Mediacom's worries about "additional stations" provisions in retransmission consent negotiations (see 1602040041) are just the latest in "a long string of similar (and sometimes downright silly) requests to alter the rules governing retransmission consent in their favor," NAB said in an FCC filing Thursday in docket 15-216. The "additional stations" language refers to when a broadcaster's retrans deal with a pay-TV company lets the broadcaster expand the deal to include any stations it acquires during the pendency of the contract. The association said the provision is akin to a most-favored nation clause, so Mediacom's complaint "is rich, given that [multichannel video programming distributors] pioneered the use of MFNs in retransmission consent agreements, squeezing dollar after dollar out of smaller broadcasters along the way." NAB said Mediacom offered no evidence such provisions are prevalent and said the cable company is likely mischaracterizing broadcaster proposals intended to cover joint sales agreements. In an email Friday, Mediacom Senior Vice President-Government and Public Relations Thomas Larsen told us he anticipated responding in coming days with a letter showing actual "additional station" language the company has seen in retrans contracts. NAB also echoed what has been a repeat talking point of broadcasters, that the FCC totality of circumstances test review is off base (see 1602080063): "The longer the Commission holds up the flypaper of retransmission consent reform, the more flies it will attract. It's time to close this proceeding, zap the flies and allow the parties to focus on negotiating with each other rather than the FCC." CBS CEO Les Moonves lobbied against addressing the totality of circumstances test in a meeting earlier this month with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1602110062). In a statement Friday, the American TV Alliance said it was "no wonder Moonves is trying to create a distraction after one of his affiliates just threatened to black out the Super Bowl. It's apparent that broadcasters see the writing on the wall as their years of bilking consumers for more cash are finally coming to an end." ATVA also said the number of TV blackouts hit 193 last year, up substantially over the past five years and affecting 12 million Americans.

Charter Communications and Comcast should halt ads targeting DirecTV's general service reliability during precipitation, but evidence supports claims in another Comcast ad, said the National Advertising Division (NAD), the investigative unit of the ad industry’s self-regulation system. Charter should stop running one broadcast commercial and certain ad claims in two other broadcast spots that "convey the message” that DirecTV’s satellite service “doesn’t work when precipitation is present,” said a Thursday release from the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC). It said DirecTV challenged certain Charter claims, including: “One out of four satellite customers claim they have reception outages in bad weather” and “It’s barely raining. And they call this reliable.” After reviewing a “Barely Raining” commercial, NAD concluded Charter didn’t provide a reasonable basis for its claims that DirecTV’s service problems were “an ordinary consumer experience.” The NAD release noted, “Charter in its advertiser’s statement, said it ‘accepts NAD’s recommendations with respect to the three challenged commercials and appreciates NAD’s recognition that rain fade is a unique issue for satellite television service that cable television does not experience.’” The NAD also recommended Comcast discontinue an Xfinity "rain or shine" broadcast spot that the group determined conveyed the message DirecTV's satellite service "doesn't function during wet weather," another ASRC release said. But the NAD found a Comcast "Farmer's" commercial conveyed a narrower message that satellite-TV service "may be susceptible to service interruptions during some types of severe weather," which was "supported by the evidence in the record." The NAD also said Comcast should discontinue or modify several other claims about its Xfinity cable-TV service. "Although Comcast took issue with certain of NAD's findings, it did agree in its advertiser's statement 'to comply with NAD's recommendations,'" the release said. The NAD is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

After a beta test begun in December with “hundreds of thousands” of users, Sonos began offering Apple Music on its wireless music systems worldwide Wednesday. Sonos users will have access to Apple Music features For You, My Music, New and Radio and will be able to stream the Apple Music catalog to every room, the company said. New users can sign up for a free three-month trial via Sonos: Apple Music subscriptions are $9.99 per month individually or $14.99 per month for a six-person family plan. Sonos users also have access to Deezer, Pandora (advertising-supported and premium), Rhapsody, Sirius XM, Slacker Radio (ad-supported and premium), Spotify and Tidal.

Gray Television signed retransmission consent agreements with four cable operators, including Time Warner Cable and Buckeye Cable, Gray said in a news release Friday. The renewals are for retrans agreements that expired at the end of 2015, and cover more than 900,000 subscribers in 16 markets around the country, Gray said. The company said it's working on one more retrans agreement that expired at the end of 2015 and it doesn't have any material retrans agreements expiring before the end of this year. Other broadcasters including Nexstar recently had retrans blackouts (see 1602010034).

Comcast partnered with Earth Networks’ WeatherBug Home software to help Xfinity Home customers lower heating and cooling costs by reducing energy use. WeatherBug Home provides data and analytics for Xfinity Home’s EcoSaver tool that learns the heating and cooling patterns of a home and makes automatic adjustments to the thermostat, said the companies in a Monday news release. Earth Networks processes 25 terabytes of “hyper-local,” real-time weather data daily for 20 million unique consumers, combining data from neighborhood-located weather sensors and a home’s HVAC usage to build a unique thermodynamic model of each home’s energy usage, Earth Networks Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Ferry emailed us. The cost of heating and cooling can be almost half of an overall household utility bill, and integrating WeatherBug Home with a connected thermostat can provide 16.5 percent savings on home cooling, said Daniel Herscovici, general manager-Xfinity Home. Comcast also announced new devices for the Works with Xfinity Home certification program including with a thermostat from Google's Nest.

FCC rules on accessibility of user interfaces appeared in Thursday’s Federal Register, and many of the rules take effect March 7. The rules, approved in November, govern the use of voice or gesture commands to access closed captions and how companies notify customers of accessibility options (see 1511230043). With the publication, the FCC said Friday, comments on an accompanying Further NPRM are due Feb. 24 in docket 12-108, replies March 7.

Demonstrations of proposed downloadable security technology done by Google and Hauppauge for FCC staff in December were the same as those done for congressional staff in January, Hauppauge said in an ex parte filing posted online in docket 15-64 Thursday. The technology is also the same as described in ex parte filings from Public Knowledge in October, Hauppauge said. The technology involved and proposed in the Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee report is "well known" to both multichannel video programming distributors and consumer industries, the filing said.

CTA backed an FCC waiver for e-readers to follow advanced communications services accessibility rules (see 1602020058), a spokeswoman for the group told us Wednesday. "We appreciate the FCC’s thoughtful decision-making in granting an indefinite waiver," Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney said. The group's members include Amazon and Sony, which along with Kobo have made up the Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers, according to CTA's website. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau order, released earlier this week, said the coalition requested the waiver.

Ion Media Networks wants its earth station licenses transferred to newly created sister company Ion Media Stations, the first company said in an FCC International Bureau filing Friday. The creation of Ion Stations and the license transfers are part of a pro forma reorganization "for corporate and tax efficiency and simplification purposes," Ion said. Ion Networks and Ion Stations will have the same officers and operating control, the broadcaster said.

Cox Communications and Nexstar are blaming one another for Nexstar channels being blacked out (see 1601250035) in nine Cox markets Saturday. In a news release Saturday, Nexstar said the blackout "is highly unusual for Nexstar but more common for Cox [which] is routinely involved in disputes with content providers and since 2012 has dropped network and local community programming from five other station owners as a result of its refusal to agree to fair and reasonable market terms to carry some of the most highly rated programming on television." In its own news release, Cox said, "Nexstar ... decided to remove their channels from the Cox line up ... in an effort to boost their bottom line" from higher retransmission fees. "Nexstar has not changed their offer in 2 weeks and is still demanding three times more for its free over-the-air stations for Cox customers," that cable operator said, saying Nexstar's $4.6 billion takeover of Media General "[raises] the specter that they are using retransmission fees to fund these deals." Cox is opposing Nexstar/Media General (see 1601280070).