Raycom Media renewed retransmission agreements with 12 cable operators at the end of 2015, it said in a news release Friday. Senior Vice President Pat LaPlatney said, “In our experience, over ninety-eight percent of all retransmission consent negotiations follow this pattern of successful resolution with no interruptions of service for the customer." NAB has said broadcasters executing such deals shows retrans consent negotiations are healthy (see 1602170070) -- a contention hotly contested by cable and allies (see 1601140026).

FCC-proposed rules for invigorating the third-party set-top box market (see 1602180065) would “encourage innovative developers to create products which will lower consumer costs, increase the selection of content available to consumers and allow new applications for TV,” said Hauppage, which was on the agency's Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee and is a member of the Consumer Video Choice Coalition, along with Public Knowledge and TiVo. The NPRM is seen as being largely derived from the CVCC-supported recommendations in the DSTAC report. Hauppauge also helped create demos of the CVCC-backed concept for both Congress and the FCC. The demos showed consumer devices can deliver both live TV content and over-the-top content “without requiring a change to the TV distribution systems of current cable and satellite providers,” Hauppage said. The FCC's proposed rules will give more minority programmers the opportunity to “have their content seen and their voices heard,” said BET founder and RLJ Entertainment Chairman Robert Johnson in an emailed statement. Johnson praised Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for joining Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel “in supporting the universal set-top box proposal.” The FCC inserting itself into the video market is “unlikely to serve consumers or competition,” said USTelecom President Walter McCormick in a statement. “The FCC’s thumb on the scales will inevitably straightjacket innovation and harm competition, neither of which will serve the public interest.”

Producers and distributors of video content have “a shared responsibility to ensure that closed captioning is both available and accurate,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a Friday statement on the closed captioning order approved Thursday (see 1602180047). “This agency has a responsibility to seize on this moment in time which, for the first time in human history, offers us real opportunities to address the communications challenges faced by tens of millions of Americans with disabilities.”

The chief executives of prominent tech companies are well represented on the list of the “top 100 most overpaid CEOs,” as compiled and released in a report Wednesday by the green group As You Sow. “Everyone wants to be properly compensated for the work they do -- it is part of the American dream and bedrock of the capitalist system,” said the report. CEOs “have a difficult job and make decisions daily that could impact millions of lives and should be reasonably rewarded for the productive contributions they make to the economy and society,” it said. “However, as shown in this report, by every pay performance measure, many CEOs are being paid entirely too much and that means the process which determines CEO pay is broken.” In deciding and approving pay packages for top executives, “there is little alignment between pay and performance,” it said. “Overall, these practices promote an unsustainable system.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, with a “total disclosed compensation” package of $84.3 million, places fifth on the list of the top 100, followed in seventh place by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who makes $42.1 million, the report said. Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav tops the overall list with a $156.1 million pay package, the report said. Discovery, Microsoft and Yahoo representatives didn't comment.

Morgan Murphy Media negotiated 35 retransmission consent contracts in 2015 without interruptions and with a small number of extensions, the broadcaster with four TV stations said in a letter NAB released Wednesday. Two negotiations in the year resulted in blackouts -- one with an identified rural cable operator and the other with Dish Network, both of which have since been resolved, Morgan Murphy said. Pointing to that broadcaster, plus numerous other instances of broadcasters completing retrans deals -- typically with no disruptions and those disruptions generally being short lived -- NAB in a statement said retrans talks "are successfully concluded on nearly every occasion with no drama and no disruption of service" and that American TV Alliance assertions of a crisis in retrans matters are "based on pure fiction." ATVA has said the number of TV blackouts is up substantially over the past five years (see 1602120020).

In response to NAB's dismissive comments on "additional station" provisions in retransmission consent talks (see 1602120020), Mediacom quoted such language at length in an FCC filing Tuesday in docket 15-216. According to the filing, such a provision was a point of contention in recent retrans talks between the cable company and an unidentified large broadcast station owner. Mediacom said the provision would require that if that owner buys or obtains authority to negotiate retrans consent on behalf of any station licensed to a designated market area served by the multichannel video programming distributor, "then if Station Owner so elects, this Agreement shall be expanded to include such broadcast television station as a 'Station' for all purposes of this Agreement and any pre-existing retransmission consent agreement of MVPD with respect to such Additional Station shall terminate with respect to the carriage of such Additional Station." Other broadcasters have pushed MVPDs for similar language, said Mediacom, which urged the FCC to include such provisions in its look at the totality of circumstances test (see 1602040041). The quoted provision is a far cry from most-favored nation language, as NAB had claimed, Mediacom said, adding it "also is much different from provisions that, historically, broadcasters have used to bring under their retransmission consent agreements those stations which they do not have de jure control but over which they exercise extensive management authority." The "additional stations" language refers to when a broadcaster's retrans deal with a pay-TV company lets the broadcaster expand the deal to include any stations it acquires during the pendency of the contract. In a statement, NAB said, "Mediacom’s lonewolf conspiracy tale is exactly what one expects from the most shrill voice in pay TV. You can’t put horns on a poodle, call it the devil and expect people to believe you. We’re confident the FCC will see through this transparent ploy.”

Though pregame critics gave LG’s Super Bowl commercial low marks for creativity (see 1602030044), the 60-second spot featuring Liam Neeson as pitchman for LG’s 4K OLED TV technology was a big hit with viewers and helped drive “digital engagement,” LG said Friday. LG cited the results of a survey from ACE Metrix, which measures the impact of video advertising, as ranking the LG spot ninth among the top 10 Super Bowl ads by “likeability,” based on the opinions of 500 consumers. LG also cited a blog post from Denise Chan, content marketing manager at Bitly, which as a gauge of viewer responsiveness measured the volume of clicks on Super Bowl advertisers' home page domains after their commercials ran. Among the 50 brands that Bitly observed, "LG saw the single biggest spike in volume” after its Neeson spot ran during the first commercial break after halftime, Chan said. Though Pepsi, Amazon and NFL.com “outperformed LG in sheer volume, LG had the most effective commercial when it came to converting TV watchers to web visitors,” Chan said. The LG spot also scored high on social media, LG said, citing data from the social media intelligence and measurement firm Infegy, which ranked the LG ad in the top four in its “Super Bowl Ad Social Media Scoreboard.”

Mediacom's worries about "additional stations" provisions in retransmission consent negotiations (see 1602040041) are just the latest in "a long string of similar (and sometimes downright silly) requests to alter the rules governing retransmission consent in their favor," NAB said in an FCC filing Thursday in docket 15-216. The "additional stations" language refers to when a broadcaster's retrans deal with a pay-TV company lets the broadcaster expand the deal to include any stations it acquires during the pendency of the contract. The association said the provision is akin to a most-favored nation clause, so Mediacom's complaint "is rich, given that [multichannel video programming distributors] pioneered the use of MFNs in retransmission consent agreements, squeezing dollar after dollar out of smaller broadcasters along the way." NAB said Mediacom offered no evidence such provisions are prevalent and said the cable company is likely mischaracterizing broadcaster proposals intended to cover joint sales agreements. In an email Friday, Mediacom Senior Vice President-Government and Public Relations Thomas Larsen told us he anticipated responding in coming days with a letter showing actual "additional station" language the company has seen in retrans contracts. NAB also echoed what has been a repeat talking point of broadcasters, that the FCC totality of circumstances test review is off base (see 1602080063): "The longer the Commission holds up the flypaper of retransmission consent reform, the more flies it will attract. It's time to close this proceeding, zap the flies and allow the parties to focus on negotiating with each other rather than the FCC." CBS CEO Les Moonves lobbied against addressing the totality of circumstances test in a meeting earlier this month with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1602110062). In a statement Friday, the American TV Alliance said it was "no wonder Moonves is trying to create a distraction after one of his affiliates just threatened to black out the Super Bowl. It's apparent that broadcasters see the writing on the wall as their years of bilking consumers for more cash are finally coming to an end." ATVA also said the number of TV blackouts hit 193 last year, up substantially over the past five years and affecting 12 million Americans.

Charter Communications and Comcast should halt ads targeting DirecTV's general service reliability during precipitation, but evidence supports claims in another Comcast ad, said the National Advertising Division (NAD), the investigative unit of the ad industry’s self-regulation system. Charter should stop running one broadcast commercial and certain ad claims in two other broadcast spots that "convey the message” that DirecTV’s satellite service “doesn’t work when precipitation is present,” said a Thursday release from the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC). It said DirecTV challenged certain Charter claims, including: “One out of four satellite customers claim they have reception outages in bad weather” and “It’s barely raining. And they call this reliable.” After reviewing a “Barely Raining” commercial, NAD concluded Charter didn’t provide a reasonable basis for its claims that DirecTV’s service problems were “an ordinary consumer experience.” The NAD release noted, “Charter in its advertiser’s statement, said it ‘accepts NAD’s recommendations with respect to the three challenged commercials and appreciates NAD’s recognition that rain fade is a unique issue for satellite television service that cable television does not experience.’” The NAD also recommended Comcast discontinue an Xfinity "rain or shine" broadcast spot that the group determined conveyed the message DirecTV's satellite service "doesn't function during wet weather," another ASRC release said. But the NAD found a Comcast "Farmer's" commercial conveyed a narrower message that satellite-TV service "may be susceptible to service interruptions during some types of severe weather," which was "supported by the evidence in the record." The NAD also said Comcast should discontinue or modify several other claims about its Xfinity cable-TV service. "Although Comcast took issue with certain of NAD's findings, it did agree in its advertiser's statement 'to comply with NAD's recommendations,'" the release said. The NAD is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

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.