Dish Network couldn't possibly have been unaware Minority TV Project believed carriage was improperly denied for its KMTP-TV San Francisco, so sending an additional letter notifying Dish of that was needless and it would be unreasonable for the FCC require that mailing, MTP said in a docket 17-313 filing posted Tuesday. It said Dish's focus on how the complaint was filed was an attempt to avoid addressing the merits of the complaint, responding to the satellite company's arguments the MTP carriage complaint be dismissed (see 1711300033). The MVPD didn't comment.
Reviewing broadcaster requests to own top-four duopolies on a case-by-case basis better reflects the media market and provides a clearer procedure than the general waiver process, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a letter last month and recently released to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., declining to postpone approval of the media ownership reconsideration order (see 1711160054) and ATSC 3.0 (see 1711160060). Both items were approved 3-2 at commissioners' November meeting. Eshoo’s request for delay was denied because both items serve the public interest, Pai said. He defended provisions in the 3.0 order that sunset the requirement that 1.0 simulcasts be substantially similar to broadcaster's 3.0 feeds and that low-power TV stations are exempt from simulcasting requirements. LPTV stations would have a hard time finding simulcast partners, so ending the substantially similar provision after five years won’t end broadcaster obligations to simulcast, Pai said. “The Commission will decide in a future proceeding whether and, if so, when it would be appropriate for broadcasters to stop simulcasting in ATSC 1.0.”
Apple didn't disclose details of its planned buy of music ID company Shazam but said in an email Monday it's "thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple." Shazam consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS and is used by "hundreds of millions" of people, said the Apple statement. Apple Music and Shazam "are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users," it said. The acquisition is pending approval, said the company.
Consumers will get more control over video ads when switching between laptops and mobile devices, under new voluntary standards announced Monday by the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council. Advertisers signing on to the standards must give consumers timely, upfront notice when serving interest-based ads across websites, mobile apps and devices associated with a particular person or household, following the Digital Advertising Alliance's self-regulatory principles, the group said. Enforcement will begin April 1.
The 2018 outlook for the cable industry is "positive," but "stable" for broadcasting, Moody's reported (password-protected). It predicts cable cash flow growth next year of almost 6 percent, "fueled by consolidation synergies and the rise in high-margin broadband." Cable takeovers are cutting costs, said Senior Credit Officer Jason Cuomo. "While the cord-cutting trend is growing, the rise in broadband demand is more than offsetting declines in video." Risks are "competitors aggressively attacking video with skinny bundles and readying wireless broadband technology," the firm said. Broadcaster 2018 cash flow should grow 3 to 3.5 percent amid takeover cost savings, rising "high-margin retransmission fees, and the expectation of strong congressional political cycle and Winter Olympics in 2018," Cuomo said Monday. Retrans will near 30-40 percent of revenue over the next 12-18 months for many broadcasters, the credit ratings firm said.
Amid squabbling between Amazon and Google over whose content is available on the other’s platform (see 1712050065), Amazon announced Wednesday its Prime Video app is available on Apple TVs in more than 100 countries. It gave Amazon a chance to tout its latest original movies and Prime original shows, including The Grand Tour, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Tick -- and upcoming premieres of Jean-Claude Van Johnson and Phillip K.
Fitbit announced its first operating system update for the Ionic smartwatch, with apps from Nest, United Airlines and Yelp. It’s also partnering with Deezer to bring the music service to users worldwide in Q1, it announced Tuesday.
Google's plans to increase employees monitoring problematic YouTube content is "a great first step," the Parents Television Council said Tuesday. It said its own research finding that offensive content often comes up when searching using "child-friendly" search terms shows the site "needs constant monitoring," and Google's increased efforts should help meet that goal. PTC said Google's YouTube should extend increased monitoring to its YouTube Kids app and content. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki blogged Monday that the company has more people reviewing more content "to stay one step ahead of bad actors." She said its trust and safety teams have manually reviewed nearly 2 million videos for violent extremist content since June, helping train its machine-learning technology to identify similar videos. She said the goal is to have more than 10,000 people working at Google next year on content that might violate YouTube policies. She said YouTube regularly will report more aggregate data about the flags it receives and the actions it takes to remove videos and comments that violate its content policies starting next year, and is looking to develop other tools. She said the company plans to apply stricter criteria, do more manual curation and add to its team of advertising reviewers.
The top TV maker is an exception in the industry opposing EPA plans in Energy Star Version 8.0 TV to require enabling automatic brightness control by default in most of presets (see 1711300056). Samsung supports Energy Star’s “continued recognition” of ABC “in the default viewing mode as an effective energy-saving feature,” the company commented Nov. 7, in a filing posted Thursday on the revised final draft. ABC “reduces energy consumption and automatically adjusts brightness to match the ambient lighting of the viewing environment,” said the company.
Redbox's sales of Disney codes to allow streaming of movies that clearly are marked not for sale or transfer, both online and at its kiosks, are a copyright violation, interference with Disney contracts with customers, and violations of California's false advertising and unfair competition laws, Disney said in a docket 17-cv-8655 lawsuit (in Pacer) filed Thursday in Los Angeles. Redbox said Friday it "feel[s] very confident in our pro-consumer position."