FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel restated her opposition to resurrecting the fairness doctrine and her support for “free speech, viewpoint diversity, and independent journalism” in letters to House Commerce Committee Republicans released Friday. Ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and other Republicans wrote Rosenworcel in February asking her to commit to not bringing back the doctrine and to denounce letters Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney, both D-Calif., sent providers asking them to justify carrying Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network (see 2102240064). This doctrine “only applied to radio and television broadcasters that relied on scarce public spectrum,” which means it “legally applied only to a small subset of what we consider news and content today,” Rosenworcel said. “In recent times we have seen the effects of division in this country in ways that I never imagined that I would see in my lifetime,” including “the harms of misinformation and disinformation. Others have expressed concern that their viewpoint may be absent from media outlets and that some sources may amplify falsehoods and do genuine harm to individuals and communities.” Those are “issues that need thoughtful discussion in a modern way,” she said. “I welcome efforts to have this dialogue. I also remain mindful of the limitations of a doctrine from the 1940s and recognize any effort to update it will require action from Congress. Furthermore, any work to do so would be constrained by the First Amendment.”

Apple TV+ leads over-the-top streaming services in monthly active churn at 15.6%, Verimatrix Product Management Director Sebastian Braun told a Parks Associates webinar. NBCUniversal’s Peacock (not including the free tier) was second at 9.5%, followed by Showtime (8.8%), Starz (8.4%), HBO Max (6.7%), CBS All Access (5.9%), Hulu (5.2%), Disney+ (4.3%) and Netflix (2.5%), he said Wednesday. Apple didn't comment Thursday. The average Netflix subscription is 48 months, Parks' Liam Gaughan told the virtual event. “Content is king,” said Braun, saying services with lower churn are those that own, produce and distribute content. Calling churn “unavoidable,” Braun noted consumers subscribe to an average of about five services, vs. three on Jan. 1, 2020. Parks data showed 26% of subscribers quit a service to cut expenses, the same as those ending a subscription because they finished watching a series. One trend to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic was trial-hopping, said Matt Smith, Symphony MediaAI vice president-business development. He cited a “big swath of users” binge-watching every show of a particular series during a trial, then “jumping off the platform.”

Advertising software company Viant is licensing TiVo’s linear TV viewership data feed, said the Xperi subsidiary Wednesday.

About 46% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to four or more over-the-top video services, and 82% have at least one, up from 76% in the year-ago quarter, said a Q1 Parks Associates survey. Services are using different growth strategies, including external partnerships, to expand their reach and improve retention, said President Elizabeth Parks Wednesday.

All four FCC commissioners will speak at the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment’s June 24 virtual meeting, said an agenda in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Commissioner Nathan Simington’s remarks will be prerecorded; others will speak live. All working groups will also deliver a report “on activities and deliberations during the 2019-2021 two-year charter,” it said. ACDDE WGs are Access to Capital, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity in the Tech Sector.

E-commerce fulfillment provider Ruby Has is forming the DTC Consortium as an “industry alliance and think tank” dedicated to the direct-to-consumer space, said the company Tuesday. More than 100 companies “from every corner of the industry have joined pre-launch as founding members,” it said, listing e-commerce companies Avalara and Nanoleaf. The consortium’s website says a partial list of founding members will be announced by month's end. Consortium representatives didn’t respond to questions about whether the new group intends to compete with the D2C Alliance, the Digital Entertainment Group affiliate that’s geared more to over-the-top streaming than e-commerce.

New FaceTime features are designed to address limitations in video calling to make interactions more natural. Spatial Audio, introduced last month in Apple Music, will help FaceTime conversations “flow as easily as they do face to face,” Senior Vice President-Software Engineering Craig Federighi told Apple’s virtual Worldwide Developers Conference Monday. Apple is extending FaceTime calls outside the ecosystem, letting Apple customers send links to Windows and Android users. They can send FaceTime links in messages, email, WhatsApp or in a calendar invite, said Federighi. Apple named Disney+, ESPN+, HBO Max, Hulu, MasterClass, Paramount+, Pluto TV, TikTok, NBA and Twitch as services integrating SharePlay into their apps. The 75-million track music catalog will be available in Lossless, the company said.

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act has “worked as intended,” and potential increases in complaints and lack of enforcement action are likely due to increased streaming during the pandemic and that 2019 had the fewest complaints since the act’s implementation, ACA Connects said in comments posted Friday in docket 21-181. The deadline was Thursday (see 2105210043). Comments from ACA and NCTA were the only recent filings from major industry trade groups posted in the docket Friday. It’s likely that many of the complaints the agency has received are either not specific enough to meet the act’s requirements or concern commercials on streaming services, and thus aren't actionable under the rules, ACA said. “It is important that the Commission understand the nature of the complaints before reaching any conclusions about the nature of the problem.” Enforce existing rules, ACA said, “rather than saddling a whole industry with increased regulation to solve a problem that may not exist in any meaningful measure for most.” A "number of companies have chosen to go above and beyond” FCC Calm Act rules in monitoring commercials, NCTA said. “Given the successful track record of the Commission’s rules implementing the CALM Act, there is no need for any changes.”

Thirty-nine percent of U.S. homes said they were likely to buy consumer tech gear within 12 months, when surveyed early in Q2, reported CTA Thursday. That's an 11-point increase from the same 2020 survey. The association canvassed 2,400 adults online April 9-18, finding 37% plan to buy new smartphones in the next year, compared with 29% who plan to buy new TVs. Ownership of 4K Ultra HD TVs surpassed a majority of U.S. homes for the first time, said CTA. The sets are installed in 52% of TV households, a 16-point increase from a year earlier and the largest growth for any product category surveyed. CTA estimates overall TV ownership at 91% of U.S. homes, edging out smartphones (90%) as the most commonly owned tech device. TV ownership was 98% in 2013 and 97% in 2014, but has been "steadily decreasing over the years as consumers transition to watching content" on their mobile devices, said a spokesperson. The year-over-year decline to 91% in 2021 from 93% in 2020 was within the survey's margin of error of plus or minus 2%, she said. Nielsen had a different take when it pegged TV penetration last summer at 96.2% of U.S. homes, trending 0.1% higher from a year earlier. Nielsen's estimate, its most recent available, was the percentage of total U.S. homes with TVs receiving traditional signals via over-the-air antenna, cable, satellite or broadband.

The deal between Amazon and the NFL for streaming rights to Thursday night games beginning in 2022 will boost Amazon Prime Video subscriptions, said Parks Associates Wednesday: Some 55% of pay-TV households consider live sports an important part of the decision to keep their video service. “By offering live games, streaming services give the significant market of NFL fans a reason to subscribe,” said analyst Steve Nason. As over the top “becomes an integral part of its strategy, the NFL is working to secure viewers, and profits, for the next decade.” More than two-thirds of online pay-TV subscribers and 43% of traditional pay-TV subscribers who canceled their pay-TV service during COVID-19 were likely to resubscribe after the return of live sports, said Parks.