Small and medium-sized cable providers have limited resources and little leverage with manufacturers and programmers to come up with solutions for meeting new accessibility regulations, the American Cable Association said in a meeting with staff from the Media Bureau, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, and the Office of General Counsel Friday, recounted a filing in docket 12-108. Proposals to increase the amount of video description pay-TV carriers must provide and the customer service obligations for video description should be considered in light of those limited resources, ACA said. The industry has made progress in delivering multiple audio streams without the need for additional regulation, the association said: The FCC shouldn't make pay-TV carriers responsible for allowing consumers to readily access user display settings for closed captioning.

The Copyright Office was “aggressively lobbied” by programmers for months leading up to its letter denouncing the FCC's set-top NPRM (see 1608050053), and “made no attempt to seek other views,” said the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a blog post Wednesday based on a Freedom of Information Act request. The request yielded 310 pages of emails between CO officials and MPAA Senior Vice President-Government and Regulatory Affairs Neil Fried, then-FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet, Capitol Hill offices, reporters including with Communications Daily, and representatives of Comcast, Disney and TiVo. “The Copyright Office has come under scrutiny for alleged systemic bias in favor of major media and entertainment companies to the detriment of Internet users, technology companies, and independent creators,” said EFF. “These documents received by EFF yesterday do nothing to dispel that concern.” The CO didn't comment. The emails show Fried began lobbying the office shortly after the FCC announced its set-top plans, before Sallet began trying to schedule a meeting on behalf of the commission. The CO met with MPAA April 11 and the FCC a week later, the documents show. “Throughout the spring and summer of this year, the Copyright Office alternated between meetings with the FCC, MPAA, and other major content companies such as Comcast and Viacom,” EFF said. “On May 31, just hours after holding a conference call with MPAA, the general counsel of Copyright Office emailed her counterpart at the FCC saying 'the proposed rule may in fact implicate some rather serious copyright concerns.' The emails also show the CO coordinating with members of Congress on formally weighing in on the set-top debate, and that the CO only met with industry advocates for the FCC plan the day before issuing its letter denouncing the FCC NPRM. A staffer for Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., contacted the CO with the idea of Deutch formally requesting a letter from the office on June 17, according to the emails. On June 28, CO officials watched an NCTA demo of set-top tech arranged by MPAA, and on June 30 met with Sallet and other FCC officials, the emails show. On July 11, CO officials met with House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. Four days later, she joined Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Deutch in asking for a written analysis of the FCC plan. A Senate Finance Committee staffer contacted CO officials about a possible meeting on July 22, the emails show. Staffers for Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., made contact with the CO to set up a meeting on July 27. The CO letter went out Aug. 3. An "agency that listens only to the views of some industry groups without seeking out additional opinions cannot be a reliably neutral expert for Congress or the FCC,” said the EFF. “We hope that the FCC will weigh the Copyright Office’s comments appropriately.”

Comments are due Dec. 27, replies Jan. 23, in the FCC independent programming rulemaking, said a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. The NPRM looks at rules restricting some types of most-favored-nation and alternative distribution method provisions, and invites comments on program bundling (see 1609090043).

The $35 per month subscription price to AT&T's DirecTV Now means that over-the-top service likely won't be a money maker, since programming costs probably will be in the low $30 range, UBS analyst John Hodulik wrote investors Tuesday. It won't come with satellite, set-top box or installation costs and could reach the cord-cutter and cord-never markets, he said. Hodulik said increased OTT competition likely will mean Comcast and Charter Communications will start seeing losses of traditional video subscribers again by 2018, but cable numbers probably will be more resilient than satellite or telco video subscribers because of the quality of cable video product, broadband bundling and the potential of cable quickly offering OTT services. Hodulik said strong DirecTV Now growth "would likely sit well with regulators concerned about the OTT ecosystem." AT&T pointed to sped-up OTT innovation as a big motivator for its planned $108.7 billion takeover of Time Warner (see 1610240011). Disney Chief Communications Officer Zenia Mucha said that "a transaction of this magnitude obviously warrants very close regulatory scrutiny."

Teens and tweens from lower-income families spend more time with media than those from higher-income families, and African-American teens average in excess of 11 hours of media use a day compared with close to nine hours among Latinos and nearly 8.5 hours with white teens, said a Common Sense report Monday. Teens average about nine hours a day using media, but the type of media use can differ sizably, it said. Teens as a whole average 4 hours 36 minutes a day of screen time, but that can range from 94 minutes a day among those who identify as heavy readers vs. nearly eight hours a day among social networkers. The report is based on case studies of 11 African-American and Latino teens and tweens, focusing on their media practices. Media use encompasses watching video, listening to music, social media, playing games and reading, according to the study.

Spotify updated its privacy policy in countries outside the U.S. to consolidate all agreements under its Sweden-based parent company Spotify AB, it said in a Monday blog post. The company clarified its third-party subscription policy saying users who buy Spotify through a third-party are subject also to the terms of those companies. Users who don’t live in the U.S. will be guided by rules of arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, it clarified. It also changed, at the end of terms and conditions, the name and address of the Spotify company that provides subscribers’ service to the legal entity responsible for their data, it said. This company will now be Spotify AB everywhere but in the U.S. “to better reflect the reality of our business operations,” it said. Spotify attributed the changes to “operational efficiencies,” not tax considerations, and said the changes won't have an impact on its obligation to pay taxes in local markets as required under local tax rules.

Nielsen announced a plan to measure out-of-home viewing for national TV programs, it said in a news release Monday. The service will give subscribers audience estimates that combine in-home TV viewing with out-of-home viewing numbers based on Portable People Meter (PPM) data, the company said. It "gives us the ability to capture out-of-home viewing precisely as it happens ... while transacting on new, valuable audience segments for advertisers," said ESPN Senior Vice President-Global Research Artie Bulgrin. The service will provide “both program and commercial ratings (C3/C7) for live through live + 7 days of time-shifted viewing,” Nielsen said: The PPM device, which panelists carry with them, will allow Nielsen to measure TV viewing in places like restaurants and bars. "The out-of-home viewing will be based on data from over 75,000 PPM panelists across 44 local markets,” Nielsen said. The company expects the new service to launch in April, with data effective in January. Data going back to last month will be added shortly after the service launches, Nielsen said.

CyberPowerPC’s recent introduction of an Oculus-ready virtual-reality PC powered by an Advanced Micro Devices FX processor and Radeon GPU “brings the cost of entry for VR-ready systems down to $500 for the first time,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said on a Thursday earnings call. “This is a meaningful milestone for consumers and I am excited that AMD is enabling the ecosystem and driving broader adoption of VR by making premium experiences available at such an attractive price point.”

AV retailer Video & Audio Center has a 65 percent attach rate for Ultra HD Blu-ray players with the purchase of 4K TVs, Corporate Director Tom Campbell told us last week at a Home Technology Specialists of America event in Chicago. Campbell credited affordable pricing for Samsung’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the first to market, and “the way we demo” TVs using 4K Blu-ray rather than 4K streaming content. Video & Audio Center now is selling software to show off 4K resolution and high dynamic range “that you can’t get through streaming,” Campbell said. He noted recent synergy between the electronics industry and studios, with Twentieth Century Fox President and Digital Entertainment Group Chairman Mike Dunn also being a member of the CTA executive board and Starz Chief Strategy Officer John Penney a CTA board trustee: That's leading to a unified effort between the camps, something that hasn't always been the case. About a fifth of the marketing real estate on Ultra HD Blu-ray titles Lucy from Comcast's Universal and Fox’s The Martian is devoted to technology, said Campbell.

Spotify is now available on Samsung 2015 and 2016 smart TVs, said the music streamer in a blog post Thursday. Spotify Free and Premium users have access to the provider’s 30 million songs on Samsung TVs and can control music around the house using the Spotify Connect app on a mobile phone, tablet or desktop PC, it said.