Fletcher Heald will present a free webinar on must carry rights and retransmission consent on Oct. 23, at 1 p.m. ET, the law firm said on its blog (http://bit.ly/1CrBF6G). The webinar will be conducted by Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Dan Kirkpatrick and cable attorney Paul Feldman. "It will address a long list of post-election issues that both TV folks and cable folks should be focused on."

The National Black Caucus of State Legislators urged the FCC to approve the proposed AT&T buy of DirecTV. The deal is expected to increase competition, and AT&T has committed to enhance and expand high-speed broadband service availability to millions of customer locations, allowing customers to "gain new service options and choices as well as an additional strong competitor in their local markets,” the caucus said in a letter to the FCC posted Tuesday in docket 14-90 (http://bit.ly/1zb4J64). AT&T has a proud record on diversity, the caucus said.

SESAC reached a $58.5 million settlement with the Television Music License Committee (TMLC) over a class-action antitrust suit on music performing rights, TMLC said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1zb884N). In the suit, TMLC accused SESAC of “overcharging local television stations since 2008,” the release said. The settlement was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, and the case had been set for trial in March, the release said. SESAC will pay the $58.5 million into a fund that will reimburse stations for excess SESAC fees gong back to 2008, and will negotiate industry wide agreements with the TMLC for 20 years starting in 2016, it said. The settlement also restores a per program license option that allows stations to negotiate directly with SESAC-affiliated composers, and SESAC agreed not to “interfere with negotiations between its affiliated composer/publishers and stations,” it said.

Ultra HD pay-TV viewership will reach 46 million homes globally by 2018, Parks Associates said in a forecast Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1u155nH). Pay-TV providers will deploy 4K content delivery "as a differentiator, especially among younger consumers who are more likely to use new pay-TV features, such as TV Everywhere and cloud DVR, but also have slightly lower subscription rates for pay-TV services," Parks said. In the U.S., 82 percent of consumers in the 18-22 age group have a pay-TV subscription, compared with 87 percent among older adults, it said. "To enjoy the true benefits of 4K, three things need to be present: the television, the content, and a way to get the content to the TV," Parks said. Parks thinks 4K "can deliver an enhanced experience to viewers, but these three factors are not yet aligned," it said. "Getting 4K content to the TV remains a key challenge as is the pace of production of 4K content."

Oral arguments on whether a nationwide preliminary injunction against Aereo should be issued while the broadcasters’ case against the streaming service is tried on the merits will be in U.S. District Court in Manhattan Wednesday, said court filings in the case. Aereo has “paused operations nationally” on its own, but has argued that the court should not issue such an injunction, and argued that it should receive the same compulsory copyright license issued to cable companies. "Aereo is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act, and no preliminary injunction should issue on remand," Aereo has said. Aereo’s argument is based on the majority opinion in the ABC v. Aereo U.S. Supreme Court decision in broadcasters' favor in June (ref:1409040014), which said Aereo’s service bore a close resemblance to a cable system and should therefore be bound by the same copyright and retransmission consent rules. The U.S. Copyright Office has said it doesn't believe Aereo is eligible for a compulsory copyright license. Aereo has also taken to the FCC its argument that it's a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD), meeting with Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commissioner Ajit Pai, and numerous commission staffers, including Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, General Counsel Jonathan Sallet, and aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O’Rielly. The meetings concerned reports that the commission is re-opening a proceeding on whether over-the-top video providers should be considered MVPDs, said an ex parte filing Friday (http://bit.ly/1z89QEa). “We believe that clarifying the MVPD definition to narrowly include linear online video services like Aereo’s would have clear benefits to consumers, creators and distributors alike,” said Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia in a post on the Aereo website. Meaningful competition for regular MVPDs from over-the-top providers “can only materialize and develop into a sustainable business in a stable and certain regulatory environment,” said the ex parte. “Timely” FCC issuance of an NPRM on redefining online services as MVPDs action “is crucial” to Aereo’s ability to bring a competing OTT service to market, the ex parte said.

21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management agreed to create a global multiplatform content provider. The companies will jointly manage the group, with each owning 50 percent, the companies said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1yiaGN7). The group’s businesses will have creative operations in more than 30 markets, “with a diverse portfolio of over 600 formats ... coupled with digital, gaming, and distribution operations,” it said. The agreement brings together Core Media, Endemol and Shine Group, it said. Those three companies will continue to operate as separate companies upon the transaction’s completion, 21st Century Fox and Apollo said.

The FCC shouldn’t tighten rules for closed captioning video clips delivered over the Internet before they've even taken effect, said NAB (http://bit.ly/ZSvtJc) and NCTA (http://bit.ly/1shfWwZ) in comments filed in docket 11-154 in response to the second Further NPRM on IP clip captions (http://1.usa.gov/1ooIsWB) that was issued alongside the IP clip captioning order (http://bit.ly/1xuDSgE). Portions of the order don’t take effect until January 2016. The FNPRM had sought comment on shortening the period of time companies have to caption live and near-live clips after they're posted online, applying the rules to “mash-ups” of previously captioned and uncaptioned material, as well as to third parties hosting content on their websites. “It would be arbitrary and capricious for the Commission to now alter the timeline for complying with captioning requirements that are not yet in force under the schedule the Commission very recently adopted,” NAB said. Consumer groups representing the hearing impaired, including the Hearing Loss Association of America, the National Association of the Deaf and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, disagreed in a joint filing (http://bit.ly/1pWfOhA). By punting the stiffer captioning rules to the FNPRM, the FCC left in place “critical barriers that pose substantial confusion and deny equal access to consumers who are deaf or hard of hearing,” the consumer groups said. “We urge the Commission to act quickly to eliminate these barriers."

SES agreed to deliver content from Ireland’s Setanta Sports in high definition to 13 countries. The channels, Setanta Sports and Setanta Sports Plus, will be delivered on the Astra 5B satellite at 31.5 degrees east, SES said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1uCtHaj). The channels are available on all key cable, direct-to-home and IPTV platforms within the countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Latvia, it said. The satellite strengthens the SES video neighborhood in Europe by extending geographic reach over Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, SES said.

Facebook officially owns WhatsApp, said a Monday filing to the SEC (http://1.usa.gov/Za1qeJ). The social networking company revealed its $19 billion purchase of the message app in February (http://bit.ly/1ilEw9w), and the deal has since cleared regulatory hurdles at the FTC and EU. WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum will join Facebook’s board, said the filing.

City Brand International, of Shenzhen, China, joined the DVD Copy Control Association, the group told the Justice Department and the FTC in written notifications Sept. 4, said a notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1v18rc0). Six companies also have withdrawn from the DVD CCA, the notice said. They are Eclipse Data Technologies, of Pleasanton, California; Hitachi, of Tokyo; Hong Kong Asa Multimedia, of Hong Kong; Marubun, of Tokyo; MediaCore, of Gyeonggi-Do, South Korea; and Nutron International, of Guangdong, China. The notifications were filed for the purpose of extending the DVD CCA and its members the antitrust protections afforded by the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the notice said.