Ohio urged a state court not to dismiss its lawsuit claiming Google is a carrier and public utility (see 2108160025). Attorney General Dave Yost (R) responded Monday in case 21-CV-H-06-0274 at Common Pleas Court in Delaware County that Google’s dismissal motion “reads like search results compiled by Ask Jeeves. There is lots of talking around the issue, some in-depth analysis of tangential issues, and a few non-sequiturs, but the reader is left unconvinced.”

The UHD Alliance application to trademark the Filmmaker Mode logo as a certification mark for compliant TVs got a notice of allowance from the Patent and Trademark Office after the application cleared its 30-day publication window last month without opposition (see 2108130018), agency records show. UHDA has six months to file a statement of use on the logo’s commercial deployment before PTO will issue a registration certificate. UHDA filed for the trademark in May 2019 and introduced it publicly three months later as the uniformly named, ease-of-access TV picture setting free of the image processing that creators disdain for rendering content in the living room as if it were shot on high-speed video rather than film (see 1908270001). Filmmaker Mode has the announced support of Hisense, Kaleidescape, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, TP Vision and Vizio.

The next semiannual disclosures by U.S.-based foreign media outlets are due Oct. 12, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice Friday. The agency will transmit a report to Congress that summarizes the submissions by Nov. 6, the PN said.

Embratel is done with both phases of the C-band transition because it no longer provides any C-band services in the U.S. via its Star One C1 satellite, company representatives told FCC International Bureau, Wireless Bureau and Office of General Counsel staffers. A docket 18-122 filing Thursday said Star One C1 will cease operations by Oct. 3, with deorbiting to follow. Replacing it will be the Star One C2 satellite, which is authorized to provide Ku-band, but not C-band, service in the U.S., it said.

Sony Interactive Entertainment agreed to buy Firesprite, a U.K.-based videogame studio, it said Wednesday. Sony's 14th studio purchase lets the gaming subsidiary expand its catalog beyond PlayStation Studios’ core offerings, it said. Firesprite “pushed the boundaries” of interaction with the PS VR headset with a social element in The Persistence; an enhanced version, launched in June, optimized the game for PlayStation 5 to include wireless controller haptic feedback, adaptive triggers and raytraced rendering, Sony said. Day-to-day operations will continue to be run by Firesprite management.

Hulu is raising the price of its ad-supported plan to $6.99 monthly Oct. 8 and its commercial-free version to $12.99, it told subscribers Tuesday. Customers subscribed to the $64.99 Hulu + Live, $13.99 Hulu/ESPN+/Disney+ bundle or through a discount or promotional offer won't be affected by the $1 fee hike, it was learned. In another sign of the ever-shifting streaming space, Amazon emailed HBO subscribers last week saying “HBO has decided to leave Prime Video Channels.” Subscriptions will end Sept. 15, Amazon said, “at which time we will cancel your subscription and issue a pro-rated refund for any remaining service from your last billing cycle.” Amazon is offering HBO subscribers two months of Starz and Paramount+ for 99 cents each through Sept. 17. The companies didn't respond to questions.

Temporary spikes in streaming activity due to lockdowns early in the COVID-19 pandemic “have turned out to be not so temporary,” said a Q2 Conviva report released last week. A tipping point spurred by the pandemic “shows no signs of reversal,” with Q2 streaming rising 13% over the “pandemic heights” of Q2 2020, it said. Most of Q2’s gains came from outside North America, where streaming had a 7% decline in April from April 2020. North America returned to double-digit growth in June at 14% year on year. There was a 4% increase in ad impressions quarter over quarter, said the report. On YouTube, mobile phones were 63% of views but just 52% of watch time, as consumers tallied nearly twice as many minutes per view when watching YouTube on a console or connected TV than they did on mobile or tablet in Q2 2021, the report said. Smart TV viewing was up 46% in the quarter and up 5% on connected TV devices, but streaming on game consoles fell 14%. Viewing on smaller screens grew across the board: 30% on smartphones, 15% on desktop PCs and 9% on tablets. Roku, maintaining 31% of big-screen viewing time, lost some share as smart TV-only devices from Samsung, LG and Vizio increased share.

Nielsen is “disappointed” the Media Rating Council responded to the company’s request for a hiatus in accreditation by voting to suspend its National TV Ratings service, as well as its Local People Meter and Set Meter Markets service, a spokesperson emailed Friday. “The suspension will not impact the usability of our data,” she said, saying Nielsen “remains the currency of choice for media companies, advertisers and agencies.” The market measurement firm is “committed to the audit process and during this pause in accreditation we will work with the MRC on resolving this suspension.” MRC’s board voted to suspend its accreditation of Nielsen’s National Television service, it said Wednesday. It also removed accreditation hiatus status designation from Nielsen’s Local People Meter and Set Meter Markets services, and voted to suspend accreditation for those markets.

Vizio added the HBO Max app to its SmartCast TVs, said the TV vendor Wednesday. Vizio will feature an HBO Max content discovery “carousel” on the SmartCast home screen, it said. The SmartCast carousel will include access to 13 HBO Originals programs, plus a rotation of new titles from the HBO Max library.

The Locast streaming service infringes on broadcasters’ copyright, ruled U.S. District Court in Manhattan Judge Louis Stanton Tuesday in an opinion and order granting summary judgment to plaintiffs that include Fox, CBS, Disney and NBCUniversal (docket 19-cv-7136, in Pacer). The payments Locast requests from users are charges rather than gifts, and exceed the amount needed to maintain and operate the service, ruled Stanton. That keeps Locast from falling under a statutory exemption from copyright rules for nonprofits, the opinion said. “It is of no consequence that a number of users employ the service without paying.” Locast operator Sports Fan Coalition “solicits, and receives, substantial amounts in charges from recipients for its uninterrupted service,” Stanton wrote. Locast had argued that it falls under the exemption because it uses excess funds only to expand the service, but Stanton said Congress could have included the word “expansion” in the statute if that was part of the law’s intent. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented Locast, disagreed. “This ruling that nonprofit retransmitters can’t use viewer contributions to expand access will do the opposite of what Congress intended,” EFF emailed Locast users. “Our client is in the process of evaluating the decision and formulating next steps,” said Locast attorney David Hosp, of Orrick Herrington.