The 30-day clock for appeals of FCC rules intended to soften the burden of the incentive auction on low-power TV stations starts Monday, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition in an emailed newsletter Friday. Director Mike Gravino suggested a court challenge of the rules would be more fruitful than a petition filed with the FCC. “At this point in the process who wants to wait through the lengthy and rigged Petitions for Reconsideration process?” Gravino said. “Nope, the clock is starting to get some MAJOR fixes to our post-auction realities.” The FCC didn't comment.

Amazon shares closed 7.6 percent lower Friday at $587 on what analysts largely viewed as disappointing Q4 results. Revenue rose about 22 percent to $35.7 billion from the year-ago quarter, while profit more than doubled to $482 million. Wedbush's Michael Pachter said a higher concentration of third-party goods sold via Amazon’s fulfillment services (FBA) will lead to higher Prime membership engagement and higher services revenue. Amazon said worldwide paid Prime memberships grew 51 percent in Q4. Credit Suisse's Stephen Ju said stronger media revenue was offset by "elevated shipping losses" from “rapid” FBA adoption. Amazon highlighted milestones of its Fire device lineup: Fire TV is the top-selling streaming media player in the U.S., having added more than 1,000 new apps, channels and games since September, including NBC, NBC Sports and Watch HGTV. The company said its Alexa voice platform is growing, and it added news sources from Bloomberg and CNN. Amazon Web Services announced general availability of AWS IoT.

Increasing competition in set-top boxes and reducing barriers experienced by programmers are a "unifying theme" of the Feb. 18 FCC meeting, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post Thursday. The commission will consider an NPRM on set-top rules (see 1601280064) and a notice of inquiry (see 1601280069) on program carriage, Wheeler said. “The video marketplace is changing, including the rise of new ways for consumers to access programming.”

Chipset makers and content providers are among those that will be a key part of high dynamic range (HDR) becoming a broadly accepted feature among consumers, said Dolby CEO Kevin Yeaman on a fiscal Q1 earnings call (its replay can be heard here). Speaking after regular U.S. markets closed Wednesday, he cited the importance of meeting the needs of the content creation, distribution and TV manufacturing communities -- along with the consumer. He said MGM, Sony, Universal and Warner will deliver Dolby Vision HDR content for home distribution, Netflix is creating original content in Dolby Vision that will be available to 75 million subscribers globally, and Vudu is streaming content with Dolby Vision. Gaming and virtual reality are opportunities for Dolby Atmos, its audio technology, said Yeaman, and Sony and Warner have announced software support for Blu-ray titles with Atmos. Vudu is streaming in Atmos and Comcast’s X1 service will support Atmos later this year, he said. Shares closed up 12.5 percent Thursday at $35.71.

The public should "voice its opposition" to Nexstar's buying Media General for about $4.6 billion (see 1601270040), Cox Communications said in a news release Thursday. "Nexstar should not be allowed to become a larger company, which would force more cable TV/satellite companies and ultimately consumers to pay higher fees for retransmission consent." Nexstar is "demanding" that Cox pay triple the previous retrans price or Nexstar will remove its signal Friday, Cox said. Nexstar has expressed concern its deal could be held up by the impending incentive auction. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday after the agency's meeting that the question is likely academic because he expects the transaction approval process likely will take longer than the auction. He declined to give an exact estimate of the auction's length. Cox's "misguided plea to consumers" highlights "irrational thinking," Nexstar said in a released response Thursday. The expiring agreement between Nexstar and Cox dates from 2010, and Nexstar is seeking "slightly more than double" rather than triple the older rate, Nexstar said. If Cox has to raise rates to its viewers, it's because Cox has misallocated its programming fee payments, Nexstar said.

Monday's deadline for webcasters to pay SoundExchange a $500 fee per channel is approaching fast, even though the Copyright Royalty Board hasn't released its latest ruling on webcasting, said Fletcher Heald copyright attorney Kevin Goldberg in a blog post Monday. The obligation, called an annual minimum fee statement of account form, applies to commercial and noncommercial broadcasters, Goldberg said. "Webcasters must again attend to annual SoundExchange homework."

Cox Communications subscribers in nine markets are facing a blackout of local and network programming this week as retransmission consent negotiations between Cox and Nexstar have been unsuccessful, Nexstar said in a news release Monday. The blackout is scheduled to start just before midnight Friday, and follows five months of negotiations between the two, Nexstar said. It said it "regrets that Cox Communications is willing to hold its paying subscribers hostage because it won’t agree to fair and reasonable terms for viewers’ favorite network, local news and community-focused programming, as well as other critical information and emergency service updates we provide that is relevant to local community viewers." In a statement, Cox said it's "committed to keeping our customers connected to what they care about most and ensuring they receive the most value from any of our services. Nexstar is threatening to withhold its signals unless Cox agrees to pay three times the current rate and we don’t think that’s reasonable. This is the second time this month that stations owned or managed by Nexstar have targeted Cox customers for increased retransmission fees. In fact, Nexstar is now asking for even more than the agreement we just reached with them for stations they manage." Nexstar said the potentially affected markets are Panama City, Florida; Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana; Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas; Joplin, Missouri/Pittsburg, Kansas; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia; and Springfield, Missouri.

The Copyright Office has received 12 notices of intent from U.S. sports leagues to audit 2012 and 2013 statements of account on statutory license royalties paid out by cable operators and satellite carriers in California, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and New York, it said Monday. The notices were jointly filed by the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, the NBA, the NCAA, the NFL, the NHL and the Women's NBA, the CO said in the Federal Register on Monday. The notices include statements filed by AT&T, Bright House, Cablevision, CC Michigan, Cequel Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, MCC Missouri, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.

One of the first in a line of about a dozen complaints filed since mid-November alleging Vizio’s smart TV viewer-tracking feature violates the Video Privacy Protection Act (see 1512060005) is headed for private mediation, court documents show. In a complaint (No. 3:15-cv-05217-LB) filed Nov. 13 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that like all the others seeks class-action status, Los Angeles-area resident Palma Reed alleged the “smart interactivity” feature on Vizio smart TVs tracks the content viewers are consuming, links it with their IP addresses and sells that information to marketing companies and advertisers without anyone’s knowledge or consent. Reed and Vizio agreed to submit the case to a private mediator who is “to be determined,” but is “acceptable to all parties,” said a stipulation and proposed order signed Thursday by attorneys for both sides. They agreed to schedule the mediation session before the court holds a hearing “on any motion for class certification,” the document said. Vizio has sought to consolidate the various complaints, but hasn't yet mounted a defense in any of the cases.

PMCM wants the full FCC to rule on three must-carry complaints it filed against Time Warner Cable, Service Electric Cable TV and RCN Telecom Services over carriage of its station WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey. The complaints are the latest salvo in PMCM’s battle to broadcast its station on virtual channel 3.10, though Channel 3 is already assigned to another TV station. The Media Bureau assigned WJLP to virtual channel 33, and PMCM’s applications for review of this decision haven't been successful, which it says is why it’s time for the full commission to weigh in. The complaints say none of the three cable companies is carrying WJLP on Channel 3. There's “an urgent need” for the full commission to “untangle this situation quickly since the current situation seems to be spawning an ever-widening circle of unanticipated consequences,” PMCM said in all three complaint filings.