Nexstar and Dish Network extended their distribution agreement allowing Dish to continue airing Nexstar programming until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. It's the third extension since a previous agreement expired, Nexstar said Monday in a news release. The previous extension expired Tuesday, it said. The companies have been negotiating for two months, Nexstar said. Nexstar said it remains hopeful that a resolution can be reached “without a service interruption to viewers in affected markets.” Dish and CBS reached a carriage agreement last week after CBS channels were pulled from Dish’s lineup for one day, Dish and CBS said in a news release. The agreement will result in dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, they said. "As part of the accord, DISH’s AutoHop commercial-skipping functionality will not be available for CBS Television Network-owned stations and affiliates during the C7 window."

Consumers who snatched up 4K TVs in Black Friday deals have more Ultra HD content to watch on them. Amazon announced Tuesday that its long-awaited Ultra HD streaming content is now available to Amazon Prime customers, for free under their $99 annual membership fee, and starting at $19.99 per movie for non-Prime members. Amazon Ultra HD content currently available includes the Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live! Concert -- sponsored by LG -- along with original series from Amazon including Alpha House and Transparent. Other 4K content available on Amazon includes Orphan Black from the BBC; and Sony Pictures movies such as After Earth, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and This Is the End. Amazon Ultra HD movies and TV shows can be accessed on compatible Ultra HD smart TVs, “including models from LG, Samsung and Sony, with more added next year,” said Amazon. It didn’t immediately respond to questions about compatibility with other brands or streaming media players.

Discovery Communications and Hulu signed a new distribution agreement giving Hulu subscribers access to Discovery programming. Hulu will gain exclusive subscription VOD rights to the Discovery Channel's series Deadliest Catch, Discovery said Tuesday in a news release. The deal also includes programming from several networks, like Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery and TLC, it said.

Pay-TV consolidation is a response to programmer consolidation and the large content bundles they require multichannel video programming distributors to buy, said The Weather Channel in a meeting with FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and other Media Bureau staff last week, according to an ex parte filing in docket 11-131. Independent programmers “have suffered from more limited carriage opportunities and demands for significant price cuts because of the greater role of bundling,” said the Weather Channel representatives, who “expressed support” for a Mediacom petition asking the FCC to restrict programmers’ ability to bundle content. The Weather Channel also attacked some MVPD business practices as hindering independent programmers. “Unreasonable provisions” in affiliation agreements required by MVPDs include prohibitions on alternative distribution methods for content, limitations on the sale of local advertising; and “complex and interconnected most favored nation clauses (“MFNs”) that impede innovation,” the filing said.

ISPs provided significant increases in average speeds for Netflix streaming since November 2013. In the U.S., the average speed for the top 10 cable and fiber ISPs increased to 3.07 Mbps, up from 2.03 Mbps in the same period last year, Netflix said Monday in a blog post. That's due in part to Cablevision, Charter, Cox and other ISPs increasing their average speeds significantly "without requiring additional payment to reach mutual customers," it said. "Additional interconnect capacity also helped normalize performance across these ISPs." In the U.K., speeds increased from 2.62 Mbps in November 2013 to 3.31 Mbps since then, it said.

The FCC will conduct an open and transparent review process for the proposed AT&T/DirecTV transaction, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in letters to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. Wheeler responded to a letter from Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah. "Your views will be taken into consideration, and your letter will be made part of the record," he said in separate letters to the lawmakers. Klobuchar and Lee led a hearing on the deal in June.

The National Association of African-American Owned Media, representing an anonymous African-American-owned programmer, sued AT&T and DirecTV for $10 billion alleging racial discrimination in program carriage and contracting decisions. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. “In cahoots with the FCC and non-media civil rights advocacy groups, the major white-owned video programming distributors have concocted ways to perpetuate the exclusion of truly 100 percent African-American-owned networks,” the complaint said. AT&T/DirecTV has declined to pay to carry the programmer’s channels, but has entered into carriage agreements with “other, similarly situated white-owned channels,” the complaint said. The programmer at the heart of the lawsuit has offered seven channels to AT&T/DirecTV, including a 24-hour news channel, but was offered carriage only for large fees, the complaint said. “Although Defendants’ African American subscribers pay very substantial subscriber fees, and constitute a significant advertising target for Defendants, Defendants pay nothing to 100 percent African-American-owned media for channel carriage and nearly nothing for advertising,” the complaint said. The complaint also attacks the FCC and some civil rights groups for contributing to the exclusion of African-American-owned media companies. “AT&T is paying off non-media, so-called African-American civil rights groups … in order to ‘buy’ their endorsement for its acquisition of DirecTV,” the complaint said. “Diversity is a top priority for AT&T,” the telco said in a released statement. DirecTV didn't comment. An AT&T spokesman said the company spent $15.5 billion “with diverse suppliers” in 2013, and most U-Verse customers have access to several African-American-oriented networks and Justice Central, a 100 percent African-American-owned television network. AT&T has agreed to buy DirecTV.

Southern Cloud, an over-the-top platform provider, will use Level 3's content delivery network services. The CDN will distribute paid content via Southern Cloud's International TV platform, Cloudio TV, over multiple devices such as set-top boxes, Connected Smart TVs and Blu-ray players, Level 3 said Wednesday in a news release. This will allow Southern Cloud to migrate satellite subscribers to an IP-based delivery model, Level 3 said. New capabilities will allow broadcasters "to improve their overall cost structure, which can translate into lower entry points for end-users," it said.

Pandora released a beta version of a new mobile interface for its customers, said a company news release Tuesday. The interface, which will roll out to all Pandora users over the next several months, is available for 3 percent of Pandora’s iPhone and Android smartphone users.

AOL acquired Vidible, a cross-screen video platform for the exchange of digital media, said a joint news release Tuesday. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Vidible has 300,000 videos that garner 800 million plays per month, it said. AOL has 1 million premium videos in its library.