Streaming

• Netflix Inc. raised the price of its standard streaming plan – the first increase since 2019 – by $1 to $13.99 and its premium plan by $2 to $17.99, with the change going into effect immediately for new customers and within the next two months for current subscribers.

• Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company has now reached 585 million subscribers on its platforms, up from 550 million at the end of the previous quarter, and expects to surpass 600 million by the end of the year.

• T-Mobile US Inc. unveiled three subscription tiers for its long-planned wireless TV service, set to launch this week, including TVision Vibe, a $10 per month bundle aimed at the cord-cutting crowd. Other bundles include TVision Live, a midrange package with local broadcast channels, sports channels and news, and TVision Channels, which includes premium cable options such as Showtime.

• Netflix is testing an audio-only mode with select Android users that allows people to stream a show or film’s audio track without visuals, according to code snippets found in the latest version of its Android app, creating a podcast-like listening environment for the user and cutting down on data use.

Earnings

• Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. reported second-quarter profits of $299 million, down 18 percent compared to the same period in 2019 but an increase from $230 million in the first quarter of 2020 as the global entertainment company continues to grapple with the ramifications of the pandemic.

• Spotify Technology SA said it ended the third quarter with 144 million premium subscribers and 320 million monthly active users, with premium subscriptions up 27 percent year over year. Spotify, which reported that quarterly revenue grew 14 percent to 1.98 billion euros ($2.32 billion), said “global consumption hours surpassed pre-COVID levels during the quarter, and all regions have fully recovered” and estimated that in the fourth quarter it would reach 340 million to 345 million total monthly active users and 150 million to 154 million premium subscribers.

• Comcast Corp. reported 22 million subscriptions to its Peacock streaming service, launched in July, but said its third-quarter advertising revenue from broadcast TV and cable networks fell 11.5 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, from the same time in 2019. Theme park revenue was down 80.9 percent year over year, but the company gained 633,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter and slowed video customer losses compared to the previous quarter.

• Google’s YouTube brought in $5 billion in advertising revenue during the third quarter, up 30 percent year over year, with the platform now reporting more than 30 million music and premium paid subscribers, as well as 3 million YouTube TV subscribers after it raised the monthly subscription price for that service from $50 to $64.99 in June.

ViacomCBS

• ViacomCBS Inc.’s ViacomCBS International Studios is launching a children’s content division headed by Nina Hahn, which will focus on expanding the company’s global content for kids to include short- and long-form offerings that will become a part of ViacomCBS brands and platforms or be sold to third parties. The company said VIS Kids has plans to develop more than 30 programs for children in the next three years.

• On Monday, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and AMC Networks Inc. are expected to report earnings.

• Fox Corp. will report earnings on Tuesday.

• On Wednesday, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. will report earnings.

• DISH Network Corp., T-Mobile  US Inc., Electronic Arts Inc., Roku Inc.  and Cinemark Holdings Inc. report earnings Thursday, while ViacomCBS Inc. is set to report earnings on Friday.

• NBCUniversal executives are eyeing Nov. 12 as the date to begin another wave of layoffs, with the newly created Television and Streaming division expected to face the bulk of the cuts, according to sources. They also said that up to 300 employees could be laid off and that cuts are expected to continue through late December or early 2021.

1) Frail, Frumpy and Forgotten. A Report on the Movie Roles of Women of Age
Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media and TENA

2) Here’s What You and Your Neighbors Have Been Watching on Netflix This Year
PCMag

3) Major NBCUniversal Layoffs In TV & Streaming Unit To Begin In Mid-November
Dominic Patten and Nellie Andreeva, Deadline Hollywood

4) Charlotte Kirk Says She’s a ‘Pariah,’ Was Groomed for ‘Commercial Sex’ in New Court Filing
Beatrice Verhoeven, The Wrap

5) ViacomCBS Int’l Studios Launches Kids Division, Led by Nina Hahn
Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter

6) T-Mobile Tries to Tempt Cord Cutters With $10 Monthly TV Plan
Drew FitzGerald, The Wall Street Journal

7) Why Has Jim Carrey’s Joe Biden Been Such a Disaster?
Rob Harvilla, The Ringer

8) Warner Max Restructures as WarnerMedia Consolidates Film Production
Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter

9) Spotify Hits 144M Paid Subs, Ad Revenue and Consumption Recover After Pandemic Slump
Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter

10) Comcast beats revenue expectations on broadband growth
Helen Coster, Reuters