Efforts by pay-TV group American Television Alliance to get the FCC to commission a study or issue a notice of inquiry on ATSC 3.0 (see 1612050048) are attempts to delay the new standard “as long as possible,” NAB said in docket 16-142 Thursday. “While ATVA plainly has an interest in preventing viewers from receiving a competitive service, the Commission does not.” ATVA's arguments the FCC shouldn't allow broadcasters to use retransmission consent negotiations to encourage adoption of ATSC 3.0 don't raise any “legitimate” concerns, NAB said. If the FCC shares those concerns, they can be addressed through an NPRM rather than an NOI, NAB said. “Despite ATVA’s wishes, there is no reason for the Commission to delay any further.”

Pandora’s unveiling of its long-awaited premium on-demand service Tuesday was little more than a glimpse after months of references to a December rollout. A video on the company’s blog Wednesday focused on Pandora's legacy as a personalized radio service. As the company attempts to take on Apple Music and Spotify, among others, it will use its proprietary “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” features as differentiators. “All your thumbs create your unique playlists instantly,” it said. Subscribers can start a playlist and “we’ll help you finish it” by adding similar songs, Pandora said. It promoted offline availability, something its free and $5 services don’t currently offer, and it included a brief artist clip showing integration of local concert information, leveraging its purchase of Ticketfly purchase last year. “Find the songs you love and let the songs you love find you,” was a key message. The service is to roll out next year at about $10 per month. In a research note to investors, BTIG analyst Brandon Ross pitted Pandora Premium against the established competition: Spotify’s 30 million and Apple’s 15 million subscribers and “deeper pockets and consumer engagement” from YouTube and Amazon. Subscription content exclusivity is “starting to become a differentiator,” said Ross, and that will take financial resources and relationships with the music industry, he said. Meanwhile, reports have been circulating about a possible acquisition by SiriusXM. CNBC said Pandora was open to selling itself and willing to engage with SiriusXM, and in an update Wednesday, CNBC expanded the suitor possibilities beyond the satellite music company. Pandora had no immediate comment on the reports.

Six leading developers of virtual reality headsets banded together to form the Global Virtual Reality Association to promote the VR industry, the group said in a Wednesday announcement. GVRA, whose founding members are Acer, Google, HTC, Oculus, Samsung and Sony Interactive Entertainment, “will develop and share best practices for industry and foster dialogue between public and private stakeholders around the world,” it said. VR “has the potential to be the next great computing platform, improving sectors ranging from education to healthcare, and contribute significantly to the global economy,” the group said. The founding GVRA companies, through “research, international engagement and the development of best practices,” will work to “unlock and maximize VR’s potential and ensure those gains are shared as broadly around the world as possible,” it said.

Parents spend on average 9 hours 22 minutes a day with screen media, with 78 percent believing they're good media use role models for their kids, even as significant percentages worry about their kids' screen media use, Common Sense said in a study released Tuesday. "Parents are using media for entertainment just as much as their kids, yet they express concerns about their kids' media use while also believing that they are good role models for their kids," CEO James Steyer said. "If they are concerned about too much media in their kids' lives, it might be time to reassess their own behavior so that they can truly set the example they want for their kids." Fifty-six percent of parents worry their children may become addicted to technology and 34 percent think technology use hurts their kids' sleep. Forty-three percent of parents said they're "moderately" or "extremely" worried about their kids spending too much time online, 38 percent said so about their children over-sharing personal details, and 36 percent said so about their kids accessing online pornography and about exposure to violent videos or images. The results come from a national GfK survey of 1,786 parents of those age 8-18.

The FCC shouldn't impose any new burdens on multichannel video programming distributors as part of the transition to ATSC 3.0, AT&T and Dish Network said in a meeting with Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and MB and Office of Engineering and Technology staff Thursday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-142. The new standard would require new equipment for MVPDs and consumers and could consume more bandwidth than the current standard, Dish and AT&T said. AT&T and DISH worry about "the significant capacity concerns associated with transitioning to the ATSC 3.0 standard," they said. The bandwidth required "to carry one ATSC 3.0 4K channel, for example, will consume substantially more bandwidth than a current HD channel, let alone the bandwidth that would be required to carry both an ATSC 3.0 4K signal and an ATSC 3.0 signal." they said. "Such increased carriage obligations would put at risk our ability to comply with the FCC’s must carry rules." The FCC should ensure broadcasters can't use the retransmission consent process to force MVPDs to carry the new standard, the pay-TV carriers said. Those same pay-TV companies also recently lobbied about such concerns as members of the American Television Alliance (see 1612050048).

Granting the waiver request to approve Nexstar buying Media General before the incentive auction could disrupt ongoing retransmission consent negotiations for agreements set to expire at the end of 2016, the American Cable Association told an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai in a meeting Friday, recounted an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-57. Since the deal would activate after-acquired station clauses in the contacts, approval before year-end would be "interfering with on-going market processes with less than 25 days before contracts expire," ACA said. The FCC shouldn't allow Nexstar to use agency processes to advantage itself in a retrans deal, the association said. The $4.6 billion deal could be approved soon, possibly before the auction ends (see 1611300064). The next round of the auction starts Tuesday (see 1612060034).

EPA now expects to release the first draft of its Energy Star Version 8.0 TV spec sometime after the first of the year, Verena Radulovic, Energy Star product manager at the agency, emailed us Monday. EPA had hoped to release the first draft in early December, the agency said on an Oct. 3 webinar (see 1610030046). But “we are still parsing through comments and thus, with the holidays, anticipate releasing a draft one later in January,” Radulovic said. The agency’s goal is to finalize the spec in mid-2017 and put it into effect by early 2018, it has said.

Netflix’s download capability for offline viewing currently extends (see 1611300010) to iOS and Android but not to Amazon’s variant of the Android operating system, a Netflix spokeswoman emailed us Thursday after we succeeded at downloading Netflix content to an iPhone but not to a Kindle Fire tablet. The download feature for Kindle Fire will be available in the “next couple of weeks,” she said.

In a week packed with alternative-TV announcements appealing to cord cutters -- AT&T’s DirecTV Now streaming video launch (see 1611280058) and Netflix’ announcement of a download option for offline viewing (see 1611300010) -- Amazon kept pace with its Thursday announcement of a $14.99-per-month HBO subscription available to Prime members through Amazon Channels. It also announced a $9.99-per-month Cinemax subscription on Amazon Channels, joining Starz ($8.99), Showtime ($8.99) and other a la carte pay-TV channels as an alternative to cable. Amazon’s $15-per-month HBO subscription doesn’t affect the HBO streaming perk available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers, a company spokeswoman emailed us Thursday, and “nothing has changed with the HBO content that is available for free for Prime Members.” At launch, Amazon is offering a 30-day free trial for HBO and Cinemax vs. its typical seven-day free trial period. More than 80 subscriptions are available via Amazon Channels, a platform available on more than 650 devices, said Amazon.

The FCC should revisit and roll back media ownership rules under President-elect Donald Trump, the News Media Alliance said in a white paper sent to his transition team Wednesday. “While news organizations are innovating and adapting to a vastly different media landscape, antiquated government regulations and imbalanced policies are unnecessarily hindering investment and growth at news media companies,” said CEO David Chavern in a news release. The association also seeks changes to copyright law to tighten up fair use rules and make the Copyright Office autonomous in the federal government and separate from the Library of Congress. The group said the Trump administration should preserve news-media freedoms and not base the handing out of press credentials on a media organization's news content but on “neutral” procedures. “There is value in providing a level of detail into the president's thinking,” the paper said.