Patent and Trademark Office records show a plethora of filings from tech companies seeking new cures for virtual-reality motion sickness, with Samsung proposing a solution involving electric shocks, our searches found. A Dolby Labs patent application filed in February and published Oct. 5 bears a title that describes the challenge: “Queasiness Management for Virtual Reality Systems.” Abandon a one-cure-fits-all approach and tailor the presentation to individual viewers, it said (20170285732). Samsung's application filed in January and published Aug. 31 proposes (20170249010) shocking people out of their sickness by “applying an electrical stimulus to the vestibular system” through electrodes clamped to the viewer’s head or neck. “The vestibular system reacts in response to the electrical stimulus and a signal is delivered to the brain via neurons,” it said. “The user feels less sickness.” Representatives at the companies didn't comment.

​Netflix had 5.3 million net subscription streaming additions in Q3, significantly better than the 4.4 million net additions it predicted in its July forecast, the company said Monday in its quarterly letter to shareholders. Netflix had 850,000 net adds in Q3 in the U.S., outpacing its July forecast by 100,000. Internationally, the company had 4.45 million net adds, much better than the 3.65 million it predicted in July. For the past four years, Netflix has taken the long-term view “that we’re in the early stages of the worldwide, multi-decade transition from linear TV to internet entertainment,” the letter said. That transition recently has been “unfolding right before our eyes,” the company said, citing Disney’s announced plans to launch direct-to-consumer services for ESPN and its other brands and the international expansion of CBS All Access. The letter mentioned nothing about Disney's decision to pull its films from Netflix starting in 2019 (see 1709080027). Linear TV networks are “cutting down on scripted series” as online services like Netflix have “ramped up activity,” it said.

Comments on the FCC proposal to do away with rules requiring some broadcasters and cable carriers to keep hard copies of rules at their facilities (see [Ref:1709260045]) are due Nov. 13, said a Media Bureau public notice Friday. Replies in docket 17-231 are due Nov. 27.

Amazon began Prime Student, a half-off discount program for college students including free two-day shipping, same-day delivery in more than 5,000 cities, unlimited streaming on select movies and TV shows, and access to Prime Music. In August, Amazon announced Instant Pickup with staffed locations near universities (see report in the Aug. 16 issue of this publication).

GolTV and Global Sports' discovery shouldn't materially hurt DOJ criminal prosecution of related bribery and corruption allegations, the network and sports consulting company said in a docket 1:16-cv-24431 reply (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Miami. The plaintiffs -- suing parties including Fox Sports Latin America over exclusive South American Football Confederation TV rights they didn't get despite making the highest bids -- said the DOJ-proposed stay would likely foreclose any discovery until next year, further prolonging the case. They don't oppose a limited stay of deposition discovery until completion of the criminal trial or until the start of 2018, whichever is earlier. DOJ's motion (in Pacer) asked for discovery to be stayed, saying discovery could give parties in the civil case documents and deposition testimony that could jeopardize the criminal trial. Defendants Monday filed a motion (in Pacer) to dismiss the GolTV/Global Sports suit. Plaintiff's counsel didn't comment.

Consultant Marc Finer resigned as senior director and technical guru of the Digital Entertainment Group because he became “increasingly frustrated” with the home entertainment industry’s “approach” to “market segmentation and consumer engagement,” especially in “meeting the expectations and needs of young entertainment enthusiasts,” he emailed DEG members Tuesday. Resigning “will allow me to pursue a new direction that goes beyond the scope of the DEG's mission, while remaining focused on all of my current projects related to 4K UHD and Hi-Res Audio,” said Finer, who will continue to run Communication Research, his Pittsburgh-based consulting firm. The industry “has been slow to embrace” consumer trends, said Finer in a statement Wednesday that shed little additional light on the nature of the frustrations that persuaded him to leave. Amy Jo Smith, DEG's president, said Finer's departure from the group was amicable. She praised Finer's efforts on behalf of DEG and said he played an "instrumental" role in the launch of new industry formats, such as DVD. DEG hopes to work again with Finer on future projects, she said.

Content producer and distributor Kew Media Group closed on its buy for $8.3 million of London content distribution company TCB Media Rights, it said Tuesday.

On Disney backing high dynamic range for use with 1080p rather than 4K, it's a viable strategy for its legacy titles, Sam Johnson, Disney U.K. senior manager-technology and systems, told a MESA (Media & Entertainment Services Alliance) Europe conference Wednesday in London. “A lot of hardware companies are looking at HDR, but not just 4K HDR as a value-added product.” HDR content with 4K resolution “costs a lot to create, so looking at HD HDR as a potential standard, touted as Advanced HDR, is going to be a very interesting proposition,” he said. Johnson emphasized the company believes 4K HDR is “here to stay,” and “we can now bookmark it as part of the standards.” Disney, a founding member of the UHD Alliance, worries “there is definitely a lack of standardization that potentially hinders adoption” of HDR, said Johnson. “There are a lot of HDR formats out there.” On challenges posed by diversity of HDR formats, Johnson listed HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and said: “We need to create different versions for them all.” The company needs to “partner up with Samsung on HDR10+” because Amazon is one of the studio’s “biggest” electronic sell-through partners, and “Amazon has said they will leverage HDR10+ as a standard” (see 1708300040), he said. “We need to know how to provide HDR10+, especially when price points are going to be the same. That’s where our frustrations lie.”

Facebook is testing a new tool allowing users to tap a button to "easily access" more information about News Feed articles, the company said Thursday. Additional information about a topic -- such as from a Wikipedia entry, a button to follow a publisher's Facebook page, trending or related articles and how the article is being shared -- would be pulled from across the site. The contextual information can help users assess articles and see if the story is credible, said the company, and the test won't significantly affect distribution of articles in most users' News Feed.

Content companies may face sizable problems as worldwide subscription VOD and advertising-supported VOD keep outpacing electronic sell-through and transactional VOD revenue growth for years, while growth in EST and transactional VOD isn't keeping pace with the decline in disc rentals and sales, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Tuesday. Data shows the trend of moving from ownership of movies and TV shows to paying for access to libraries is a global and not just U.S. phenomenon, he said. "The upgrade bonanza" from people buying new copies of content in new formats with better video quality may be over, the analyst said, pointing to services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video moving from HD to Ultra HD. He said the upgrade bonanza may be dying in the EST market as well, with Apple's announcement that buyers of an HD version of a movie would get a free upgrade to the Ultra HD version.