Broadcasters and allies asked the FCC to leave as-is rules for the ATSC 3.0 switch, denying pay-TV requests to change requirements in what stations contend is a bid to alter retransmission consent and intellectual property precedent. American Television Alliance and NCTA petitions for reconsideration are seen unlikely to lead to changes to rules OK'd 3-2 allowing what stations call next-generation TV (see 1803060053). Meredith Corp. and Pearl TV were the only replies to the recon petitions in docket 16-142 Friday afternoon, with a filing later coming from NAB plus one from public broadcast groups. Also posted Friday, WTA reported telling Media Bureau officials it supports the ATVA and NCTA requests and the commission should at least "continue to monitor the market to make sure the transition is voluntary for distributors." NAB called the petitions for recons "airings of grievances," with it and Pearl saying no new concerns were raised. Broadcasters said the agency responded to opposition to a five-year sunset of simulcasting, concerns about allowing low-power TV flash cuts and to other criticism. NCTA asks the regulator to require reasonable and nondiscriminatory licensing of patents associated, NAB noted. The FCC didn't require such RAND licensing for 1.0 and the latest order noted ATSC requires such practices and the agency will "'monitor how the marketplace handles patent royalties for essential patents,'" the broadcaster association said. The 3.0 order "shows how a light regulatory touch can support innovation," said Pearl, with members including Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps, Graham Media, Hearst Television, Meredith, Nexstar, Raycom and Tegna. Petitioners try to "lure the Government into increased regulation," and "re-hash arguments," the consortium said. On LPTV, it said of the rules, "rather than limiting them from participating in ATSC 3.0 altogether, it instead makes them excellent candidates for early transition as so-called 'lighthouse stations.'" Meredith said the switchover including for LPTV "is one of a handful of economic terms that will be decided in an arms’ length" retrans negotiations. With petitioner replies to opposition due April 23, NCTA declined additional comment, and ATVA declined to comment.

VidAngel is inventing an antitrust conspiracy out of "rational, self-interested actions" taken independently, movie studio plaintiff-appellees said in a docket 17-56665 answering brief (in Pacer) filed Wednesday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Appellees are Disney, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers. They said the studios have self-evident reasons for refusing to license VidAngel or other filtering companies -- blatant infringement of their copyrights. And they said VidAngel's antitrust conspiracy claims are based on "a few innocuous facts" -- the plaintiffs are all MPAA members, their lawyers conferred about the potentially infringing business and they sought an injunction to stop VidAngel instead of doing business with it. VidAngel is appealing a lower court's 2017 rejection of antitrust claims against the studios for refusing to deal with it (see 1802140016). It didn't comment Thursday.

The U.K. Takeover Panel ordered that a Disney buy of Fox must be followed by a Disney bid for Sky. It said Thursday the rationale is that for Disney, buying Sky might be "a significant purpose" of its bid for Fox. The Takeover Panel also required that Disney bid at least $15.26 cash for each ordinary share of Sky. It said that price comes from Disney and Fox saying they attributed that price to the Fox shareholding in Sky. It said Disney, Fox and Sky signed off on the conditions. It said the Disney offer is mandatory within 28 days of closing on Fox unless Fox has purchased 100 percent of Sky, or Comcast or another third party has acquired at least 50 percent of Sky.

Production companies' arguments that the 2014 fighting between Israel and Hamas wasn't war but Hamas terrorism and thus not excluded under insurance coverage of a TV series they were filming in Israel ignores that in the ordinary and popular sense, the sustained bilateral hostilities between the two has been widely recognized as war, appellee Atlantic Specialty Insurance said in a docket 17-56672 opening brief (in Pacer) filed Wednesday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Noting the production companies are indirect NBCUniversal subsidiaries, Atlantic said even NBCU news affiliates recognized the fighting as war. It said "war" has a special meaning in the insurance context requiring both sides be sovereigns or state-like entities, and Hamas has "numerous attributes" of sovereignty, such as governing territory. Production company appellants Universal Cable Productions and Northern Entertainment Productions in their opening brief (in Pacer) in February said it wasn't war since the U.S. doesn't recognize Hamas as a de jure or de facto government but as a terrorist organization, and the lower court that rejected their suit against Atlantic erroneously construed the plain and ordinary meaning of "war." They also said it erred by construing the Atlantic policy based on after-the-fact news articles, that it wrongly shifted the burden of proof and that they were reasonable in construing the policy to cover Hamas' terrorism.

The class-action complaints against HBO and boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao aren't from disappointed sports fans with buyers' remorse about an underwhelming bout but from consumers fraudulently induced the active suppression of material facts by the sellers to buy something they wouldn't have purchased otherwise -- pay-per-view packages, the plaintiff appellants said in a docket 17-56366 reply brief (in Pacer) filed Tuesday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellants said all the state laws at issue require a commercial vendor or promoter to disclose material facts to consumers. They are challenging a lower court's August dismissal of the class-action complaints (see 1801170015). Appellee outside counsel didn't comment Wednesday.

Disney -- which in February was denied an injunction stopping Redbox from selling codes that allow streaming of Disney movies (see 1802210051) -- is trying again. In a docket 17-8655 motion for preliminary injunction (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Disney said with its original motion for preliminary injunction denied because some licensing terms on the code-redemption websites could support Redbox's copyright misuse affirmative defense, it revised those online licensing terms to moot the misuse defense. But Disney said Redbox is still selling those codes, harming Disney's licensee and customer relationships and its ability to control exploitation of its exclusive rights. Disney also filed an amended complaint Monday against Redbox. Redbox outside counsel didn't comment Tuesday.

Eleven percent of U.S. adults ages 18-44 have an internet-delivered pay-TV service such as Sling TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, Hulu with Live TV or YouTube TV, Leichtman Research Group reported Monday. The 18- to 34-year-old age group accounts for 53 percent of U.S. adults with a live-streaming pay-TV service, it said. Some 49 percent of internet-based pay-TV subscribers have a TV antenna for viewing over-the-air broadcast TV, and 35 percent also have a pay-TV service from an MVPD, analyst Bruce Leichtman said. Nearly 70 percent of current internet-delivered pay-TV subscribers are very satisfied with their service, but 27 percent are very likely to switch in the next six months, the report said, while 24 percent of those who don't have an internet-delivered pay-TV service are very interested in getting one. Households with internet-delivered pay-TV services are largely augmenting other sources of video in the home and “experimenting with the various streaming pay-TV services to discover what combinations of video offerings work best for their household,” the analyst said. Findings were based on an online survey of 6,947 U.S. adults.

Weaknesses in safe harbor could play a role in the relative lack of competition in video hosting services, Santa Clara University Director-High Tech Law Institute professor Eric Goldman blogged Friday. Pointing to the ongoing Capitol Records v. Vimeo litigation filed in 2009, he said fights like this and similar litigation against YouTube means investors are spooked by the inevitability of lengthy, costly Digital Millennium Copyright Act fights with copyright owners. In a Capitol order (in Pacer) last month in docket 9-10101, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams of Manhattan agreed with Vimeo to dismiss 273 unfair competition claims against it but rejected its arguments to dismiss another 59.

Frequent moviegoers “tend to own more key technology products,” MPAA reported. It estimated 12 percent or 32 million U.S. and Canadian adults classify themselves as “frequent” moviegoers, going to the cinema at least monthly in 2017 and accounting for 49 percent of tickets, said Wednesday's report. The association estimates 79 percent of frequent moviegoers own at least four different types of key technology products, compared with 61 percent of all adults. It said 93 percent of frequent moviegoers own a smartphone, compared with 89 percent of all moviegoers in general and 86 percent of the adult population. The survey also gauged ownership of computers, disc players, tablets, video streaming devices and videogame systems among frequent moviegoers, but not TVs. MPAA canvassed nearly 8,100 U.S. adults in December.

A change in the default for station carriage on cable systems from must-carry to retransmission consent would be “an existential threat” for many must-carry TV stations, given the “high failure rate” in the delivery of election notices, said broadcaster NRJ TV in a filing in docket 17-317. Numerous other full-power TV owners signed the NRJ filing, including Rancho Palos Verdes Broadcasters, HC2, Texas Television and CNZ Communications. “Given the lack of any cure mechanism for a faulty election, and the fact that each election cycle lasts three years, a single failed election could result in the loss of a significant portion of a station's revenue for a full three years,” NRJ said. The FCC should leave must-carry as the default status, and act to modernize and streamline the election process, NRJ said.