Netflix has competed head to head against the HBO Nordic streaming service for nearly two years in the same four European markets, but the lessons learned there won’t necessarily be applicable to the U.S. when HBO launches its streaming service in 2015 (see 1410150095), Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said on a YouTube Q&A Wednesday with two analysts. HBO Nordic, available in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, launched in December 2012 as a joint venture with Parsifal International, the Swedish-based pay-TV provider. That’s about the same time Netflix debuted its streaming service in those same four markets. Asked to speculate how the HBO streaming service in the U.S. might be priced and distributed when it ultimately comes out, Hastings recalled that when HBO Nordic launched two years ago, it "chose to price on top of our pricing." Hastings cautioned that pricing overall in the Nordic countries is higher overall than in the U.S. because of the European valued-added tax and a higher cost of living. "So it's not definitely indicative" of the competitive price structure that could come into play in the U.S. when HBO launches its streaming service next year, he said. "But they've been quite aggressive in the Nordics and we stayed well ahead," Hastings said. Later in the Q&A, Hastings again cautioned against reading too much into the Nordic experience in predicting how HBO and Netflix might go head to head in the U.S. "Each market is unique," Hastings said. When HBO Nordic launched, it encountered "some teething problems initially two years ago that they probably would not have in the U.S.," he said. "I think they've been licensing broadly," including having recently licensing "a number" of Starz titles, he said. "So they're willing to license beyond their core platform. They've done pretty well, and we've done very well." Hastings is looking forward to a "fun" period the next few years when "the two of us compete for the best content, the most Emmys, the subscriber growth," he said. "And many, many people will subscribe to both services. So we're looking forward to that. We're just excited that HBO is really in the game with the Internet. They're the leader in their field. They're well ahead of their peer-group. They're ahead of the broadcast networks in this dimension, so it's exciting to see." HBO representatives didn’t immediately comment. Asked to elaborate on the Hastings comment that HBO Nordic incurred "teething problems" when it launched two years ago, Netflix spokesman Don Halcombe emailed us Thursday to say the company would have "nothing to add."

The U.S. market revenue for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will grow to $15 billion in 2020 from $5 billion last year, an IGI Consulting report said. Growth will be driven by the commercial and the “do-it-yourself” markets, IGI said in a news release. Fiber optic technology, developed for telecom, has a wide range of possible uses in the UAV field, the report said (http://bit.ly/1ve3grV). Fiber offers small size and weight with a potential for low cost, it said. Regulation is the biggest burden for UAV growth, the report said. “The only way the regulators will act is through political pressure” from “big hitters,” such as Apple, Amazon and Google, it said. Federal agencies, like the FCC, Federal Aviation Administration and NTIA, have the potential to foster growth in the UAV civil market, IGI said.

While some mobile banking users claimed to have no major concerns about mobile banking, more than 56 percent said they have fears when accessing their bank information on smartphones, a GOBankingRates study found. About 37 percent of smartphone users polled cited identity theft as a major concern, and almost 9 percent were worried about technical errors, GOBankingRates said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1nmcjp1). Women were 65 percent more likely than men to worry about technical errors resulting in missing funds, it said. Men were 85 percent more likely than women to be worried about lack of paper statements, and 37 percent more likely to be concerned with misuse of information, it said. “Respondents in the Northeast and South were more concerned with identity theft than those in the West and Midwest.” To obtain the information, GOBankingRates surveyed 790 Americans, it said.

General Motors weighed in at the FCC, raising concerns about proposals that the agency subject mobile broadband to the same rules as fixed as it moves forward on net neutrality regulations. GM said it has a real stake in the issue since it's building technology into cars so they can offer a built-in vehicle hot spot. Mobile broadband in a car moving at 75 miles down a highway or stuck in a traffic jam is “fundamentally different” from a wired connection to a consumer’s home and “merits continued consideration under distinct rules that take this into account,” GM said. The FCC can't “define exceptions for ‘reasonable network management’ for circumstances it can’t imagine,” GM said. GM said the future holds a promise of continuing innovation for cars and mobile broadband. “We urge the Commission to preserve the regulatory environment that can continue to foster this,” GM said. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has hinted repeatedly that mobile broadband will be subject to the same rules as fixed, but with an exception allowing carriers to engage in “reasonable network management.”

Google has received nearly 145,000 requests for information removal since it started accepting requests May 29, after the European Court of Justice’s right to be forgotten ruling, said a transparency report published Friday (http://bit.ly/1snEpBQ). From those requests, Google has considered 497,695 URLs for removal, ultimately removing 41.8 percent of them. Facebook has had the most URLs, 3,332, removed from search results, followed by data crawler ProfileEngine.com, YouTube and popular European social network Badoo.

Donna Nelson, chairwoman of the Texas Public Utilities Commission, will be among the panelists for the Oct. 21 Internet regulation forum in College Station, Texas, being organized by FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, his office said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1shkAuR). The other panelists are: Edward Henigin, Data Foundry chief technology officer; Robert Hunt, Guadalupe Valley Telephone Cooperative vice president-regulatory affairs; Chelsea McCullough, Texans for Economic Progress executive director; Joe Portman, Alamo Broadband president; and Stewart Youngblood, Dallas Entrepreneur Center ambassador. The forum is scheduled to be live streamed.

Facebook revealed Audience Network, which lets third parties buy or host advertisements on mobile apps, in a Tuesday blog post (http://on.fb.me/1nYAtGR). “The Audience Network uses the same targeting and measurement features that marketers already use when advertising on Facebook,” it said. The company recently relaunched its Internet-wide ad platform Atlas, which received some pushback from privacy advocates over its targeted advertising opt-out policy, which still allows data collection.

There is “every reason to believe” that the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions “will be consumed” by the ITU, said Bartlett Cleland, Institute for Policy Innovation resident scholar-tax and innovation policy, in a news release Thursday. Cleland cited Iran’s suggestion that the proposals of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee be mandated upon approval by a simple majority of ICANN’s board. “The Obama administration’s view is not just being ignored, but essentially mocked, as authoritarian governments move to make ICANN another puppet of government,” he said. Cleland said if the U.S. fails to preserve Internet freedom, it could be forced to disconnect from the global network.

Broadband speeds have increased from an average peak of 27.1 Mbps in 2012 to 45.3 Mbps, said NCTA in a blog post Friday (http://bit.ly/1racpes). The 67 percent increase is based on an Akamai quarterly report on the Internet, NCTA said. “Every year broadband speeds increase in the U.S. and these increases will continue.” Charter Communications increased minimum broadband speeds from 15 Mbps to 60 Mbps this year, while Cox Communications has announced plans for gigabit service to many residential customers, NCTA said. The speed increases come from “huge, consistent, infrastructure investment,” NCTA said. Cable companies spent $14 billion on infrastructure improvements last year, while telecom companies as a whole spent $46 billion, “more than any other industry in America,” NCTA said.

Google revealed a project called The Physical Web, intended to allow smart devices to provide information without user prompts (http://bit.ly/1CHwzoO). For instance, a user walking past a bus stop would automatically be sent bus schedules, Google said Thursday. “The number of smart devices is going to explode, and the assumption that each new device will require [its] own application just isn’t realistic,” the company said. “We need a system that lets anyone interact with any device at any time.” Google said it will release an open, common Web standard “that any device can use to offer interaction.”