The FCC should grant extensions on the comment and reply deadlines for petitions for reconsideration for the elimination of the UHF discount, said Free Press, Common Cause, Media Alliance and the United Church of Christ's Office of Communication, in a motion posted in docket 13-236 Thursday. Comments are due Dec. 27 and replies Jan. 6, which both conflict with the holidays and the upcoming transition at the FCC, the motion said. The groups asked that the dates be moved to Jan. 10 and Jan. 23. A similar request was made for comments on an independent programming NPRM (see 1612140045).

Retransmission consent revenue should hit $13.5 billion by 2021, nearly double what it's expected to be this year, with network owned-and-operated stations generating $4.3 billion and the other $9.2 billion coming from affiliates, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors Monday. Meanwhile, reverse compensation that stations pay networks likely will hit $5.5 billion by then, which would be a 138 percent increase from 2016, she said. Ryvicker said one big danger to those retrans estimates is if pay-TV subscription numbers decline and broadcast stations end up not being part of the streaming over-the-top video bundles.

The FCC Media Bureau granted La Plata County, Colorado, extensions until Wednesday to file responses to oppositions to the county's petitions for market modification filed by LIN and Hearst Television, said two Media Bureau public notices in dockets including 16-366. La Plata requested the extension because it received the opposition filings at the end of November, and the opposition filers consented to the extension, the PNs said. “The Commission does not routinely grant extensions of time, but the rights at issue in this proceeding are significant and important to a wide range of interested parties.”

The American Television Alliance is trying to make up for failures on the retransmission consent front by attempting to slow down broadcaster efforts (see 1612050048) to get ATSC 3.0 approved, said NAB Associate General Counsel Patrick McFadden in a blog post Friday. ATSC 3.0 will allow broadcasters to offer 4K TV for free, so ATVA's pay-TV members want to keep the FCC from approving the new broadcast standard, McFadden said. “Want to take advantage of your new 4K television? If ATVA can stall approval of Next Gen TV, you won’t have a free over-the-air option for ultra-high-definition programming,” McFadden said. “ATVA’s members will be the only game in town. That ought to keep the checks rolling in!” ATVA's requests for the FCC to issue a notice of inquiry instead of an NPRM are “transparently, embarrassingly anti-consumer,” NAB said. ATVA and ATSC didn't comment.

Efforts by pay-TV group American Television Alliance to get the FCC to commission a study or issue a notice of inquiry on ATSC 3.0 (see 1612050048) are attempts to delay the new standard “as long as possible,” NAB said in docket 16-142 Thursday. “While ATVA plainly has an interest in preventing viewers from receiving a competitive service, the Commission does not.” ATVA's arguments the FCC shouldn't allow broadcasters to use retransmission consent negotiations to encourage adoption of ATSC 3.0 don't raise any “legitimate” concerns, NAB said. If the FCC shares those concerns, they can be addressed through an NPRM rather than an NOI, NAB said. “Despite ATVA’s wishes, there is no reason for the Commission to delay any further.”

Pandora’s unveiling of its long-awaited premium on-demand service Tuesday was little more than a glimpse after months of references to a December rollout. A video on the company’s blog Wednesday focused on Pandora's legacy as a personalized radio service. As the company attempts to take on Apple Music and Spotify, among others, it will use its proprietary “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” features as differentiators. “All your thumbs create your unique playlists instantly,” it said. Subscribers can start a playlist and “we’ll help you finish it” by adding similar songs, Pandora said. It promoted offline availability, something its free and $5 services don’t currently offer, and it included a brief artist clip showing integration of local concert information, leveraging its purchase of Ticketfly purchase last year. “Find the songs you love and let the songs you love find you,” was a key message. The service is to roll out next year at about $10 per month. In a research note to investors, BTIG analyst Brandon Ross pitted Pandora Premium against the established competition: Spotify’s 30 million and Apple’s 15 million subscribers and “deeper pockets and consumer engagement” from YouTube and Amazon. Subscription content exclusivity is “starting to become a differentiator,” said Ross, and that will take financial resources and relationships with the music industry, he said. Meanwhile, reports have been circulating about a possible acquisition by SiriusXM. CNBC said Pandora was open to selling itself and willing to engage with SiriusXM, and in an update Wednesday, CNBC expanded the suitor possibilities beyond the satellite music company. Pandora had no immediate comment on the reports.

Six leading developers of virtual reality headsets banded together to form the Global Virtual Reality Association to promote the VR industry, the group said in a Wednesday announcement. GVRA, whose founding members are Acer, Google, HTC, Oculus, Samsung and Sony Interactive Entertainment, “will develop and share best practices for industry and foster dialogue between public and private stakeholders around the world,” it said. VR “has the potential to be the next great computing platform, improving sectors ranging from education to healthcare, and contribute significantly to the global economy,” the group said. The founding GVRA companies, through “research, international engagement and the development of best practices,” will work to “unlock and maximize VR’s potential and ensure those gains are shared as broadly around the world as possible,” it said.

Parents spend on average 9 hours 22 minutes a day with screen media, with 78 percent believing they're good media use role models for their kids, even as significant percentages worry about their kids' screen media use, Common Sense said in a study released Tuesday. "Parents are using media for entertainment just as much as their kids, yet they express concerns about their kids' media use while also believing that they are good role models for their kids," CEO James Steyer said. "If they are concerned about too much media in their kids' lives, it might be time to reassess their own behavior so that they can truly set the example they want for their kids." Fifty-six percent of parents worry their children may become addicted to technology and 34 percent think technology use hurts their kids' sleep. Forty-three percent of parents said they're "moderately" or "extremely" worried about their kids spending too much time online, 38 percent said so about their children over-sharing personal details, and 36 percent said so about their kids accessing online pornography and about exposure to violent videos or images. The results come from a national GfK survey of 1,786 parents of those age 8-18.

The FCC shouldn't impose any new burdens on multichannel video programming distributors as part of the transition to ATSC 3.0, AT&T and Dish Network said in a meeting with Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and MB and Office of Engineering and Technology staff Thursday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-142. The new standard would require new equipment for MVPDs and consumers and could consume more bandwidth than the current standard, Dish and AT&T said. AT&T and DISH worry about "the significant capacity concerns associated with transitioning to the ATSC 3.0 standard," they said. The bandwidth required "to carry one ATSC 3.0 4K channel, for example, will consume substantially more bandwidth than a current HD channel, let alone the bandwidth that would be required to carry both an ATSC 3.0 4K signal and an ATSC 3.0 signal." they said. "Such increased carriage obligations would put at risk our ability to comply with the FCC’s must carry rules." The FCC should ensure broadcasters can't use the retransmission consent process to force MVPDs to carry the new standard, the pay-TV carriers said. Those same pay-TV companies also recently lobbied about such concerns as members of the American Television Alliance (see 1612050048).

Granting the waiver request to approve Nexstar buying Media General before the incentive auction could disrupt ongoing retransmission consent negotiations for agreements set to expire at the end of 2016, the American Cable Association told an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai in a meeting Friday, recounted an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-57. Since the deal would activate after-acquired station clauses in the contacts, approval before year-end would be "interfering with on-going market processes with less than 25 days before contracts expire," ACA said. The FCC shouldn't allow Nexstar to use agency processes to advantage itself in a retrans deal, the association said. The $4.6 billion deal could be approved soon, possibly before the auction ends (see 1611300064). The next round of the auction starts Tuesday (see 1612060034).