Streaming media devices are in and DVD-Blu-ray players are out, judging by Nielsen data, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Monday. He said live TV viewing was down across most groups in Q1, falling particularly far among those ages 12-34, and DVR usage continued to decline among younger viewers and grow among older Americans. He said data indicates the average U.S. home watches a DVD or Blu-ray disc every other week, while use of game consoles for video consumption remains flat. He said use of streaming media players like Roku and Apple TV is growing rapidly, with usage among people ages 50-64 up 227 percent year over year. Dixon said video via PC is bifurcating, with usage by people under 18 declining while usage for older people is increasing. The analyst said video via smartphone continues to be highly popular among young millennials ages 18-24, but even people over the age of 64 have started watching enough video via smartphone to be measurable.

There are opportunities and challenges with new features in Ultra HD TVs that are similar to those in the transition from NTSC to ATSC TV 20 years ago, but 4K resolution isn’t the right message to convince consumers to upgrade, CE Week in New York heard Thursday. TV marketers promised consumers 4K was going to be “amazing,” said Joel Silver, president of the Imaging Science Foundation, but “if you looked at 4K from a normal viewing distance, it looked the same as 2K,” he said. Silver cited the various sources from Ultra HD Blu-ray to premium streaming channels, along with HDR and wide color gamut, and said: “We’ve got amazing things happening, and no one knows how good we are." After “crying wolf” for so many generations of TVs and telling consumers they’re going to love the next big thing, “this time we’re actually telling the truth,” he said. Tim Alessi, senior director-product marketing for LG home entertainment products, addressed the challenge of getting consumers interested in TVs when they’re increasingly watching TV content on mobile devices: “The TV is still a family communal activity. People aren’t gathering around their iPad to watch the Super Bowl." Value Electronics President Robert Zohn told us that for consumers, “it’s all about the content.” They can have music on the go, and they’ll get the premium experience when they’re home, he said.

If the FCC relaxes or ends its top-four prong of the local ownership rule, it will have to find means of addressing retransmission consent issues that move would bring up, American TV Alliance (ATVA) representatives told Media Bureau staff and an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, said a docket 15-216 ex parte filing posted Thursday. ATVA pointed to the agency's 2014 retrans consent amendments order, Congress' 2014 passage of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act and DOJ comments last year on Nexstar's buy of Media General, all highlighting issues about joint negotiation among top-four stations in a market. And ATVA said those same findings that joint negotiations lead to higher retrans consent fees would apply to joint ownership of those stations. On behalf of ATVA were representatives from AT&T, Charter Communications, Dish Network and the American Cable Association, plus ATVA Executive Director Mike Chappell. Broadcast interests pushed for elimination of the top-four ownership rule (see 1704030049 and 1702230070).

Sony jumped on the Alexa bandwagon Thursday, announcing its 2017 4K Android TV lineup can now be voice-controlled by the Amazon Echo via a recent firmware update. Users don’t have to know the channel number: They can say, “Alexa, change channel to CNN” on a given TV, Sony said. The company said earlier this year the Android TVs would support Google Assistant voice commands later in 2017; it didn't comment now.

Voxx International’s $166 million sale of the Hirschmann car antenna and tuner business to TE Connectivity (see 1706260033) proves “there is value in our assets, despite our stock price,” Voxx CEO Pat Lavelle said on a Tuesday earnings call. Despite Lavelle's assurances on the call that Voxx has a “clear strategy to improve profitability and unlock value,” Voxx shares plummeted 20.6 percent midday Tuesday to $7.02 before closing 17 percent lower for the day at $7.35. If the Hirschmann deal closes by Aug. 31 as Voxx forecasts, “we expect to have a clean balance sheet, cash on hand and access to capital,” said Lavelle.

Amazon's Prime Day was to have begun at 9 p.m. EDT Monday, with prices cut on its Alexa, Fire and Kindle streaming, voice-activated and TV and other devices and delivery and music services (see here, here and here). Shares of Amazon retail competitors took hits Monday. While Amazon closed the day up 1.81 percent, Best Buy shares dropped 6.3 percent to $54.23, Barnes & Noble fell 4 percent to $7.15 and others also fell by lesser amounts. The Alexa voice control universe, meanwhile, expanded with compatibility announcements from Carrier and robotics maker Ecovacs. Home control company Savant also announced integration in conjunction with release of a remote for picking channels and entertainment sources.

The FCC should make video description rules more flexible to accommodate networks that air a great deal of live or near-live content or repeatedly re-air described programming, said NCTA and NBCUniversal in meetings last week with an aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, according to ex parte letters posted Friday in docket 11-43. “Some of the most highly-rated non-broadcast programming networks” provide hours of described programming that doesn’t count toward their compliance totals “since the programming is re-aired more frequently than the single repeat counted,” said NCTA on behalf of itself and NBCU, owned by association member Comcast. The FCC should provide a safe harbor for networks that go far above the 87.5 hour-per-quarter total proposed in the draft item set for the July agenda (see 1706280063) or an exemption “so that programming networks are not required to seek quarterly waivers,” NCTA said. New video description requirements shouldn’t apply to companies before July 1, NCTA said.

Since the parties behind various online streaming services admitted by default to Filipino TV network ABS-CBN's piracy and copyright infringement complaint by never responding to the lawsuit filed in April, the Philippine media company is seeking a final default judgment, it said in a motion (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami. In the motion, ABS-CBN asked the court for a permanent injunction, statutory damages and cancellation or transfer the domain names to ABS-CBN. The 19 sites in question include Cinesilip.net, Embeds.me and Fullpinoymovies.com, said the filing. At least some of those sites now feature only filings on the ABS-CBN suit instead of video content. Also on Monday, ABS-CBN filed a proposed final default judgment and permanent injunction (in Pacer) with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking a court order barring the defendants there from copying and distributing ABS-CBN copyrighted works. The proposed default judgment also asks the court to give it the domain names of the defendants' pirate sites, plus damages. The 11 sites in question in the California suit include Filikula.com, Pinoyglobaltv.com and Pinoystv.com, said the filing. ABS-CBN is pursuing litigation against the operators of multiple piracy sites (see 1704030018).

FCC rule changes eliminating requirements that broadcasters keep an in-station public correspondence file and that cable carriers identify the location of their headends were effective as of Thursday, the Federal Register said. The commission approved the new rules in January.

Smart TVs will reach near parity with streaming media players next year as platforms delivering apps to TVs, NPD reported Wednesday. By 2020, smart TVs will drive 48 percent of installed internet-connected TV device growth, compared with 31 percent for streaming media players, with Blu-ray players and game consoles accounting for the balance, the researcher said. Mass-market adoption of 4K TV also will play a role in the growth of connected TV as nearly all 4K TVs are internet-capable, said analyst John Buffone.