Amazon’s deal with HBO for exclusive streaming rights for select HBO original series positions Prime Instant Video as a “viable competitor and potentially more appealing alternative to Netflix,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter in a research report Wednesday. The multiyear licensing agreement gives Amazon -- which recently raised its annual Prime subscription fee by $20 -- rights to HBO original programs and miniseries. The deal raises the stakes in the contest over consumer subscription dollars between Amazon and Netflix. The latter said this week that it would raise subscription fees for new members by $1-$2, depending on country, and let existing members keep their $7.99 fees for a “generous time period” before instituting a subscription increase for them, too. Revenue from fee increases “will enable us to acquire more content and deliver an even better streaming experience,” Netflix said in a shareholder letter. Amazon said last month it was raising its membership fee for Prime, which began as a two-day free shipping service that was later supplemented by free video streaming content. A $20 price hike pushed the annual fee for Amazon Prime to $99 for new members, effective March 20. Existing Prime members will renew at the higher rate, Amazon said. The agreement is the first time HBO content has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service, and applicable programming will remain available on all HBO platforms, Amazon and HBO said. Under the HBO deal, beginning May 21, Amazon Prime customers will be able to watch, at no additional charge to their Prime membership fee, all seasons of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, Six Feet Under, Treme, Eastbound & Down, Enlightened and Flight of the Conchords along with miniseries including Angels in America, Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific and Parade’s End. Also included in the deal are select seasons of current series including Boardwalk Empire and True Blood, Amazon said. Original movies in the package include Game Change, Too Big to Fail and You Don’t Know Jack and documentaries Autopsy, Iceman, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and When the Levees Broke. Comedy specials featuring Lewis Black, Ellen DeGeneres, Louis C.K. and Bill Maher fill out the library, it said. The deal will extend to additional seasons of current series that won’t be available at launch, along with early seasons of other series including Girls, The Newsroom and Veep, the companies said. The deal also includes HBO Go content for Amazon’s Fire TV streaming video box that launched earlier this month, giving Fire TV owners access to some 1,700 HBO titles, the companies said.

Lenovo’s new smart TVs are using Freespace in-air pointing and motion control software from Hillcrest Labs, Hillcrest said Tuesday. Freespace enables point-and-click, gesture and motion control of smart TVs using simple in-air movements of a remote control, it said. Lenovo’s Freespace-enabled smart TVs include the S9 announced last week for sale in China, said Hillcrest. Lenovo first tested smart TVs in China in 2012, but without the Hillcrest technology. Lenovo hasn’t announced any plans to field its smart TVs in the U.S. Lenovo is the fifth major smart TV platform to use Hillcrest’s technology, following Hisense, LG, Roku and TCL, said Hillcrest. The deal with Lenovo also “builds on Hillcrest’s previous traction” in Asia, most recently with Oppo’s use of Freespace in mobile devices, said Hillcrest. Hillcrest also opened a new regional office in Taiwan to address growing demand in the region for Freespace in smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, wearable electronics and other devices, it said. Hillcrest’s technology is being used in wearable computing platforms including Kopin’s Golden-i head-mounted display and is also licensed by companies including Atmel, Intel, Logitech, SMK Electronics, Sony and Universal Electronics, said Hillcrest. Freespace will “form the foundation” of Lenovo’s smart TV user experience and enables improved content navigation, better gaming options and simple Web browsing, said Hillcrest. The technology’s easy-to-use point-and-click controls and 3D motion tracking that is “optimized” for consumers in the living room environment is “particularly important” for Android-based TVs because Hillcrest’s technology “replicates the touch and tilt based controls commonly used” by Android apps on other devices, said Hillcrest.

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a motion to allow the Solicitor General’s Office to participate in Tuesday’s oral arguments in ABC v. Aereo, according to the Supreme Court website (http://1.usa.gov/19EQqoS). The Department of Justice filed an amicus brief in support of the broadcasters’ position in March (CD March 5 p9). According to the website, the motion also requested divided argument, meaning the Solicitor General’s Office will take up some of the time allotted to broadcasters to present arguments on their side.

The FCC’s methods for securing complaints “grossly” understate the concerns of underserved communities and minorities, said the National Asian American Coalition, the National Christian Hispanic Leadership Conference and a pastor representing black churches, in meetings with staff for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel, Mike O'Rielly and Ajit Pai last week, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/Rs3Br3). The groups have also met with staff from the U.S. Senate, FTC and Department of Justice about the low numbers of FCC complaints filed by minorities. According to the filing, less than 2 percent of FCC complaints are filed by Latinos, while blacks file 1 percent and Asian Americans file “far less than” 1 percent of complaints. The groups also said Comcast hasn’t made any “public interest commitments that would substantially benefit underserved communities or minorities."

Video ad platforms BrightRoll and TubeMogul agreed to participate in the final technical trial of Nielsen’s mobile ad measurement tool. The partnership is part of Nielsen’s effort to expand Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, which measures the audience of digital advertising, Nielsen said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lcSNWt). The expansion includes audience measurement through mobile devices, it said. With the addition of mobile, Nielsen Campaign Ratings will be a measurement suite offering robust insight into a campaign’s full digital and cross-platform audience, Nielsen said.

Fletcher Heald plans a free webinar Wednesday on the upcoming April 22 Aereo oral arguments at the Supreme Court, the law firm announced at its blog Monday (http://bit.ly/1qA8ytK). Attorneys Kevin Goldberg and Harry Cole will provide a “comprehensive overview of the history of the Aereo litigation,” on the webinar, the blog post said. Fletcher Heald doesn’t represent any of the parties involved in the case.

Four record labels sued (http://bit.ly/OPu9jG) Megaupload for encouraging and profiting from “massive copyright infringement of sound recordings” Thursday, said RIAA in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/R9yjVC). The Justice Department shut down Megaupload.com, Megaupload’s primary file-hosting website, and indicted its operators, including founder Kim “Dotcom” Schmitz, in 2012. The new lawsuit -- filed in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. -- is a civil action seeking damages for Megaupload’s “$175 million in illicit profits from copyright infringement,” which caused “more than a half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners,” said the suit. “A federal indictment is appropriate, but so is holding Megaupload and its operators accountable for the blatant harm caused to the music community,” said RIAA in the release. Six major movie studios sued Megaupload for copyright infringement earlier last week (CD April 8 p19). Megaupload didn’t comment.

U.S. interactive advertising revenue hit $42.8 billion in 2013, an all-time high and 17 percent increase from 2012, said a news release (http://bit.ly/1kNTa9M) from the Interactive Advertising Bureau Thursday. IAB said 2013 was the first time interactive ad revenue exceeded broadcast TV revenue ($40.1 billion). Interactive ad revenue was $12.1 billion in Q4, also a 17 percent increase from 2012, it said. Mobile ad revenue hit $7.1 billion in 2013, a 110 percent increase from 2012, it said. Digital video ads, part of display ads, had $2.8 billion in revenue, a 19 percent increase from 2012, it said.

Viacom and Mass Relevance announced a partnership to launch EchoGraph, a social media measurement platform that will track and analyze social activity for advertisers. Mass Relevance will work exclusively with Viacom to measure earned media generated by Viacom client campaigns across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms in real time, Viacom said in a news release (http://bit.ly/OLeRwm). “With EchoGraph, Viacom will provide clients with comprehensive data and analysis regarding reach, social activity, types of engagement, hashtag popularity, influencers and more.” The EchoGraph platform will support Viacom Echo, which extends an advertiser’s message beyond Viacom’s owned-and-operated linear, digital and mobile screens and into the social ecosystem, it said.

Two Washington state hotels were cited by the FCC Enforcement Bureau for operating non-cable multichannel video programming systems using aeronautical frequencies without informing the commission, according to two citations issued Thursday. Value Inn in Des Moines (http://bit.ly/1iBh72y) and Skyway Inn Hotel in SeaTac (http://bit.ly/PVncih) have both been ordered to file Form 321 to inform the FCC that they are operating systems in aeronautical bands and to inform the commission within 30 days of steps taken to address signal leakage problems with their systems.