Surrey Cricket to be Broadcast on Facebook

Surrey County Cricket Club have partnered with Facebook to broadcast the club’s home games on Facebook Watch for free. The matches will be available on the clubs Facebook page.

The first broadcast is today (22nd July) with the London Cup between Surrey Women and Middlesex Women. Matches in the NatWest T20 Blast and the one-off Bob Wills Trophy will also be shown.

The tie-up provides an alternative way of cricket fans to enjoy the action, with matches currently being played behind closed doors to limit the spread of Covid-19.

Netflix Sees New Subscriber Surge

Thanks to global lockdowns, Netflix has seen a surge in subscribers. In the three months to July, 10.1 million new subscribers joined the service. So far, there have been 26 million subscribers for 2020 as a whole.

Compared to 2019, Netflix saw 28 million new subscribers across the whole year. 2020 looks set to exceed this. However, the company has warned that new subscriptions will slow, particularly as lockdown restrictions ease.

Netflix is an on-demand streaming service, with shows including Tiger KingOzark, and Bank Heist proving popular during lockdown.

Pluto TV Joins Virgin Media

Pluto TV has joined Virgin Media, allowing users to access the on demand service through a dedicated app on the V6 box. It has not been confirmed if the service is available on the previous generation Tivo boxes.

Pluto TV is owned by ViacomCBS, and is a series of thematically created streamed TV channels, many created around a particular series. The service can be accessed on a wide variety of platforms.

Full details of the Pluto service can be found on the dedicated page here.

New Codec to Cut Streaming Data Use

A new video encoding standard, H.266, has be unveiled, and promises to cut data use by at least a half. Negotiations and development have taken 3 years.

The codec, also known as Versatile Video Coding (VVC), should make it possible for slower internet connections to stream in higher quality, as well as paving the way for streaming services to offer even higher quality 8K content.

The longer term aim us that cameras and smartphones will be able to automatically play and record footage in the new format. However, this will require new chips to be developed.

H.266 has been designed to half the bit rate required, when compared to the current H.265 standard. H.265 uses half the bit rate of its predecessor H.264, with the latter still widely used.

DAZN Enters Beta Test Phase

Pay per view service DAZN has resumed plans for an international roll out, which has been delayed since 2nd May 2020 due to the current worldwide circumstances.

The first stage of the roll out is a beta testing stage, which is to begin with the boxing match between Vergil Ortiz Jr and Samuel Vargas on the 24th July. Access is being made free of charge to registered users.

As yet, no full launch date for the service has been announced.

BBC Premier League Record, Success for Hamilton on Disney+

Attracting a peak audience of 5.7 million, the BBC has set the record for the most viewed Premier League game with their broadcast of Southampton vs Manchester City. The previous record was set by the Manchester United and Manchester City derby game in 2012, which was viewed by 4 million.

Although not normally a rights holder for live premier league games, the BBC is showing 4 games live due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Disney’s switch of the release of the musical Hamilton to its Disney Plus platform appears to have been successful, with data from Apptopia showing the app had been downloaded 513,323 times over the July the 4th weekend. The recording of the Broadway musical was scheduled for cinematic release.

Additionally, there have been 71.5 million worldwide downloads of the Disney Plus app since launch. This figure excludes India or Japan, where the service has been integrated into existing apps.

Illegal Streaming Arrest

Suffolk Constabulary have made an arrest in connection with the suspected illegal streaming of premium television channels, along with other copyrighted material.

The illegal streaming facilitated access to ten of thousands of people. During the arrest, officers were able to take control of the platform, disable the illegal streams, and display a warning message to users.

The arrested person has now been released, pending further enquiries.

Eleven Sports UK Launch Was A Mistake

Andrea Radrizzani, the CEO of Eleven Sports, has admitted that it was a mistake to launch in the UK without a distribution deal with a pay TV operator.

The service launched in the UK back in 2018, as a premium online streaming platform, with major sports such as La Liga and Serie A. An initial deal with La Liga for the 2018/19 season was abandoned in December, after the service failed to gain enough subscribers.

The failure to secure linear TV deals, failure to make a market impact, and poor overall performance led to the service closing in the UK less than a year after launch.

Radrizzani said he

was convinced that the right commercial strategy and a good proposition for BT and Sky would have provided to all platforms all the content – and cheaper for them – to enable customers to get the main international football.

adding that in reality it was impossible due to the tight grip that BT and Sky have on the market.

However, although not successful in the UK and Singapore, Eleven Sports has made progress in smaller European markets Belgium, Poland, and Portugal.

Virgin Media Reveals Leap in TV Viewing

Cable TV operator Virgin Media has revealed how the Covid-19 lockdown has changed viewing habits in the UK.

Amongst the statistics revealed are a 10% increase in customers watching TV, compared to pre-lockdown, with customers watching TV for an average of 41 extra minutes per day.

28th March, a Saturday, was the busiest data for customers tuning into TV channels, with 17% growth, compared to the eight previous Saturdays. For apps, this figure was an even higher 42%.

News, music, and radio channels all saw an increase in demand. Each customer spent an extra 25 minutes watching the news, on average. With schools closed, children’s channels also saw increases in demand.

Disney to Close Channels

Children’s channels Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD are to close in the UK. Unsurprisingly, this is part of the moving of content to Disney’s subscription streaming service Disney Plus, which will become the exclusive home for all of the content.

The move will take effect on October 1st, and will affect Sky and Virgin Media subscribers who currently subscribe to packages which include the channels.

Disney Plus launched in March this year, and costs £5.99 a month. Sky subscribers can access the service through the app on Sky Q.

The change is specific to the UK, although similar moves may made in other countries. Other Disney owned channels including National Geographic are not affected by the change.