Dish Network asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay its affirmation of a lower court's $280 million verdict for Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations because the company plans to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. In a docket 17-3111 motion Tuesday (in Pacer), Dish said its petition for a writ of certiorari would deal with whether a standard quality-control provision in a business agreement creates an agency relationship, subjecting one company to vicarious liability for the acts of another, and whether a principal can be found to have ratified an agent’s action based on imputed, rather than actual, knowledge. Those issues "have split the circuits, affect companies across many industries, and will undoubtedly recur," Dish said. It said DOJ opposes the stay motion. The 7th Circuit last week rejected a Dish ask for rehearing (see 2006250063).

Reddit banned a forum dedicated to President Donald Trump, CEO Steve Huffman announced Monday, citing repeated violations of policies prohibiting promoting hate. Reddit banned subreddit r/The_Donald because it “has consistently hosted and upvoted more rule-breaking content than average,” antagonized the platform and other subreddits, and “its mods have refused to meet our most basic expectations,” Huffman wrote. “Until now, we’ve worked in good faith to help them preserve the community as a space for its users -- through warnings, mod changes, quarantining, and more.” He cited rules against identity attacks, racism, harassment, bullying and threats of violence: “Communities and people that incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability will be banned.”

Brazil, Argentina and India are among the cheapest markets for subscribing to video, music and game streaming services when standard of living is factored in, while Switzerland, Denmark and Germany are among the priciest, VPNPro blogged Thursday. Its survey found the U.S. is "in general a fairly cheap country for online services."

NBCUniversal's Peacock will be available on Vizio SmartCast and LG smart TVs when it launches July 15. The streaming video service will have a free tier with more than 7,500 hours of movies, shows and live and on-demand news, sports, reality and late night programming; a premium version, for $5 per month, includes more than 15,000 hours of content, said the media company. In an early preview in April, Comcast's Xfinity X1 and Flex customers received Peacock at no additional cost; eligible Cox Contour customers get free access in July.

Smart TVs are the only measured device experiencing a year-over-year increase as the primary streaming video tool in the home, reported Parks Associates Wednesday. Half of U.S. broadband households own at least one smart TV, and nearly a third cite a smart TV as their primary streaming video device, nearly double the rate of streaming media players and computers, said analyst Steve Nason. “The smart TV continues to improve its perceived value across a variety of key features and technologies,” said Nason, due to improvements in navigation and discoverability. An improved user experience comes at an important market inflection point, said Nason: “Consumers are watching more video at home while also cutting the cord on pay TV, leaving them to search for content on their own, across multiple services.” Broadcasters that incorporate smart TVs and connected devices into their app strategies are having an uptick in overall consumption and user engagement, said Jonathan Laor, CEO of app development platform company Applicaster. Consumers are using their mobile devices more to subscribe to new services, said Laor, while increasing their consumption on TVs. Q1 2019-Q1 2020, more than 6 million households cut the cord on a traditional pay-TV service, primarily switching to over-the-top services or broadcast TV via antenna for video content, said Parks. Changes to viewing habits that occurred during shelter-at-home periods during the coronavirus pandemic are expected to continue. Broadband households are consuming on average more than 20 hours of video content weekly on the TV, up 40% from 2017.

An FCC Media Bureau order denying a broadcaster's petition for a declaratory ruling on mandatory satellite carriage of a qualified low-power TV station and its demand for carriage against Dish Network and AT&T's DirecTV (see 1910240025) stands, the commission ordered, in Tuesday's Daily Digest. WVUX-LD Fairmont, West Virginia, disagreed with the bureau order. Its appeal didn't show any error in the legal analysis backing it, the FCC said. WVUX counsel didn't comment Tuesday.

Samsung’s South Korean parent filed to register “MotionVue” June 16 as a plain-text U.S. trademark, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Samsung wants to use MotionVue for “downloadable” software that improves a TV’s image quality, said the application. The company didn’t comment Monday. There’s been recent activity on optimizing a TV’s motion performance to render static movie content with better creative intent while capturing fast-action live sports without motion blur. That activity is ramping up with the industry’s migration to larger screens and higher resolutions, emailed Insight Media President Chris Chinnock. “There is movement on this besides Samsung,” said Chinnock, also the executive director of the 8K Association, the 2-year-old brainchild of Samsung. The group is composed of Samsung’s broader display industry ecosystem partners but virtually no one outside that sphere.

All four broadcast network affiliate groups emphasized the importance of retransmission consent revenue due to decreased ad revenue, and expressed concerns about increasing competition for programming and vMVPDs, in a call with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Chief of Staff Matthew Berry Tuesday, said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-60. The affiliate groups “stressed the importance” of local ownership relief, “the continued absolute importance of the existing and long-standing exclusivity rules,” and accurately defining the local video market. The FCC should continue to “educate” DOJ about the ad market, close its inquiry into the exclusivity rules and "take a fresh look” at the long-stalled vMVPD proceeding, the groups said.

The news media's coverage of George Floyd's death and subsequent protests has been good, though care needs to be paid to not overly show footage of Floyd's death, NCTA President Michael Powell said on C-SPAN's Communicators to have been telecast over the weekend. Powell said he has "never been so torn and anguished" with the U.S. still being unable to "exorcise the demons and the ghosts of its ... slave past." He said that "absent cameras, this stuff gets brushed aside."

NAB Leadership Foundation President Michelle Duke will become NAB chief diversity officer, the association announced Thursday. Duke will be in charge of internal efforts to “further equity and inclusion at all levels of the organization” and the trade group’s external work to promote industry diversity. Duke will keep her job with the NABLF. “It’s a full plate,” she said in an interview. “One role is no more important than the other.” Duke is the first CDO for NAB, and had other roles within the association that concentrated on improving diversity. She joined in 2005 as director-diversity and development. Duke said she's in preliminary stages of planning what issues she will focus on as CDO, and is interested in “diversity conversations at the board level” and working with NABLF’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, plus creating a similar body for NAB. Experts say organizations must do much to diversify their cultures (see 2006160038).