The status quo of network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules has much going for it, including the efficacy of the enforcement mechanisms, while repealing them would lead to challenges in enforcing private contractual rights, given the lack of a direct copyright claim that comes with the compulsory license, Disney said in an FCC ex parte notice posted Friday in docket 10-71. It recapped meetings between executives -- including Ben Pyne, president-global distribution, Disney Media Networks, and Rebecca Campbell, president-ABC Owned TV Stations -- with Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, and Media Bureau staff. The Disney and ABC representatives also pushed for a long transition period due to the length of current contracts that incorporate FCC rules, and pushed for the agency to clarify the effect and legality of existing contractual provisions between broadcast networks and affiliates.

By relocating broadcasters into the duplex gap, the FCC is creating a situation where “serious problems are probable, not remote,” wireless mic company CP Communications said in comments posted Monday in docket 12-268 in response to the NAB’s petition for reconsideration of auction procedures (see 1509110050). Relocating TV stations in the duplex gap is inconsistent with prior FCC decisions and will leave the “key markets” where spectrum is most in demand without enough for wireless mics, the company said. There is only a finite amount of spectrum, CP said. “You cannot do something with nothing,” CP said. “You have to dance the rumba on a dance floor, not in a shower stall.”

Amazon rolled out streaming media players and tablets for the holidays. The company began taking pre-orders Thursday for the four Fire HD tablets and three Fire TV media streaming players, including Amazon’s first gaming player. The new Amazon Fire TV, 75 percent more powerful than its predecessor, streams 4K Ultra HD movies and is the first media player to include an HEVC encoder, said Amazon. It adds voice control via Amazon’s Alexa, which allows users to find music or TV shows or query for information such as weather and traffic, it said. The player has add-on storage capability up to 128 GB with a microSD card slot. Amazon said it has access to more 4K Ultra HD movies than any other streaming media player, with 4K content from Netflix, Amazon Video and Prime Video. Fire OS 5 will debut in the new tablet lineup, offering a overhauled user interface, “deep integration” with Amazon services and a multitude of upgraded features, said Amazon.

Leverage in retransmission consent negotiations is skewed so heavily in broadcasters' favor that regulatory reform "must occur," BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield wrote investors Thursday. Despite growing numbers of U.S. households, multichannel video programming distribution subscription numbers are shrinking because of bundle prices and cost-motivated cord cutting, Greenfield said. Retrans fees cable MVPDs pay to broadcasters are increasingly being used to start cable networks -- such as Tribune's WGNA -- and pay for national broadcast programming through reverse retrans, "neither of which retrans was ever intended for," Greenfield said. Comparing retrans fees and cable network affiliate fees is "apples and oranges" since MVPDs share advertising revenue with cable networks they carry, while broadcast TV ad revenue isn't shared with MVPDs, he said. Greenfield said that the FCC, as it takes comments in docket 10-71 on retrans negotiation rule changes, "cannot simply look at the cost of each broadcast station, but [has] to think how the retrans negotiating process has impacted cable video pricing in totality." Congress' 1992 passage of the Cable Act, enacting retrans consent instead of must-carry rules, had a local focus, involving stations and local programming, noted the analyst. But market dynamics have changed dramatically since 1992, with multiple MVPDs serving a given market, broadcast groups often having control of multiple big four networks in a single market, and retrans fees funding national programming, Greenfield said.

Videogame software remains free from the advanced communications services (ACS) requirements of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, under a CVAA waiver posted Wednesday by the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and included in Thursday's Daily Digest. The waiver, requested in May by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in docket 10-213, extends a class waiver granted in 2012 that was to expire in October; it now will run through 2016. Section 716 of CVAA requires ACS providers to make their products usable and accessible to people with disabilities. ESA argued in its petition that while videogame software is capable of accessing ACS, it's designed for something else -- game play -- the bureau said in the waiver order. Pointing to materials for such games as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Diablo III, the bureau said these show "that video game software marketing currently emphasizes game playing, not ACS." ESA's waiver request was shorter than the eight-year waiver it sought in 2012 and this time didn't cover game consoles and peripherals. "The increased availability of accessible console and platform-level ACS features is likely to help game developers and publishers address their ACS compliance obligations if such additional time is granted to achieve such compliance," the bureau said in the waiver order.

The FCC ended broadcast exclusivity rules while not touching the cable compulsory copyright license once before, and should do so again, the American Cable Association said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 10-71. Numerous broadcasters have argued the FCC's move to ax the syndicated exclusivity and network nonduplication rules shouldn't and can't be done while the compulsory license remains (see 1509100049). "It is in no way 'unthinkable'" for the FCC to end or modify the exclusivity rules while compulsory license stands, ACA said, pointing to 1980, when the FCC ended the syndicated exclusivity rules. Pointing to a subsequent U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruling, ACA said "the suggestion that the Copyright Act created a mandate for the retention of the program exclusivity rules is groundless." Any pointing to the 1971 Consensus Agreement on cable carriage of broadcast signals is "disingenuous," ACA said, because broadcasters were agitating for years for changes and amendments that resulted in being granted retransmission consent rights in 1992. Getting rid of compulsory license repeal "would subject cable to full copyright liability while simultaneously imposing on the industry existing duplicative copyright surrogates in the form of retransmission consent and broadcast exclusivity. Repeal of the compulsory license also would create a conflict between the Copyright Act and the Communications Act's must carry requirements." Meanwhile, NAB in a separate filing to be posted in 10-71 attacked previous ACA arguments that ending the exclusivity rules needs to be paired with a prohibition on network interference into affiliates' out-of-market retransmission consent negotiations (see 1509140042). "Their proposal would wildly exacerbate the very problem they are purportedly seeking to solve," NAB said, saying the ACA proposal is proof the cable industry's main motivation is to limit broadcasters' ability to negotiate with program suppliers for local market exclusivity, with the end goal being the ability to import broadcast signals from local markets anywhere "with no restriction or recourse." That would "eviscerate localism, substantially depress the market value of syndicated and network programming, and increase consumer confusion and frustration," NAB said. Exclusivity contracts eliminate the free-rider problem of out-of-market TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors taking advantage of local TV station and network investments, NAB said. Any ban on exclusive broadcaster/program supplier contracts interferes with contract rights and "runs contrary to well-established economic thinking on the benefits of exclusive arrangements," it said. "Rather than impose intrusive, legally-questionable and economically inefficient limitations on the ability of broadcasters and program suppliers to contract for exclusive distribution of content, the Commission should simply keep the existing rules in place," NAB said. "They impose no costs on consumers or the Commission."

Great Courses is launching a video streaming service, The Great Courses Plus, featuring videos of professors lecturing on nearly 5,000 subjects, the company said Wednesday. Commercial launch is expected to come this fall, with the company -- which specializes in lifelong learning content across multiple platforms -- also planning to make apps available for Amazon, Apple, Google and Roku products by then, it said. Subscribers will have unlimited access to the online video distributor's content for a monthly fee of $29.99-$49.99, it said.

Don't eliminate exclusivity rules as long as cable operators still retain their compulsory license rights, or else operators will be more easily able to import distant signals, hurting TV station revenue, NAB said Tuesday, pointing to a GAO report in a filing in docket 10-71. The report, released in April, looked at the possible effects of eliminating broadcast exclusivity rules, with one of its conclusions being that broadcasters would likely see lower retransmission consent fees, which in turn "could reduce stations’ investments in content, including local news and community-oriented content; the fees households pay for cable television service may also be affected" (see 1504140041). NAB, which has been fighting FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal to eliminate the syndicated exclusivity and network non-duplication rules (see 1509080045), quoted liberally from the GAO report in its filing and attached the 33-page document, saying it agreed with the GAO that removing the exclusivity rules could lead to lower quality and lower quantity local content. GAO is studying what the effects would be if Congress phased out current licensing requirements, NAB said. Given all these circumstances, NAB said, the FCC "should not attempt harmful piecemeal alterations to the broad legal and regulatory framework governing the television programming marketplace."

Stations and their networks "undoubtedly" will use affiliation agreements to ensure stations' exclusivity rights are protected the same way they are now under exclusivity rules, minus some prohibition on network interference into affiliates' out-of-market retransmission consent negotiations, the American Cable Association said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 10-71. It said ACA officials told FCC representatives the group worries that eliminating exclusivity rules (see 1509040016) will lead to networks significantly broadening affiliates' zones of exclusivity, eliminating access to out-of-market stations -- even significantly viewed stations and stations serving "orphan counties." Some networks already have a general policy against permitting affiliates offering out-of-market carriage, and if the FCC eliminates the exclusivity rules, "this trend, if left unchecked, will spread farther," ACA said. That can be stopped through either a new per se violation of good-faith negotiations or by making clear that existing per se violations extend to that type of network interference, ACA said. "While the commission may wish to end the use of its processes to enforce privately negotiated exclusivity rights, it should preserve to the greatest extent possible the ability of willing broadcasters to negotiate with MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors] for distant signals that best satisfy customer needs by preventing network interference with long-standing arrangements between MVPDs and out-of-market stations." Ross Lieberman, ACA senior vice president-government affairs, met with staff of Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. In a separate ex parte filing posted Monday in 10-71, CenturyLink said it supported axing the network non-dupe and syndex rules, saying they "serve only to give local broadcasters a monopoly on national syndicated and network programming." Barring that, CenturyLink said, the exclusivity rules agreements on network programming should be suspended in retrans negotiation impasses. "No public interest is served by depriving consumers of network programming solely because a local broadcaster demands supra-competitive retransmission fees," the telco said Senior Vice President-Federal Policy and Regulatory affairs Melissa Newman told Clyburn and Rosenworcel representatives and staffers of Commissioners Ajit Pai, Michael O'Rielly and Chairman Tom Wheeler in meetings.

The FCC should allow broadcasters a year to implement three proposed new emergency alert system (EAS) event codes, along with an interim phase-in period and a waiver process for broadcasters with legacy equipment, NAB said in comments filed in docket 15-94. The proposed codes “Extreme Wind Warning” (EWW), “Storm Surge Watch” (SSA) and “Storm Surge Warning” (SSW) are intended give public safety officials more specific alerts. NAB supports the new codes but said implementation will mean additional costs for some broadcasters and challenges for makers of EAS equipment. “Since it appears that some EAS equipment will require more attention than a simple, free software upgrade, NAB submits that a realistic waiver process is warranted for those broadcasters with legacy or other equipment that cannot be easily updated for the new event codes,” said the association. A “reasonable process” would allow six-month waivers for those that need them, with “one or more renewals to be considered on a case by case basis,” NAB said. AT&T also supports the new codes, and seconded NAB’s support of the yearlong implementation period. For AT&T’s U-verse network, ”one year is necessary to engage in the requisite end-to-end testing and iterative work with its EAS equipment manufacturer to ensure the integrity of the modified architecture,” said that pay-TV and telecom provider.