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.

Xperi’s Perceive, which is developing edge-based machine-learning technology, had hoped to have products by year-end, but its customers have been affected by chip shortages, the unit's Vice President-Marketing David McIntyre told us. “The biggest issue is, lead times have gotten a little longer.” Its customers “have to assemble chips for many people, and they can only release the product with the slowest chip that shows up,” he said. Shortages have stretched timelines “a little bit,” but Perceive’s Ergo chip isn't affected, he said. Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner said Perceive is initially targeting security cameras, with future uses in mobile, wearables and elsewhere. First products are due in early 2022, he said.

The “big deals” with Amazon buying MGM and with WarnerMedia/Discovery are a “resounding affirmation” of streaming and “about the value of content” and of brands, said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer on a quarterly call Thursday. Lionsgate/Starz won’t play in streaming mergers and acquisitions because “we've got a benefit in terms of lack of disruption here at the company,” he said: “The key thing that we're going to do is keep our head down, and just keep executing on our plan.” Starz grew subscribers by 23% year over year, finishing fiscal Q4 ended March 31 with 29.5 million global accounts, said Feltheimer. Starz growth for the year took Lionsgate “past the digital inflection point of more over-the-top than linear subscribers,” he said. Lionsgate surpassed the “milestone” of 10 million U.S. streaming subs, he said. Lionsgate sees the streaming industry as “unfolding” into separate “broad-based” advertising-supported VOD and premium VOD tiers of services, said Starz CEO Jeff Hirsch. “The second tier is where we sit, which is in that premium service as a very edgy, non-ad-supported, really tailored service.”

Honda and AT&T extended their connected car relationship, offering premium WarnerMedia content at no additional charge to vehicles on unlimited data plans, they said Thursday. Hondas from model year 2018 and later are eligible, as are Acuras from 2019 on. This allows up to 10 passengers to connect devices and share content.

Promote local journalism by relaxing some broadcast regulations, said Gray Television and its counsel, former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, now with Cooley, in a presentation to Commissioner Nathan Simington Friday. Make it easier for broadcasters to make significantly viewed determinations, rule that local news doesn’t count against the 15% programming requirement for local marketing agreements, and relax restrictions for failing station waivers, asked a filing posted Wednesday in docket 20-73. Gray wants the FCC to use DirecTV’s pending license transfer to require it to deliver local stations to subscribers in all markets, to act on classifying over-the-top services as MVPDs, and to expand the currently defunct radio incubator program to TV.

Sling TV beta-launched an app Tuesday for Amazon Fire TV devices to ease content search and discovery, said the streaming company. It will continue rolling it out on compatible Sling devices this year, including Roku summer availability, it said: Sling’s engineering team developed the app “after a year of talking to customers,” it said.

AT&T and TPG Capital "simply cannot be trusted" to provide nondiscriminatory local TV service without an FCC order to provide full local service in all 210 designated market areas, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates told the FCC International Bureau Monday, renewing their push that approval of the DirecTV/U-verse spinoff be conditioned on providing local-into-local service in all 210 DMAs (see 2105040055). They responded to AT&T/TPG arguments that the cost is prohibitively high to provide local channels in the 12 markets where they aren't carried now, "due to a broken retransmission consent regime" and regulatory "loopholes" that let a broadcaster own multiple network affiliates in one market. AT&T and TPG said requiring local-into-local service would be unrelated to the transaction. The affiliates said the retrans argument is new, as AT&T and its DirecTV have always claimed in the past that the limitation was one of bandwidth. They said DirecTV has a pattern of "rais[ing] whatever excuse is convenient and in vogue at the time of the request."