An FCC-hosted website where broadcasters would make carriage election decisions wouldn't adequately tackle some deficiencies in the election process, NAB said in a docket 17-317 filing posted Friday. It said that the MVPD-floated idea would eliminate the costs of using certified mail, but it would still burden broadcasters with having to track down MVPDs in their markets, leaving the risk of inadvertently missing one, paying for Neilsen data, comparing FCC Cable Operations and Licensing System data with other available information and devoting sizable resources. NAB resisted MVPD proposals to extend or change the timing of the carriage election process and an AT&T proposal that broadcasters submit election requests to direct broadcast satellite operators by July 1 because it would create two deadlines for broadcasters.

CTA President Gary Shapiro criticized President Donald Trump’s plan to impose 25 percent tariffs on all foreign steel imports and a 10 percent duty on foreign aluminum, in a pair of Friday tweets. “Top foreign steel and aluminum suppliers -- NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico and KORUS partner S. Korea -- don’t pose national security threat, but retaliation could,” Shapiro tweeted. The proposed “25% tariff on steel poses threat to U.S. trade, economic security, U.S. manufacturing and consumer pricing,” Shapiro tweeted seconds later. National Retail Federation President Matthew Shay agrees the tariffs would be “a tax on American families,” he said in a Thursday statement. “When costs of raw materials like steel and aluminum are artificially driven up, all Americans ultimately foot the bill in the form of higher prices for everything from canned goods to electronics and automobiles. The reality is that there is nothing this country will gain from such a one-sided policy. These tariffs threaten to destroy more U.S. jobs than they will create while sending an alarming signal to our trading partners and diminishing markets for American-made products overseas." Trump doesn’t fear a trade war, he tweeted in the wee hours of Friday morning. “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win,” he said.

U.S. subscribers to the big five virtual MVPDs probably number close to 4.6 million, up 2.6 million from a year ago, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors Thursday. Beyond those five -- YouTube TV, Hulu Live, Vue, DirecTV Now and Sling -- there's no way to estimate patrons of the "dozens of small fries" virtual MVPDs like Philo and fuboTV, he said. For Q4, the pay-TV industry's subscriber base declined 3.4 percent -- or 0.7 percent, if virtual MVPDs are included, he said.

Spotify believes it has double the monthly active users (MAUs) of next-closest competitor Apple Music, said its SEC filing for its initial public offering: 159 million MAUs and 71 million subscribers for its premium services as of Dec. 31. Apple didn’t comment Thursday. Spotify lost $1.5 billion last year, vs. a $658 million loss in 2016, and revenue grew to $5 billion last year from $3.6 billion, said Wednesday's filing.

Consumers want help managing all video services, but they don't necessarily want a single video aggregator, and the market is delivering multiple solutions, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Tuesday. For example, the ESPN Plus streaming service to launch in March will allow subscribers to aggregate other sports content via the app for additional cost, he said. Pointing to streaming service VRV aggregating subscription VOD services for the fandom community, and Philo aggregating entertainment TV for non-sports watchers, he said many more services likely will embrace this approach in coming months.

MGM's Epix premium network is adding 4K Ultra HD programming to its library later this year, it said Tuesday. It said it's the first broadcast or cable network to stream 4K Ultra HD in its apps.

CTA broke its silence Tuesday on Energy Star V8.0 for TV that EPA released Friday (see 1802230046), calling it “another milestone and testament to the importance of voluntary programs." TVs “have become an energy efficiency success story thanks to innovation" and "flexible, market-driven programs,” said Doug Johnson, vice president-technology policy. Developing the spec “presented some challenges,” he said. As “longtime champions” of Energy Star, CTA and members urged EPA “to revise its proposed requirements impacting consumers' overall TV-viewing experience,” he said. “While some problematic issues were resolved, others, such as brightness requirements, remain.” EPA "analyzed" but rejected a recent proposal to lower a TV's minimum required brightness with the energy-saving automatic brightness control feature enabled and when the TV is viewed in rooms with nearly total darkness, said the agency. Had EPA "accepted" the proposal, it would have meant “up to a 30 percent reduction in the average brightness” of 75 percent of the TV models in the “dataset,” said the agency. EPA sees the minimum-brightness rule as critical for discouraging consumers from disabling ABC because the screen is too dark in ambient room light of 3 lux. CTA's reaction to the final spec was much more subdued than that of the "revised final draft" that EPA released late October. EPA's proposal to mandate ABC in all preset picture modes would put the agency "in the business of control, deciding how consumers receive and use technology," CTA said then. EPA adopted those proposals in the final spec.

CBS launched a free, 24-hour streaming sports network, CBS Sports HQ, it said Monday, adding that the streaming service features game highlights, analysis and news. It said the service follows in similar direct-to-consumer footsteps as its CBS All Access streaming service, Showtime's over-the-top offering and CBSN. Aside from via the CBS Sports HQ app, the streaming service also is available through CBS All Access and at CBSSports.com, it said.

YouTube and Prager University are at odds over a preliminary injunction sought by the conservative group. Prager said in support of its motion for a preliminary injunction that the admission by YouTube and its Google parent that Prager videos don't contain age-restricted content, while contending the videos contain potentially mature content sufficient to warrant viewer access restrictions, are enough to justify the requested relief. Prager said in the docket 17-cv-6064 filing (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose that YouTube's acknowledgement its Restricted Mode can improperly restrict videos in a way to create viewpoint discrimination backs the group's push. Google/YouTube in a reply (in Pacer) Friday isaid Prager's case is "a public relations campaign disguised as a lawsuit" when it asks the court to ignore YouTube's First Amendment and Communications Decency Act Section 230 rights to help users avoid content on its service. Prager sued YouTube last fall over the restricted mode feature (see 1801030009).

Among parents whose children watch YouTube videos, 62 percent say their kids have seen inappropriate content, and 81 percent see preventing of that kind of viewing as their job vs. 10 percent who think it's YouTube's responsibility, said Common Sense/SurveyMonkey survey results Thursday. Forty-seven percent of parents believe their children are addicted to mobile devices, vs. 32 percent of parents who say that about themselves. Sixty-eight percent of parents are somewhat to extremely concerned mobile device usage is negatively affecting the mental health of their children. YouTube didn't comment. The online poll of 4,201 adults, including 1,024 with children under 18 years old, was conducted Jan. 25-29.