Licensing of specs has been launched, albeit two months late, on the Vidity platform for the delivery and "locally stored playback" of Ultra HD, HD and standard-def movies across multiple devices, the Secure Content Storage Association said Wednesday. Licensing of the specs was to have begun in June for the commercialization of compliant devices and content that will bear the Vidity logo, SCSA said in late May (see 1505200049). Unlike other services, Vidity doesn’t require users to log into accounts or connect to the Internet for playback, SCSA said. “Compliant products will offer consumers the freedom and flexibility to store, copy, play and share downloaded digital files on a wide range of devices, such as laptop computers, mobile phones and tablets.” Vidity “delivers the highest quality digital entertainment experience in the marketplace today” through its Ultra HD and high dynamic range support, SCSA said, though backers of Ultra HD Blu-ray would argue that Ultra HD Blu-ray may give SCSA's claim a run for its money when it’s introduced later this year. Fox Home Entertainment, SanDisk, Warner Home Entertainment and Western Digital are founding members of SCSA, whose website now lists 40 contributing members.

The network nonduplication status quo is the best enforcement means for exclusive arrangements, "avoiding the cost, time, inconvenience and uncertainty of the courts," Sinclair said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-71. It said if the FCC were to eliminate the nondupe rule (see 1508120051), "a fully integrated private contract regime" could fill its role, but that would take years to set up and any elimination of the no-dupe rule "should allow for that evolution period," Sinclair General Counsel Barry Faber and Senior Vice President-Strategy and Policy Rebecca Hanson told Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and, separately, Maria Kirby, media adviser to Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Adding a "bad actor factor" -- aimed at pay TV deliberately creating retransmission consent conflicts -- to the FCC's evaluation of totality of circumstances assessments of good-faith negotiations might keep some multichannel video programming distributors from ginning up disputes "merely to gain an advocacy foothold at the commission or in Congress," NAB said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-71. According to the filing, NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan, in a phone call with Commissioner Ajit Pai's aide Alison Nemeth, said what NAB predicted would happen -- a rise in retrans consent disputes as the FCC considers new rules on good-faith negotiations (see 1507140021) -- is in fact coming to pass. "Since we filed that warning, there have been several impasses or near impasses involving the usual cast of characters -- most notably Dish, DirecTV and Mediacom," NAB said, singling out Mediacom as "the pay TV poster child for self-serving behavior" for among other things its petition before on rules restricting broadcaster blackouts (see 1507070061). In a response to be filed in 10-71, Thomas Larsen, Mediacom senior vice president-government and public relations, took umbrage at calling the petition "widely ridiculed." "We would be interested in seeing support for your claim ... where our petition has been ridiculed by commentators outside a handful of broadcast industry representatives," Larsen said, adding the only publicly filed opposition "came from our organization and five broadcast station owners collectively responsible for over 170 blackouts."

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Public Safety bureaus' joint workshop Aug. 27 on promoting wider accessibility and increased use of the emergency alert system (EAS) (see 1508040030) will have three sessions, hear from Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson, and include state and local officials, the FCC said in a public notice. The workshop will include a panel on ways to improve alert accessibility, such as synchronizing EAS audio and visual crawls, with Christian Vogler, director of Gallaudet University's Technology Access Program; Lillian McDonald, managing director of Twin Cities Public Television/Echo Minnesota Partnership; Charles McCobb, a program manager of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS); and Zainab Alkebsi, policy counsel at the National Association of the Deaf. A panel on promoting EAS use will be Jay English, APCO director-Comm Center & 9-1-1 services; Wade Witmer, IPAWS deputy director; Steve Souder, director of Fairfax County, Virginia's Department of Public Safety Communications; and Suzanne Goucher, Maine Association of Broadcasters CEO. The 1 to 4:30 p.m. workshop will be in the commission meeting room and streamed live at the FCC website. To register: John Evanoff, Public Safety Bureau attorney, at john.evanoff@fcc.gov or 202-418-0848.

Comcast NBCUniversal joined corporate advocacy organization The Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR), the group said Wednesday. BDR promotes “supply chain diversity” and is made up of 20 other U.S. companies “that have attained $1 billion or more in annual Tier I supply-chain diversity spend,” BDR said. Other members include AT&T, Avis, Dell, Ford, Microsoft and Verizon. “In 2014, 17 percent of Comcast NBCUniversal's total applicable procurement spend was with diverse suppliers,” BDR said.

A newly expanded Digital Living Network Alliance certification program -- DLNA 3.0 -- will give CE makers “more options for certifying their products based on how they plan to differentiate them in the market,” DLNA said in a Tuesday announcement. DLNA also released updated “interoperability guidelines,” including H.265 support, “that enable new product features for consumers who increasingly want to view content on mobile devices, improve energy efficiency, and enjoy video in higher-definition media formats,” it said. With the DLNA 3.0 “option” now in place, plans are afoot to add a DLNA 4.0 program “that will enable CE manufacturers to give their customers the best possible connected home experience," it said. With more than 4 billion devices now DLNA 2.0-certified, DLNA 3.0 builds on the certification program “by adding advanced features and capabilities for playback and response time,” it said. The planned DLNA 4.0 option “will ensure products support the broadest possible set of media formats and advanced features for optimum performance across the most extensive range of use cases,” it said.

YouTube Vice President-Content Partnerships Kelly Merryman thinks consumers are in a “testing phase” for their TV watching preferences, she said Monday during the Technology Policy Institute’s meeting in Aspen, Colorado. Google owns YouTube. “There is a shift from linear to on-demand,” growing over years, she said. “That shift is being asked for by the user. Now, I don’t actually think that by definition that on-demand shift means unbundling and I don’t know that shift means new players.” She praised the “great job” of traditional channels in developing programming. One key question she considers is people’s willingness to pay and she doesn’t know the answer. “I expect bundles are attractive, bundles are good, the question is how big is that bundle,” Merryman said, pointing to so-called “skinny” bundles and other consumer testing underway. “If you have a strong brand, strong creative eye and great programming, there’s a world of happiness and probably strengthened growth for you over time in this new environment because on-demand drives more watching,” she said. She also lauded YouTube’s current balance in handling copyrighted material. “We launched Content ID as a tool seven years ago and over that course of time we paid out a billion dollars to rights holder and we’ve given the power to rights holder, 'Do I want to block, do I want to track, do I want to monetize?'” she said, calling that “the right spot.” Fifty percent of YouTube consumption is on mobile devices, she said.

It would be “irresponsible” for the FCC to repeal network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules without also removing the cable industry’s compulsory copyright licenses, NAB officials told an aide to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in a meeting Thursday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 10-71. Such an action would “put another a massive thumb on the scale for the cable industry and give the broadcast industry the back of the hand,” NAB said. “The Commission’s exclusivity rules are a critical part of the bargain that led to Congress granting the cable industry the right to compulsory copyright licenses,” it said.

The FCC should encourage action to keep more live sports on broadcast TV instead of taking steps to “dismantle” broadcaster retransmission consent rights as requested in a petition from Mediacom, said broadcasters Gray Television, Media General, Meredith and Raycom in joint comments posted in RM-11752 Monday. NAB and Nexstar expressed their own disapproval of the Mediacom petition, in comments posted Friday (see 1508140062). If live sports such as NFL football moved from broadcast networks to cable, “the licensing fees that networks like ESPN, Fox Sports 1, and TNT would charge would be astronomical,” the joint filing from broadcasters said. “Those fees naturally would be passed on to consumers.” The suggestions in Mediacom’s petition would encourage that exodus and hurt local broadcasting, the joint filing said. Imposing a license renewal condition tying a broadcaster’s retrans rights to its coverage would violate the Communications Act, they said. “The failure of some broadcasters to reach an arbitrary level of over-the-air coverage that Mediacom deems adequate” is the result of FCC construction permit freezes and policies connected to the incentive auction, the broadcasters said. In contrast, Block Communications sees the Mediacom petition, along with its own, earlier retrans reform petition, as a signal to the FCC. “While Block does not support every proposal Mediacom advances, plainly the time has come for the FCC to tackle this important issue,” Block said in its comments. The FCC should hold a comment proceeding on all the retrans reform proposals it has received, Block said. Broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors “are able to use their immense scale to force smaller local negotiating partners to accept rates that are far out-of-sync with fair market rates,” it said.

Turner Broadcasting System acquired a majority stake in live video company iStreamPlanet, it said Friday in a news release. Turner plans to leverage the company's technology to deliver its over-the-top programming, develop new products and shift its core technology infrastructure to the cloud, said the release. iStreamPlanet will continue to be a stand-alone entity, Turner said. Turner is a unit of Time Warner.