Liberman Broadcasting wants to be able to file confidential information with the FCC as part of its petition asking the agency to reconsider the company's dismissed carriage complaint against Comcast (see 1609260049) without that information becoming part of the public record, it said in a request for confidential treatment filed Friday in docket 16-121. The request said the material deals with private carriage talks between Liberman and Comcast on topics including terms, rates and consideration.

All video programming distributors are required to make televised emergency information accessible to those who have visual or hearing impairments, the FCC said in a reminder public notice Friday. The rules cover broadcasters, cable operators, fiber, satellite TV, and “any other distributor of video programming for residential reception that delivers such programming directly to the home,” the PN said. Emergency information shown during “the video portion of a regularly scheduled newscast or a newscast that interrupts regular programming” should be made accessible through aural description, the PN said. The information in text crawls must be conveyed over a secondary audio stream, the PN said. Manufacturers have to provide a simple mechanism for accessing the secondary stream by Dec. 20, and multichannel video programming distributors will be required to pass through emergency info on a secondary audio stream “when it is provided on linear programming accessed on second screen devices” starting July 10, the PN said. For those who are hearing impaired, it said, “emergency information provided in the audio portion of the programming [must] be made accessible using closed captioning or other methods of visual presentation, including open captioning, crawls or scrolls that appear on the screen.” To make sure warnings are understood by those watching who have cognitive disabilities or conditions such as Alzheimer's, the FCC recommends VPDs provide content “in plain and understandable English, avoiding, where possible, abbreviations, idioms, technical vocabulary, complicated and lengthy sentences, and figurative language” and include “easy-to understand instructions,” the PN said. The FCC will monitor complaints about a lack of accessible emergency information closely, and violations could incur ”possible enforcement action,” the PN said. Complaints can be filed at www.fcc.gov/complaints

“NAB is sorry to see the end of INTX," an NAB spokesman told us Wednesday evening, shortly after NCTA said it won't hold its annual cable show (see 1609280068). NCTA CEO Michael Powell blogged that his group thinks "large trade show floors, dotted with exhibit booths and stilted schedules have become an anachronism." NAB "strongly" disagrees "that large trade shows are ‘anachronistic,’" its spokesman said. "We believe the 103,000 attendees at last year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas would also beg to differ.” CTA can't comment on other trade shows, a spokesman emailed us Thursday. CTA holds the annual CES.

The Alexa world expanded again with Amazon’s announcement Wednesday that it's taking preorders for a new Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote. The $39 streaming media stick is up to a third faster than the original Fire TV Stick and will include up to $65 in content for new subscribers who buy and activate their device by Oct. 31, Amazon said. Content offers include one month of Sling TV, two months of Hulu’s limited-commercial offering and a $10 credit for Amazon Video rentals or purchases.

Roku bowed a new lineup of streaming media players in a Monday announcement, dropping the entry price point of video streaming to $29. Amazon's Fire TV stick was selling Monday for $39.

The Digital Entertainment Group will lend its name to a comScore digital download industry service in North America, they said in a Thursday announcement, giving studios, TV networks, distributors and others “title-level consumer transactional information” on digital sales of electronic sell-through and internet VOD content.

Built-in heart rate monitors are driving growth in the activity tracker category, said a Thursday NPD report. The overall tracker market was up by 11 million devices in Q2 vs. the year-ago quarter, and the number of owned activity trackers with heart rate monitors grew to 44 percent of the category compared with 12 percent in Q2 2015, it said. Heart rate monitors are now the “must-have feature” in high-end and mid-tier activity trackers, and on-device GPS is also beginning to grow. But activity tracker owners can access GPS by tethering their devices to their smartphone, NPD said, lessening the need for the technology on the tracker itself. That could change as a result of the recently launched Apple Watch Series 2, which will likely spur activity among tracker and smartwatch vendors to include the feature in more models over the next year, NPD said.

Intel joined those hailing the Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for releasing their long-awaited guidelines on autonomous vehicles (see 1609200039). Intel “commends DOT/NHTSA’s interest in encouraging U.S. innovation, as well as seeking a consistent national framework across all 50 states for the testing, deployment and operation of highly automated vehicles,” said Marjorie Dickman, global director and managing counsel-IoT policy, in a Tuesday blog post. The company also wants the agencies to “invest a larger portion of its ‘innovation’ grant funding in autonomous vehicles,” Dickman said. “Increased investment -- along with removing unnecessary barriers and promoting autonomous vehicle research and deployment -- are critical to U.S. global competitiveness in the 21st century and, most importantly, to saving more lives.” Autonomous cars just five years ago “seemed like a far off ‘Jetsons’ fantasy,” but they’re now “just around the corner,” she said. Intel, BMW and Mobileye announced plans in July to bring autonomous vehicles to streets by 2021 (see 1607010052).

Recording-industry shipment results for first-half 2016 “illustrate the emergence of paid subscriptions as a primary revenue driver” in the U.S., RIAA said Tuesday in its midyear report: For the first time, paid streaming subscriptions ($1.01 billion) were “virtually on par” with paid downloads ($1.02 billion) as the biggest single format revenue source. That’s because paid album downloads revenue fell 11.4 percent from a year earlier and paid singles downloads decreased 21.9 percent, but paid-subscription revenue soared by 111.7 percent, RIAA said. The total value of shipments in physical formats was $672 million, down 14 percent from first-half 2015, it said. CDs were two-thirds of total physical shipments by value, but were down 16.4 percent in revenue, 11.2 percent in units, from a year earlier, RIAA said.

Consumer viewing of 4K content via over-the-top services will “finally see mass-market appeal” in the next five years, Juniper Research said in a Monday report. Juniper sees 4K OTT services attracting more than 189 million “unique users” globally by 2021, up from just 2.3 million this year, “driven by greater content availability and compatible devices,” the company said. In the U.S., this means one in 10 Americans will be watching 4K content online compared with just one in 500 this year, it said. Device compatibility has been a “significant barrier” for online 4K video adoption, the company said. “The popularity of online video has seen the use of set-top boxes from vendors such as Roku and Amazon soar. However, delivery mechanisms for content have seen slower adoption, as the availability of 4K capable streaming devices is limited. New device launches, such as the 4K capable Xbox One S this month, among others, are likely to spur a boost in 4K usage." With Japan seeking to broadcast the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 8K, “the industry is likely to use this as an opportunity to drive sales of 8K smart TVs,” Juniper said. It sees TV makers selling 400,000 8K TVs in 2021, it said.