Amazon reached agreement with the National Association for the Deaf to caption 100 percent of its Prime online video content, and by the end of 2016 to put captions on 100 percent of online video content viewed more than 10 times within the previous 90 days, NAD said in a news release. The agreement includes adding captions to titles that don’t already have them, NAD said. Amazon already has captions on “the vast majority” of titles and the agreement will result in “more than 190,000 titles made available with closed captions in Amazon’s catalog,” NAD said. The deal is “an enormous step in making online entertainment accessible to the 48 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States alone,” NAD CEO Howard Rosenblum said in the release. “We have already undertaken, at our own expense, to provide captions on titles that content providers have not provided,” Amazon Video Vice President Jim Freeman said. “As a result, all content available through Prime Video has been captioned since the beginning of this year.” Amazon has been criticized before by NAD and others for not captioning all content, violating what the groups said were FCC rules (see report in the March 11, 2013, issue).

The Kaleidescape third-generation Music Store will begin selling 4K Ultra HD movie titles “in the second half of Q4” for $30 a pop to go along with the company’s inaugural 4K Ultra HD Strato Movie Player, the company announced at a Thursday news conference at the CEDIA trade show in Dallas. Sony Pictures provides the bulk of the initial movie titles, Kaleidescape CEO Cheena Srinivasan told us. Some 200 TV episodes will be available in 4K next month, he said. Kaleidescape is working with other movie studios and 4K content providers, he said. On what’s standing in the way of offering other movie content at launch, Srinivasan said it was a “process” involving “working closely” with movie studios. “Studios are very cautious about who they license 4K content to,” Srinivasan said. “The problem with streaming 4K is that you don’t have any control over the actual bit rate and the quality that is delivered to the end consumer.” He noted that TVs that display bit rates while playing streamed content typically show variable bit rates during streaming, which can jump around from 480p to 720p, depending on available bandwidth. “Sometimes you will get to 2160p but it will throttle back,” he said. “Even though they say it is 4K, to keep consumers engaged and not interrupt their viewing experience, [streaming services] throttle the bit rate so the quality is actually not 4K.” He suggested Kaleidescape customers get a business Internet line from their ISP, and he also advised downloading movies “when everybody else is asleep.”

Contracts and litigation are an inadequate enforcement substitute for tackling program exclusivity matters that the current exclusivity rules "manage so elegantly," an army of state broadcaster associations said in an FCC ex parte letter posted Wednesday in docket 10-71. The groups representing all 50 states argued against FCC plans to eliminate the network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules, as well as a Sept. 22 blog post by Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake arguing for dismantling the exclusivity rules (see 1509220024). Relying on contracts "is not just ... more costly, less efficient and more time-consuming -- it is all of those things -- but ... enforcing a station's program exclusivity against cable signal importation is simply not possible" as TV stations have no legal remedies against their networks, distant stations being imported in, or cable systems doing the importing, and distant stations have no power to stop retransmission of their signals once signing a retrans agreement, the broadcaster associations said. Even if contracts could work as an alternative, the exclusivity rules should be kept or else the door is opened to "conflicted rulings and extended appeals [and] rulings from different courts based on different contract clauses [that] would provide little useful precedent, resulting in yet more litigation, forum shopping and uncertainty," the broadcast groups said. Local broadcasters also don't have any third-party standing to use against importation of a distant signal unless network affiliation contracts spell out that other affiliates are intended beneficiaries of the contract, they said. The broadcasters also criticized the argument that TV stations would be unlikely to give retrans rights outside of their designated market areas, as retransmission agreements typically aren't limited by geography, and multichannel video programming distributors "present stations with contracts containing just such language (and more camouflaged versions of it) to see if the broadcaster catches it," the broadcasters said. "It only takes a single station in the entire United States to wipe out the program exclusivity of every other station carrying the same programming in the absence of Exclusivity Rules." Networks can't even play the role of policing affiliates' retransmission agreements, since MVPD confidentiality clauses increasingly list networks as among the parties barred from access to terms of the retransmission consent, they said. In a separate ex parte filing posted Thursday in the docket, National Religious Broadcasters similarly urged the retention of the exclusivity rules. "A move to simply dismantle this one set of rules that provides a needed forum for broadcasters does not appear to lift a burden from the public. Rather, it is more likely to unbalance and further complicate the current framework, leading to uncertainty and additional costs for local stations," the group said.

Facebook is testing new features and experiences to enhance its video services, the company said in a blog post Tuesday. The improvements being tested include an increased flexibility for watching videos, a "suggested videos" feature, a tool to bookmark videos, and a dedicated place on the website and application to watch video exclusively, it said. The company recently launched a service to connect users with verified public figures through live video (see 1508050055).

Dish Network reached a multiyear carriage agreement with Tegna in 38 markets, said both sides in news releases (see here and here) Sunday. The agreement ended a blackout that began Friday, it said. “All TEGNA stations will return to the DISH lineup effective immediately.” Dish said at the start of the blackout that Tegna was seeking “above-market rate increases double the current DISH rate.” Before the blackout ended, Dish said the breakdown in negotiations is an example of why retransmission consent reform is needed. “TEGNA’s decision to cut ties with DISH customers is a prime example of why Washington needs to stand up for consumers and end local channel blackouts,” Dish General Counsel Stanton Dodge said in an earlier release.

The FCC should vacate its order allowing confidential contract information to be shared with third parties during the merger review process, said a petition to deny filed Tuesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the same group of content companies that successfully challenged the rule’s earlier iteration in previous cable mergers, including CBS, the MPAA, Scripps and Univision. The new order “directly contravenes” the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision by requiring a showing of relevance rather than the “necessity” required by the court, the petition said. The FCC also adopted the order without prior notice and comment, violating the Administrative Procedure Act, the petition said.

Gannett will buy Journal Media Group for $280 million, Gannett said in a news release Wednesday night. The new combined company will have a portfolio of 106 local markets and a combined digital audience of more than 100 million unique domestic visitors a month, it said. The deal is expected to add 15 daily newspapers and 18 weeklies in 14 markets in nine states and close to $450 million to Gannett’s annual revenue, it said.

Lionsgate began accepting bitcoins as payment at its LionsgateShop.com online store, the producer of TV shows said in a Tuesday announcement. Lionsgate has partnered with the GoCoin digital payment processing company to accept bitcoins via the site, it said.

Pandora agreed to buy live events technology company Ticketfly, the acquirer said in a news release Wednesday. The acquisition "will solve the longstanding problem of event discovery" by connecting Pandora users to live events, and will "strengthen the bond between artists and their fans," said Pandora. The transaction is valued at about $450 million, with a nearly equal balance of cash and stock, it said.

Eliminating FCC exclusivity rules isn't deregulation, since the programming market without them isn't purely private due to the existence of compulsory licenses, CBS, Disney and NBCUniversal executives told Commissioner Ajit Pai's chief of staff, Matthew Berry, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-71. The "below-market rates set by government" in those licenses also don't deter from the import of distant broadcast signals, and cable distant signal license rates don't cover network programing anyway, the networks said, saying the FCC should leave the network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules alone "until there is a holistic review of the entire statutory and regulatory structure, including the compulsory licenses." The three also argued a rules repeal would mean networks likely terminating affiliation agreements with stations whose signals are being imported into distant markets, and while the network lines up a new affiliation agreement viewers would see big disruptions -- "far greater than a retransmission consent impasse" in the distribution of network programming, including over-the-air transmissions. They disputed the argument that the exclusivity rules are akin to the sports blackout rules (see 1510060055) because the latter is about duplication and access to programming is still available through other means such as over the air.