An FCC proposal requiring that MVPDs notify the agency of retransmission consent blackouts exceeds the agency’s authority and could prompt additional blackouts, said NAB in meetings last week with aides to FCC Commissioners Anna Gomez and Nathan Simington, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-427. A draft item proposing rules on blackouts is on circulation to the 10th floor. “Given the Commission’s very limited role and its inability to use information on negotiating impasses to require parties to take any additional steps, it is not clear what lawful purpose this information gathering effort can serve,” NAB said. Consumers aren’t likely to consult an FCC database on blackouts, and wouldn't find it useful for comparison shopping MVPD services because it won’t contain information on blackouts of nonbroadcast services such as regional sports networks, NAB said. A database focused on disruptions in service would provide “an incomplete picture given that the overwhelming majority of retransmission consent negotiations are concluded without event,” NAB said. MVPDs will use the database as evidence for regulatory or legislative intervention in the retrans consent negotiation process, NAB said. “There have been documented increases in disruptions during key Congressional or Commission deliberations on retransmission consent issues,” NAB said. “The database will serve as an ‘attractive nuisance’ that MVPDs cannot resist, triggering increased disruptions and harming consumers.”
DirecTV will launch a free, ad-supported streaming service, MyFree DirecTV, on Nov. 15, it said last week. The service will have a library of on-demand content at launch, with additional channels added to the platform starting in 2025.
The FCC should cement Paramount Global's and Skydance Media's "general labor-friendly statements with specific, binding merger conditions" that maintain minimum levels of union-created content and station-level employment, labor unions said Tuesday in docket 24-275. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Hollywood Local 399, Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East said Paramount and Skydance have maintained that New Paramount will have strong demand for union-created programming and good partnerships with organized labor. But they also have indicated that the $8 billion Skydance/Paramount deal, announced in July (see 2407080025), could prompt significant job cuts, the unions said. Worker-related merger conditions, the union filing said, would be in line with the FCC Media Bureau's hearing designation order in Tegna/Standard General (see 2302240068), which emphasized that jobs and journalists relate directly to localism and the public interest.
It would be "delicious irony" if Disney's ESPN acquired streaming rights for a variety of MLB teams through Diamond Sports' Chapter 11 bankruptcy, since Disney divested many of Diamond's regional sports networks due to antitrust concerns during Disney's 2019 purchase of Fox assets, Macquarie's Tim Nollen noted Tuesday. Nollen said MLB supports Diamond's plan to drop carriage of eight more MLB teams in December, atop the three contracts it already let expire, as MLB prefers to carry games on alternative streaming services including the MLB app. Nollen said Diamond's move could work well for ESPN's streaming service launching in fall 2025. Pointing to the 2019 RSN divestitures, he said "the TV landscape has changed with the growth of streaming, now rendering such linear market share concerns moot."
Low ad loads is one of the reasons streaming TV services are growing their prime-time viewing, but expect more ads once streamers shift their focus from growth to profitability, nScreenMedia's Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. Cable averages 15 to 18 minutes of ads per hour, while advertising VOD like Disney+ Basic and Tubi average closer to four to five minutes per hour, Dixon said.
TikTok's expansion of its creator subscription program illustrates a broader social media platform strategy of expanding revenue streams with a more entertainment-centric focus, MIDiA analyst Hanna Kahlert blogged Tuesday. TikTok's subscription program now lets creators develop paid subscriptions for their followers that include exclusive content and communities. As social media platforms expand their prominence in the entertainment marketplace, they will try to claim more of their audiences' entertainment spending, such as by offering subscriber-only communities or exclusive content access, she said.
The Oct. 4 deadline for emergency alert system participants to submit annual EAS test reporting system forms has been extended to Oct. 18, said a Public Safety Bureau public notice Tuesday. The extension is intended to “reduce burdens on EAS Participants that are recovering from the damage caused by Hurricane Helene,” the PN said. “EAS Participants that have already submitted their ETRS Form One for calendar year 2024 need not take any further action.”
Several local governments support an FCC proposal that would exempt video programmers whose content is shown exclusively on a public, educational and government (PEG) channel from requirements to file contact information or captioning compliance with the agency, according to a filing in docket 05-231 Tuesday from Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, and Bowie and Howard County, Maryland. The Texas Coalition of Cities for Utility Issues also signed onto the filing. PEG channels are already exempt from captioning requirements, the governments noted. “Exempting registration and captioning compliance certifications by individual programmers of exempt PEG programming does not prejudice the Commission’s pursuit of ensuring the accessibility of all video programming,” the filing said.
Disney says it was "surprised and disappointed" by DirecTV's good-faith negotiation complaint regarding the parties' retransmission consent agreement that expired Sept. 1 (see 2409090003). In docket 24-280 this week, Disney said DirecTV "misunderstood" Disney's clean slate proposal. In addition, Disney said it has clarified that the clean slate proposal wasn't intended to preclude either party from filing an FCC complaint. It urged dismissal of the DirecTV complaint.
Dish Network’s call for sanctions against Standard General and its attorneys should be ignored. Instead, Dish should be sanctioned, said Standard General in a response filing Thursday in U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit (see 2409240017). Standard argued Dish’s filing substantially repeats its earlier dismissal motion and violates court procedures. Contrary to Dish’s arguments, Standard’s complaint “amply supports the alleged conspiracy, detailing circumstantial evidence that warrants an inference of conspiratorial agreement,” Standard said. “The timing and posture of DISH’s motion show its purpose is either to intimidate Plaintiffs and their counsel to dismiss claims against DISH and Mr. Ergen in the infancy of this case or to increase the chances that the Court does so.” Since Dish filed the motion for an improper purpose, the court should award Standard sanctions in the form of the expenses incurred in responding to the motion, Standard said.