Eugene, Oregon, can't sidestep Cable Act preemption of regulatory fees it charges for non-cable services provided over cable networks "by simply donning a different hat" and calling its exercise of franchise power something different, the FCC told the Supreme Court last week in a respondent opposition brief. Eugene petitioned for a writ of certiorari on a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision partially upholding the FCC's 2019 local franchise authority order (see 2105260035). The FCC said Eugene arguments that its rights-of-way fee isn't preempted because it's not limited to cable operators fail because the Cable Act bars putting requirements on cable operators' non-cable services. Intervenor NCTA said Eugene arguments that the 6th Circuit decision conflicts with an Oregon Supreme Court decision ignores that the state court decision came years before the FCC's local franchise authority decision and without the benefit of the agency's interpretation of the Cable Act or the 6th Circuit rationale for upholding it. Eugene outside counsel didn't comment.

Allen Media Group launched a free sports-based streaming platform available on Apple and Android apps, Fire TV and Android TV, with Roku and Apple TV platforms "coming soon," it said Wednesday. Among Sports.TV's 60-plus channels are Pac-12 Insider, HBCUGo.TV, World Poker Tour, PursuitUp TV, Impact Wrestling, Black Belt TV, MMA TV, CampusLore, Horse & Country, NHRA.tv and Racing America. Allen Media CEO Byron Allen said the platform has already received “enormous ad support.” Virtual live channels showing Thursday morning included Fox stations from Boston; Great Falls, Montana; Memphis; Seattle; and Tulsa. Also showing were virtual channels WFTV Orlando; WPXI Pittsburgh; KULR-TV Billings, Montana; and WHIO-TV Dayton.

There's “no compelling or well-founded argument for adoption” of additional copyright protections for online news stories and headlines that would affect news aggregators such as Google and Facebook, said Computer & Communications Industry Association in second round comments that were due Wednesday in a Copyright Office proceeding (see 2112090069) on publisher protections (docket ID COLC-2021-0006). The proceeding stems from a May request by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C, that the CO investigate additional publisher protections. News aggregation “is an existential problem for the news industry,” said the Copyright Alliance in its own comments. Congress and the CO should look into policies in Europe and Australia that give publishers additional protections and allow publishers to collectively bargain with aggregators for rights, said the Association of Magazine Media. Such rules would be “not only undesirable but also impossible within the U.S. legal framework,” CCIA said. The CO should make it easier for online publishers to register works, the News Media Alliance said. The “current market crisis” for news publishers will persist until their copyrights are properly enforced and Congress “steps in to recalibrate” the current “market dominance problems,” said NMA. Extending copyright protections or adjusting competition law to restrict sharing hyperlinks and quoting headlines or article snippets “would fundamentally alter the way we create, share, engage with, and learn from news and information online,” said startup-policy group Engine. “Platforms and online communities do not ‘free ride’ off of the content created by publishers,” said Reddit. “They share it, build off of it, and help others discover it.”

WGBP-TV, Opelika, Alabama, isn't a new station in the Atlanta designated market area eligible for mandatory carriage on DirecTV during the current election cycle, the FCC Media Bureau said Wednesday, denying a must-carry complaint brought by WGBP licensee CNZ Communications in docket 21-153. WGBP has provided over-the-air service in the Atlanta market since 2014, and it didn't become a new station by virtue of putting its distributed transmission system transmitter in the Atlanta area in 2020, the agency said.

The ongoing cord cutting by MVPD subscribers, while significant, remains orderly, though there's a risk it could ramp up to disorderly, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors Tuesday. That ramp-up only needs a major programmer to aggressively push its best programming to a direct-to-consumer offering "and the Jenga tower [of the programming bundle] would collapse," he said. ESPN is an obvious candidate to go that route, he said. Disney's ESPN didn't comment.

Some 60% of subscribers with multiple streaming services reported frustration with their viewing experience, said a Tuesday Accenture report. Forty-four percent of survey respondents said they spend more than six minutes searching for something to watch. “The video streaming experience has become somewhat unwieldy, unfriendly, and expensive” for many subscribers, said Accenture spokesperson Andrew Walker. Consumers think more than 60% of the content they are paying for is not relevant to them, and 56% said they want their profile from one service to be easily be shared with another service that may offer them better, more personalized content, the report said. Consumers care more about the content delivered by streaming services, but they find the navigation experience with the growing number of services to be increasingly frustrating, it said. Content aggregators can address that concern by unifying access to streaming services through application software, services and data-sharing agreements, it said, suggesting aggregators act as a single platform with curated content that enables subscribers to select “exactly what they want to watch.” The survey of over 6,000 consumers was fielded in 11 countries October-November.

Imax closed out Q4 grossing its highest quarterly global box office since 2017, riding the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which took in $83 million of the company’s $277 million Q4 total, said the company Monday. For the year, Imax posted $638 million in global box office, up 146% year on year, but under the pre-COVID-19 pandemic $1.1 billion global box office in 2019. Top performers in Q4 behind Spider-Man were Dune ($43.9 million), No Time to Die ($43.9 million), The Battle at Lake Changjin ($31.6 million) and Eternals ($25.2 million). The company expects 10 releases filmed for Imax for 2022.

Podcast usage is rising for "diverse" audiences, Nielsen emailed Thursday. Mainstream media often centers on one perspective or experience, “with representation often addressed as a complement to a main story or primary character,” but podcasts increasingly resonate with diverse audiences, it said. The average number of times each identity group listens to a podcast varies from nine to 12 per month, Nielsen said, counting Asian Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ consumers. People with disabilities listen to podcasts most at home (67%); Asian Americans listen the least at home at 43%. Black listeners stream audio more than other audiences, “while listening more closely when brands reach out,” averaging 73% brand recall for podcasts ads, it said. Podcast listening among Hispanics 25-39 has doubled in the past three years, it said, and Asian Americans have upped their podcast listening five times over the past decade, with news among the leading topics, it said. The Interactive Advertising Bureau predicts podcast ad revenue will hit $2 billion by 2023 vs. $842 million in 2020, Nielsen noted. Host-read ads drive a brand recall rate of 71%, creating “high levels of consumer interest, purchase intent and recommendation intent,” it said. Diverse audiences want to hear from “trusted voices with similar backgrounds or that have similar interests,” Nielsen said; topics need to be inclusive and relevant from credible sources with original voices.

The FCC denied Digital Broadcasting’s application for certification to operate an open video system in a service area including the top 210 U.S. designated market areas and “Territories, Commonwealths, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa,” said a Media Bureau order Thursday. The application was denied over concern that Digital Broadcasting didn’t fulfill a requirement to serve the filing on all local communities that would be covered in the proposed “vastly expansive” service area, the order said. The application shows “hundreds” of communities and local authorities were given notice electronically, but it “does not make clear whether every local community covered within Digital Broadcasting’s anticipated service area was properly served.” The order said there are indications at least some communities in some DMAs weren’t given notice. Since the application is being denied without prejudice, it could be refiled with a more complete listing, the order said.

The 8K Association landed Amazon Prime Video, UL and 4by4, a producer of 8K demonstration and promotional videos, said the group Thursday. The association didn’t speculate on the ramifications of Amazon's new membership for 8K streaming content on Prime Video, and the customarily secretive Amazon didn’t respond to questions. 8KA, the brainchild of Samsung and Samsung’s broader display ecosystem, also revised the criteria for earning its certification logo to include “a broader set of video decoding standards that will promote the wider availability of 8K streaming content,” it said. The association unveiled its logo program a year ago (see 2101040054).