30-second summary: Comscore’s 2020 State of OTT report looks at Covid-19’s impact on OTT usage and provides an overview of current CTV/OTT trends in the U.S. OTT consumption spiked significantly from February to March of this year, based on average daily streaming hours per household. The “Big 5” streaming services which include, in order of volume, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video, Hulu, and Disney+ together accounted for 83% of OTT streaming hours in April 2020. The most significant jump in CTV usage was with smart TVs, which reached about 37% of households in April 2018 versus 51% in 2020. According to the IAB’s digital video glossary, the umbrella term for TV that’s connected to the internet is “ Advanced TV .” Per the IAB, advanced TV is “any television content that has evolved beyond traditional, linear television delivery methods.” There are two common terms associated with ATV that we’ll address in …

The company is “very surprised” about having its channels unbundled from sports, despite calling for TV providers to do just that. Last week, T-Mobile announced a new streaming TV service called TVision . While it’s still just one of many alternatives to cable TV, it’s unique in that it splits most entertainment channels into a separate bundle from news, sports, and local channels. The non-sports package, whose 30 channels include Discovery, Food Network, Comedy Central, and AMC, costs just $10 per month, while the other bundle starts at $40 per month. Read Full Story

“FX on Hulu” makes the cable channel redundant as Disney bets big on streaming. As announced back in November, FX has brought its original series over to Hulu . That means if you subscribe to Hulu’s $6 per month on-demand service, you can stream full seasons of shows like The Shield , Fargo , and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia at no extra charge. While Hulu doesn’t have every FX original ( The Americans and American Crime Story are notable absentees), it appears to have most of them. Read Full Story

30-second summary: Nielsen releases eye-opening statistics about the trends in the on-demand video landscape including a spike in viewership of ad-supported streaming. COVID-19 and its associated lockdowns and social distancing rules initiated an unprecedented period of streaming TV consumption and the change appears to be permanent. Video streaming in “streaming-capable” homes was up 16% overall compared with last July. The time spent watching “other” platforms (e.g., not the SVOD big 5: Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Prime and Disney+) increased by 16.3 billion minutes. Ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) services are contributing to an increase in digital ad spend in a big way. Nielsen recently predicted that digital media spend would rise to $500 billion globally by 2023 with digital video ads likely comprising a big chunk of that. Watching AVOD content helps consumers control the cost of streaming content, with nearly 50% of Americans watching ad-supported video content, up from …

Philo’s sports-free streaming bundle hits 750,000 subscribers, up 300% year over year. For the first time, Philo is revealing how many people subscribe to its $20-per-month service for cord cutters. The startup says it now has 750,000 subscribers, up 300% year over year. Philo says that makes it the fastest-growing live TV streaming service. Read Full Story

The economic stimulus checks go further in states with lower cost of living. See how your state stacks up. The Economic Impact Payment program is proving much more beneficial to residents of red states, according to a state-by-state analysis by Ownerly. Using U.S. Census data, the home-valuation platform calculated average stimulus check payouts per family, and compared those amounts to regional costs of living (rent, utilities, cable or satellite television, and mobile phone). Read Full Story

As millions have cut the cord, cable companies raised prices, banking on sports to keep people hooked. During the pandemic, that strategy has started to backfire. Now that all the major cable and satellite TV providers have reported their Q2 2020 earnings, we know the exact amount of damage cord-cutting inflicted on traditional TV through the start of the summer. Read Full Story

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission. Live chat has quickly become an integral part of customer service in the digital era. When a customer or website visitor has a question, complaint, or needs some other type of assistance, they expect to reach your brand via live chat. In addition to the improved customer experience, live chat is also more efficient for your support team. Service reps can’t field more than one phone call simultaneously, but they can handle multiple live chat conversations at the same time. Overall, live chat is fast, effective, and more cost-efficient than any other type of customer communication. In terms of consumer preferences, it ranks higher than phone, email, and social media. Every website needs to have live chat. With that said, there are dozens of different live chat solutions available …

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission. A decade ago, clouds were white puffy things we pointed at in the sky. Today, I suppose that’s still true. But “the cloud” means something completely different. It started as a buzzword, but now, it’s not uncommon to hear it in an afternoon conversation over coffee. In fact, it’s an incredibly common occurrence in our everyday lives. And it’s rise in popularity happened for a good reason—cloud storage is safe, affordable, and undoubtedly easy to use. Plus, it has countless uses, from backups and document archiving to team collaboration and file sharing. But choosing the best cloud storage services isn’t always easy, especially since there are so many options on the market. To make your decision a little easier, I looked at dozens of providers and narrowed it down …

The pandemic has changed work permanently. Before COVID-19, only 9.8 million (out of 140 civilian workers in the U.S.) worked remotely. Today, almost 70 million people are working remotely. Are you working remotely? If you are, there’s a good chance that you’ll need a virtual private network (VPN). If you’re running a small business and your employees need to work remotely, you need a VPN as well. Today, we’re going to take a look at VPNs — what they are, why you need them, and how to find the VPN that’s right for you. What’s a VPN, and Why Do You Need One? A VPN is a private network that’s run through a public network — imagine that a remote worker sitting in Starbucks had an extra-long Ethernet cable. They plug one end into their computer, and the other end directly into their company’s servers at work. That’s basically what …