Samsung’s South Korean parent filed to register “MotionVue” June 16 as a plain-text U.S. trademark, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Samsung wants to use MotionVue for “downloadable” software that improves a TV’s image quality, said the application. The company didn’t comment Monday. There’s been recent activity on optimizing a TV’s motion performance to render static movie content with better creative intent while capturing fast-action live sports without motion blur. That activity is ramping up with the industry’s migration to larger screens and higher resolutions, emailed Insight Media President Chris Chinnock. “There is movement on this besides Samsung,” said Chinnock, also the executive director of the 8K Association, the 2-year-old brainchild of Samsung. The group is composed of Samsung’s broader display industry ecosystem partners but virtually no one outside that sphere.

All four broadcast network affiliate groups emphasized the importance of retransmission consent revenue due to decreased ad revenue, and expressed concerns about increasing competition for programming and vMVPDs, in a call with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Chief of Staff Matthew Berry Tuesday, said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-60. The affiliate groups “stressed the importance” of local ownership relief, “the continued absolute importance of the existing and long-standing exclusivity rules,” and accurately defining the local video market. The FCC should continue to “educate” DOJ about the ad market, close its inquiry into the exclusivity rules and "take a fresh look” at the long-stalled vMVPD proceeding, the groups said.

The news media's coverage of George Floyd's death and subsequent protests has been good, though care needs to be paid to not overly show footage of Floyd's death, NCTA President Michael Powell said on C-SPAN's Communicators to have been telecast over the weekend. Powell said he has "never been so torn and anguished" with the U.S. still being unable to "exorcise the demons and the ghosts of its ... slave past." He said that "absent cameras, this stuff gets brushed aside."

NAB Leadership Foundation President Michelle Duke will become NAB chief diversity officer, the association announced Thursday. Duke will be in charge of internal efforts to “further equity and inclusion at all levels of the organization” and the trade group’s external work to promote industry diversity. Duke will keep her job with the NABLF. “It’s a full plate,” she said in an interview. “One role is no more important than the other.” Duke is the first CDO for NAB, and had other roles within the association that concentrated on improving diversity. She joined in 2005 as director-diversity and development. Duke said she's in preliminary stages of planning what issues she will focus on as CDO, and is interested in “diversity conversations at the board level” and working with NABLF’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, plus creating a similar body for NAB. Experts say organizations must do much to diversify their cultures (see 2006160038).

Comcast and KTWU Topeka, Kansas, jointly asked for dismissal of the broadcaster's mandatory carriage denial complaint, so the FCC Media Bureau dismissed it in a Tuesday order, released Wednesday.

Commenters opposed to allowing TV broadcasters to use Longley-Rice studies of signal strength as a substitute for Nielsen data to qualify for “significantly viewed” status don’t appreciate how low the FCC’s bar for viewership is, said Gray Television in replies posted to docket 20-73 Tuesday. Commenters such as Nielsen argued signal strength isn’t a stand-in for information demonstrating actual viewership (see 2005150062). Gray said the agency’s viewership threshold for significantly viewed status is lower than the threshold to be considered financially viable. The FCC “can reasonably presume that, if Longley-Rice shows a station’s signal is available to at least 25% of the land area or population of a county, that station would satisfy the minimal viewership requirements,” Gray said. “A predictive model cannot tell anyone whether a station is viewed at all, let alone how much or how often it is viewed,” said Nielsen. “The premise underlying this Notice -- that Nielsen has made changes that make getting data on over-the-air viewing more difficult -- is mistaken.” NCTA and AT&T and Dish Network said there's no reason to change the status quo. Gray said broadcasters seeking significantly viewed status should be credited for translators, and low-power TV stations and Class A's should be able to qualify for inclusion on the significantly viewed list and receive network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity protections.

“Loot boxes” Apple offers as an in-game purchase through games downloaded from the App Store “have all the hallmarks of a Las Vegas-style slot machine, including the psychological aspects to encourage and create addiction,” alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose. “Apple engages in predatory practices enticing consumers, including children, to engage in gambling and similar addictive conduct” in violation of California consumer protection and anti-gambling laws, said Huntington Beach resident Rebecca Taylor, seeking class-action status. Dozens of App Store games rely on such a "gambling mechanism to generate billions of dollars, much of it from kids,” it said. Loot boxes, bought with “real money,” are “randomized chances within the game to obtain important or better weapons, costumes” or other enhancements, it said. Taylor’s son plays App Store games that contain loot boxes, it said. Though downloadable for free, “to the extent he plays these games in the future, he will be subjected to Apple’s predatory Loot Box scheme,” it said. Apple didn't comment Monday.

Snap announced new features for augmented reality creators, letting developers bring their own machine learning models so they can create lenses with neural networks they have trained, it said Thursday. It's previewing Local Lenses to enable a persistent, shared AR world built on top of neighborhoods. Snap is introducing voice commands through a partnership with SoundHound.

President Donald Trump should urge local leaders to fully investigate attacks on the press (see 2006080051), asked 72 international journalism organizations, industry and peace groups Thursday. The groups included the Committee to Protect Journalists, Global Forum for Media Development and International Press Institute. “Instead of condemning journalists and the media, we urge you to commend and celebrate them as the embodiment of the First Amendment, which is the envy of so many countries around the world,” the letter said. CPJ sent a similar letter to governors Monday: “When the U.S. backslides it sends a green light to authoritarian-leaning leaders around the world to restrict the press and the free flow of information.”

Fewer vMVPD subscribers also are MVPD customers as virtual operators expand their offerings, The Diffusion Group said Wednesday. It said since the mid 2018 peak of 37% of vMVPD subscribers also paying for a traditional pay-TV service, the overlap has now declined to 23.1%. It said Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV, which dominate the vMVPD market, both have the big four networks in their lineups, cutting the need for a second service.