The Missouri and Georgia communities backing Reno, Nevada, in its legal fight seeking franchise fees from Netflix and Hulu also are supporting similar litigation brought by Ashdown, Arkansas. In a docket 21-3435 amicus brief Wednesday filed with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Creve Couer, Missouri, and the various Georgia localities largely echoed their arguments made in the Reno amicus brief filed this week with the 9th Circuit (see 2202080088). They themselves are suing the streaming services, seeking local franchise fees (see 2112230003). Ashdown is appealing a lower court's dismissal of its suit seeking back franchise fees from the streamers.

Spotify’s loyalty to controversial podcaster Joe Rogan is partially driven by music rights fees, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Wednesday. “The more that music costs, the more incentive there is for a music service to find alternative audio programming to provide to its listeners,” Oxenford wrote. “So, as long as music royalties remain high, expect talk programming to grow.” This calculation is also the reasoning behind broadcasters such as iHeart expanding their podcast offerings, he said. When Spotify users are listening to podcasts, they aren’t also listening to playlists of streaming music, so talk programming both costs less and reduces song royalty payments, Oxenford said.

Dish Network and Tegna asked the FCC to dismiss their fall retransmission consent cross-complaints against one another (see 2111050028) (see here and here) in docket 21-413 Wednesday. Dish said they resolved their retrans dispute and signed an agreement.

The Hart-Scott-Rudino waiting period for Discovery's acquisition of AT&T's spun-off WarnerMedia (see 2105160003) expired Wednesday, Discovery said in an SEC filing that day.

The Roku Channel added 25 linear channels, including AfrolandTV, Ax Men, Fox Weather, Modern Marvels, Project Runway, Redbox Romance, Spark TV, Supermarket Sweep and This Old House Makers Channel, it emailed Tuesday.

Warner Music Group CEO Steve Cooper cited the company’s “unique position” in the new era of recorded music on the company’s Q1 FY ’21 earnings call Tuesday. “Music is no longer linear, transactional or limited by format,” Cooper said. “It’s complex, multifaceted and interactive.” The “intersection of virtual social spaces, gaming and music presents enormous opportunities to engage with massive and diverse audiences,” he said. WMG is "well on our way to being an immersive, tech-enabled 21st century digital company,” said Cooper. WMG still sees growth in conventional streaming in mature and emerging markets, said Cooper, referencing the number of streaming music subscriptions relative to smart device population: WMG is confident that "long-term sustained growth ... is quite probable" in its traditional streaming music business. On Web3, which Cooper defined as wrapping in blockchain, cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens, WMG sees “the beginning of interactive models coming to the surface and beginning to engage fandom around the world.” Cooper envisions “more opportunities than we can even imagine and believes Web3 “will further amplify the importance” of music labels and publishers. The technology of blockchain, “the perils of navigating crypto,” the skillsets required to deal with distributed, autonomous organizations," he said, will require companies like WMG “that have the financial resources, the intellectual capital … the specific skill sets and the global footprint” to help artists and songwriters navigate through a “brave new universe."

The “public internet” exception language in the Nevada Video Service Law applies to ISPs, not content providers like Netflix and Hulu, and a lower court erred in ruling that Reno, Nevada's claims against the streamers were barred by that exception, Creve Couer, Missouri, and some Georgia communities told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an amicus brief Tuesday. Creve Couer and the Georgia communities are themselves suing the streaming services, seeking local franchise fees (see 2112230003). Reno, in its docket 21-16560 opening brief last week, told the 9th Circuit the lower court erred in deciding if the streamers are video service providers based on only the “public Internet exception” definition and the question of whether that exception even applies to them.

Comments on the FCC’s NPRM on improving the accessibility of visual emergency alert system messages (see 2112060057) are due March 11, replies March 28, says Wednesday’s Federal Register. Comments on the accompanying notice of inquiry on broader efforts to make EAS more accessible are due April 11, replies May 10.

U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment content jumped 7.8% in 2021 to $32.35 billion, including 11.3% growth in Q4 to $8.6 billion, reported the Digital Entertainment Group Friday. Subscription VOD generated the largest swath of consumer spending, rising 19.8% for the year to $25.27 billion, and up 19.3% for the quarter to $6.64 billion, said DEG, citing Omdia data as the source. Sell-through of 4K Blu-rays increased more than 6%, said DEG. With COVID-19 “pandemic conditions improving as 2021 progressed,” box-office spending on titles released to the home in Q4 jumped more than 1,100% from a year earlier, said DEG, though the impact of new theatrical releases on DEG’s “transactional” home entertainment tracking was muted “by the fact that many high-profile titles were released to the home in a premium window.” It estimates premium release revenue generated through retailers that “support multiple studios” would have added about $525 million to DEG’s full-year report, it said. The estimate doesn’t include revenue generated through the “premium access” option of Disney+, it said.

Dolby bought Millicast, a startup that provides scalable low-latency video streaming, for customers to create virtual environments. There's "growing demand to make online events as lifelike and compelling as being there in person," said Marie Huwe, senior vice president-Dolby.io. Dolby now can enable global customers to build “virtualized, massive audience experiences that feel almost as if you were there,” said Millicast CEO Alexandrine Platonoff. The NFL, NBC and Disney use Millicast. Also Thursday, Dolby reported revenue in the past quarter fell to $351.6 million from $389.9 million in the year-ago period. For this quarter, Dolby projects a revenue range of $315 million-$345 million, citing uncertainties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday, shares closed down 11% at $75.85.