ViacomCBS will file applications with the FCC requesting consent for involuntary transfer of control of TV stations and Communications Act Title III licenses due to the death last week of company Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone (see 2008120039), said a company letter Thursday. Redstone held an indirect controlling interest in ViacomCBS, which in turn controlled the licenses involved, the media company said. The stations involved include Los Angeles' KCAL-TV and KCBS-TV, WBZ-TV Boston and numerous others.

Apple engages in “unfair and anti-competitive actions” to “unlawfully maintain” its monopolies in the multibillion dollar markets of iOS app distribution and in-app payment processing, alleged Epic Games Thursday in a 173-page complaint (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Epic isn’t seeking “monetary compensation” for the “injuries it has suffered,” nor is it seeking “favorable treatment for itself,” it said. It’s instead seeking “injunctive relief to allow fair competition in these two key markets that directly affect hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of thousands, if not more, of third-party app developers,” it said. Through its control over iOS, and using a “variety of unlawful contractual restrictions that it forces app developers to accept, Apple prevents iOS users from downloading any apps from any source other than Apple’s own storefront, the App Store,” said Epic. Epic added a direct payment system to its Fortnite franchise Thursday morning, giving players the option to continue making purchases using Apple’s payment processor or use Epic’s, said the complaint. Fortnite users on iOS, for the first time, “had a competitive alternative to Apple’s payment solution,” it said. “Rather than tolerate this healthy competition and compete on the merits of its offering, Apple responded by removing Fortnite from sale on the App Store.” Apple didn’t comment. Sony agreed last month to make a $250 million "strategic investment" for a minority interest in Epic (see 2007090044).

Apple didn’t respond Thursday to questions about reports it’s planning a series of offerings to beef up its services business that will let customers score lower prices by bundling subscriptions. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Apple plans to launch bundles “as early as October,” alongside the next iPhone line, to encourage customers to subscribe to more Apple services. The family-oriented offerings, which would reportedly save customers $2-$5 a month, would include different tiers combining Apple Music and Apple TV+ with a step-up version adding gaming. Another tier would add Apple News+. A pricier bundle would tack on additional iCloud storage for files and photos, the report said.

Proposed changes to how the FCC measures whether a station is significantly viewed in a given market would disadvantage satellite MVPDs (see 2005150062), said AT&T and Dish in a call with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 20-73. Direct broadcast satellite providers would be at a competitive disadvantage compared with cable when it comes to carrying significantly viewed stations because the proposal treats cable and satellite MVPDs differently, the filing said. If the proposed rules make it easy to remove stations from the significantly viewed list, there could also be “potential for disruption” to consumers, the filing said. The agency shouldn’t adopt the rule changes proposed in the "significantly viewed" NPRM, AT&T and Dish said.

Appellant Dish Network dropped part of its appeal of a U.S. District Court's denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction and dissolving a temporary restraining order against Cox Media Group (see 2007220077). The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a Dish motion for partial voluntary dismissal (in Pacer, docket 20-2315) Wednesday. The appeal is now limited to reviewing the order denying the preliminary injunction, the court said. Dish is suing over alleged breach of retransmission consent terms.

Xperi sees growth opportunities from continued proliferation of entertainment content, changes in entertainment consumption trends and a broader move toward artificial intelligence at the edge, said CEO Jon Kirchner on the company’s Q2 earnings call Monday. It was Xperi's first call since combining with TiVo June 1 (see 2005070052). A major focus is the $50 Stream 4K, which began shipping in May (see 2005060041), and is due to be embedded in TVs in late 2021 or early 2022, Kirchner said. Stream will eventually become a smart TV platform, “connecting content from all sources” and leveraging the companies’ search and discovery and monetization tools, “one of the merger-related revenue synergies we are most excited about,” he said. Over the next few quarters, Xperi expects a “significant ramp” in volume for Stream 4K. Xperi considers the Stream footprint an “opening act in a broader move towards embedded applications and support for TVs directly,” enlarging the footprint for further monetization, Kirchner said. TiVo's pay-TV business, 45%-50% of combined revenue in the product segment, includes TiVo guides, DVR and end-to-end platform, comprising user interfaces and IPTV cloud service. TiVo wants to upgrade service offerings with over-the-top content additions that improve content discovery across content sources, Kirchner said. Churn in the quarter of pay-TV subscribers using TiVo was less than 2% vs. an industry pay-TV average of 4-5%, he said.

Comscore is partnering with Consumer Orbit, an aggregator of consumer data, to develop “consumer intelligence” technology to tie local shopper behavior to TV viewership in “category-specific segments in near-real-time,” said CEO Bill Livek on a Q2 earnings call Monday. “This will allow media outlets, brands and agencies to plan, transact and evaluate local media performance in new and exciting ways.” The offering will be available in all local markets by year-end, he said. As more Comscore studio customers explore direct-to-consumer streaming service launches, “we, like them, are pivoting by developing a measurement solution that combines box office and direct-to-consumer viewing metrics in one combined product,” said Livek. “The movie industry has been on pause, but it’s not going away.”

Channel 3 TV's use of its KSBS-CD Denver as a translator for its full-power KCDO-TV Sterling, Colorado, is an acceptable way of delivering a good-quality signal to Dish Network's local-receive facility (LRF), so Dish is obligated to carry KCDO's translated signal as long as it's a good quality signal, said an FCC Media Bureau order Monday in docket 20-99. It granted Channel 3's must-carry complaint against Dish. The bureau said Dish must expeditiously do signal quality measurements of KSBS' signal at its LRF. Dish didn't comment Tuesday.

AT&T won’t negotiate a carriage deal with African American-owned Indiana broadcaster Circle City because of racial discrimination, said Circle City in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis Monday. AT&T “only deals fairly with historically more established broadcasters (namely, white-owned) when negotiating carriage agreements,” said Circle City’s complaint. AT&T carried Circle City’s Indianapolis stations WNDY-TV and WISH-TV for years when they were owned by Nexstar, but ceased carriage when the stations were sold in 2019, the complaint said. AT&T Chief Content Officer Rob Thun told Circle City CEO DuJuan McCoy the carrier doesn’t pay license fees for stand-alone, non-Big 4 TV stations, according to an email that was filed with the complaint. Circle City argues in the complaint that AT&T’s refusal to negotiate stems from an internal “playbook” designed “to suppress minority-based content.” AT&T’s policies “have created and sustained a systemic, decades-long racial barrier for minorities and their companies trying to find their rightful place in American television broadcasting.” Circle City is seeking “retransmission fees at a fair market rate, other lost revenue, actual and punitive damages, interest, and reasonable attorneys’ fees.” Circle City also sued Dish Network for racial discrimination over carriage. “These allegations are baseless and we will fight them in court" said an AT&T spokesperson. "Circle City sued as a negotiating tactic only after we declined its demands for compensation above and beyond what similar independent stations receive.”

Video programming distributors such as broadcasters, cable operators and satellite TV services were reminded of FCC rules to make televised emergency information accessible to persons with disabilities. In a docket 12-107 public notice Monday, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau laid out the routes for consumers to complain.