Funai renewed its multiyear product and intellectual property license with TiVo for entertainment products sold in Japan, North America and Europe, said the companies in a Wednesday announcement. Funai, which is about to re-enter the Japanese market with 4K TVs, licensed TiVo’s G-Guide and G-Guide xD electronic programming guides and will incorporate TiVo’s G-Guide HTML in future 4K TV models, it said.
YouTube increasingly is placing big importance on TV as a viewing platform, and could start challenging traditional free-to-air broadcasters there, blogged nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon. More than half of YouTube viewing is done via mobile devices, but an increasing amount is being watched on TVs, he said Monday, and YouTube parent Google says two-thirds of YouTube viewers watch at least some of the videos on TV.
An FCC declaratory ruling should make it expressly clear that alongside annual notices, written information provided at the time of service installation and on request also can be delivered electronically, NCTA Deputy General Counsel Diane Burstein told Media Bureau staffers, said a docket 16-126 ex parte filing posted Monday. NCTA said its joint petition with the American Cable Association on allowing electronic dissemination of customer notices (see 1603080052) sought a ruling that each of these types of notices could be satisfied via email. The declaratory ruling to be voted on at commissioners' June 22 meeting (see 1706010049) covers only annual notices.
The FTC signed off on Liberty Interactive's buy of General Communication Inc., said an early termination notice released Wednesday. The $1.12 billion deal was expected to face few regulatory challenges (see 1704040048).
Fox's Fox Now streaming service is available on iOS, with Roku and Android devices to follow later this month, it said in a news release Wednesday. It said the service bundles Fox, FX and National Geographic content into one app. It said the Fox Now app will expand into other platforms, including Apple TV, Xbox gaming consoles, Kindle Fire and Fire TV, later this year.
Epix's streaming video app will be integrated into the rear-seat entertainment systems of Honda's 2018 Odyssey minivan, in what Epix said in a news release Wednesday was the first connected car entertainment video service. Epix said the app will give rear-seat passengers who are subscribers access to the network's video library and its four live linear channels, and the ability to add content to a personal queue.
Much of Sky Angel's legal fight with Discovery and its Animal Planet network may involve what Discovery knew about how Sky Angel distributed content and when did it know its signals were being carried online to Sky Angel subscribers. In dueling briefs filed Tuesday in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see here and here, in Pacer), Sky Angel cited emails and other communications with Discovery since 2007 that noted its internet distribution, while Discovery/Animal Planet said that throughout dealings with Sky Angel, it never knowingly allowed distribution of its linear networks over the internet, regardless of the distributor. Sky Angel is appealing a 2016 verdict in favor of Discovery (see 1609120042) after the former over-the-top MVPD's 2013 suit claiming breach of contract after Discovery ended their affiliation agreement (see 1303070045). Sky Angel, which now distributes via Dish Network, in 2010 filed a still-open program access complaint against Discovery. The lower court verdict wrongly focused on Discovery's view of the contract rather than on agreed-upon language, as well as whether the programmer was dissatisfied, Sky Angel said in its opening appellant brief. Thus the lower court ruling focused on Discovery internal policy "rather than on any information of which Sky Angel would have been aware," it said. It said U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, erred when it found the phrase "high-speed data connection" in the affiliation agreement to be ambiguous. Such a connection "need not be the public Internet, [but] that is an obvious possibility," Sky Angel said in a reply brief (in Pacer) also filed Tuesday. It said Discovery doesn't explain how such a term "can be interpreted to exclude 'the public Internet.'" The lower court's finding "is only reviewable for clear error, and Sky Angel's appeal never comes close to -- or could come close to -- the clear error standard," Discovery/Animal Planet said in an appellee brief. It said Sky Angel, faced with sizable evidence the termination right was exercised in good faith, "takes the Court through a maze of detours and dead-end turns" by arguing for de novo review that gives no deference to the lower court's previous ruling, instead of clear error review. Discovery/Animal Planet said it hadn't allowed any distributor at that time to distribute via IPTV in part because it didn't have internet distribution rights for some licensed content, and due to security and signal quality concerns, and that letting any distributor do so could trigger most-favored nation obligations to other distributors.
Broadcasters worldwide are increasingly concerned with what subscription VOD is doing to cultural identity, given increased exposure to U.S. and global content, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. He said that issue was underlying concerns voiced at the Future TV Conference last month in Copenhagen about competing with global over-the-top providers like Netflix, with growing recognition children are unlikely to return to traditional TV.
Pointing to his son's taking a job at Greenberg Traurig, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman said in an order (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in Miami that he would recuse himself from litigation about alleged bribery in exchange for exclusive South American Football Confederation TV rights. Goodman said the firm represents a party in the case, in which GolTV and Global Sports are suing a variety of parties, including Fox Sports Latin America, alleging they were denied those TV rights despite offering the highest bids.
Charter Communications data will be integrated into comScore's TV measurement service, comScore said in a news release Wednesday. It said with the addition of Charter markets, plus viewing data from Charter's Spectrum TV Everywhere app, its TV measurement service will cover over 35 million homes.