After a beta test begun in December with “hundreds of thousands” of users, Sonos began offering Apple Music on its wireless music systems worldwide Wednesday. Sonos users will have access to Apple Music features For You, My Music, New and Radio and will be able to stream the Apple Music catalog to every room, the company said. New users can sign up for a free three-month trial via Sonos: Apple Music subscriptions are $9.99 per month individually or $14.99 per month for a six-person family plan. Sonos users also have access to Deezer, Pandora (advertising-supported and premium), Rhapsody, Sirius XM, Slacker Radio (ad-supported and premium), Spotify and Tidal.
Gray Television signed retransmission consent agreements with four cable operators, including Time Warner Cable and Buckeye Cable, Gray said in a news release Friday. The renewals are for retrans agreements that expired at the end of 2015, and cover more than 900,000 subscribers in 16 markets around the country, Gray said. The company said it's working on one more retrans agreement that expired at the end of 2015 and it doesn't have any material retrans agreements expiring before the end of this year. Other broadcasters including Nexstar recently had retrans blackouts (see 1602010034).
Comcast partnered with Earth Networks’ WeatherBug Home software to help Xfinity Home customers lower heating and cooling costs by reducing energy use. WeatherBug Home provides data and analytics for Xfinity Home’s EcoSaver tool that learns the heating and cooling patterns of a home and makes automatic adjustments to the thermostat, said the companies in a Monday news release. Earth Networks processes 25 terabytes of “hyper-local,” real-time weather data daily for 20 million unique consumers, combining data from neighborhood-located weather sensors and a home’s HVAC usage to build a unique thermodynamic model of each home’s energy usage, Earth Networks Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Ferry emailed us. The cost of heating and cooling can be almost half of an overall household utility bill, and integrating WeatherBug Home with a connected thermostat can provide 16.5 percent savings on home cooling, said Daniel Herscovici, general manager-Xfinity Home. Comcast also announced new devices for the Works with Xfinity Home certification program including with a thermostat from Google's Nest.
FCC rules on accessibility of user interfaces appeared in Thursday’s Federal Register, and many of the rules take effect March 7. The rules, approved in November, govern the use of voice or gesture commands to access closed captions and how companies notify customers of accessibility options (see 1511230043). With the publication, the FCC said Friday, comments on an accompanying Further NPRM are due Feb. 24 in docket 12-108, replies March 7.
Demonstrations of proposed downloadable security technology done by Google and Hauppauge for FCC staff in December were the same as those done for congressional staff in January, Hauppauge said in an ex parte filing posted online in docket 15-64 Thursday. The technology is also the same as described in ex parte filings from Public Knowledge in October, Hauppauge said. The technology involved and proposed in the Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee report is "well known" to both multichannel video programming distributors and consumer industries, the filing said.
CTA backed an FCC waiver for e-readers to follow advanced communications services accessibility rules (see 1602020058), a spokeswoman for the group told us Wednesday. "We appreciate the FCC’s thoughtful decision-making in granting an indefinite waiver," Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney said. The group's members include Amazon and Sony, which along with Kobo have made up the Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers, according to CTA's website. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau order, released earlier this week, said the coalition requested the waiver.
Ion Media Networks wants its earth station licenses transferred to newly created sister company Ion Media Stations, the first company said in an FCC International Bureau filing Friday. The creation of Ion Stations and the license transfers are part of a pro forma reorganization "for corporate and tax efficiency and simplification purposes," Ion said. Ion Networks and Ion Stations will have the same officers and operating control, the broadcaster said.
Cox Communications and Nexstar are blaming one another for Nexstar channels being blacked out (see 1601250035) in nine Cox markets Saturday. In a news release Saturday, Nexstar said the blackout "is highly unusual for Nexstar but more common for Cox [which] is routinely involved in disputes with content providers and since 2012 has dropped network and local community programming from five other station owners as a result of its refusal to agree to fair and reasonable market terms to carry some of the most highly rated programming on television." In its own news release, Cox said, "Nexstar ... decided to remove their channels from the Cox line up ... in an effort to boost their bottom line" from higher retransmission fees. "Nexstar has not changed their offer in 2 weeks and is still demanding three times more for its free over-the-air stations for Cox customers," that cable operator said, saying Nexstar's $4.6 billion takeover of Media General "[raises] the specter that they are using retransmission fees to fund these deals." Cox is opposing Nexstar/Media General (see 1601280070).
Hollywall Entertainment bought online video distributor OpenVision Networks, it said in a news release Thursday. Financial terms of the cash and stock acquisition weren't disclosed. Hollywall said OpenVision will operate as HollyVision, with founders Sherman Davis and Leroy Gordon managing it and reporting to Hollywall CEO Darnell Sutton. By acquiring OpenVision, “Hollywall will now offer news and entertainment seekers a one-stop venue with the greatest ease of access to a world of outstanding content, either free or at competitive rates, from television, movies, radio and video games," Sutton said in the release. As "the first virtual, mainstream international cable network," HollyVision will provide 24-hour free basic service available online, while its Key Lime Pie set-top box will allow for viewing of its content on TVs, the release said.
The FCC should reject changes to set-top box rules being proposed (see 1601280064) by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in an upcoming NPRM, CALinnovates said in a news release Friday. "This proposal is wrong for consumers, wrong for creators and wrong for the innovation economy," said Mike Montgomery, CALinnovates executive director. The commission should pursue the apps-based approach favored by pay-TV carriers, CALinnovates said.