The FCC should update its rules to promote competition among set-top devices that integrate pay-TV content with over-the-top services, said former FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick in an ex parte filed on Google's behalf Monday in docket 10-91. He said the FCC “should promote development of open, standard protocols that allow for devices that let consumers fully benefit from their [multichannel video programming distributor] subscriptions while integrating content accessed from the Internet.” Such rules would allow consumers to use “lower-cost or technically superior” devices and encourage innovation that “has yet to develop for navigation devices,” Schlick said. The FCC should create "open, standard protocols" for navigation devices that have "industry wide applicability," said the filing.

The FCC issued a second Further NPRM on closed caption quality standards, seeking comment on ways to make video programmer contact information readily available to video programming distributors and others in order to resolve captioning problems. Since the commission's previous captioning quality notice proposed making both programmers and distributors responsible for caption quality, the FCC is seeking comment “on requiring video programmers to file contact information and certifications of captioning compliance” with the FCC, the notice said. The second Further NPRM also seeks comment on whether VPDs should be required to alert programmers that they must provide certification of caption quality to the FCC, the notice said.

Online news publication Re/code should destroy, not publish, any information it might have related to the Sony Pictures Entertainment data breach, said Sony lawyer David Boies, chairman of law firm Boies, Schiller, in a letter Sunday. Boies said SPE would hold Re/code responsible for “damages or loss” stemming from the publication of the breached data. Rep. Marsha Blackburn said earlier this month that the SPE breach is another reason to pass her Secure It Act (HR-1468) (see 1412080061).

E-readers, whose primary purpose isn't advanced communications services, nonetheless are adding accessibility features, said a group of device makers seeking a longer waiver (see 1411120048) of FCC rules requiring accessibility. Improvements to "a number of products and services" show the commitment to accessibility by members of the waiver-extension-seeking Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers, said that coalition in an ex parte letter posted Monday to docket 10-213. It responded to the National Federation of the Blind, which opposes a waiver extension, and other groups. The coalition said accessibility has been addressed by members including Amazon, which introduced the accessible Fire phone, and Sony, which developed entertainment access glasses with audio. Kobo is also a coalition member, and the group said the company has "maintained a number of accessibility features on its e-readers."

The FCC’s ruling that confidential programming contract and retransmission consent deal information would be available to parties involved in the AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/Time Warner Cable transactions is “an abrupt and unexplained departure” from its prior policy, said content companies Monday in their initial brief on the matter before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FCC “disregarded its own past practice, judicial precedent, and the rights of entities like Petitioners,” said CBS, Univision, Viacom and the other programmers involved in the petition for review. The content companies want the court to vacate the portion of the Media Bureau’s Modified Confidentiality Orders that would make Video Programming Confidential Information available to parties to the mergers. Because of the scale of the deals, access to the contracts those companies are involved in would give the parties involved access to contract information “covering most of the major television markets in the United States,” NAB said Monday in an intervenor brief filed in support of the content companies. “The sheer size of the merging parties and the scope of their agreements exacerbate the risk of harm from disclosure to third parties of broadcasters’ negotiating strategies and contract terms with the five affected” multichannel video programming distributors, NAB said.

Netflix wants to rest open Internet policy on a solid legal foundation, it said in an FCC ex parte filing. Netflix’s Open Connect content delivery network brings data to the locations of an ISP’s choice, “usually at common Internet exchange points or through localized caches,” it said. The filing pertains to a response to a query from Commissioner Ajit Pai (see 1412020044). Under the Open Connect program, “Netflix bears all of the costs of providing Open Connect equipment to any ISP that chooses to participate in Open Connect,” it said. “Open Connect does not prioritize Netflix data.” It helps ISPs reduce costs and better manage congestion, “which results in a better Internet experience for all end users,” it said. Netflix hasn’t impeded the use of proxy caches by changing protocols, it said. It has obscured certain URL structures “to protect our members from deep packet inspection tools deployed to gather data about what they watch online,” it said. Netflix discussed the points made in its response during an ex parte meeting last week with Pai and his staff, it said.

Toshiba bowed a wireless hard drive designed to work with a Chromecast streaming media stick. The one-terabyte Canvio AeroCast ($219) enables consumers to “cast” video to an HDTV using Toshiba’s Google Cast Ready app, Toshiba said Thursday. Users upload and back up content from their mobile devices to the Canvio AeroCast for “secure, centralized storage,” the company said. Access to stored files is via the hard drive's Wi-Fi connection, the company said. Battery life is five hours and the AeroCast can connect simultaneously with up to six devices, the company said. Toshiba is also shipping the Canvio Cast wireless adapter ($79), which enables users to wirelessly upload, share, download and stream a hard drive video library to a connected mobile device.

A draft NPRM seeking comment on redefining the category of multichannel video programming distributors to include linear online video distributors will be voted on this week, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at Thursday’s meeting. The item is “simple” and similar to the legislation that brought DBS into the MVPD fold, he said.

Netflix reached 5 million subscribers in Latin America, MoffettNathanson analysts said. It took 36 months to reach about 9 percent penetration of the broadband population, they said Wednesday in a research note. Despite the higher level of penetration, that market was "spooked" by the low number of Q3 international subscribers and Q4 guidance, they said. Netflix previously said Latin America has been the slowest region to penetrate due to several issues specific to the region, including lower broadband Internet penetration, the analysts said. Netflix's difficulties could come from their most recent market entrances, like Germany, they said. "As Netflix expands into Australia, we see similarities to the German market as competition in Australia is already in place before its March launch."

It likely will take longer to reach 100 million 5G subscribers than it did to reach that many 4G subscribers, an ABI Research study said. It will take more than five years for 5G to hit that mark, which is two years longer than for 4G, ABI said Thursday in a news release. The growth of 4G was fueled by the capabilities of “increasingly powerful smartphones and the availability of 4G devices,” it said. Subscriber growth of 5G likely will be a bit more muted at first due to the increased complexity of 5G cells and networks, but will pick up in 2023, it said. The countries that will lead 5G subscriber volumes are the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and the U.K., it said. A 5G network will be a network of small cells and it will be practical in urban and industrialized environments “for the population density and the reflections in urban canyons,” it said. But “expect a scaled down version of 5G to use existing spectrum for macrocells as well in the longer term,” ABI said.