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.

Ericsson plans to acquire entertainment metadata and content supplier FYI Television, Ericsson said in a news release Monday. The deal is meant to boost Ericsson's content discovery capabilities and is expected to close in Q1, said the release.

The FCC should exempt the very smallest radio stations from online public file requirements, NAB said in a Jan. 13 meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, according to an ex parte filing in docket in 14-127. The new requirement should be limited to stations with five or more employees, NAB said. The broadcast association also asked the agency to change the threshold for phasing in the new requirement. NAB proposes that “the initial online filers be commercial radio stations within the Top 50 radio markets that have 11 or more employees,” it said. The FCC previously applied that standard “in exempting certain stations from certain Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) program requirements,” NAB said.

Shifting the responsibility for caption quality from video programming distributors to a combination of VPDs and programmers will be more effective if VPDs' pass-through of captions and customer service are held to high standards, said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in an ex parte filing posted online in FCC docket 05-231 Thursday. Programmers should be required to certify they're complying with caption rules, and VPDs should be required to verify that programmers are certified, TDI said. “Because consumers have a direct relationship with VPDs and will continue to rely on them to solve many captioning problems regardless of where the ultimate responsibility falls, the Commission should ensure that VPDs remain fully engaged with the provision and quality of the captions they deliver.”

A three-day blackout of Cordillera Communications-owned stations on Dish Network ended Sunday as the sides signed a new multiyear carriage agreement, they said in news releases Sunday. Terms weren't disclosed, though each side had complained the other wasn't seeking fair, market-based rates (see 1601070057). The blackout involved 11 channels in eight states.

Ultra HD Blu-ray content is coming, and it may be more plentiful than 3D was at first, Samsung executive Dan Schinasi, the Blu-ray Disc Association’s U.S. spokesman, told us at CES last week in Las Vegas. “Here’s the box, we’re taking orders, and there will be content,” said Schinasi, Samsung Electronics America senior manager-TV product planning. That the major studios collectively have pledged publicly to supply 100 Ultra HD Blu-ray titles in time for the holiday selling season is “not a bad start,” he said: “Studios are coming together, there’s certification.” Schinasi thinks it’s unlikely industry will see a repeat of the exclusive bundling that gave consumers access to compelling Blu-ray 3D titles only if they bought specific models of 3D TVs. For 3D, he said, "The studio wasn’t going to foot the bill by themselves, and we had to sponsor a large chunk of that.” It’s "a different world” for Ultra HD Blu-ray versus 3D Blu-ray, Schinasi said: “There’s not going to be these bundled titles. There’s going to be a lot more content to choose from. We’re in a different time and place.”

The HomeGrid Forum used CES to promote powerline technology as a “robust networking backbone” for the connected home. G.hn offers a single, widely supported standard for connected networked devices over existing wired infrastructure including powerline, coax and phone line, it said. The expansion of Ultra HD TV content and multiple screens in the average household has created the need for a “high throughput home networking backbone," the forum said. Arris, Brightech, Comtrend, Sigma Designs and Wondertek showed G.hn-based devices.