Pandora completed an acquisition of analytics provider Next Big Sound to "augment" its Artist Marketing Platform, it said in a news release Wednesday. The deal, terms of which weren't disclosed, was announced in May (see 1505190034).

Comments and data on the 17th FCC video competition report are due Aug. 21, replies Sept. 21, the Media Bureau said Thursday in a public notice in docket 15-158. The 17th report will focus on 2014, and as with past reports will look at how the industry is aligned with such FCC goals as increased competition and diversity in multichannel video programming distribution, increased availability of satellite delivered programming and more development of communications technologies.

CBS-owned TV stations, CBS Network, the Smithsonian Channel and Showtime will remain on AT&T U-verse, which signed a new carriage agreement with the broadcaster, CBS said in a Wednesday news release. CBS' rebranded TV Guide Network, Pop, also will be carried on U-verse, CBS said.

Amazon Web Services will house infrastructure for its cloud computing platform in India beginning in 2016, a company news release said Tuesday. Its cloud services are used by businesses in India, but a lack of infrastructure presence there had clients asking for the company to create one in the region, said AWS. India will become the company's 12th global infrastructure region, it said.

People will watch an estimated 136 billion adult videos in 2015, expected to grow to 193 billion by 2020, said Juniper Research Tuesday. Net growth is expected to be fastest in the U.S., and more modest in other mature markets such as Western Europe, while increased availability of 4G and Wi-Fi and more ownership of tablets and smartphones is expected to drive growth in developing regions, Juniper said. Such offerings as webcams and video chats are expected to outperform the industry overall in revenue generation, because they often charge a subscription rather than operate on a pay-per-view basis, though overall revenue is expected to begin declining in 2020 due to the plethora of free content, Juniper said.

Degrees and jobs attained by students and employees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) continued to increase since 2000, but gender and racial gaps are still prevalent, if not more so, said a joint study released Monday by U.S. News and Raytheon. The number of STEM jobs, especially in computer technology, grew significantly from 2000 to 2014, and computer jobs accounted for the top seven spots on the list of highest number of STEM employees, said the report. It said that the overall number of STEM bachelor's degrees is on the rise, but men received far more diplomas in 2014 than women, and whites were given about 200,000 more degrees last year than either Latinos or African-Americans. While African-Americans' share of STEM degrees declined, said the research, the overall amount of those degrees earned by black students rose 60 percent from 2000 to 2014.

Users of Talkspace -- a mobile, Web and text messaging platform for remotely communicating with therapists -- had higher satisfaction than traditional face-to-face therapy, said research from Columbia University clinical psychology doctoral candidate Thomas Hull. The study collected data from 58 Talkspace clients and found the majority reported "significantly greater well-being after 3.86 months of text therapy" than before beginning treatment, he wrote in a paper released Wednesday. It estimated the text therapy service to be one-third the cost of traditional therapy to achieve effective results, and found patient-provider relationships were "comparable to those found in traditional treatment settings."

The market for in-building wireless services is expected to balloon to $16.71 billion by 2020, said research released Friday by MarketsandMarkets. The market currently is $4.83 billion, but the report suggests an increased reliance on mobile data will initiate more demand for in-building wireless services, causing an annual compounded growth rate of 28.1 percent.

An FCC order modifying the HD Carriage Exemption rule will take effect July 23, the FCC said in a public notice Tuesday. The exemption was modified according to a broadly supported compromise proposal from the American Cable Association and NAB (see 1506100063).

As Netflix generated much of the recent noise about ambitions to stream high dynamic range content to consumers this year, Amazon claimed to have become the first “video service” to do so. Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. can instantly watch the debut season of the Amazon original series Mozart in the Jungle in HDR through the Amazon Instant Video app on Samsung SUHD TVs at no additional cost, Amazon said in a news release. Having worked to expand Amazon’s offering of 4K movies and TV shows since launching 4K streaming last year, HDR “is the next step,” the company said. Additional titles in HDR and “expanded device compatibility” can be expected this year “as Amazon continues to work with Hollywood studios, technology leaders and global consumer electronics companies to expand the Amazon HDR experience,” it said. Only Samsung, and no other TV brands, figured in Wednesday’s Amazon announcement. Amazon HDR streaming will be available “in the coming weeks” through the Amazon Instant Video app on 2015 LG OLED Ultra HD TVs, LG Electronics said Wednesday. “HDR content promises to further enhance the Ultra HD viewing experience, and Amazon and LG are at the forefront of bringing consumers advanced picture quality by streaming HDR on LG OLED 4K TVs,” said Tim Alessi, LG director-new product development, home entertainment. In TVs, “the expanded range of brightness creates a well-defined image, while maintaining clarity, by producing greater contrast between light and dark images on the screen,” Amazon said on a newly posted FAQs page accompanying Wednesday’s announcement. “Dark parts of the picture contain subtle details that are often invisible with non-HDR screens,” it said in a description. The pilot episode of Red Oaks, another Amazon original series, also is available in HDR, “and many more series and movies will be available in the near future,” the page said.