of September 25, 2024, Rayburn is tracking Roku, Google TV Streamer, NBA League Pass and more.
- Roku has upgraded its Roku Ultra with Wi-Fi 6 and a new quad-core processor, which Roku says is 30% faster. It ships with Roku's best remote, the Voice Remote Pro (2nd edition), upgraded with backlit buttons, USB-C charging, and new quick launch and live TV buttons. The upgraded Ultra ships today for $99.
- Ahead of the launch of Google TV Streamer, the company’s new set-top streaming box, Google announced a host of new features to enhance its Google TV platform. A new home panel on Google TV lets you control all compatible smart home devices, including lights, thermostats and cameras. A new, improved Ambient screensaver lets you create AI-generated designs or showcase photos from Google Photos. In addition, there's a new sports page under the For You tab and improved synopses of the best films and television series, which now feature season-by-season analyses, audience ratings, and comprehensive descriptions.
- NBA League Pass is raising the price of its two annual plans for the 2024-25 season by $10 each, and its monthly plan is also increasing by $2. League Pass now costs $16.99 monthly or $109.99 for the season. League Pass Premium now costs $24.99 monthly or $159.99 for the season. To date, the NBA has never disclosed how many subscribers it has to League Pass.
- Amazon announces that its VOD support for AV1 has expanded to live, with customers now able to stream and package live AV1 encoded content, prepare AV1 VOD assets and ads, and insert ads into AV1 encoded videos. AWS says that with the launch of AV1 in MediaLive, AWS is one of the first cloud providers to offer live AV1 encoding.
- Here’s another example of companies optimizing their encoding and delivery and reducing costs, this time from Disney+ Hotstar. The company has deployed new AI-powered video optimization technology that cuts video bits by 25% without compromising video quality. It’s reported that this has already been applied to over 700 titles in Disney+ Hotstar’s catalog.
Dan Rayburn is an analyst in the streaming media industry, with regular TV appearances on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Schwab Network amongst others. He is conference Chairman for the NAB Show Streaming Summit in Las Vegas each year, and his streamingmediablog.com website is one of the most widely read sites for broadcasters, content owners, OTT providers, Wall Street money managers, and industry executives. He also has a podcast at danrayburnpodcast.com. He can be reached at [email protected]
Dan Rayburn’s Streaming Insights & Intelligence is an opinion column. It does not necessarily represent the opinions of StreamTV Insider.