NBCUniversal and Dish Network are calling off a pair of reciprocal civil lawsuits, including the last of the suits filed against Dish over its advertisement-skipping Hopper technology. A notification (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago said a stipulation (in Pacer) filed by Dish and NBCU meant Dish's breach of contract claim on screen crawls warning Dish subscribers of the possible dropping of NBC programming (see 1603150053) was being dismissed with prejudice and with each side bearing its own costs and attorney fees. Terms of settlement weren't provided. It followed a stipulated dismissal (in Pacer) filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by NBCU and Dish on NBCU's 2012 Hopper-related copyright infringement complaint against Dish. Terms of that settlement agreement also weren't made public. Similar ad-skipping suits by CBS and Disney settled similar in 2014 (see 1412100057) and by Fox earlier this year (see 1602110012).

The average window between a film’s theatrical debut and its release on physical home-video products has declined by more than four weeks in the past decade, IHS said in a Friday report. In 2015, theatrical titles needed only 118 days on average before their release on physical media, compared with a 149-day window in 2005 -- a nearly 21 percent decline, IHS said. “Movies are arriving on discs 31 days sooner than a decade ago, despite a wider industry assertion that theatrical to home video window has remained largely unchanged,” said the researcher. The theatrical to digital download window, IHS said, has shrunk even faster -- by nearly 29 percent in just the past four years. IHS sampled 313 titles released in 2015 on digital formats, and of those, 25 percent were available for digital purchase day-and-date with their physical street date, it said. More than 60 percent were available for digital download an average of 24 days sooner than their respective physical video street date and an average of 97 days after opening in cinemas, it said. The remaining 14 percent were available on digital formats the same day as theaters or shortly before opening in theaters, it said.

The FCC should keep its presumption that bundling doesn't violate antitrust laws and in fact is a pro-competitive, pro-consumer practice, Disney executives told FCC officials in a series of meetings about the agency's examination of the totality of circumstances test for good-faith negotiating, said an ex parte filing Friday in docket 15-216. Its arguments responded to issues raised by some distributors about inclusion of stations and affiliated programming in retransmission consent talks. Disney said in the meetings it also took issue with an analysis by Columbia University Professor Michael Riordan (see 1604280058), saying the conclusions depend heavily on assumed valuations, those conclusions change as the valuations do, and it doesn't reflect market realities of bilateral negotiations for content. Disney said it also pointed to the growing video content market as additional evidence of why the FCC shouldn't change its bundling presumption. The meetings with Disney Vice President-Government Relations Susan Fox included Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel. In a separate filing Friday in the docket, WTA recapped a meeting with its members and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Chief of Staff David Grossman, to say stations shouldn't be allowed to demand compensation for retransmission consent for consumers or multichannel video programming distributors outside the reach of free over-the-air broadcast signals. WTA representatives discussed the possibility of requiring MVPDs to offer networks on an a la carte basis and backed an exemption in the set-top box NPRM for rural phone companies and small providers. The association's representatives said the proposed set-top rules "are likely to be the straw that breaks the camel's back for many small providers" since they would bring additional service costs related to dealing with problems of customers' off-the-shelf gear.

Dolby and Lionsgate are partnering to release new and catalog titles mastered in Dolby Vision and mixed in Dolby Atmos, the companies said Thursday. On an investor conference webcast Wednesday, CEO Kevin Yeaman underscored Dolby’s involvement in the content chain “working side by side” with content creators for delivery via Blu-ray, over the air, pay TV and streaming. Five years ago, “it wasn’t unreasonable to ask whether Dolby was going to be relevant to the streaming of entertainment,” Yeaman said of the shift from packaged media to streaming. Yeaman cited Dolby’s relationship with “all the streaming media providers." For audio, Yeaman cited Amazon, Apple, Google Play and Netflix in the U.S. and Alibaba in China and Amazon, Netflix and Vudu for Dolby Vision. Mobile devices account for 10-11 percent of Dolby licensing revenue, said Yeaman, and that’s expected to increase from the Apple win, he said.

Dish Network said it's asking Tribune Broadcasting to take part in binding, baseball-style arbitration to end carriage talks at loggerheads. In a news release Thursday, Dish also said it has distributed "tens of thousands" of free over-the-air antennas to its customers affected by the blackout that began Sunday. Tribune in a statement called it the arbitration proposal "a hollow offer, designed to mislead consumers and avoid returning to meaningful negotiation," adding that instead the FCC chairman's office should monitor negotiations between the two. Tribune and Dish have blamed one another for the blackout of 42 Tribune channels in 33 markets (see 1606150053).

Post-incentive auction channel sharing for TV broadcasters could “unlawfully” increase burdens for cable carriers, said NCTA in a meeting Monday with FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, and staff from the bureau and Office of General Counsel, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-268. Stations that channel share after the TV incentive auction will open up their vacated channels for more TV stations, in contrast to the stations that sell their spectrum for wireless use in the incentive auction. If one station moves to being shared, neither it nor the station that takes over its spectrum should be allowed to claim mandatory carriage status, NCTA said. That would increase cable costs and could “raise significant First Amendment problems,” said the association.

Media and entertainment professionals think virtual reality will become a “mainstay” of over-the-top streaming video, Level 3 Communications said in a Tuesday report. It commissioned a survey of 628 respondents from media and entertainment companies globally, and asked them about the current state of OTT, the company said. It found that 45 percent of companies surveyed are offering OTT services, a 10-percentage-point increase over 2015, “indicating significant adoption,” Level 3 said. Of the companies offering OTT services, 52 percent are researching, getting ready to launch or have already launched VR-video content, it said. Two-thirds said they believe VR is here to stay but said “primary business and technical challenges” abound, including bandwidth limits, lack of consumer awareness and fear of competition from free services and user-generated content, it reported. Nearly half said their companies have plans for 4K broadcasts, 4K VOD streaming or 4K “live-linear” or live-event streaming, it said. "As the OTT industry continues to grow and evolve, this study shows there is more focus on not only delivering live streaming events -- which can be a challenge in itself -- but also streaming in 4K or even VR,” Level 3 said. “End users expect their video streaming experience to be seamless, even as they begin to consume next generation content, and this study reveals the ever-increasing importance for OTT providers to have a robust CDN [content delivery network] strategy to enable this upward OTT trajectory as well as the importance of a safe, secure, reliable network."

Over-the-top multichannel video programming distributors, broadcasters and BitTorrent are pushing the FCC to move again on its proposal to reclassify some OTT providers as MVPDs. "Only ... a level regulatory field -- specifically the ability to acquire MVPD status" will let online video distributors (OVD) compete with traditional MVPDs that offer broadcast station programming, the group -- calling itself the TV Neutrality Alliance (TVNA) -- said in a filing Tuesday in docket 14-261. Making up TVNA are BiggyTV, BitTorrent, Camino Real Communications, Cocola Broadcasting, Cooper Communications, Pi Omni-Media, Pluto TV, Telletopia Foundation and Ventura Broadcasting. The retransmission consent mechanism for MVPDs is the only route to the 24-hour linear streams of local broadcast programming for Internet distribution, TVNA said, and any OTT offerings that don't include broadcast station signals shouldn't be subject to MVPD regulatory burdens. TVNA pitched a modification to the FCC-suggested rule change, with a certification step whereby non-facilities-based OVDs that want to transmit local broadcast signals will need to certify to the agency that they will comply with all MVPD retrans consent rules to be able to invoke retrans consent or program access rules. That certification step would make non-facilities based OVDs subject to MVPD regulations and privileges while obviating OVDs not taking advantage of MVPD rules, and thus allay Amazon regulatory concerns (see 1511060013), TVNA said. The OTT-as-MVPD rulemaking has been seen as largely dormant following tepid OTT industry reception (see 1606060033)

Microsoft's new line of Xbox One S machines will be the industry's first videogame consoles to support Ultra HD Blu-ray playback and high dynamic range, the company said in a Monday announcement at E3. Three versions of Xbox One S, also supporting 4K and HDR playback of physical and streamed games and video, became available for preorder Monday and will arrive in stores in August, Microsoft said.

The FTC-supported approach to privacy in the FCC set-top proposal is “legally problematic,” said NCTA officials and Gibson Dunn attorney Helgi Walker in meetings Thursday with FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, according to an ex parte filing. Walker represented trade groups in litigation against the FCC over net neutrality and media ownership. The FTC proposal to require third-party set-top makers to certify they will abide by the same privacy rules as multichannel video programming distributors would subject “similarly-situated entities to differing enforcement regimes, thereby causing unpredictable, conflicting, and inconsistent enforcement,” NCTA said in docket 97-80.