Despite Chairman Tom Wheeler's decision last summer not to revisit the FCC's totality of circumstances test (see 1607140047), retransmission consent reform is needed, the American TV Alliance said in a filing Monday in docket 15-216. ATVA said the proof lies in the stations that were blacked out in numerous markets on New Year's Day (see 1701030046), affecting 4 million pay-TV-subscribing households. ATVA said the surge in blackouts, involving numerous broadcasters and multiple multichannel video programming distributors, demonstrates the breadth of the problem, and in many cases, they happened despite the MVPD offering to continue negotiating, often with retroactive "true-ups" of rates. In a statement, NAB said ATVA's data -- which it called "often questionable" -- shows programming impasses declined by nearly 50 percent in 2016. "We hope that trend continues now that the FCC has decided not to favor pay TV in this free market negotiation process," NAB said, saying most of the remaining impasses "involve massive pay TV companies muscling very small broadcast stations/family owned TV stations." In a blog post Monday, TV Freedom pointed to Dish Network as being involved in a significant number of carriage disruptions and accused the pay-TV industry of "hardball strategy that goes like this: Forget the impact on viewers. Just force enough programming 'blackouts' to get Congress and/or the FCC involved." It also said broadcast signals are never fully blacked out since they're available over the air and on other pay-TV platforms -- though that industry makes switching providers difficult through early termination fees. Dish didn't comment.
President-elect Donald Trump met Monday with Univision Communications CEO Randy Falco and Isaac Lee, the company’s chief-news, entertainment and digital. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer mentioned the planned meeting during a journalists' call that morning, not elaborating on the details of its agenda. A Univision spokeswoman didn’t comment on the meeting.
The Supreme Court declined to hear claims of privacy violations brought by Internet-using minors who had data collected about them by Google and Viacom (see 1612290016), denying their petition Monday (see here). The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June also largely rejected the claims against the companies (see 1606270047).
A jury will have to decide whether a so-called Star Trek fan film is subjectively substantially similar to official Star Trek canon and willfully violates Star Trek copyright, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner of Los Angeles ruled in an order (in Pacer) posted Wednesday denying summary judgment motions by both plaintiffs, CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures, and defendants, Axanar Productions and its president (see 1612060018). Klausner said both motions raise the same fundamental issues about the substantive similarity between the Axanar works and Star Trek copyrighted works, and whether Axanar/Peters have a valid fair use defense under the Copyright Act. The judge said the Axanar works have objective substantial similarity to Star Trek -- an objective extrinsic test and subjective intrinsic test for substantial similarity being 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tests for copyright infringement -- and they do use copyright-protected elements. Klausner peppered his decision with multiple Star Trek quips and asides, such as saying the copyright infringement claim "can live long and prosper if the Axanar Works are substantially similar" and elsewhere referencing the title of a 1969 episode of the original TV series.
Roku promoted its position in the smart TV streaming market as Seiki, Westinghouse Electronics and Element Electronics will begin shipping this year 4K Ultra HD TVs with Amazon Fire TV. In a Tuesday news release, Roku said its TVs accounted for 13 percent of all U.S. smart TV sales. At CES in Las Vegas, Roku TVs will be demonstrated in Dish Sling TV and other booths. In Amazon's deal, its Prime customers get unlimited access to Prime Video and “thousands of movies and TV episodes” with membership. They can get HBO, Showtime, Starz, PBS Kids and other subscription video services, paying “for the channels they want -- no cable required, no additional apps to download, and easy online cancellation,” said the companies.
With its NBC affiliation agreement now expired, WHDH Boston dropped its appeal in its NBC affiliation fight with Comcast. In a motion (in Pacer) for voluntary dismissal filed Wednesday in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, WHDH said since its June appeal "the parties' respective circumstances have changed," leading to WHDH's dropping its appeal. The station's appeal brief had been due Friday. Michael Gass of Choate Hall, representing the station, told us that with it not getting injunctive relief to prevent the expiration of WHDH's NBC affiliation agreement, which expired Sunday, "it's hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube." Station management instead decided to continue focusing on running the station as an independent with local news and syndicated programming like WHDH owner Sunbeam previously did with its WSVN Miami, Gass said: "There's no reason to think they can't do that here." WHDH sued Comcast last year over plans to move its NBC affiliation to a Comcast-owned station (see 1603110031).
The Copyright Royalty Board said Tuesday it opened a royalty rate-setting proceeding for digital transmissions of ephemeral copies of sound recordings to business establishments (Business Establishments III) to cover the period between Jan. 1, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2023. Parties wishing to participate in the proceeding must submit their petition and the $150 filing fee by Feb. 2, the CRB said in a notice in the Federal Register. The previous rate-setting proceeding, which covered royalties for 2014-2018, drew participation from Clear Channel, Pandora and SiriusXM, among others.
Samsung plans to debut three smart TV services at CES 2017 next month in Las Vegas, it said in a news release Tuesday. The services -- Sports, Music and TV Plus -- will offer personalized content through Samsung's Smart Hub platform based on users' TV preferences, it said. Sports, for example, will have on one navigation page information such as scores, details on when favorite teams are playing and where those games can be watched, Samsung said. It also said its Music service will let Smart TV users search and identify songs on TV programs and make recommendations, while TV Plus will offer IP-based channels.
The librarian of Congress is seeking comments on the role of the next register of copyrights to head the Copyright Office, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Tuesday. The Copyright Office's administration of copyright laws has a “transformative” effect on broadcasters, and copyright is expected to be a big issue during the next Congress, Oxenford said. Broadcasters who want to influence how that position is handled should weigh in, Oxenford said. Comments are due Jan. 31.
Hulu and Disney signed a licensing agreement giving the subscription VOD service exclusive streaming rights to an array of Disney films, Hulu said in a Tuesday announcement. Hulu obtained rights to a variety of Disney TV programming and Disney Channel original movies in an agreement earlier this year, it said.