This Week in TV News: BET’s Streaming Service and the Blues Win the Stanley Cup

This week, we’re talking about connected TV inventory growth, the Stanley Cup and BET’s new streaming service.

Connected TV inventory is growing. Connected TV inventory is growing, according to eMarketer, which expects 57.2% of the US population will watch connected TV this year, up from 51.7% in 2017. As time spent watching increases, inventory will increase, too. (eMarketer)

The Blues win and the Stanley Cup scores big ratings. The St. Louis Blues scored a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins. The game was watched by 8.2 million total viewers, up 24% on the rating for Game 6 and up 26% on the second-last game’s total viewership, with 6.1 million viewers. (Variety)

BET is the latest to launch a streaming service. The new streaming service from BET, launching later this year, will host content from the BET channel and other channels owned by parent company Viacom. Shows on the service include “First Wives Club,” a series based on the 1996 movie of the same name, as well as original content from Tyler Perry. (Engadget)

People prefer phones. Thirty-seven percent of U.S. adults say they rely on their smartphone the most for accessing the internet, an increase from 19% of respondents in 2013, according to Pew Research. What’s more, 17% of respondents said smartphones are the only device they use to get online. In part, this is probably due to better device quality, including larger, better screens, more memory and storage, faster processors. (MediaPost and Quartz)