Centralizing the various privacy complaints against Vizio in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California (see 1602260059), “will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation,” the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said in an April 7 transfer order (in Pacer). Nearly two dozen complaints have been filed against Vizio, all seeking class-action status on allegations that Vizio’s Inscape smart TV viewer-tracking feature violates the federal Video Privacy Protection Act. The judicial panel was “persuaded” that the Santa Ana federal court “is the appropriate transferee district for this litigation” because Vizio and most of the plaintiffs support moving the cases there, the order said. Vizio’s headquarters in Irvine, California, also are within the court’s jurisdiction, it said: “Thus, the district is a convenient and accessible forum, relatively close to potential witnesses and evidence.”

Harman partnered with software and cloud-based streaming technology company Wowza Media Systems to be an integrator for Wowza’s technology portfolio, it said Thursday. Customers in broadcast, automotive, government and enterprise markets will have access to Wowza’s Streaming Engine software that delivers video in any format to any device and its Streaming Cloud service for pay-as-you-go live streaming through Harman’s service delivery solution, the companies said.

Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus signed on to a Human Rights Campaign open letter to Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson in opposition to Senate Joint Resolution 39, which would prohibit the state from penalizing individuals or religious entities that refuse to take part in same-sex marriage ceremonies or provide goods or services for a same-sex marriage celebration, due to religious beliefs. In a blog post Wednesday, Marcus said, "Legislation like Missouri’s SJR39 and North Carolina’s HB2 are clearly bad for business, serving as a barrier to attracting and retaining the best talent and discouraging customers and potential customers from living and doing business in our markets. But equally importantly, this troubling trend of laws runs counter to our core values of diversity and inclusion." Also among those signing the letter were Brocade Communications Systems CEO Lloyd Carney, Bloomberg Chairman Peter Grauer and CTA CEO Gary Shapiro. Many other tech company leaders also signed the letter, and such companies have opposed actions in other states, saying they infringe on the rights of those who aren't heterosexual (see 1603240022).

CBS Sports Digital fixed a vulnerability related to Android and iOS versions of its app that transferred users' names, email addresses, account passwords, birth dates and ZIP codes over an insecure connection, after a mobile security firm discovered the problem, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. She said a vulnerability on the CBS Sports mobile website that transmitted users' email/user ID and passwords in clear text rather than being encrypted also was fixed. "There was no data breach on either the CBS Sports app or mobile site," the company emailed. "Our internal teams are rigorous about monitoring our platforms for any potential security issues. We take issue with outside companies publicizing the security operations of other firms for their own purposes rather than user protection." Mobile security company Wandera said in a threat advisory that it had discovered the vulnerabilities, which potentially exposed personally identifiable information when users signed up for an account. It said the CBS Sports app is one of the most popular sources for sports news. "Our researchers have identified that a significant amount of personal data is collected during the account registration process, and all these details are sent in clear text over an unencrypted connection to the app's backend services," the advisory said. Neither company said when the vulnerabilities were discovered or fixed.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will open Monday's Media Bureau workshop on obstacles facing diverse and independent programmers in the video market (see 1603250031), starting at 10 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room, the agency said in a public notice Tuesday. Other scheduled speakers are Shentel Vice President-Industry Relations and Regulatory Chris Kyle, Atlantic Broadband Vice President-Programming Heather McCallion, National Cable Television Cooperative Executive Vice President-Programming Judy Meyka, Volcano Vision Director-Sales and Marketing Duke Milunovich, Nex-Tech CEO Jimmy Todd, Blqbox Digital CEO Eric Easter, Ride TV CEO Michael Fletcher, GFN-TV CEO Clifford Franklin, RFD-TV President Patrick Gottsch, Africa Channel Creative Director Brian Newton and Cinemoi President Daphna Ziman. A similar workshop was held in March on the state of the video market (see 1603210044).

Ultra HD Blu-ray players can now qualify to bear the UHD Alliance's Ultra HD Premium logo under an expanded certification program announced Tuesday. The Ultra HD Premium logo, unveiled at CES (see 1601030003), is designed to help consumers identify TVs, content, content services and playback devices that comply with performance metrics for resolution, high dynamic range, peak luminance, black levels and wide color gamut, said UHDA. Thirty TVs have been certified with the Ultra HD Premium logo, with more expected throughout the year, it said. UHDA President Hanno Basse called certification of Ultra HD Blu-ray players a “natural first expansion” of the Ultra HD Premium logo since the Ultra HD Blu-ray format was built “with premium performance in mind,” and a growing number of Ultra HD Blu-ray titles are being released with the Ultra HD Premium logo.

Any enforcement mechanisms the FCC adopts in its set-top box proceeding “would not adequately assure adherence to the terms governing the distribution of content" to multichannel video programming distributors, Disney officials told Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a meeting Wednesday, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 97-80. The FCC couldn't enforce its rules because Disney wouldn't have contracts with the third-party set-top makers, the company said.

The hundreds of broadcast station retransmission consent negotiations that happen yearly without any blackout of service to multichannel video programming distributor subscribers are proof the retrans market doesn't need changes in the totality of circumstances test for good-faith negotiations, the NBC TV Affiliates Association told FCC staff, said an ex parte filing Monday in docket 15-216. The few blackouts that occur involve a handful of national satellite and cable companies, the affiliates said, and the retrans consent proceeding "only serves to encourage these and other MVPDs" to try to use such blackouts to gain regulatory advantage. The affiliates also repeated their case the FCC doesn't have statutory authority to require interim carriage during retrans disputes (see 1601150015). They also said any FCC change of retrans rules that handicaps the negotiating power of stations would only accelerate the trend of top-rated sports and entertainment programming to jump ship from over-the-air broadcast stations to subscription-based pay-TV providers. And the affiliates said MVPD complaints about retrans fee increases are "repetitive whining," especially since monthly subscription fees for different pay-TV services "clearly dwarf the most aggressive broadcast retransmission consent fees paid by MVPDs for significantly more popular local broadcast stations." The ex parte filing recapped a meeting between affiliates representatives including Chairman Ralph Oakley and such FCC staff as Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake.

Gray Television -- which is angling for its KVLY-TV Fargo to get Channel 4 carriage on Cable One in that North Dakota market -- is trying to squash competition from Parker Broadcasting of Dakota License by opposing Parker's must-carry complaint trying to get KRDK-TV Valley City on Channel 4 (see 1603040033), Parker said Thursday in FCC docket 16-69 in a response to Gray's opposition to the complaint (see 1603230024). Parker said Gray claims its understanding was that KRDK -- which it once owned -- wouldn't seek Channel 4 carriage after that sale, but "this was never the understanding of Parker's current owner, nor was any such agreement ever a part of the purchase documents." As "a large, sophisticated broadcaster, one would have expected that if channel positioning were so critical to Gray, it would have incorporated this provision into the purchase documents," Parker said. The broadcaster also said Gray's argument that the Parker complaint is time-barred because it was filed more than 60 days after Cable One denied carriage is off-base because Cable One didn't deny carriage until Feb. 11. Parker bought the station from Gray in 2014 in a deal brokered by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (now known as the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council) and lauded by the FCC for increasing programming and ownership diversity (see 1408280050). Gray didn't comment Friday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should rule that streaming video service FilmOn X is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act, said amicus briefs from the Consumer Federation of America, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind and Public Knowledge. Section 111 of the Copyright Act, which governs such licenses, was intended by Congress to be technology neutral, Public Knowledge and the EFF said in a joint filing. Without a compulsory license and the accompanying right to retransmit broadcast content, a streaming service like FilmOn X can't be financially viable, the NFB said. If an FCC proposal to reclassify services like FilmOn X as multichannel video programming distributors comes to fruition, the new over-the-top MVPDs would have to comply with FCC rules requiring video description of their content, which would in turn be a great expansion of the online video that's accessible to the blind, NFB said. The 9th Circuit should find that FilmOn X is entitled to a statutory license because it would expand choice for all consumers, CFA said. Cable is now an incumbent in the video industry, and without the content granted by a compulsory license OTT carriers cannot compete, CFA said.