Cox Communications urged the FCC to adopt rules that give cable operators and broadcasters a commission-sanctioned “fair path” to the resolution of retransmission consent disputes, said the cable operator in a letter filed in docket 10-71 (http://bit.ly/1aFG0eO). Cox advocated a voluntary, non-binding mediation framework that would allow the negotiating parties to make their cases before an “impartial and experienced industry mediator who can help bring the two sides together.” Cox’s framework would provide transparency and limited public disclosure of each side’s rate demands, “providing a discipline to bargaining that is often absent today,” Cox said.

No ruling will be issued in FilmOn X’s case in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals until the Supreme Court issues a decision in its Aereo case, said a 9th Circuit order Monday. FilmOn’s appeal of a preliminary injunction granted against its streaming TV service in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles had already been through oral arguments in August -- the parties in the case were waiting for the 9th Circuit to issue a decision. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision on the Aereo matter, a broadcaster appeal of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision not to issue an injunction against Aereo, in the summer, say industry observers. The order putting the 9th Circuit case on hold was issued by the 9th Circuit panel without any requests to do so from the parties in the case, according to online records. FilmOn’s appeal of a nearly nationwide injunction from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit -- barring it from streaming copyrighted material anywhere outside the jurisdiction of the 2nd Circuit -- was also put on hold to wait for the Supreme Court (CD Jan 27 p10). Hearst’s case against Aereo in U.S. District Court in Boston has already been stayed pending a high court ruling at the joint request of both sides, and a similar joint request has been filed in Hearst’s appeal of a preliminary injunction ruling in Aereo’s favor in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A hearing on a similar possible stay of the case brought by broadcasters against Aereo in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City is set for Friday.

The framing of the question the Supreme Court will consider in the Aereo case may favor broadcasters, said Fletcher Heald’s CommLaw Blog (http://bit.ly/1gkwi3Q). Though broadcasters originally brought the cert petition to the court, Aereo also asked the court to take the case. However, the court’s announcement of the question it will consider in the case is nearly identical to the one asked by broadcasters in their request for cert. The high court is considering “whether a company ‘publicly performs’ a copyrighted television program when it retransmits a broadcast of that program to thousands of paid subscribers over the Internet,” according to the Supreme Court website. Aereo had asked the court to instead consider whether Aereo is performing publicly “under Sections 101 and 106 of the Copyright Act, by supplying remote equipment that allows a consumer to tune an individual, remotely located antenna to a publicly accessible, over-the-air broadcast television signal, use a remote digital video recorder to make a personal recording from that signal, and then watch that recording.” It is not unusual for opposing parties to offer different questions, but the high court’s using the broadcaster version “suggests at least an initial willingness on the Court’s part to see things the way the broadcasters see them,” said the blog post. “Maybe it means something, maybe it doesn’t,” said the blog. “But the parties’ lawyers presumably think it’s significant: they did, after all, bother to advance their respective versions."

FilmOn’s appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was put on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court decides broadcasters’ case against competing streaming TV service Aereo, said a court order released Thursday. The delay means the nearly nationwide injunction against FilmOn -- the focus of its appeal -- will continue at least until Aereo’s case is decided, which is likely by the summer, according to industry observers. The broadcaster plaintiffs filed an emergency motion requesting the hold shortly after the Supreme Court granted cert on the Aereo case. FilmOn had argued that freezing the injunction appeal while waiting for the Aereo decision would do “irreparable harm” to the company (CD Jan 16 p19). However, CEO Alki David told us in an email Friday that the company would be able to handle waiting on the Supreme Court “with ease.” FilmOn X “relies on less than 3% for revenues from Network Channels,” David said. Aereo itself has filed a motion to stay pending a Supreme Court decision in the case brought against it by broadcasters in Utah, and a Massachusetts District court judge granted a similar joint motion to stay filed by Aereo and Hearst, the plaintiff.

The FCC moved deadlines for all filings that were due Jan. 21 to the following day, Jan. 22, because the commission was closed Jan. 21 for inclement weather, said an FCC public notice released Jan. 23. “January 21 does not count in computing filing periods of fewer than seven days” since it is considered a commission holiday, the notice said.

The FTC is seeking public comment on Nielsen’s application to sell its LinkMeter audience measuring service to comScore, the commission said in a news release Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1dBNkm6). The divesture is part of a proposed settlement with the FTC over Nielsen’s buy of Arbitron, the focus of an FTC complaint over decreased competition in the cross-platform audience rating business. “The elimination of future competition between Nielsen and Arbitron in this market would increase the likelihood that Nielsen would exercise market power and likely cause advertisers, ad agencies, and programmers to pay more for national syndicated cross-platform audience measurement services,” said the FTC. The proposed settlement order requires Nielsen to sell and license assets connected with Arbitron’s cross-platform audience measurement business -- like LinkMeter -- for at least eight years, to an FTC-approved buyer, and Nielsen has asked the FTC to approve comScore as that buyer, the FTC said. “Nielsen and comScore have agreed to terms and other requirements in compliance with the terms set forth in the FTC Decision and Order,” said Nielsen in its own release. The agreement is intended to preserve “the competitive landscape” by allowing the continuation of a project to measure media consumption in TV, radio, PCs and mobile devices that was originally announced in 2012 as a joint effort of ESPN, comScore and Arbitron, said Nielsen.

Several consumer groups representing the hearing impaired want the FCC to reconsider rules governing user interfaces and video programming guides that allow closed captioning and other accessibility features to be activated with a voice command or gesture, according to a petition filed Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1irq9mr). The groups had asked the FCC to compel manufacturers to build devices that use a “button, key or icon” to activate those functions, but in the order last year, voice commands and gestures were also listed as acceptable options. “This leap from tactile controls to voice and gesture controls lacks any justification or support under the CVAA [21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act], and there is no evidence that Congress intended to allow voice and gesture controls to satisfy these accessibility obligations,” said the petition for reconsideration by groups including the National Association of the Deaf, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University. Many deaf and hard-of-hearing people don’t speak or may have difficulty speaking clearly enough for speech recognition technology, the filing said. “These individuals are unable to use voice controlled technology and will be shut out of any digital apparatus or navigation device where voice commands are the only way to activate the closed captioning control,” said the filing. “Allowing voice controls to satisfy accessibility obligations will effectively deny millions of deaf and hard of hearing people access to closed captioning and/or other accessibility features.” The commission may not have included enough information about the use of voice controls in its proposal for implementing the rule, the groups said. “A review of the NPRM shows that the Commission never proposed a rule nor raised questions regarding whether voice or gesture controls should be acceptable compliant mechanisms for providing legally mandated access to closed captions for people with disabilities,” said the filing. The groups “strongly urge” the FCC to reconsider the rule, the filing said. CEA didn’t comment.

The Weather Channel urged DirecTV to waive its termination fees for subscribers wanting to switch providers since the channel is no longer carried by DirecTV. “The least you can do is allow them to vote now with their feet by waiving termination fees for those seeking to switch to a provider that still carries The Weather Channel, as every other pay-TV company in the nation does,” Weather Channel CEO David Kenny said in an open letter to DirecTV CEO Michael White (http://bit.ly/1dUOFJ0). “Our preference would be for DirecTV to come back to the negotiating table and restore The Weather Channel to your line up.” The carriage dispute resulted in a blackout of the channel for DirecTV subscribers last week (CD Jan 15 p20).

Charter Communications and Oregon Health Network created a broadband fiber network for communities in southern Oregon and Crescent City, Calif. It offers advanced capabilities for video telemedicine, broadband Internet speeds and HD television, the companies said in a news release Wednesday (http://prn.to/KIbsMU). It completes a fiber loop connecting southern Oregon and northern California, they said. They said the network is “the final segment of an 87-mile route from Grants Pass, Ore., to Crescent City, consisting of a 720 GB circuit with capacity to service thousands of people across multiple cities.” The project was funded by a $1.6 million investment, they said.

Several consumer groups representing the hearing-impaired have joined with NAB to support a one-week extension of the Jan. 27 comment deadline for proposed rules on applying closed captions to video clips delivered over the Internet, according to an ex parte filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1mHpDkr). “We agree with NAB that the proposed extension will provide additional time for stakeholders to provide more detailed and thorough information in response to the Commission’s inquiry, and believe that the proposed extension is sufficiently short that it will not prejudice the public interest,” said the filing from Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University and others.