NBC has no plans “as of right now” to carry the Super Bowl in 4K, but “we’re investigating it,” NBC Broadcasting and Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus told the NAB Show New York Wednesday. “We’re looking at that,” Lazarus said. The Super Bowl is scheduled for Feb. 4 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Vikings.
Netflix sees its “partnership” with T-Mobile as an “extension” of its strategy of “making Netflix easier for customers to sign up for and to access and to enjoy,” said CEO Reed Hastings on a Monday earnings Q&A. T-Mobile added a free Netflix subscription to its One family plan packages, the carrier announced last month (see 1709060040).
Sony applied Oct. 6 to register a black and gold “8K HDR” logo as a trademark, Patent and Trademark Office records show. The logo “consists of a gold hexagon with 8K appearing within a black five-sided polygon in the upper half in stylized gold type and HDR appearing in stylized black type in the bottom half,” said the filing (serial number 87636915), which lists no foreign-equivalent application. In Japan, NHK is working with Sony and other tech companies to prepare for the debut of 8K Super Hi-Vision broadcasts in time for the July 2020 Tokyo Olympics (see 1709150067).
“All this talk” about ATSC 3.0 tuner mandates in smartphones is “fake news,” said an LG Electronics USA spokesman of wireless interests weighing in at the FCC since mid-September to fight what they described as broadcasters’ calls for 3.0 tuner mandates in smartphones (see 1709200016). “Broadcasters aren’t seeking mandates.” At LG, “we sure don’t see the need,” he said. LG thinks “market and competitive forces” will lead to “incorporating 3.0 tuners into smartphones on a voluntary basis,” said the representative. Embedding 3.0 reception in smartphones has “technical challenges,” he said. “But when the mobile ATSC 3.0 business opportunities for all the stakeholders -- broadcasters, wireless carriers, manufacturers -- become clearer, the engineers will find ways to make it work, and they’ll make it work well, I’m sure.” On Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel last week slamming 3.0 as a “tax on every household with a television" because consumers will be forced to buy new TVs (see 1710120057), “this is a voluntary, industry-led effort that won’t require set-top boxes. We envision a smooth, but slow ramp-up that’s going to take a number of years for this transition to take place. It’s not going to be like flipping a switch like the last one,” the rep said of the 2009 DTV switch.
CTA is “excited about the upcoming transition to Next-Generation television and the ATSC 3.0 standard,” said President Gary Shapiro in a statement Friday when asked for reaction to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel calling the transition to 3.0 a “tax” on TV homes because it will require consumers to buy new 3.0-capable sets (see 1710120057). ATSC 3.0 “will bring a variety of benefits to Americans who receive television programming over-the-air, including the ability to receive for free 4K Ultra High Definition programming, live television on any mobile device and advanced emergency alerts that include video and more geo-targeted information,” said Shapiro. “For the foreseeable future, broadcasters will transmit in both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0, and consumers can continue to receive OTA programming on their legacy TVs. Television viewers also will have access to converter devices that will enable them to obtain Next-Gen TV signals for viewing on their legacy displays.” The ATSC 3.0 NPRM that the FCC released in February asked whether the commission should consider requiring HDMI ports on future TVs to accommodate devices for upgrading ATSC 1.0 TVs for 3.0 reception (see 1702270059). In the NPRM, the FCC “tentatively” concluded an HDMI port requirement won’t be needed for now because the 3.0 transition will be voluntary and market-driven. By all current indications, requiring HDMI ports on future TVs appears a moot point anyway because virtually all new flat-panel TVs shipped today have HDMI ports and have had them for more than a decade. The "time is right" for the FCC to approve an order authorizing 3.0 broadcasts, NAB President Gordon Smith told Rosenworcel in meetings last week (see 1710130042).
Tessera’s request for an International Trade Commission exclusion order against “potentially all” Samsung smartphones and tablets is so overly “broad,” it would “undoubtedly result in massive unmet demand across several, distinct product types,” Samsung filed (login required) Thursday in docket 3262. The complaint (see 1709290053) gave “no credible evidence” suggesting that “authorized suppliers” could meet consumer demand for the devices that would be import-banned, Samsung said. "The exclusion order would be unavoidably detrimental to consumers, businesses, and government entities.” Tessera wrongly says Samsung’s recall of the Note7 last year (see 1610130044) was “broader” in scope than the exclusion order it seeks, Samsung said. The company sells mobile devices "to nearly every national, regional, and local wireless carrier, including those that service rural, low-income, and minority populations,” with the FCC estimating smartphones comprise 77 percent of U.S. cellphones, it said. Tessera representatives didn’t comment Friday.
Consultant Marc Finer resigned as senior director and technical guru of the Digital Entertainment Group because he became “increasingly frustrated” with the home entertainment industry’s “approach” to “market segmentation and consumer engagement,” especially in “meeting the expectations and needs of young entertainment enthusiasts,” he emailed DEG members Tuesday. Resigning “will allow me to pursue a new direction that goes beyond the scope of the DEG's mission, while remaining focused on all of my current projects related to 4K UHD and Hi-Res Audio,” said Finer, who will continue to run Communication Research, his Pittsburgh-based consulting firm. The industry “has been slow to embrace” consumer trends, said Finer in a statement Wednesday that shed little additional light on the nature of the frustrations that persuaded him to leave. Amy Jo Smith, DEG's president, said Finer's departure from the group was amicable. She praised Finer's efforts on behalf of DEG and said he played an "instrumental" role in the launch of new industry formats, such as DVD. DEG hopes to work again with Finer on future projects, she said.
The “engineering trade-offs” of building ATSC 3.0 reception into smartphones would make a tuner mandate “inappropriate" for those devices, and the FCC should “refrain from considering such a requirement sought by the broadcasters,” said Skyworks Solutions, a supplier of front-end modules and other components for smartphones, in a filing posted Friday in commission docket 16-142.
Samsung’s August 2016 application to trademark a promotional tagline for the twice-recalled Galaxy Note7 smartphone was published for opposition Tuesday at the Patent and Trademark Office, said an agency confirmation notice. If no opposition to “Note7 the Smartphone That Thinks Big” within 30 days, PTO will register the trademark by mid-January. Samsung Electronics America in March ruled out offering refurbished Note7s for commercial availability in the U.S. after its South Korean parent announced plans to market Note7s with reconditioned batteries as replacement or rental in several global markets to minimize environmental impacts from recalls of the fire-prone smartphone (see 1703270067).
Samsung is “looking into” the Tessera Technologies complaint at the International Trade Commission alleging various Samsung mobile devices infringe two Tessera patents (see 1709290044), a Samsung spokesman said Monday. Samsung “will take necessary measures accordingly," said the spokesman. Tessera seeks exclusion and cease and desist orders at the ITC against Samsung devices containing “wafer-level” packaged semiconductors, including the “power management IC” chips used in the Galaxy 8 and Note8 smartphones.