The FCC should reexamine its proportional allocation of indirect full-time equivalents in the assessment of regulatory fees, said NAB comments responding to the agency’s notice of inquiry in docket 22-301. “Rather than assuming the work performed by all the noncore bureaus and offices of the Commission is so cross-cutting that it cannot be meaningfully disaggregated,” the FCC should examine whether those functions correspond to the way indirect costs are allocated, NAB said. The FCC's current division between indirect and direct FTEs is “too general to be a reasonably accurate proxy for the assignment of Commission work,” the Satellite Industry Association said. “Splitting all FTEs into direct and indirect FTEs based on whether they are assigned to a ‘core’ or ‘non-core’ bureau is an oversimplification.” The agency could assign indirect FTEs for noncore offices to the bureaus they largely support, or create a hybrid, “intersectional FTE,” the SIA said. NAB also called for the FCC to reexamine the Media Bureau FTEs working on broadband matters. “Regulatees in the other core bureaus also benefit from the Commission’s broadband work,” said NAB. “It would be inconsistent with the Commission’s methodology to not require such regulatees to share in the cost.” ACA Connects said the FCC should be cautious about altering the regulatory fee system. The system isn’t perfect, but it works, said the MVPD group. “As part of such an evaluation, the Commission should be guided by a bureaucratic Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm.”
An online survey to collect data for an FCC content vendor diversity report could be “simple, easy, and non-burdensome,” said Fuse in a call with Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Media Bureau staff Monday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 22-209 (see 2207260003). Fuse demonstrated a prototype survey portal for the bureau during the call, the filing said. The sample survey has drop-down menus to record licensees and distributors and a box to sign certifying under penalty of perjury that “every content vendor listed in response to this survey has been contacted by my organization by email or certified mail with the following message: 'The Federal Communications Commission requests that you complete the Content Vendor Diversity Report Survey.'” Even if some vendors wouldn’t respond or responded incorrectly “the resulting information nevertheless would be better than what the Commission has today in this area (i.e., nothing),” the filing said.
YouTube-ripping software company Yout appealed the U.S. District Court of Connecticut's ruling last month granting defendant Recording Industry Association of America's motion to dismiss plaintiff Yout's complaint (see 2209300061), per an appeal notice last week (docket 3:20-cv-01602). Yout sought a declaratory judgment that its software, which allows users to make copies of streaming video and audio files, doesn't violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. RIAA counsel didn't comment Monday.
East St. Louis, Illinois, appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a lower court's granting of a motion to dismiss a putative class-action complaint against defendant streaming services (see 2209230059), per an appeal notice filed Monday (docket 3:21-cv-00561) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The city was suing the streamers for franchise fees it said they owed as video service providers.
Music labels alleging Frontier Communications has turned a blind eye to copyright infringement by its internet subscribers (see 2108130033) asked the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to lift an 8-month-old stay on their complaint. In a docket 1:21-cv-05050 motion to lift the stay Monday, they said the stay was to allow for quicker resolution of related claims brought in Frontier's bankruptcy, but that isn't happening. Frontier counsel didn't comment.
EarthLink "has agreed to request its wholesale providers to use commercially reasonable efforts to block access" to video privacy site YTS on their U.S. servers providing service for EarthLink, the defendant ISP and plaintiff movie production firms suing it told the U.S. District Court in Atlanta in a docket 1:22-cv-02576 joint stipulation for dismissal Tuesday.
The Copyright Act preempts right of publicity claims by radio personality John Edward Melendez, also known as "Stuttering John," the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday, upholding a lower court's rejection of Melendez's docket 21-1769 complaint against Sirius XM for alleged violations of his right of publicity under California common and statutory law. The court said Melendez didn't show any use of his name or likeness by the satellite operator other than via rebroadcasts of the copyrightable material from its archives of The Howard Stern Show. Deciding were Judges Raymond Lohier, Beth Robinson and Joseph Bianco, who penned the decision.
The Nielsen Company is developing a product that could allow analysis of video programming diversity, said the company in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 22-209, on a petition for an FCC content vendor diversity report (see 2207250060). Nielsen’s subsidiary Gracenote has products that already allow users to analyze the diversity of on-screen talent in content, and is developing a product that could analyze the diversity of those behind the camera for a given piece of content, the company said. Gracenote could be an alternative to the FCC proposal to require FCC regulatees to get diversity information from programmers, the filing said. Gracenote’s new capabilities would “allow customers to access diversity information for major offscreen contributors to many shows and movies offered on television, cable, satellite, or streaming,” Nielsen said.
Nexstar closed on its 75% ownership stake buy of the CW Network from Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount, both of which will retain a 12.5% ownership interest, the company said Monday. The deal was announced in August (see 2208150052).
Live sports, once a “pillar of pay TV,” have become the “next big thing in streaming,” blogged eMarketer analyst Sara Lebow Monday, saying 84 million of the 160.2 million live sports viewers in the U.S. this year will be digital. EMarketer analyst Paul Verna said growth in sports viewership is coming from adoption of digital platforms vs. pay TV. Lebow noted Amazon’s “$1 billion-a-year Thursday Night Football bet appears to be paying off,” citing a CNBC report saying the tech company had a record number of signups for a three-hour period before kickoff of its debut broadcast Sept. 13. Verizon announced Friday NFL Plus will be offered on the Verizon Plus Play subscription management platform, and Apple inked a $50 million deal for the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show, Lebow noted. Exclusive NFL rights have the potential for extended game revenue via alternate broadcasts that give viewers a more personalized feel, she said, referencing Amazon’s alternate streams and NFL Slimetime on Nickelodeon. But exclusive streaming rights mean changes for advertisers, Lebow said. Amazon doesn’t have beer or alcohol ads on the Thursday games, she said, but NFL games "are some of the biggest expenditures for beer brands: Dry Thursdays could change that.” NFL games are now a major attraction for streaming services, which can score payoffs in advertising and new subscribers, "but costs are high and the landscape’s still shifting, so each deal is a gamble."