Two library groups opposed extension of an e-reader accessibility waiver at the FCC requested by Amazon, Kobo and Sony that other industry stakeholders backed, according to comments and replies in docket 10-213. The Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers, representing the three makers of the devices, had sought what it called an "ongoing extension." The Association of Research Libraries and American Library Association oppose the request. "While disabled persons already must routinely (and unacceptably) wait several years before various mainstream technologies become accessible, the proposed waiver extension would leave basic e-readers in a near-permanent state of inaccessibility," said the library groups in a filing last week. "The record contains ample evidence that basic e-readers are designed with, marketed, and used for advanced communications services [ACS]." CEA said an ongoing extension would serve the public interest by permitting the continued availability of the e-readers "while recognizing that accessible alternatives are available in the marketplace," according to its comments. There's no evidence that ACS is the primary purpose of the class of devices, said the association. The library groups disagreed, saying the products are designed for ACS, pointing to use of email and social media. The Internet Association backs the waiver extension request and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau's Jan. 28 order saying uses like for social media aren't evidence of ACS. "Our thriving industry would benefit from the certainty that merely adding a browser does not mean that future smart, non-ACS devices will be limited by potentially product-altering, ACS accessibility regulations," said the association, which has members including Amazon, AOL, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo.

A new "wave" of media content in the form of "unbundled, long- and short-form content streamed at will and monetized through subscriptions, microtransactions and advanced advertising solutions" is overtaking the world, feeding "a new segment of content consumers that cuts across ages," said a Bain & Co. report. "These digital-savvy consumers already outnumber analog diehards, and content formats and business models created for them are quickly gaining momentum." Bain researchers canvassed more than 7,000 consumers in 10 countries in July and found that "all-digital consumption has become pervasive," said the report released Thursday. In developed economies, 63 percent of adults older than 36 watch video online, 93 percent listen to digital music and 34 percent read e-books, it said. The percentages for younger consumers are even higher, it said. "Digital content consumption is now firmly entrenched across age groups." As many as 20 percent of the consumers canvassed in the 15-18 age group "said they never use traditional media" such as a DVD or Blu-ray to watch videos, it said. That’s nearly triple the percentage of respondents over 35 who said the same thing, it said. Additional "stark differences" abound between digital natives and older consumers, said Bain. For example, "younger consumers rely more on their social networks to select media content," it said. "More than two-thirds of respondents aged 15 to 25 in developed countries said they choose video, music and books based on social recommendations, compared with fewer than half of those older than 35" who do so," it said. "Digital natives have spurred the growth of fresher-faced alternatives to YouTube, iTunes and even Facebook for consuming content, even as people over age 35 have embraced these platforms." Younger consumers "also have a different take" on data privacy issues than do their older counterparts, Bain said. In developed countries, nearly six of 10 of those 25 or younger "would forego personalized recommendations to ensure their data remains private, compared with three-quarters of adults older than 35," it said.

The Internet of Things market is expected to grow from $1.3 trillion in 2013 to $3.04 trillion in 2020, said International Data Corp. in a Friday news release. As this market, defined as a network of identifiable endpoints communicating through connectivity, continues to emerge, a variety of vendor strategies and key players will emerge to meet customers' needs as well as grow "new revenue streams from this net new market opportunity,” IDC said. In this market, vendors, service providers and systems integrators “must co-exist and integrate products and solutions to realize success,” IDC said. IDC's findings were released in its Worldwide and Regional Internet of Things Forecast Update, it said.

Liberty Media Corp. completed the spinoff of Liberty Broadband. Liberty Media and Liberty Broadband are now separate publicly traded companies, Liberty Media said Tuesday night in a news release.

Overall U.S. spending on home entertainment content fell 1.2 percent in Q3 to $3.92 billion, the Digital Entertainment Group said Wednesday. That was "flat" compared with Q3 a year earlier, evidence of the industry’s "ongoing stability," the DEG said. But the Q3 decline followed a relatively healthy 2.1 percent increase in spending in Q2 (see 1408060045). Blu-ray penetration is now approaching 80 million U.S. homes, the DEG said, though sellthrough spending on all packaged goods, including DVD and Blu-ray, fell 8 percent in Q3 to $1.3 billion. Overall spending on electronic sellthrough was Q3's biggest star on a percentage-increase basis, rising 26.7 percent to $347 million and 33.2 percent for 2014's first nine months to $1.02 billion, the DEG said.

Average household bandwidth requirements will increase 31 percent annually over the next five years, a Ciena study said. The study, released Wednesday and done by ACG Research, provides information to help network planners model the impact of residential households’ increasing use of broadband and subscription video services across varied devices on specific network scenarios, Ciena said in a . Internet video use, including smart TVs, is expected to grow from 12 percent of overall peak average bandwidth in 2014 to 25 percent in 2018, it said. It will be the largest contributor to household bandwidth consumption by 2018, said Ciena. It said use of 4K streaming video services will grow from 2 percent in 2014 to 12 percent in 2018.

The FCC should let all of current rules for closed captions for online video clips take effect before imposing new ones, said NCTA, NAB, and the Digital Media Association in reply comments posted Monday in docket 11-154. In a joint filing, a host of consumer groups representing the hearing impaired disagree. Despite objections to the additional rules, “no commenter seriously disputes the immense public benefits of ensuring that consumers who are deaf or hard of hearing can access IP-delivered video clips on equal terms,” said the filing by National Association for the Deaf, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and other groups. To make sure IP clip caption rules don’t have unintended consequences, the FCC “must allow its recently appointed rules to take effect and study their impact before considering expanding the scope,” NAB said. Proposed additional rules requiring captioning for third party clips would be a “vast expansion” and extremely challenging, NAB said, echoing comments from NCTA. “In contrast to the relatively limited number of distribution channels for full-length programming, the number of potential online outlets for clips is virtually unlimited,” NCTA said, saying that within a few hours of last weeks Antares rocket explosion, a Google search for footage of the explosion returned 3.6 million hits on a wide variety of websites. No individual third-party providers have filed comments opposing the proposed clip caption rules, the consumer groups said. “The lack of apparent concern by affected providers should assuage any concerns over the impact of a nominal requirement to render captions for video clips owned by an entity other than the third-party provider itself."

Broadcasters’ court challenge of the FCC incentive auction order is an “unfortunate reaction to an expansive and progressive undertaking,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a speech Tuesday to the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association, according to a copy of his remarks on the FCC website. Wheeler also said a lack of access to broadcaster and cable company controlled content was responsible for causing online video services to falter, which he intends to address with a draft NPRM on broadening what the FCC defines as a multichannel video programming distributor (see 1410290064). “Competitors should be able to negotiate in good faith for video content, even if it is owned by cable companies and broadcasters,” Wheeler said. “The old rules of the FCC” let broadcasters stop Aereo in court, said the chairman. “Aereo wasn’t the reason for the new rules, but the idea that entrepreneurs should be able to assemble programs to offer consumers choices is something that shouldn’t be hindered by the FCC.”

Rovi acquired Fanhattan, provider of cloud-based, content programming products. Rovi said Monday. Fanhattan's Fan TV integrates linear TV, over-the-top capability and other sources of programming through one device with a touch remote, Rovi said Monday in a . With Fanhattan's capabilities, Rovi will offer customers faster "time-to-market" and improved flexibility deploying next-generation discovery and media experiences across multiple screens, it said. The combined solution supports IP and hybrid set-top boxes, DVR functionality and "personalized interactive user-interfaces through reference design hardware and a software development kit," it said.

U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan’s ruling slapping a nationwide preliminary injunction on Aereo (see 1410230060) could lead to more litigation for the streaming service, said Fletcher Heald First Amendment attorney Kevin Goldberg in a blog post Wednesday. Aereo could appeal the portion of the injunction limiting it to broadcasting time-delayed content, or broadcasters could appeal that the injunction allows Aereo to provide some form of streaming service. “A time-delayed Aereo is still a competitor in many ways,” said Goldberg. Either side of the case could also choose to let the matter be decided on the merits. “This obviously suits the broadcasters to some extent, since Aereo may not be as attractive to potential subscribers without the live viewing function,” Goldberg said. NAB and Aereo did not comment.