The FCC doesn't have the power to substantially involve itself in retransmission consent matters, and can't regulate rates or force broadcaster consent and should ignore multichannel video programming distributors' "'mashup' of various out-of-context sources to try to create that authority out of thin air," Meredith General Counsel-Local Media Joshua Pila told Commissioner Michael O'Rielly and legal advisers to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Chairman Tom Wheeler, according to an ex parte filing Friday in docket 15-216. Meredith also said that the 10 largest MVPDs account for 94 percent of MVPD subscribers, and those 10 dwarf the largest independent broadcasting groups. "Even if the Commission had authority to regulate rates or order carriage with the broadcasters' consent, there would be no reason to exercise it on behalf of MVPDs, most of which are far larger and have far greater resources (including large staffs of professional carriage negotiators and lawyers)," it said. The company said rising retrans fees reflect rising programming costs, so substantive retrans regulation wouldn't bring down consumer prices but would make it so broadcasters wouldn't have the needed resources for national programming or local news.

Pay-TV subscriptions continued to fall in Q1, though cable subscription numbers improved, SNL Kagan said in a news release Thursday. Cable posted “its best first-quarter in eight years,” by losing only 18,300 video customers, the media research firm said. But cable, DBS and telco multichannel video programming distributors as a group lost 162,000 subscribers in Q1, it said. “The mounting loss in the quarter foreshadows mounting pressure on service providers and an accelerating annual decline.” MVPDs lost 1.2 million subscribers over the preceding 12 months, SNL Kagan said. DBS gained 166,000 subs in Q1, it said. The growth was driven by DirecTV's growth strategy and offsetting losses from Dish Network, the researcher said.

Netflix “is a great partner, and at the same time they’re a competitor to us,” CBS CEO Leslie Moonves told the Needham Emerging Technology Conference Thursday in New York. In that dualality, Netflix typifies “a number of other companies in our universe,” Moonves said. CBS will continue to sell its content to Netflix, he said. “We’ve generally sold them library or shows that are coming off the air, and we’ve had a very successful relationship with them. On the other side of the coin, they’re producing 35 original television shows, so they’re a competitor in terms of getting the best producers.” At CBS, “we like doing business” with Netflix, “we will continue to do business with them,” Moonves said. “By the way, we talk to Hulu, we talk to Netflix, we talk to Amazon -- we sell to everybody.” However, CBS also chose “to go our own way” with the CBS All Access over-the-top service, he said. “We own the IP for Star Trek, which is obviously a huge property, and instead of selling it to Netflix or Amazon -- both had wanted it -- we said that was going to be the first original series on All Access. It will be on the air in January, and we think it will contribute to millions of new subscribers going there.” CBS announced in November that a “totally new” Star Trek TV series would debut in January and that after the debut episode, all first-run episodes would air exclusively on CBS All Access. Moonves won’t disclose ratings data on CBS All Access for as long as Netflix declines to do so for its OTT service, he said. “We’ve been saying that for a long time,” he said. “They’re playing Hide the Weenie,” so why should CBS report viewership data for CBS All Access content? he said. “They’re declaring shows hits that could be watched by 10 people.” Netflix representatives didn’t comment.

Mobileye and STMicroelectronics are teaming to codevelop the next generation of Mobileye's EyeQ SoC, the EyeQ5, to be “the central computer performing sensor fusion” for fully autonomous vehicles when they’re commercialized starting in 2020, the chipmakers said in a Tuesday joint announcement. Engineering samples of EyeQ5 are expected to be available by first half of 2018, they said. EyeQ5 will be delivered to automakers and Tier-1 OEMs with “a full suite of hardware accelerated algorithms and applications that are required for autonomous driving,” they said. Mobileye also will support an “automotive-grade” standard operating system and provide a complete software development kit “to allow customers to differentiate their solutions by deploying their algorithms on EyeQ5,” they said. The companies expect to make the software development kit available by late 2018, they said.

Roku continued as the top streaming media player brand in the U.S. between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016 with 30 percent market share, said Parks Associates. Amazon moved into a “virtual tie” for second with Google at 22 percent of sales, it said, and Apple TV was fourth at 20 percent. The top four had 94 percent of streaming media player sales during the period, up from 86 percent in 2014, Parks said. Amazon benefited from promoting its Fire TV devices in tandem with its Prime Video service and premium subscriptions through its Streaming Partners program. Apple had the biggest increase in unit sales on the launch of its long-awaited refresh of Apple TV, growing sales 50 percent over 2014. Roku and Amazon, meanwhile, benefit from offering multiple form factors: boxes and sticks, said analyst Barbara Kraus. A third of Roku sales for the period were sticks, compared with three-quarters of Amazon sales, she said. Thirty-six percent of U.S. broadband households own streaming media players, and Parks estimates 86 million streaming media players will be sold globally in 2019.

Univision Communications said it's partnering with AOL to provide a data-driven, self-serve module to support the Hispanic broadcaster's linear programmatic TV ad buys. The module -- called "ONE by AOL: TV" -- would "provide advertisers access to premium TV inventory, including new fall programming, at scale," Univision said Monday in a news release. Advertisers would be able to produce a media plan within the "platform that takes into account real-time audience attributes and campaign learnings beyond traditional TV buying metrics," the broadcaster said. As a result, advertisers would be able to better "plan, purchase, and measure" their investments, Univision said. “Data-driven buying lets clients tap into our engaged, exclusive audience in a more targeted way, leveraging our premium programming and new shows in each content vertical and on all platforms," said Keith Turner, Univision advertising sales and marketing president, in the release. The module will be available to advertisers in Q4, the broadcaster said.

Google Fiber supports FCC efforts to make state emergency alert system plans more electronically accessible, company executives said in a phone meeting Tuesday with Public Safety Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-91. "Greater accessibility and uniformity of State EAS Plan information would ease participation by new entrants."

The FCC's new online public inspection file (OPIF) requirements take effect June 24 for cable systems with 5,000 or more subscribers, satellite carriers and commercial radio stations with more than five employees and in the top 50 markets, the agency said in a public notice Thursday. That effective date applies to new filings, but those entities have until Dec. 24 to place all their existing public file documents in the online database. Cable systems with between 1,000 and 5,000 subscribers, and the remaining commercial and noncommercial radio stations must comply with the rules by March 1, 2018, the PN said. TV broadcasters will also begin using a new filing database for their public files on June 24, the PN said. The new database “includes a number of technical improvements that should facilitate the uploading of documents and management of the online public file, most significantly the implementation of an application programming interface ('API') that can be used to connect OPIF to third-party web hosting services,” the PN said.

DOJ's competitive impact statement on Charter Communications' proposed buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable (see 1605110016) backs the broadcast industry's view that pay-TV consolidation is giving multichannel video programming distributors -- particularly the largest MVPDs -- sizable negotiating power over programmers, NAB said in an FCC filing Thursday in docket 15-216. Pointing to that conclusion, NAB said the commission "should summarily reject" big MVPD claims about lacking bargaining leverage and needing changes in the rules governing good-faith bargaining. "It beggars belief that AT&T/DirecTV, Verizon, DISH, the combined Charter/TWC/Bright House and others -- entities with market capitalizations up to 200 times greater than some of the biggest local TV station groups -- need FCC assistance in negotiating their retransmission consent agreements," it said.

Opponents of the FCC's set-top box proposal are making "pseudo-copyright arguments" that ignore the reality of copyright law, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post Wednesday. Arguments that a contract with a copyright holder is required to do anything to content are false, EFF said, saying cloud-based DVRs can record content without a contract with the content owner, and TV manufacturers don't pay content companies for the right to show programming on their machines. The copyright arguments are intended to "thwart" the FCC's plan, EFF said. "Rather than listening to entities with no interest in changing the status quo, policy makers would be best served by listening to content creators who do not have a vested interest in keeping the set-top box market closed."