Dish Network and Tegna asked the FCC to dismiss their fall retransmission consent cross-complaints against one another (see 2111050028) (see here and here) in docket 21-413 Wednesday. Dish said they resolved their retrans dispute and signed an agreement.

Comments on the FCC’s NPRM on improving the accessibility of visual emergency alert system messages (see 2112060057) are due March 11, replies March 28, says Wednesday’s Federal Register. Comments on the accompanying notice of inquiry on broader efforts to make EAS more accessible are due April 11, replies May 10.

Warner Music Group CEO Steve Cooper cited the company’s “unique position” in the new era of recorded music on the company’s Q1 FY ’21 earnings call Tuesday. “Music is no longer linear, transactional or limited by format,” Cooper said. “It’s complex, multifaceted and interactive.” The “intersection of virtual social spaces, gaming and music presents enormous opportunities to engage with massive and diverse audiences,” he said. WMG is "well on our way to being an immersive, tech-enabled 21st century digital company,” said Cooper. WMG still sees growth in conventional streaming in mature and emerging markets, said Cooper, referencing the number of streaming music subscriptions relative to smart device population: WMG is confident that "long-term sustained growth ... is quite probable" in its traditional streaming music business. On Web3, which Cooper defined as wrapping in blockchain, cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens, WMG sees “the beginning of interactive models coming to the surface and beginning to engage fandom around the world.” Cooper envisions “more opportunities than we can even imagine and believes Web3 “will further amplify the importance” of music labels and publishers. The technology of blockchain, “the perils of navigating crypto,” the skillsets required to deal with distributed, autonomous organizations," he said, will require companies like WMG “that have the financial resources, the intellectual capital … the specific skill sets and the global footprint” to help artists and songwriters navigate through a “brave new universe."

The Roku Channel added 25 linear channels, including AfrolandTV, Ax Men, Fox Weather, Modern Marvels, Project Runway, Redbox Romance, Spark TV, Supermarket Sweep and This Old House Makers Channel, it emailed Tuesday.

The “public internet” exception language in the Nevada Video Service Law applies to ISPs, not content providers like Netflix and Hulu, and a lower court erred in ruling that Reno, Nevada's claims against the streamers were barred by that exception, Creve Couer, Missouri, and some Georgia communities told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an amicus brief Tuesday. Creve Couer and the Georgia communities are themselves suing the streaming services, seeking local franchise fees (see 2112230003). Reno, in its docket 21-16560 opening brief last week, told the 9th Circuit the lower court erred in deciding if the streamers are video service providers based on only the “public Internet exception” definition and the question of whether that exception even applies to them.

U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment content jumped 7.8% in 2021 to $32.35 billion, including 11.3% growth in Q4 to $8.6 billion, reported the Digital Entertainment Group Friday. Subscription VOD generated the largest swath of consumer spending, rising 19.8% for the year to $25.27 billion, and up 19.3% for the quarter to $6.64 billion, said DEG, citing Omdia data as the source. Sell-through of 4K Blu-rays increased more than 6%, said DEG. With COVID-19 “pandemic conditions improving as 2021 progressed,” box-office spending on titles released to the home in Q4 jumped more than 1,100% from a year earlier, said DEG, though the impact of new theatrical releases on DEG’s “transactional” home entertainment tracking was muted “by the fact that many high-profile titles were released to the home in a premium window.” It estimates premium release revenue generated through retailers that “support multiple studios” would have added about $525 million to DEG’s full-year report, it said. The estimate doesn’t include revenue generated through the “premium access” option of Disney+, it said.

Dolby bought Millicast, a startup that provides scalable low-latency video streaming, for customers to create virtual environments. There's "growing demand to make online events as lifelike and compelling as being there in person," said Marie Huwe, senior vice president-Dolby.io. Dolby now can enable global customers to build “virtualized, massive audience experiences that feel almost as if you were there,” said Millicast CEO Alexandrine Platonoff. The NFL, NBC and Disney use Millicast. Also Thursday, Dolby reported revenue in the past quarter fell to $351.6 million from $389.9 million in the year-ago period. For this quarter, Dolby projects a revenue range of $315 million-$345 million, citing uncertainties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday, shares closed down 11% at $75.85.

Spotify shares closed down 17% at $159.76 Thursday after Q4 revenue grew 24% year on year to $3.1 billion. It forecast $2.97 billion in Q1. Citing previous controversies, CEO Daniel Ek said results are typically measured in “months, not days.” Commenting on the “slippery slope” of censoring content, Ek called it a “complicated issue." Spotify is “trying to balance creative expression with the safety of our users," he said. Musician Neil Young had pulled music from Spotify to protest COVID-19 misinformation on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (see 2201310048). Wednesday, Ek referenced the steps Spotify is taking due to the controversy, including putting COVID-19 content on the platform from experts. “The important part here is that we don’t change our policies based on one creator, nor do we change it based on any media cycle or calls from anyone else,” Ek said, not referencing Young by name. The company’s policies were “carefully written with the input from numbers of internal experts,” he said. “And while Joe has a massive audience -- he’s actually the No. 1 podcast in more than 90 markets -- he also has to abide by those policies.” Streaming, meanwhile, replaced the a la carte model, he said: “And now you see lots of subscription services getting to 100 million" subscribers.

TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board spot checks in 2021 of TV ratings found that generally age ratings and descriptors were being applied consistently and accurately, the group said Wednesday. It said it will continue those spot checks this year, and look at other ways to increase ratings consistency among network and streaming programming.

Univision completed its $4.8 billion buy of Grupo Televisa’s media content and production assets (see 2104140067), and the combined company is now named TelevisaUnivision, said a news release Monday. The new company will produce content for former Univision platforms and others and launch a Spanish-language streaming service in 2022. TelevisaUnivision combines Televisa’s four broadcast channels, 27 pay-TV channels, Videocine movie studio and Blim TV subscription VOD service with Univision’s broadcast networks, nine Spanish-language cable networks, 59 TV stations and 57 radio stations. SoftBank Latin America Fund, Google and Raine Group are investors in the combination. For personnel news about the new company, see the personals section of this issue.