Analysts, consumer groups and think tanks see the retransmission consent market as plainly uncompetitive, but the FCC is "the only significant player who doesn't seem to get that the only 'f' word associated with the retrans market ... is 'failure' rather than 'free,'" wrote Mediacom General Counsel Joseph Young in a docket 10-71 filing posted Thursday. Mediacom said it has made these arguments ad nauseam, but the start of the Trump administration marks "time to beat our heads against the wall yet again." It said Chairman Ajit Pai shouldn't be led by an ideological deregulation drive but see the data that points to market failure -- with the smoking gun being that cord-cutting trends and ratings declines haven't slowed the growth of retrans fees. The cable operator said the agency shouldn't worsen the power balance with broadcasters by easing ownership restrictions or giving them a "free hand" in ATSC 3.0 deployment since lack of oversight could lead to millions of viewers unable to watch local channels or to skyrocketing pay-TV bills. NAB in a statement said, “This is more of the same silliness from Mediacom. NAB agrees with the FCC’s conclusion that no new retrans rules are needed. We urge the Commission to reject the anti-competitive musings of Mediacom and allow broadcasters the freedom to innovate for viewers’ benefit.”
EMagin’s recent signing of a multimillion-dollar agreement to supply its OLED microdisplays for consumer virtual-reality head-mounted displays (HMDs) to a “major Tier 1 consumer electronics company” was its third such “success” in the past 15 months, CEO Andrew Sculley said on a Tuesday earnings call. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Lucas is “a little cautious” in predicting when its supply agreements with top manufacturers will result in HMDs reaching the commercial market: "it could happen relatively quickly, but there are so many variables involved here that we are just a little cautious.”
A news media association launched a campaign aimed at fighting fake news, highlighting the harm caused to the public and the importance of real news produced by trusted organizations and journalists. A Wednesday news release said the News Media Alliance's (NMA) Support Real News campaign is urging people to subscribe to local newspapers and donate to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. ICIJ, the Inland Press Association and the Local Media Consortium are partners. This "raises awareness of the damage that can be and is being caused by fake news, and to demonstrate why the continued presence of real news organizations is vital to a strong democracy," said NMA President David Chavern. One thing that would help fight fake news, NMA told the FCC, would be to end newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules (see 1703280051).
Lenbrook America is exploring licensing its BluOS operating system and music management software to other audio manufacturers, CEO Dean Miller told us. Second-generation products include the Node 2, which adds Bluesound and internet streaming capability to a stereo or home theater system, and the Vault 2 ripper/hard drive. Multiroom streaming is becoming a must-have feature for contemporary audio products, Miller noted. A chip that combines a couple of high-resolution streaming platforms a la integrated circuits supporting Dolby and DTS is "probably an idea worthy of serious discussion,” he said.
ABI Research estimates more than 460 companies are in the hunt for the consumer and enterprise pieces of the virtual reality prize, the company said Tuesday in its inaugural “ecosystem tracker” report for the VR and 360-degree video markets. Broad market appeal for both consumer and enterprise VR will see the global market exceed $60 billion by 2021, and it's that projected market growth that will continue “to attract a wide variety of players,” ABI said. Apps, software, content distribution and “core technology” are “the most common business model,” accounting for more than 60 percent of the companies involved in VR, “roughly split evenly” between consumer and enterprise, it said. “VR is not 3D,” ABI said. “With first-generation hardware sales lower than expected, some industry professionals suggest parallels between VR and 3D, but the wealth of companies active in this space and deep-seeded belief in VR stand in marked contrast to the short-lived heyday of 3D.”
Imax and Warner Home Entertainment will develop and release three “premium” interactive virtual-reality “experiences” over the next three years under a “co-financing and production agreement,” the companies announced. One such experience a year will be developed, based on Warner’s “most highly anticipated upcoming blockbuster films,” including Justice League, Aquaman and a third project to be named later, they said. All the projects will debut at Imax VR Centres for “an exclusive window” before being released to other VR platforms, including in-home and mobile offerings, they said. Imax officially opened its “flagship” Imax VR Centre in Los Angeles Jan. 6 and plans to have a total of six “pilot locations” up and running throughout the world by midyear (see 1702240002).
Drake set a U.S. record for number of streams from a single album in one week, said Nielsen Monday. The rapper eclipsed his own record with 385 million streams of More Life, surpassing the previous record of 245 million streams set by his Views album, Nielsen said: More Life has sold 225,000 digital albums.
German disc replicator Sonopress recently joined the DVD Copy Control Association and Kaleidescape was one of six companies to withdraw, DVD CCA told DOJ and the FTC in simultaneous “written notifications” Feb. 24. That’s according to a notice published in Monday’s Federal Register by Patricia Brink, director-civil enforcement, in DOJ’s Antitrust Division. The change-of-membership notifications were required to extend DVD CCA members antitrust protections under the 1993 National Cooperative Research and Production Act, Brink’s notice said. Other companies withdrawing from DVD CCA, which licenses the DVD format’s Content Scramble System (CSS), were Azend Group, Datapulse Technology, DVS Korea, ESS Technology and Quanta Storage, the notice said. Kaleidescape nearly three years ago reached a settlement in the decade-long breach of license complaint brought by DVD CCA over Kaleidescape’s movie servers that import CSS-protected DVDs (see 1406040035). Kaleidescape representatives didn’t comment Monday on the DOJ notice.
Raycom Media said it reached a deal with AT&T U-Verse to restore its stations to U-Verse's lineup in 23 markets. Raycom CEO Pat LaPlatney said “we apologize to our viewers for this inconvenience, and appreciate their patience during the impasse.” In the past three years, the company successfully negotiated retransmission consent agreements with 99.5 percent of operators without service interruption, Raycom said in a Sunday news release. It previously said U-Verse service is far more prone to blackouts since AT&T bought DirecTV in 2015 (see 1703160002). On that Raycom assertion, an AT&T spokesman responded Monday that "no one providing a service to their customers ever wants to take it away. Broadcaster blackouts are a miserable symptom of a decrepit, twenty-five year old 'Cable Act.'" The telco-TV provider separately confirmed it reached a retrans deal with Raycom and said it looks "forward to a productive future relationship with Raycom that meets our customers’ greater expectations."
Ericsson and the FandangoNow on-demand video service are among five new Digital Entertainment Group member companies, the DEG announced Thursday.