The FCC will form a new Disability Advisory Committee to "provide a vehicle for consumers and other stakeholders to provide feedback and recommendations to the Commission on a wide array of disability issues,” the FCC said in a news release Tuesday. The committee will hold its first meeting in Q1 2015, “coinciding with a year-long celebration of both the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the 5th anniversary of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA),” the FCC said. The issues the new body will consider include access to emergency information, device accessibility, and the IP and other network transitions, the release said. The committee is expected to recommend policies to the FCC and keep it apprised of “current and evolving communications issues for persons with disabilities,” the release said. Nominations for two-year terms on the committee will be accepted until Jan. 12 and information about such nominations is here. “Organizations are encouraged to nominate CEOs, CTOs and other qualified persons,” the FCC said.

Aruba Networks, Broadcom Corp. and other technology vendors formed an alliance to meet industry demand for higher ethernet speeds. The companies making up the Multi-Rate Gigabit Ethernet Base-T Alliance, put their support behind efforts at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to bring 2.5G and 5G ethernet speeds to enterprise access points and other systems relying on unshielded twisted-pair cabling, MGBASE-T said Monday in a news release. The specification adopted by the alliance "leverages many of the fundamental technologies in Ethernet standards as defined in the IEEE 802.3 10GBASE-T, enabling faster time to market with minimal research and development efforts for ecosystem vendors," it said.

Cox Media stations were removed from the Verizon FiOS TV lineup in the Boston and Providence areas Thursday due to failed retransmission consent fee negotiations between Cox and Verizon, Verizon said Friday on its website: “We are hopeful that Cox will reconsider these drastic tactics, reduce its demands for millions more in fees, and work with Verizon to reach an agreement that is reasonable and in its own viewers’ best interest.” Verizon FiOS “has refused to reach a fair, market-based deal to carry FOX 25,” Fox Boston said on its website. The station, WFXT Boston, is continuing to negotiate with Verizon FiOS, “but Verizon has refused to agree to reasonable terms for valuable programming we provide,” it said. Cox’s behavior “illustrates how broken retransmission consent is,” the American Television Alliance said. The blackout is the 75th by broadcasters this year, it said in a news release.

Gray Television and Fields Cable settled their dispute over carriage of WYMT-TV Hazard, Kentucky, and WKYT-TV Lexington, Kentucky, Gray said in a letter to the commission posted in docket 12-221 Monday. The FCC should in turn dismiss Gray’s 2012 complaint against the cable provider, the letter said.

Additional procedural requirements related to new closed-captioning quality rules would “do nothing to enhance quality captioning for consumers,” said content companies in a meeting with staff from the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Media bureau Wednesday, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 05-231 Monday. Companies represented at the meeting included Disney, 21st Century Fox and Viacom. The FCC should “refrain from shifting liability” from providers to programmers in enforcing captioning issues, the companies said.

DirecTV and Dish Network raised legal points on permitted amendments and other aspects of the FCC's proposal to amend its regulatory fees schedule. The FCC may engage in permitted amendments "only if a change of law or a commission rulemaking proceeding changes the nature of commission services for which costs must be recovered," the direct broadcast satellite companies said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 14-92. "No such changes have occurred." The FCC has yet to demonstrate that any direct broadcast satellite category reflects the number of full-time-equivalent employees dedicated to DBS regulation, they said. The filing pertains to a meeting with staff from the Enforcement, Media and International bureaus, and the Office of the Managing Director.

CBS' over-the-top offerings are intended to serve viewers in broadband-only homes, CBS said in an ex parte filing pertaining to a meeting this week with CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and other commissioners. CBS is working with its affiliates to ensure that the OTT service, All Access, will give online viewers a broadcast-like service, it said. CBS' incentive to continue to produce, acquire and invest in the highest quality content demanded by consumers shouldn't be diminished or stifled by regulations, it said. Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel also attended the meeting, it said.

Disney Movies Anywhere partnered with Vudu to give movie watchers more access to Disney, Marvel and Pixar movies. Users can unlock the digital copy from Disney DVDs and Blu-rays purchased at Walmart, Vudu said Monday in a blog post. Connecting Disney Movies Anywhere with Vudu accounts is free, it said.

Gracenote launched a connected music solution for the automotive market linking terrestrial radio to online music services in an effort to create a common platform for music sources within a car’s head unit. The technology will be available for 2017 model year cars, Gracenote said in a news release. The multiple choices for music content in a car -- including AM/FM, CDs, satellite radio, Internet radio, subscription music services and music stored on a smartphone -- have created a disparate audio experience in vehicles, Gracenote said. The company’s goal is to offer a consistent user interface across all sources for metadata presented on a vehicle’s display. Gracenote’s solution, Entourage Radio, adds an intelligent layer that “helps identify what songs are being played and the source,” said Gracenote Chief Strategy Officer Ty Roberts. Gracenote Entourage is the underlying technology that enables continuous audio fingerprinting of songs for real-time music recognition, the company said. Being able to identify the audio source in real time enables Gracenote to deliver the correct song, artist and album information, “driver-relevant” cover art and station logos to the automotive display, it said. After a song is recognized, listeners can direct the head unit to play songs that are similar in genre, mood and era, to play additional songs from the artist or add to an existing playlist within a streaming music service, it said. For carmakers, Entourage Radio solves the challenge of fragmentation of entertainment services by market, Gracenote said. Music streaming services have varying levels of popularity and availability by market, and Gracenote’s large catalog of song IDs for streaming services gives carmakers the ability to link drivers to regional music services, the company said. An option within the platform is to use Gracenote’s Rhythm music discovery platform to enable “automatic playlisting” within a local library, it said.

More than 11,000 people attended the Content & Communications World and SATCON event at New York's Javits Convention Center last week, NAB said in a news release. Total attendee registration is based on pre-show and onsite registration, “and is subject to final reconciliation following the event,” NAB said. The previous organizer, JD Events, said last year’s attendance was 6,898, NAB said. There were 324 exhibiting companies, up from about 260 last year, it said. NAB acquired the event last year (see 1312240044)