The FCC should investigate Meredith Corp.’s blackout of a station on Cablevision in Connecticut, and deny the broadcaster’s application to take ownership of KMOV-TV St. Louis, the operator wrote Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake. KMOV is the station Belo agreed to divest to receive regulatory approval from the Department of Justice and FCC for its purchase by Gannett (CD Dec 17 p6). “Violation of one of a broadcaster’s primary public interest obligations -- the requirement that it serve residents in its community of license -- demonstrates unfitness to hold additional broadcast licenses,” said Cablevision. “Cablevision’s assertions are untrue and reflect its lack of understanding of Connecticut television viewers,” said Meredith in a written statement. The retransmission consent dispute between the companies involves Meredith’s WFSB(CBS) Hartford-New Haven. Cablevision pays to carry WFSB as the local CBS affiliate in Litchfield and New Haven counties, but Meredith also wants the provider to pay to carry the station in Fairfield County, where Cablevision already pays for CBS affiliate WCBS New York, said Cablevision. That demand is “unprecedented,” Cablevision said. “The ABC, NBC, and Fox affiliates in the Hartford-New Haven DMA all have either allowed Cablevision to carry their stations on the Fairfield County system without payment or permitted Cablevision not to carry their station in Fairfield County.” Meredith has refused those options, and pulled WFSB from Cablevision customers in all three counties, Cablevision said. WFSB is “Connecticut’s leading news station” and covers the news of the entire state, Meredith said. “Other subscription television operators recognize the value of WFSB local programming and have entered into agreements to compensate us accordingly.” Cablevision has “refused to even negotiate, and is revealing its true colors by wasting time with baseless press releases meant to mislead Connecticut residents,” Meredith said. Meredith is “violating its public interest obligations” by blacking out programming “completely in one part of the state in order to reap fees in another part of the state,” said Cablevision. The blackout is a signal that Meredith will behave similarly with other broadcast properties, said Cablevision. “These actions portend Meredith’s unwillingness to serve the public interest in the St. Louis market, were it to receive approval for a transfer of a broadcast license to operate KMOV-TV,” said the cable operator in a news release. Cablevision’s references to KMOV are “a nuisance filing,” said Meredith, saying Cablevision doesn’t have viewers in the St. Louis area. “We remain ready to negotiate in good faith,” said Meredith. The bureau didn’t comment on whether a denial of Meredith’s application to buy KMOV would have any effect on Gannett/Belo.

NPR developed a news app for Chevrolet and Opel vehicle owners. The NPR News App “is one of the initial offerings in the in-car AppShop, available this summer in select Chevrolet vehicles with MyLink technology,” NPR said in a news release (http://n.pr/1gB1B70). It provides U.S. drivers with news, culture and humor from NPR “and more than 900 public radio stations nationwide, including live broadcast listening and more than 80 all-music streams,” it said. “The app uses a vehicle’s GPS location to automatically localize listening to the nearest NPR member station.” The app already is compatible with Ford’s Sync AppLink system, and will be on display this week at CES in Las Vegas, NPR said.

The Copyright Royalty Board started two proceedings, the first to “determine reasonable rates and terms for certain digital performances of sound recordings and the making of ephemeral recordings,” it said Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1daEocV). The other proceeding will determine rates for the “use of sound recordings and the making of ephemeral recordings by new subscription services” (http://1.usa.gov/1daEktQ). In each case, the deadline to file a petition and pay the fee to participate is Feb. 3,and the term of the final determination is Jan. 1, 2016, to Dec. 31, 2020.

A lawmaker questioned what he called the “onerous conditions” the Tribune Co. is placing on the Los Angeles Times and other publications amid corporate restructuring. House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent a letter to Tribune Monday (http://t.co/eUJY6w0fKh). Tribune is putting profits ahead of public interest, and while other companies have spun off print publications, “none have saddled their newspaper units with the punishing terms you are proposing for the Tribune Publishing Company,” Waxman said. There’s an appearance of the company “looting” the newspaper, he added. A Tribune counsel will meet with Waxman’s staff on Jan. 15, according to the letter. Waxman asked Tribune to have several documents, outlined in the letter, ready for that meeting. “We look forward to meeting with Congressman Waxman’s office next week and to the opportunity to demonstrate that our plans for our publishing business are focused on it being a successful stand-alone company,” Tribune told us.

Cox Enterprises bought 25 percent of AutoTrader Group from Providence Equity Partners, giving Cox 98 percent ownership of AutoTrader, Cox said in a press release Friday. AutoTrader Group is “the nation’s largest digital automotive marketplace,” and owns Autotrader.com, Kelley Blue Book and several other companies associated with assisting car sales, said the release. Cox also owns and operates vehicle remarketer Manheim. With the buy of Providence’s shares in AutoTrader, Cox Enterprises “will continue to look for opportunities to grow our leadership position and further innovate ways to meet the needs of car buyers,” said Cox Enterprises CEO John Dyer.

Crestron joined the AVnu Alliance, becoming the industry consortium’s 65th member and its first home control and automation company, the alliance said Thursday. AVnu certifies audio video bridging (AVB) products for interoperability, and the addition of Crestron “furthers the progression of AVB in professional audio/video and residential market,” the alliance said in a news release. It’s seeing “accelerated momentum for AVB across a breadth of markets including professional A/V, automotive, and residential with member companies working together to drive AVnu-certified devices as the highest performance, most reliable, more flexible, and more affordable market solutions,” it said. It’s seeing “growing momentum in all market segments,” it said. The alliance is testing AVB-enabled networking devices at its appointed testing house, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory, and has “many products in the certification process,” it said.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether to accept cert on broadcasters’ case against Aereo will likely be announced Jan. 13, said a blog post on the Fletcher Heald website (http://bit.ly/1eYALs4). Though the matter is listed on the Supreme Court website as set for conference Jan. 10, the results of such conferences are typically announced on the next available court date, said Fletcher Heald appellate attorney Harry Cole in an email. The next court date following the conference is Jan. 13. Broadcasters want the Supreme Court to overturn the decision of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to grant a preliminary injunction against Aereo’s streaming TV service (CD Oct 15 p15) . The cert petition was distributed to the justices on Dec. 24 (CD Jan 2 p9). Four justices would have to vote in favor of taking the case for cert to be granted, said Cole. “We don’t know for sure that all nine Justices will participate, since one or more recusals are always possible,” said Cole in the blog post.

Consumer spending on video entertainment in the U.K. remained flat for 2013 at 2.2 billion pounds due to the continuing overall decline in packaged media, the British Video Association reported Tuesday. “Video entertainment is still dominated by physical formats,” with more than 162.2 million units sold in 2013, the BVA said. On monetary terms, discs represented 73 percent of the total video retail and rental commerce for the year, it said. But retail spending on packaged media fell 6.8 percent to 1.4 billion pounds and rental spending for physical discs declined 24 percent to 197 billion pounds, it said. DVD unit sales fell by 11.5 percent, “as video audiences changed their mix of format use,” including a 12.4 percent increase in Blu-ray unit sales and a growing “ownership” of content bought through digital delivery, it said. Blu-ray sales on a monetary basis jumped 10 percent for the year, the BVA said, without giving a monetary breakout. The 40.2 percent rise in revenue from digital video entertainment to 621 million pounds “reflects the growing number of people who are using connected devices and the increasing ease of access to video services in and out of the home, driven by the strong demand for the smaller tablets and jumbo smart TVs,” the BVA said. “Current estimates suggest that over 10 million tablets have been sold this year alone, alongside 1.8 million smart TVs, as new models are launched and the prices of digital technology continue to fall.” Digital delivery accounted for 27 percent of overall spending for the year, the BVA said. The 2013 results “demonstrate that the millions of people who bought video titles as Christmas presents are joined by millions more who just love watching video all year round, in both physical and digital formats,” said Lavinia Carey, the BVA’s director general.

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to grant cert on broadcasters’ case seeking an injunction against Aereo during a conference on Jan. 10, according to the court’s website (http://1.usa.gov/19EQqoS). The broadcasters asked the high court to overturn the decision of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to grant a preliminary injunction against Aereo’s streaming TV service (CD Oct 15 p15). In December, Aereo filed a response supporting the broadcasters’ request for the court to take up the matter (CD Dec 13 p10). “We want this resolved on the merits rather than through a wasteful war of attrition,” said Aereo in a release. The cert petition was distributed to the justices on Dec. 24, said the court website.