The UHD Alliance foresees coming out with two logo programs, one for alliance-compatible devices, and a step-up for “premium” devices, alliance President Hanno Basse told us Saturday in Berlin at IFA. The alliance plans to have “a lot of things to share” at January CES, including details on its logo, licensing and compliance programs, said Basse, who's Fox’s corporate chief technology officer. The dual logos will apply only to the hardware, not the content, he said. The testing the alliance has done to help draft its specifications (see 1508310035) involved “several hundred” consumers, mainly in Los Angeles, Basse said. “They had the chance to compare a multitude of different viewing experiences, so to speak.” Philips, backer of one of two optional high-dynamic-range systems in the Ultra HD Blu-ray spec along with Dolby Vision, is among the latest companies to join the alliance, Basse said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau's new system for online complaint submission is unlikely to lead to quicker complaint resolution, said Fletcher Heald's CommLawBlog in a post Tuesday. "Being able to determine that your complaint is somewhere in the process isn’t the same as knowing when your complaint is going to be resolved," said the blog post. "With far fewer boots on the ground ... significantly longer resolution times can be expected," said the post. "Whether the new process will prove to be anything more than a cosmetic step that creates the illusion -- but not the reality -- of actual responsiveness remains to be seen."

Pandora said its 99-cent One Day Pass service will be available in the U.S. beginning Thursday for Android and iOS devices. The a la carte offering gives listeners 24 hours of Pandora One benefits: the ability to build channels around their favorite artists, songs and stations without ads and to skip more songs than the six allowed with the free version of the service. Once a listener buys a Pandora One Day Pass, the listening experience will begin immediately and will continue in a user’s car and connected devices, said the company.

LG Electronics used this week’s IFA in Berlin to demonstrate high-dynamic-range content delivery to its organic light-emitting diode 4K TVs, the company said in a Wednesday announcement. An IFA “highlight” will be the world’s first demonstration with the BBC of HDR content delivery on the HbbTV 2.0 hybrid broadcast and broadband TV platform, streamed to LG OLED sets by the EBU using MPEG DASH technology, which enables HDR content streaming over the Internet to be delivered from conventional HTTP Web servers, LG said. It also will demo transmission of satellite HDR content using the SES Astra network, it said. Visitors to LG’s IFA stand also can experience HDR content delivered via Broadcom’s set-top box over HDMI, it said.

Italy is the most TV-watching of major European nations, though Italians' screen time pales compared with Americans' TV consumption, IHS said Wednesday in a study of European and TV viewing habits. Last year saw British TV viewing roughly three hours a day, down 14 minutes from 2013 and at a record low, while French and German viewers each averaged close to 3.5 hours a day in 2014 -- down about 10 minutes for French viewers and holding steady for Germans, IHS said. Average daily consumption of broadcast TV was up in Italy in 2014, to roughly four hours 20 minutes a day; including online and pay TV, it was at four hours 37 minutes. In Spain, average TV viewing was 242 minutes a day, IHS said. In the U.S., average TV watching was 351 minutes a day. That big difference between American and European consumption habits is due in part to the fact Americans often turn on the TV for background noise, while Europeans use radio, said Dan Cryan, IHS senior director-media and content.

The UHD Alliance (UHDA) said consumer-driven testing will be part of the parameters leading to premium quality specifications for the Ultra HD ecosystem. “Our consumer testing is designed to help us confirm the possible combinations of features that collectively will help usher in a new era of in-home entertainment,” UHDA President Hanno Basse said in a news release. The alliance is also developing certification/compliance and logo programs. Current activities are focused on hardware and packaged and streamed content, and the alliance expects to turn next to specifications and certification/compliance programs for content distributed via broadcast, satellite and cable, UHDA said Monday. “Getting the right combination of resolution, dynamic range, colour and audio across broadcast, streaming and packaged media is essential for a step change in quality experiences,” Simon Gauntlett, chief technology officer of Europe’s Digital Television Group (DTG), said in the news release. “Wide industry collaboration is the only way to achieve this and to ensure that consumers have clear information.” Membership in UHDA has reached about 30 companies since its formation in January and includes Hollywood studios and consumer electronics companies representing the majority of the 4K Ultra HD TV market, developers of enabling technology and content distribution players. “The global Ultra HD ecosystem is poised for strong growth over the next several years,” said Paul Erickson, IHS Technology senior analyst.

The alternative to FCC nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules is “messy court cases,” representatives of Meredith Corp. told Media Bureau staff in a meeting Thursday, according to an ex parte filing posted online Friday in docket 10-71. “Instead of directly regulating the conduct of actors, these regulations let parties negotiate exclusivity and simply provides [sic] an efficient means of enforcement of those free market agreements.” The rules are also connected to the compulsory licenses granted to cable operators, Meredith said. “To remove only one part of a complicated regulatory and statutory scheme undermines the checks and balances that Congress has created.” Exclusivity rules also promote localism, Meredith said.

The FCC should issue a forfeiture against Florida Cable for unauthorized retransmission of three Hearst TV stations, Hearst said in an enforcement complaint posted online Friday. Florida Cable “repeatedly ignored Hearst’s numerous requests” to stop retransmitting WESH Daytona Beach, WKCF Clermont and WMOR-TV Lakeland, the complaint said. The companies had a retransmission consent agreement from January 2012 until December 2014, but Florida Cable defaulted on its monthly fee payments starting July 2014, Hearst said. Since Hearst sent the cable company retransmission consent election notices, Florida Cable isn’t allowed to transmit them as must-carry stations, Hearst said. The stations are still being retransmitted on Florida Cable, and none of Hearst’s overtures yielded a response, the complaint said. Florida Cable didn't comment.

Standard & Poor’s stands ready to upgrade its rating outlook on Netflix if the over-the-top streaming video provider “can continue its good operating momentum," despite expanding its “global footprint,” the credit-rating service said in a Thursday report. “Despite quick successes” with its rollouts in Canada and the Nordic countries, Netflix “has faced challenges with its expansion into other countries and regions,” S&P said. “We generally expect that Netflix will find future market entries more challenging than previous ones because, in addition to facing any regulatory nuances, the company won't be the industry pioneer in those new markets. We also believe that the company will be able to sign more broad-market agreements and, eventually, truly global ones.” Netflix plans to partner with SoftBank for its launch into Japan Sept. 2, it said this week (see 1508240004). Japan for Netflix “will probably be our slowest market to get to a certain penetration threshold, but it may be one of our best markets in the long term because when the Japanese society embraces a brand, it's a very deep connection, very long-term,” CEO Reed Hastings said in July (see 1507160028).

Half of U.S. Internet households own a connected TV device, an NPD Group report said Wednesday. The total number of homes with a device that connects a TV to the Internet -- smart TV, videogame console, streaming media player or Blu-ray player -- was 46 million in Q2, up 4 million from the year-ago quarter. Smart TVs are largely responsible for the growth, with 45 percent of TVs sold in the U.S. in Q2 supporting apps, up from 34 percent in the year-ago quarter and 24 percent in Q2 2013, NPD said. The connect rate is also increasing, NPD said, with 69 percent of all installed Internet-capable TVs connected in Q2, up from 61 percent in 2014 and 45 percent in 2013. The increase is due to skyrocketing sales of smart TVs, improved user interfaces and a surge in premium services and programming, analyst John Buffone said. Netflix remained the most-used video service among homes with connected TVs, followed by YouTube, Amazon Prime/Instant Video, Hulu and HBO Go/Now, NPD said. Due to the Go and Now platforms, HBO became the first TV network to reach the over-the-top top five, replacing Crackle, it said. Buffone referred to a “Golden Age of TV where significant investments are being made in developing original series.” Video and TV networks are benefiting from the large pay-TV subscriber base and the “fast-developing over-the-top audience that uses apps on TV,” he said. Collaboration between TV manufacturers and content providers is essential to keep the connected TV ecosystem growing on the device and content sides, he said. NPD surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. consumers age 18 and older during Q2.