Companies will spend more than $12 billion per year on advertising via digital assistants by 2021, said a Tuesday Juniper Research report. It said use of digital assistants such as Alexa, Cortana and Siri on smart devices will provide paid search opportunities in the coming years as they expand from integration in smartphones and PCs to connected homes and cars. Juniper expects digital assistants to offer monetization opportunities from targeted voice searches, with data on search and location history, shopping habits and demographic information most valuable. But many consumers are likely to avoid the technology for privacy and security reasons, Juniper said. Digital assistants will need to “balance the need for accurate data with consumers’ privacy needs,” said analyst James Moar, and “this will drive changes in how digital assistants are programmed” to ensure data is secure and under users’ control.
The Newspaper Association of America is changing its name to News Media Alliance, the organization said in a news release Tuesday. The name change, dropping the word "paper" is “the culmination of a larger strategic plan to highlight the news media industry’s evolution to multi-platform, digitally-savvy businesses and premium content providers,” it said. "For the first time the organization is broadening its membership requirements to allow digital-first and digital-only news organizations publishing original content to become members."
American Cable Association is taking ACA arguments in a totality of circumstances FCC NPRM and making them again in docket 16-41 under the guise of promoting independent and diverse programming, NAB said in a filing posted Tuesday. That runs against FCC instructions not to propose modifications to retransmission consent rules in the diversity proceeding, NAB said, and ACA assertions "are no more compelling now than when they were raised elsewhere." NAB focused on ACA arguments against bundling, saying broadcasters "do not require any parties to enter into agreements for multiple channels of programming." That makes the issue one of cable system capacity restraints, which in turn "are self-imposed by ACA members' own business decisions about whether and how to invest capital," NAB said. NAB has repeatedly targeted ACA arguments against bundling (see 1609010031). ACA didn't comment Tuesday.
Qualcomm announced a chip with support for dual-stream Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.2, at the IFA show in Berlin. It also launched a 4K Ultra HD media box reference platform. Both solutions support interactive media experiences in upcoming streaming devices, set-top boxes and smart TVs, said a Qualcomm news release Thursday.
Charter Communications will carry six regular season Los Angeles Dodgers games being broadcast on KTLA-TV Los Angeles, including Vin Scully Appreciation Day Sept. 23, said Charter and KTLA owner Tribune Broadcasting Friday. The games also will be carried on regional sports network SportsNet LA, which also is part of Charter's lineup, they said. "Let's root, root, root for broadcast negotiations/if they don't agree it's a shame," said Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., in a statement. Cardenas and other members of the Los Angeles congressional delegation wrote the FCC in 2014 asking it to mediate stalled talks between Time Warner Cable -- now part of Charter -- and other pay-TV providers that had resulted in a wide Dodgers blackout (see 1505130041).
The FCC set-top plan amounts to “stripping content of its legally guaranteed protections” and is akin to money laundering, said Bartlett Cleland, research fellow with the Institute for Policy Innovation, in a blog post. “Content laundering rather than money laundering.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's pursuit of a set-top plan after the U.S. Copyright Office said much of what he proposed would violate copyright law (see 1608050053) shows “continuing arrogance” and “regulatory hubris,” Cleland said Thursday. "In the end, the FCC is looking for a way to require that content be made available to third party set top box makers who are not part of any contract for its use.”
The FCC involving itself in programming negotiations "is almost certain to result in less diversity on pay TV systems," NAB said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 16-41. Citing the American Cable Association urging the FCC to act on bundling -- particularly forced bundling of specialty or niche programming (see 1608290048), NAB said that would lead to "extremely unfortunate exclusionary effects." Naming a variety of networks that specifically target non-white audiences, NAB said ACA appears to suggest those should go on cable lineups only in communities with big non-white populations. "There is simply no reason for the Commission to adopt policies ensuring that niche programming only reaches a narrow audience," NAB said, saying such programing depends on reaching nationwide or near-nationwide audiences. Instead, NAB said, the agency should reject any "ability of pay TV operators to discriminate against 'urban' or 'Spanish-language' channels." NAB defended bundling practices during the FCC's independent programming proceeding (see 1603300055). "For broadcasters to suggest that ACA's position promotes 'segregation ... according to race and ethnicity' is unfortunate and highly misleading," the association said in a statement. "ACA made a simple point: Overall diversity increases when individual small cable operators can choose the programming that best serves their particular local audiences (like independent Spanish-language programming in Puerto Rico). And overall diversity decreases when big conglomerates can force their national networks upon local audiences that may not want them (like the Esquire Network in some rural areas). Nothing about this position should surprise broadcasters -- who, after all, have a rule allowing them to reject unwanted network programming."
Yamaha added to its MusicCast wireless multiroom audio lineup Tuesday with the launch of a network receiver with Bluetooth for streaming via Napster, Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, Spotify and vTuner, said Yamaha. Music can be controlled by Android and iOS apps, and the device includes FM and streaming music presets.
Samsung announced two series of curved quantum dot gaming monitors, it said in a Monday news release. The 24- and 27-inch CFG70 and the 34-inch CF791 include interactive LED lighting, a user dashboard, and AMD FreeSync technology that’s said to reduce input latency, stutter and lag.
The FCC's revised set-top apps proposal (see 1608240064) would allow programmer content to be distributed through pay-TV apps constructed with their own native code, not just with HTML5 as the pay-TV-backed apps set-top plan would mandate, Univision said in an ex parte posted Thursday in docket 16-42. It concerned a conference call Friday between Univision executives and FCC Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan and an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler. Univision and the FCC officials discussed measures to prevent discrimination against programmer apps, the data that would need to be shared to allow universal search, and the makeup of a licensing body for the set-top plan. Also Thursday, AT&T filed in the docket, criticizing a recommendation by a tech group to combine elements of various set-top plans (see 1608250052).