The BBC is working with Microsoft to build an “experimental version” of its iPlayer internet-streaming catchup service that uses artificial intelligence “to allow individuals to sign in to BBC services using their unique voiceprint and to talk to their TV to select what they want to watch,” Cyrus Saihan, the broadcaster’s head of digital partnerships, blogged Wednesday. A voice print is matched “to a sample of your voice stored in the cloud,” he said: AI software then “checks that you are who you say you are and then signs you in."

Commercial radio stations “should be happy” about the reduction in their royalties caused by arbitration between the Radio Music Licensing Committee and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (see 1708010043), Wilkinson Barker radio lawyer David Oxenford blogged Wednesday. Other music users also may find the arbitration decision “to be instructive” in future music license negotiation. he said. Since the SESAC rates last until the end of next year, the radio industry likely will soon begin negotiating again, Oxenford said.

FCC implementation of a Blue Alert program should include a training program for message originators similar to that used for Amber Alerts, NAB commented in docket 15-94 (see 1708010065). The training associated with Amber Alerts improved “investigative responses” of law enforcement agencies in incidents involving abducted children, NAB said. It also weighed in on whether the FCC should create a new code or use the existing Law Enforcement Warning code: “A dedicated BLU code may more accurately alert the public regarding police-related incidents.” NAB supports voluntary Blue Alerts with clear criteria for use, and a six month implementation timeframe with a waiver process. NCTA also indicated support for the Blue Alert proposal. The commission should consider that implementation of a new emergency alert system code could take longer than the NPRM suggests, and take a longer time frame into account in any final proposal, NCTA said. The FCC also should ensure the criteria for a Blue Alert are firm, to cut down on overuse of the code, NCTA said: "The issuance of Blue Alerts outside the federal government’s specific guidelines risks desensitizing the public to their significance through unnecessary interruptions of television programming."

When Univision and Northwest Broadcasting in June joined the ATSC 3.0-based broadcaster spectrum consortium started by Sinclair and Nexstar (see 1706200084), it brought the consortium’s “reach” to 90 percent of the U.S., said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley on a Wednesday earnings call. “The consortium’s mission is to promote spectrum aggregation, innovation and monetization, and we are continuing to invite other broadcasters to join, as we enhance our industry’s ability to compete in the wireless data transmissions sector.” Sinclair also is working with Nexstar to “coordinate the transition” to 3.0 in 97 designated market areas, he said. That work is “an important step to ensuring a speedy rollout of the next-generation advanced services for our viewers and advertisers,” he said. “More broadcasters will be added to this planning process” as they join the spectrum consortium, he said. Sinclair is “quite excited” about the prospects for FCC "relaxation" of local media ownership rules, Ripley said in Q&A. “Overall, we think the industry needs to consolidate to two or three large broadcasters and really just one to two strong local players in each market,” he said. “In some of the larger, and even medium-sized markets, you’ve got anywhere from three to five local players,” and that “doesn’t make sense,” he said. “If there’s relaxation, there’ll be a consolidation at the local level, greater scale at the national level, and there’s significant savings to be had putting local content players together on a local level.” That will give way to “stronger local content producers, which will be able to spread their content and their resources across multiple platforms,” he said. “We see that as the evolution of the industry as dereg sets in here, and you end up with more consolidated, stronger local content players that are more efficient, and so the economics will be great and the strategic output will also be great.”

Tegna completed its sale of CareerBuilder to investment funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (see 1706190068), Tegna said in a release Monday. Tegna’s proceeds from the sale were about $250 million, it said. Tegna said it will remain a partner in CareerBuilder with 12 percent ownership and two seats on CareerBuilder’s board. Tribune Media also sold most of its stake in CareerBuilder in connection with the deal, that broadcaster said. Tribune gets about $158 million in cash and retains 7 percent ownership, that release said.

E.W. Scripps Co. bought Katz's four broadcast networks for $292 million, the buyer said in a news release Tuesday. “Bounce, Grit, Escape and Laff" all reach more than 80 percent of all U.S. households, it said. “A growing number of viewers are consuming content from new over-the-air networks as a complement to over-the-top services,” said Scripps CEO Rich Boehne. Scripps was a 5 percent owner of the business before the deal, which is expected to close in October, the release said. Katz founder Jonathan Katz “will continue to lead the Katz networks business” and the 130-employee company will remain in the Atlanta area, Scripps said. The Scripps move is confusing "when investors have growing concerns on the overall network TV industry" and "further M&A opportunities are likely to come up in broadcast with deregulation on the horizon," Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors. Monday, Scripps Networks Interactive, which also has been partly controlled by the Scripps family, agreed to be bought by Discovery Communications (see 1707310062).

Stations represented by the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) got a discount of more than 60 percent of the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC) radio station license rate card, RMLC said in a news release. The fee reduction applies for the license period Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2018, Monday's release said. The discount is the result of arbitration stemming from RMLC’s antitrust case against SESAC, it said. “Arbitrators’ decision is a significant favorable step in the right direction for the radio industry, bringing SESAC’s license fees and rate structure more into line with the rate formulas used by ASCAP [American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers] and BMI,” RMLC said. “While we believe that the value of our music substantially exceeds the amount of the award and the nature of the arbitration process made it inevitable that we would see a reduction in our fees for terrestrial radio, the panel’s decision is a resounding affirmation of the fact that ASCAP rates in radio do not reflect fair market value,” said SESAC CEO John Josephson in a news release. ASCAP didn’t comment Tuesday.

Comments on proposed waivers of the channel substitution freeze and contour extension freeze for Gray Television’s KYES-TV Anchorage are due in docket 17-187 Aug. 15, replies Aug. 25, said Monday’s Federal Register. Gray acquired KYES under a failing station waiver and seeks to move it to another site to be broadcast from an existing antenna shared with three other stations (see 1707170058).

The FCC should require broadcasters using ATSC 3.0 to offer a free stream of the new standard at the same format and quality as their DTV signal, said the MVPD-backed American Television Alliance in a Friday letter in docket 16-142. “It is not too much to ask that broadcasters be required to serve all viewers within their local markets before remaining portions of their spectrum may be repurposed for any potential ancillary or supplementary service offerings,” they said. Broadcasters had opposed proposals in the 3.0 proceeding to mandate specific formats and signal quality for their transmissions (see 1705100072). Under the ATVA proposal, broadcasters would be free to transmit additional streams in other formats or use their remaining spectrum for other purposes, the letter said: It “should go without saying that the benefits of any technological advancements in broadcasting should flow towards ‘the public’ first.”

A “perceived lack of urgency” is associated with the law enforcement warning (LEW) code used on emergency alert systems systems for incidents involving danger to the police, said DOJ's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in comments on the FCC Blue Alert NPRM in docket 15-94. COPS supports blue alerts, and Chairman Ajit Pai announced the proceeding at a joint news conference with DOJ officials (see 1705190048). “Despite its serious sounding name, the LEW event code is often used for routine informational purposes such as hazardous road conditions and road closures,” DOJ said. The NPRM included the possibility of using the existing LEW code instead of creating a new EAS code. The FCC should recommend a best practice for configuring EAS systems to search for a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) alert when a legacy broadcast EAS alert arrives first, Sage Alerting Systems commented. A stakeholder technical committee could also generate such a procedure, Sage said. “Legacy EAS messages do not have access to all of the rich media from the CAP message.”