Italy is the most TV-watching of major European nations, though Italians' screen time pales compared with Americans' TV consumption, IHS said Wednesday in a study of European and TV viewing habits. Last year saw British TV viewing roughly three hours a day, down 14 minutes from 2013 and at a record low, while French and German viewers each averaged close to 3.5 hours a day in 2014 -- down about 10 minutes for French viewers and holding steady for Germans, IHS said. Average daily consumption of broadcast TV was up in Italy in 2014, to roughly four hours 20 minutes a day; including online and pay TV, it was at four hours 37 minutes. In Spain, average TV viewing was 242 minutes a day, IHS said. In the U.S., average TV watching was 351 minutes a day. That big difference between American and European consumption habits is due in part to the fact Americans often turn on the TV for background noise, while Europeans use radio, said Dan Cryan, IHS senior director-media and content.

The UHD Alliance (UHDA) said consumer-driven testing will be part of the parameters leading to premium quality specifications for the Ultra HD ecosystem. “Our consumer testing is designed to help us confirm the possible combinations of features that collectively will help usher in a new era of in-home entertainment,” UHDA President Hanno Basse said in a news release. The alliance is also developing certification/compliance and logo programs. Current activities are focused on hardware and packaged and streamed content, and the alliance expects to turn next to specifications and certification/compliance programs for content distributed via broadcast, satellite and cable, UHDA said Monday. “Getting the right combination of resolution, dynamic range, colour and audio across broadcast, streaming and packaged media is essential for a step change in quality experiences,” Simon Gauntlett, chief technology officer of Europe’s Digital Television Group (DTG), said in the news release. “Wide industry collaboration is the only way to achieve this and to ensure that consumers have clear information.” Membership in UHDA has reached about 30 companies since its formation in January and includes Hollywood studios and consumer electronics companies representing the majority of the 4K Ultra HD TV market, developers of enabling technology and content distribution players. “The global Ultra HD ecosystem is poised for strong growth over the next several years,” said Paul Erickson, IHS Technology senior analyst.

The alternative to FCC nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules is “messy court cases,” representatives of Meredith Corp. told Media Bureau staff in a meeting Thursday, according to an ex parte filing posted online Friday in docket 10-71. “Instead of directly regulating the conduct of actors, these regulations let parties negotiate exclusivity and simply provides [sic] an efficient means of enforcement of those free market agreements.” The rules are also connected to the compulsory licenses granted to cable operators, Meredith said. “To remove only one part of a complicated regulatory and statutory scheme undermines the checks and balances that Congress has created.” Exclusivity rules also promote localism, Meredith said.

The FCC should issue a forfeiture against Florida Cable for unauthorized retransmission of three Hearst TV stations, Hearst said in an enforcement complaint posted online Friday. Florida Cable “repeatedly ignored Hearst’s numerous requests” to stop retransmitting WESH Daytona Beach, WKCF Clermont and WMOR-TV Lakeland, the complaint said. The companies had a retransmission consent agreement from January 2012 until December 2014, but Florida Cable defaulted on its monthly fee payments starting July 2014, Hearst said. Since Hearst sent the cable company retransmission consent election notices, Florida Cable isn’t allowed to transmit them as must-carry stations, Hearst said. The stations are still being retransmitted on Florida Cable, and none of Hearst’s overtures yielded a response, the complaint said. Florida Cable didn't comment.

Standard & Poor’s stands ready to upgrade its rating outlook on Netflix if the over-the-top streaming video provider “can continue its good operating momentum," despite expanding its “global footprint,” the credit-rating service said in a Thursday report. “Despite quick successes” with its rollouts in Canada and the Nordic countries, Netflix “has faced challenges with its expansion into other countries and regions,” S&P said. “We generally expect that Netflix will find future market entries more challenging than previous ones because, in addition to facing any regulatory nuances, the company won't be the industry pioneer in those new markets. We also believe that the company will be able to sign more broad-market agreements and, eventually, truly global ones.” Netflix plans to partner with SoftBank for its launch into Japan Sept. 2, it said this week (see 1508240004). Japan for Netflix “will probably be our slowest market to get to a certain penetration threshold, but it may be one of our best markets in the long term because when the Japanese society embraces a brand, it's a very deep connection, very long-term,” CEO Reed Hastings said in July (see 1507160028).

Half of U.S. Internet households own a connected TV device, an NPD Group report said Wednesday. The total number of homes with a device that connects a TV to the Internet -- smart TV, videogame console, streaming media player or Blu-ray player -- was 46 million in Q2, up 4 million from the year-ago quarter. Smart TVs are largely responsible for the growth, with 45 percent of TVs sold in the U.S. in Q2 supporting apps, up from 34 percent in the year-ago quarter and 24 percent in Q2 2013, NPD said. The connect rate is also increasing, NPD said, with 69 percent of all installed Internet-capable TVs connected in Q2, up from 61 percent in 2014 and 45 percent in 2013. The increase is due to skyrocketing sales of smart TVs, improved user interfaces and a surge in premium services and programming, analyst John Buffone said. Netflix remained the most-used video service among homes with connected TVs, followed by YouTube, Amazon Prime/Instant Video, Hulu and HBO Go/Now, NPD said. Due to the Go and Now platforms, HBO became the first TV network to reach the over-the-top top five, replacing Crackle, it said. Buffone referred to a “Golden Age of TV where significant investments are being made in developing original series.” Video and TV networks are benefiting from the large pay-TV subscriber base and the “fast-developing over-the-top audience that uses apps on TV,” he said. Collaboration between TV manufacturers and content providers is essential to keep the connected TV ecosystem growing on the device and content sides, he said. NPD surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. consumers age 18 and older during Q2.

Licensing of specs has been launched, albeit two months late, on the Vidity platform for the delivery and "locally stored playback" of Ultra HD, HD and standard-def movies across multiple devices, the Secure Content Storage Association said Wednesday. Licensing of the specs was to have begun in June for the commercialization of compliant devices and content that will bear the Vidity logo, SCSA said in late May (see 1505200049). Unlike other services, Vidity doesn’t require users to log into accounts or connect to the Internet for playback, SCSA said. “Compliant products will offer consumers the freedom and flexibility to store, copy, play and share downloaded digital files on a wide range of devices, such as laptop computers, mobile phones and tablets.” Vidity “delivers the highest quality digital entertainment experience in the marketplace today” through its Ultra HD and high dynamic range support, SCSA said, though backers of Ultra HD Blu-ray would argue that Ultra HD Blu-ray may give SCSA's claim a run for its money when it’s introduced later this year. Fox Home Entertainment, SanDisk, Warner Home Entertainment and Western Digital are founding members of SCSA, whose website now lists 40 contributing members.

The network nonduplication status quo is the best enforcement means for exclusive arrangements, "avoiding the cost, time, inconvenience and uncertainty of the courts," Sinclair said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-71. It said if the FCC were to eliminate the nondupe rule (see 1508120051), "a fully integrated private contract regime" could fill its role, but that would take years to set up and any elimination of the no-dupe rule "should allow for that evolution period," Sinclair General Counsel Barry Faber and Senior Vice President-Strategy and Policy Rebecca Hanson told Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and, separately, Maria Kirby, media adviser to Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Adding a "bad actor factor" -- aimed at pay TV deliberately creating retransmission consent conflicts -- to the FCC's evaluation of totality of circumstances assessments of good-faith negotiations might keep some multichannel video programming distributors from ginning up disputes "merely to gain an advocacy foothold at the commission or in Congress," NAB said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-71. According to the filing, NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan, in a phone call with Commissioner Ajit Pai's aide Alison Nemeth, said what NAB predicted would happen -- a rise in retrans consent disputes as the FCC considers new rules on good-faith negotiations (see 1507140021) -- is in fact coming to pass. "Since we filed that warning, there have been several impasses or near impasses involving the usual cast of characters -- most notably Dish, DirecTV and Mediacom," NAB said, singling out Mediacom as "the pay TV poster child for self-serving behavior" for among other things its petition before on rules restricting broadcaster blackouts (see 1507070061). In a response to be filed in 10-71, Thomas Larsen, Mediacom senior vice president-government and public relations, took umbrage at calling the petition "widely ridiculed." "We would be interested in seeing support for your claim ... where our petition has been ridiculed by commentators outside a handful of broadcast industry representatives," Larsen said, adding the only publicly filed opposition "came from our organization and five broadcast station owners collectively responsible for over 170 blackouts."

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Public Safety bureaus' joint workshop Aug. 27 on promoting wider accessibility and increased use of the emergency alert system (EAS) (see 1508040030) will have three sessions, hear from Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson, and include state and local officials, the FCC said in a public notice. The workshop will include a panel on ways to improve alert accessibility, such as synchronizing EAS audio and visual crawls, with Christian Vogler, director of Gallaudet University's Technology Access Program; Lillian McDonald, managing director of Twin Cities Public Television/Echo Minnesota Partnership; Charles McCobb, a program manager of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS); and Zainab Alkebsi, policy counsel at the National Association of the Deaf. A panel on promoting EAS use will be Jay English, APCO director-Comm Center & 9-1-1 services; Wade Witmer, IPAWS deputy director; Steve Souder, director of Fairfax County, Virginia's Department of Public Safety Communications; and Suzanne Goucher, Maine Association of Broadcasters CEO. The 1 to 4:30 p.m. workshop will be in the commission meeting room and streamed live at the FCC website. To register: John Evanoff, Public Safety Bureau attorney, at john.evanoff@fcc.gov or 202-418-0848.