The Supreme Court’s Aereo ruling lends further support to the petition to declare AT&T’s offering of public, educational and government access channels on U-Verse inadequate, said the Alliance for Community Media in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday to dockets including 09-13(http://bit.ly/1sXJKR5). The decision “lends further support to ACM’s position that AT&T’s U-verse video service is in fact a ‘cable service,'” it said. Therefore, AT&T is subject to Communications Act Title VI, which sets provisions for cable systems and franchise procedures, it said. ACM opposed AT&T’s stance that it provides a multichannel video service and not a cable service. U-Verse is “in fact engaging in one-way transmission of video programming to subscribers,” said ACM. It began to revisit arguments for its 2009 petition last month after AT&T announced its intent to buy DirecTV (CD June 6 p6).

The Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent for Video Call Center, a live talk TV start-up venture by former cable analyst Tom Wolzien. The technology allows a TV host “to take the reins of a show without the normal control room,” Wolzien said Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1olyx7I). It handles multiple video callers at the same time, “with many screened and simultaneously ready for the TV host to select to air,” it said.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Aereo backs up Comptel’s argument that interconnection rights and obligations are “technology neutral” and don’t change with the transition to IP technology, said CompTel CEO Chip Pickering in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1lPkoA7). The high court rejected Aereo’s argument (CD June 26 p1) (see separate report above in this issue) that its technology distinguishes it from a cable operator and takes it out of the reach of the Copyright Act, said Pickering. Aereo’s arguments are similar to those used by incumbent phone companies, Pickering said. “A change in the transmission technology used to deliver a telephone call from one party to another does not alter the statutory obligations of the network providers to interconnect in order to enable the delivery of the call.” Since the end result of an IP transmission is the same to the customer as a TDM transmission, the regulations shouldn’t see a difference between them, Pickering said. “Interconnection is the lynchpin that allows customers of one provider to communicate with those of a different provider and remains as necessary today as it was 18 years ago.” The FCC should clarify that “large incumbent phone companies must interconnect on an IP-to-IP basis for managed VoIP traffic,” Pickering said Monday.

Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia, responding to subscribers’ “overwhelming and touching” support, sent them an email Tuesday urging them to “raise your hands and make your voices heard.” Tweets, emails and Facebook posts “have made it clear how important it is for so many Americans to have access to a cloud-based antenna” for viewing live broadcast TV, he said (http://bit.ly/V8gpUW). He asked subscribers to tell Congress “how disappointed you are that the nation’s highest court issued a decision that could deny you the right to use the antenna of your choice to access live over-the-air broadcast television.” He urged them to tell their stories of why having a cloud-based antenna is important to their families and to “show them you care about this issue.” He asked subscribers to “stand together for innovation, progress, and technology” and directed them to ProtectMyAntenna.org. A company spokeswoman said the email “will be the only statement from Aereo at this time.” The company shut down its streaming video service Saturday (CD July 1 p6).

The Society of Motion Picture and TV Engineers extended to July 7 the call for papers for its Technical Conference and Exhibition Oct. 21-23 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. SMPTE describes the conference as the “premier annual technology event” for current and future developments in media technology, content creation, image and sound, over-the-top and related arts and sciences. Papers are sought on such topics as Ultra HD, second screen and alternative content, AV compression, content security and display technology (http://bit.ly/VC15jZ).

VOD users watch more TV than non-VOD users, said Nielsen in a news release Monday about its Q1 2014 cross-platform report (http://bit.ly/1qr5RNS). People in homes with VOD watch an hour and five minutes of live TV per day compared with 54 minutes of live TV per day among non-VOD users, said the media viewership measurement firm. VOD is available in 60 percent of households, Nielsen said. “As mobile device penetration coupled with On Demand options continue to grow, viewers spend more time watching.” Consumers who don’t have a DVR or missed recording an episode of a show they favor often use VOD, Nielsen said. “Recently Telecast VOD contributes between 4 and 5 percent in the coveted 18-49 demographic” on average, Nielsen said. Consumers’ daily time spent watching time-shifted content has “continued to rise” along with viewing on the Internet on computers and mobile devices, said Nielsen. “With Nielsen incorporating mobile viewing in traditional television ratings as well as digital ratings in the fall, next year’s Upfronts and Newfronts will be fueled by new data,” said Nielsen Senior Vice President-Insights Dounia Turrill.

The BBC’s second Ultra HD trial of the summer will be part of a public showcase in the Glasgow Science Centre, where viewers can watch a live 4K production of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, scheduled for July 23 to Aug. 4. It will be the first event to be produced and delivered entirely over IP networks, the BBC said. The BBC previously announced plans for trial broadcasts of three World Cup matches live in Ultra HD, including the final July 13 from Rio de Janeiro (CD June 6 p13).

The rights afforded to copyright holders are aligned with “laissez-faire capitalism” and shouldn’t confer the sense of a “monopoly” on content creators, said George Ford, Phoenix Center chief economist, in a paper Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1qwlwZI). It responded to claims by some conservative copyright scholars who believe current copyright regulations are antithetical to free market capitalism, said a Phoenix Center news release (http://bit.ly/1pOqNMR). Some conservatives are divided over whether copyright is a traditional property right or a government privilege (CD May 14 p11). “A landowner has a ‘monopoly’ right over his or her land, but this ‘monopoly’ right conveys no real market power,” wrote Ford. “The term ‘monopoly’ in the context of copyright is merely referring to an exclusive property right over an item with possibly thousands of close substitutes,” he said. “Its use does not imply the presence of market power."

Though in 2013 there were more consumer electronics devices in the average home than there were three years earlier, those devices accounted for less energy use than in 2010, said a Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems study produced for CEA and released Monday. It’s pure coincidence that CEA released the study two months to the day after Department of Energy TV test procedure took effect, said Doug Johnson, CEA vice president-technology policy, in an email. “Long-standing programs like Energy Star and new-model approaches such as the recent set top box voluntary agreement prove that energy efficiency is best achieved when the public and private sectors work together,” Johnson was quoted as saying in a CEA news release, though the release didn’t mention the DOE program by name (http://bit.ly/1lLB7Fk). CEA has vehemently opposed the DOE TV test procedure on grounds that federal regulation can’t keep pace with rapid technological advancement on TV energy efficiency and that the DOE program blunts the value of well-run voluntary programs like Energy Star. “In the rapidly changing world of electronics devices and high-tech products, these voluntary and market-driven approaches are the only methods that can keep pace with technology, protect innovation and competition, and still achieve efficiency goals,” Johnson said in the release. “If older data is used to analyze potential energy policy decisions, such as voluntary or mandatory regulatory programs, it can lead to less effective policy decisions that may not achieve the end goals.” In the study, Fraunhofer said CE devices accounted for 12 percent of residential electricity consumption in the U.S. last year, vs. 13.2 percent in 2010. While TVs continue to be the most widely owned CE device in the U.S. with 97 percent household penetration in 2013, their per-unit energy consumption “is declining due to innovations in display technologies,” CEA said. Total power consumption of TVs dropped 23 percent from 2010 to 2013, as efficiency levels increased and ownership of CRT TVs declined, CEA said. The overall study found U.S. homes actively used 3.8 billion CE devices in 2013, consuming 169 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, CEA said. The 2010 study said the 2.9 billion devices in active use consumed a 193 TWh of power, it said. Last week, NCTA said set-top boxes, part of a deal on energy use reached between the cable and CE industries and energy efficiency advocates, use little of a typical household’s power (CD June 20 p10).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed to colleagues a rule requiring closed captioning for online video clips, he said in a blog post Friday (http://fcc.us/1ytHmBX). “Those who hear with their eyes should not be disadvantaged in their ability to access video information on the Internet.” As expected (CD June 18 p10), the IP clips caption rule would be part of a July FCC meeting. Wheeler said the meeting would have “Access to the Underserved: Keeping Up with the Times” as a theme.