Streaming

• Netflix Inc. will raise prices in the United States, with consumers seeing prices increase 13 to 18 percent, the largest rise since the streaming service began. The price increase, which will affect all U.S. subscribers, will go into effect immediately for new subscribers and spread to current customers over the next three months.

• Netflix added 8.8 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter, over 1 million more than the company’s previous estimate of 7.6 million and driven largely by growth outside the United States, where Netflix added 7.3 million net new paid subscribers in the last three months of 2018. The streaming service, which has been secretive about viewership numbers, estimated that original film “Bird Box,” will be viewed by more than 80 million households in its first month, and newly acquired television show “You” has been viewed by 40 million households during its first four weeks.

• After initially defending the decision to add Alex Jones’ Infowars, Roku Inc. said it will no longer carry the channel, saying it had “heard from concerned parties.” Infowars is known for sharing conspiracy theories and has been banned from other platforms, including Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and YouTube.

• Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. launched a free streaming service called Stirr, which offers local news, as well as sports and entertainment channels to customers. Adam Ware, the service’s general manager, says that Stirr enables consumers to “watch anything, anywhere” via computers, mobile and connected devices, without signing in to an account.

• Walmart Inc. will not move forward with plans for an original streaming platform focused on content for “Middle America,” and instead intends to focus its interest on Vudu Inc., the streaming service it acquired in 2010, according to people familiar with the matter. Walmart reportedly did not feel comfortable investing in original content, and will instead focus on expanding Vudu’s content library.

Personnel changes

• Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke is reorganizing the executive ranks as the company plans to launch a streaming service in 2020, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mark Lazarus will serve as chairman of NBCUniversal Broadcast, Cable, Sports and News; Jeff Shell will be chairman of NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment; and Bonnie Hammer will lead Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises.

• Viacom Inc. has laid off employees in the entertainment group, most of whom worked for Paramount Network, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, who also said fewer than 20 people were let go, or less than 2 percent of the entertainment group’s staff. This change comes less than three months after Kevin Kay, who oversaw Viacom networks including Paramount Network, left the company as the entertainment group was reorganized.

CBS

• CBS Corp.’s acting CEO, Joseph Ianniello, and other executives fielded employee questions in a live-blogging session last Tuesday. Ianniello declined to answer questions about CBS News, but he said there is “an ongoing legal process” to determine what will happen to the $120 million that was denied former CEO Les Moonves.

• CBS disclosed via a securities filing that Moonves will pursue arbitration in an effort to claim the $120 million severance the company decided to deny him last month as a result of an investigation that determined he violated company policies and breached his employment contract. The two parties will next have to agree on an arbitrator provided through the American Arbitration Association, though CBS and Moonves could also reach a settlement on their own.

Spinoffs  

• The Department of Justice is expected to allow The Walt Disney Co. to spin off the 22 regional sports networks it acquired with 21st Century Fox Inc.’s entertainment assets, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. This would allow Disney to relinquish control of the networks without having to find a buyer.

• Helios & Matheson Analytics Inc., the parent company of ticket subscription service MoviePass, said it created a new entity to take control of its MoviePass shares, as well as other film assets. The new entity, MoviePass Entertainment Holdings Inc., must be reviewed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and be accepted by a trading market before the spinoff is finalized.

Video games

• Free-to-play video games brought in $87.7 billion in revenue in 2018, accounting for nearly 80 percent of all digital game spending during the year, according Nielsen’s SuperData tracking arm, due in part to popular titles such as “Fortnite: Battle Royale.” The revenue for free games is generated through in-game “microtransactions,” incremental purchases that boost a gamer’s performance or provide special items.

• Nominations for the 2019 Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday.

• The 2019 Sundance Film Festival will begin Thursday and run until Feb. 3. Films of note include documentaries about Michael Jackson and Steve Bannon, as well as “Velvet Buzzsaw,” a new original film from Netflix starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which will have its world premiere at the festival ahead of its Netflix release.

• The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be hosted by Megan Mullally on Jan. 27. “A Star is Born” leads film nominations with four, while “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Ozark” lead the TV category with four nominations each.

• AT&T Inc. will release fourth quarter earnings on Jan. 30 at 7 a.m.

• CBS will hold a board meeting on Jan. 31, where topics of discussion are expected to include the search for a permanent CEO and a potential merger with Viacom.

1) Netflix raising prices for 58M US subscribers as costs rise
Michael Liedtke, The Associated Press

2) Viacom Lays Off Paramount Network Staffers Amid Reorganization
Joe Otterson, Variety

3) ‘SMILF’ showrunner Frankie Shaw addresses misconduct reports: ‘I was learning on the go’
Nardine Saad, Los Angeles Times

4) Is Spotify’s Model Wiping Out Music’s Middle Class?
Victor Luckerson, The Ringer

5) Sinclair Enters Streaming Arena With Entertainment Bundle and Local Channels
Cynthia Littleton, Variety

6) Inside a ‘Making a Murderer’ Lawsuit and the Hidden Dangers of TV’s True-Crime Craze
Rebecca Keegan, The Hollywood Reporter

7) What It’s Like Making Your First Film After 18 Years in ‘Movie Jail’
David Sims, The Atlantic

8) DOJ may allow Disney to spin off Fox’s regional sports networks
Josh Kosman and Richard Morgan, New York Post

9) Rotten Tomatoes Is Based On Bad Statistics. Use Metacritic Instead.
Dan Kopf, Quartz

10) Disney’s Netflix competitor could hit 50 million subscribers in 5 years, but Wall Street sees 2 major risks to its strategy
Travis Clark, Business Insider