The FTC is seeking public comment on Nielsen’s application to sell its LinkMeter audience measuring service to comScore, the commission said in a news release Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1dBNkm6). The divesture is part of a proposed settlement with the FTC over Nielsen’s buy of Arbitron, the focus of an FTC complaint over decreased competition in the cross-platform audience rating business. “The elimination of future competition between Nielsen and Arbitron in this market would increase the likelihood that Nielsen would exercise market power and likely cause advertisers, ad agencies, and programmers to pay more for national syndicated cross-platform audience measurement services,” said the FTC. The proposed settlement order requires Nielsen to sell and license assets connected with Arbitron’s cross-platform audience measurement business -- like LinkMeter -- for at least eight years, to an FTC-approved buyer, and Nielsen has asked the FTC to approve comScore as that buyer, the FTC said. “Nielsen and comScore have agreed to terms and other requirements in compliance with the terms set forth in the FTC Decision and Order,” said Nielsen in its own release. The agreement is intended to preserve “the competitive landscape” by allowing the continuation of a project to measure media consumption in TV, radio, PCs and mobile devices that was originally announced in 2012 as a joint effort of ESPN, comScore and Arbitron, said Nielsen.

Several consumer groups representing the hearing impaired want the FCC to reconsider rules governing user interfaces and video programming guides that allow closed captioning and other accessibility features to be activated with a voice command or gesture, according to a petition filed Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1irq9mr). The groups had asked the FCC to compel manufacturers to build devices that use a “button, key or icon” to activate those functions, but in the order last year, voice commands and gestures were also listed as acceptable options. “This leap from tactile controls to voice and gesture controls lacks any justification or support under the CVAA [21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act], and there is no evidence that Congress intended to allow voice and gesture controls to satisfy these accessibility obligations,” said the petition for reconsideration by groups including the National Association of the Deaf, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University. Many deaf and hard-of-hearing people don’t speak or may have difficulty speaking clearly enough for speech recognition technology, the filing said. “These individuals are unable to use voice controlled technology and will be shut out of any digital apparatus or navigation device where voice commands are the only way to activate the closed captioning control,” said the filing. “Allowing voice controls to satisfy accessibility obligations will effectively deny millions of deaf and hard of hearing people access to closed captioning and/or other accessibility features.” The commission may not have included enough information about the use of voice controls in its proposal for implementing the rule, the groups said. “A review of the NPRM shows that the Commission never proposed a rule nor raised questions regarding whether voice or gesture controls should be acceptable compliant mechanisms for providing legally mandated access to closed captions for people with disabilities,” said the filing. The groups “strongly urge” the FCC to reconsider the rule, the filing said. CEA didn’t comment.

The Weather Channel urged DirecTV to waive its termination fees for subscribers wanting to switch providers since the channel is no longer carried by DirecTV. “The least you can do is allow them to vote now with their feet by waiving termination fees for those seeking to switch to a provider that still carries The Weather Channel, as every other pay-TV company in the nation does,” Weather Channel CEO David Kenny said in an open letter to DirecTV CEO Michael White (http://bit.ly/1dUOFJ0). “Our preference would be for DirecTV to come back to the negotiating table and restore The Weather Channel to your line up.” The carriage dispute resulted in a blackout of the channel for DirecTV subscribers last week (CD Jan 15 p20).

Several consumer groups representing the hearing-impaired have joined with NAB to support a one-week extension of the Jan. 27 comment deadline for proposed rules on applying closed captions to video clips delivered over the Internet, according to an ex parte filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1mHpDkr). “We agree with NAB that the proposed extension will provide additional time for stakeholders to provide more detailed and thorough information in response to the Commission’s inquiry, and believe that the proposed extension is sufficiently short that it will not prejudice the public interest,” said the filing from Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University and others.

Charter Communications and Oregon Health Network created a broadband fiber network for communities in southern Oregon and Crescent City, Calif. It offers advanced capabilities for video telemedicine, broadband Internet speeds and HD television, the companies said in a news release Wednesday (http://prn.to/KIbsMU). It completes a fiber loop connecting southern Oregon and northern California, they said. They said the network is “the final segment of an 87-mile route from Grants Pass, Ore., to Crescent City, consisting of a 720 GB circuit with capacity to service thousands of people across multiple cities.” The project was funded by a $1.6 million investment, they said.

The FCC shouldn’t apply emergency video description rules to devices that deliver video over IP, said CEA in an ex parte filing Thursday (https://bitly.com/). The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act limits the application of those rules to video from broadcast or multichannel video programming distributor sources, CEA said. If the commission does apply the emergency video description rules to IP video devices, manufacturers should get at least a two-year “phase-in” period to follow the rules, longer if a new technical standard is required, CEA said. CEA also urged the commission not to impose specific customer service requirements for companies with devices covered by the emergency video description rules. The FCC should give companies “the opportunity to integrate customer support services for emergency information and video description into their other customer care operations,” it said. As covered entities implement the new rules, they “will be able to assist customers who are blind or visually impaired with navigating between the main and secondary audio streams,” CEA said.

Cablevision filed a complaint with the FCC alleging Meredith Corp. refused to operate in good faith during retransmission consent negotiations. The companies have been in a dispute over retransmission of Meredith’s WFSB-TV Hartford, Conn., to Cablevision subscribers (CD Jan 8 p14). Cablevision asked the FCC “to immediately direct Meredith to cease its bad faith negotiation practices and to separate negotiations for carriage of WFSB in Litchfield and New Haven counties from negotiations for carriage of the channel elsewhere in Connecticut,” it said in a news release Friday. Meredith said “it is Cablevision that is acting in bad faith.” Meredith urged Cablevision’s customers “to look at alternate providers or use an over-the-air antenna if they would like to receive WFSB’s leading local news, top CBS primetime programming, and the NFL playoffs this weekend,” it said in a statement.

Needing “flexibility in attracting investment in a challenging digital market,” loosening FCC ownership limits on broadcast and daily newspaper properties “would spur greater investment and innovation in the publishing industry,” said the Newspaper Association of America. “Liberalization” of broadcast-paper cross-ownership rules would mean “greater and more innovative news production, without any diminishment in diversity,” said NAA. Its filing posted Friday to docket 09-182 (http://bit.ly/1dCziq3) reported on a meeting of an NAA executive and a lawyer representing the association with aides to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who earlier pulled a draft order that would have relaxed some cross-ownership rules (CD Dec 16 p1).

FilmOn’s appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was put on a temporary hold while the court decides whether to delay the case until the Supreme Court is finished with Aereo, said a clerk’s order filed Wednesday. FilmOn is appealing a nearly nationwide preliminary injunction that prevents it from streaming copyrighted material anywhere in the U.S except the jurisdiction of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Immediately after the Supreme Court granted cert in the Aereo case, the broadcaster plaintiffs in the FilmOn case asked the court to stay the case until the high court has ruled on Aereo. “If the Supreme Court decides that Aereo’s service infringes the petitioners’ copyrights, the same conclusion would be required here, thereby rendering moot any briefs already filed and any argument already held in this action,” said broadcasters. FilmOn opposed staying the D.C. Circuit case, because the company will have to remain under the preliminary injunction until it’s resolved. The injunction prevents FilmOn from “competing with Aereo on equal footing” and does “irreparable harm” to the company, FilmOn said. The Supreme Court case may not bear directly on the D.C. circuit case, despite the similarity between FilmOn and Aereo’s services, FilmOn said. “The Supreme Court could decide Aereo on grounds that are unique to the dispute between the different parties in that case,” said FilmOn. While the D.C. circuit decides whether to wait for the Supreme Court, the briefing schedule for the FilmOn case has been suspended. Broadcasters had been scheduled to enter a brief Jan. 17, and replies were due Jan. 31.

A survey from CEA and the National Association of Television Program Executives found that there are opportunities to improve synchronized program content awareness and offerings for second-screen viewing, CEA and NATPE said. Of more than 2,500 respondents, 79 percent access a second device while watching TV programming, the associations said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1hQKX6F). More than 40 percent of such users tried synchronizing their content experience to live TV, it said. Nearly all second-screen viewers surveyed access asynchronous program content, either before or after watching a show, or between episodes, “which offers a strong opportunity for program brands to increase loyalty and keep viewers engaged and watching even when shows are not on the air,” it said. “Currently, synchronized content is most often used for voting during reality shows, and participating in contests to win prizes.” The quantitative portion of the study was administered by E-Poll Market Research in October, it said.