Hearst TV asked that its 2015 retransmission-without-authorization complaint against Florida Cable be dismissed, so the FCC Media Bureau ordered its dismissal with prejudice and the proceeding terminated. That's per Tuesday's Daily Digest.
Antitrust authorities won't challenge Spotify’s acquisition of the Bill Simmons Media Group, said a Monday FTC notice released Tuesday. Spotify agreed last month to acquire Simmons’ The Ringer (see 2002050023), a website, podcast network and scripted and non-scripted video production house delivering sports, pop culture, politics and tech content.
Actions by the TV Oversight Monitoring Board after a critical FCC report aren’t enough to address the board’s failings, said Parents Television Council President Tim Winter in an interview Monday. TVOMB’s actions, which include announcing plans to implement spot checks of content and issuing its first “annual report” in January, are “only to get federal regulators off their back, so they can say they did something,” Winter said. Since the board is controlled by the programming industry and serves as its own oversight, it can't be effective, Winter said. “The TVOMB had more than eight months to implement meaningful reforms that would demonstrate to parents the Board’s commitment to improving the ratings system and its oversight,” Winter wrote TVOMB. “If TVOMB does not see a problem, they are unlikely to find remedies." Winter wants Congress and the FCC to disband the board and create a more effective system. The spot checks, changes to the organization’s website, and the annual report were among FCC recommendations to Congress (see 1905160085). “The Monitoring Board took this feedback extremely seriously,” it said in January. TVOMB and its current chairman, NCTA President Michael Powell, didn’t comment now.
Public broadcasters will pay an annual $800,000 license fee for website performances, the Copyright Royalty Board said Friday in a final rule on digital performances of sound recordings and associated ephemeral recordings. Additional payments might be required, CRB said. Effective Jan. 1, the rule applies through Dec. 31, 2025. The total music aggregate tuning hours start at 360 million in 2021 and increase 10 million each subsequent year through 2025.
Litigation on alleged copyright violation of a work can still go ahead even if the Copyright Office refused the application to register the work, but the agency must be notified about the suit, Assistant General Counsel Jordana Rubel blogged Thursday. Starting May 26, those complaints can be emailed to 411notices@copyright.gov instead of sending a paper copy through the mail, she said. Complaint copies also must be sent to the U.S. attorney for the district where the court is located and DOJ, she said. CO notification allows it to decide if it wants to participate in the suit and explain to the court why it didn't believe the work was copyrightable, she said.
A&E and History Channel network content will be part of the library for NBCUniversal's advertising-supported Peacock streaming service when it launches later this year, Comcast said Wednesday. It announced a licensing deal with A+E Networks.
AMC Networks and Dish Network inked a long-term distribution agreement that continues carriage of AMC's linear channels including AMC, BBC America and IFC. It includes launches of the programmer's subscription VOD services, its advertising-free AMC Premiere and its IFC Films Unlimited streaming service, AMC said Tuesday. The deal includes Dish's vMVPD Sling.
Comcast bought advertising-supported streaming service Xumo, which will operate as an independent business as part of Comcast Cable, the MVPD said Tuesday.
FCC commissioners unanimously approved the draft order that was on Friday's FCC meeting agenda (see 2002060063). It directs low-power TV stations that qualify for mandatory carriage to email MVPDs when changing their carriage election status, the same as full-power TV stations. This latest media modernization order was released Tuesday.
Xperi, which announced an integration agreement with TiVo in December valued at $3 billion (see report, Dec. 20), rejected an unsolicited, nonbinding all-cash bid from Metis Ventures, Xperi said Sunday. Metis’ Friday letter to the Xperi board outlined a plan to acquire all equity of Xperi on a standalone basis for $23.30 a share cash. Xperi shares rose 25 percent Wednesday to $18.70 after its Q4 report. Metis managing partners include Tom Lacey, who retired as Xperi CEO in May 2017 and was succeeded by current CEO Jon Kirchner. After a review of the Metis proposal, the Xperi board unanimously decided that, based on terms and conditions, “as well as lack of information, it is unable to conclude at this time that Metis Ventures’ non-binding proposal is reasonably likely to lead to a Superior Proposal" vs. Xperi’s agreement with TiVo. Xperi expressed continued “support and enthusiasm” for the pending transaction with TiVo. The proposed Metis buy would offer Xperi liquidity “more certain and timely” than the pending TiVo transaction, Metis claimed. Under the definitive agreement with TiVo, due to close this quarter, Xperi shareholders would own about 46.5 percent of the combined business, and TiVo stockholders the rest.