With smartphones the third-most-owned consumer electronics product in the U.S., ownership of digital content is poised to surpass traditional content within the next few years, a CEA study said Monday. “A strong consumer appetite for mobile connected devices is causing some very interesting changes in the CE ownership landscape,” said Steve Koenig, CEA senior director-market research. Smartphones are owned by 72 percent of U.S. households -- an increase of 8 percentage points over 2014, he said. Tablets are in more than half of U.S. households and showed the largest increase in ownership growth over 2014, rising 9 percentage points, Koenig said. Laptops experienced the second-largest gain in household penetration, residing in 67 percent of households, he said. Basic cellphones saw the steepest category drop, to under 50 percent penetration, and fell out of the top 10 list for owned tech products, he said. Household penetration of digital media streaming devices rose 5 percentage points to 29 percent ownership and in-vehicle communication devices rose 4 percent to 34 percent ownership, CEA said. Digital content ownership grew 10 percentage points to 63 percent ownership, it said.
A small cable operator said it's trying to resolve Gray Television's retransmission consent complaint alleging the operator carried WVLT-TV Knoxville without the broadcaster's permission. Spirit Broadband retransmitted without Gray's consent the station's signal on its cable systems serving the Knoxville market since Jan. 1, the station owner said in a retrans complaint posted Friday in docket 12-1. Spirit, with about 100 video customers, isn't carrying WVLT and hopes to work out a settlement with the station, Vince King, its president, said in an interview Monday. "We’re trying to work it out now that [the complaint will] be withdrawn," he said of Gray's retrans complaint against Spirit. A lawyer for Gray had no immediate comment. Citing a retrans case involving TV Max, Gray said the base forfeiture would be $952,500, covering the 127 days as of Thursday that WVLT was carried without Gray's permission on Spirit, with a fine of $7,500 daily. A 2014 commission order levied a $2.25 million fine in the TV Max matter (see 1407090047).
The FCC is seeking comment by July 6 on the Paperwork Reduction Act implications of public file rules, with the act requiring the agency every three years to get an OK from the Office of Management and Budget on information collections, the commission said in Wednesday's Federal Register. It seeks comment on whether the public file rules are “necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the [collected] information shall have practical utility,” and whether the commission’s burden estimate is accurate. The public file rule might serve some valid purpose, but since the FCC has never done anything to investigate the validity of that proposition, nobody can say for sure, said Harry Cole, a broadcast lawyer for Fletcher Heald, on its blog. "It’s probably safe to assume that the FCC is not enthusiastic about launching such an investigation on its own," he wrote. "As we have previously observed, the Commission has ignored for nearly a decade a petition for rulemaking filed by our friend, communications attorney David Tillotson, challenging the validity of the public file requirement."
Up to 90 percent of consumers are open to “cutting the cord” and canceling pay-TV subscriptions in favor of over-the-top (OTT) services under the right circumstances, Limelight said Wednesday in a study. Flexibility of on-demand viewing and cost are the main drivers of the shift to OTT services, Limelight said. Millennials -- consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 -- appear to be “leading this change,” with Limelight finding that they watch on average four to seven hours of online video per week -- almost twice that of all other age groups. Personal computers are still the top choice for consuming online video, but younger viewers are 10 percent more likely to watch online video on a smartphone than other age groups, Limelight said.
The FCC Media Bureau granted EchoStar and Funai their separate waiver requests to market new models of DVRs without analog tuners, it said in an order adopted Friday and released Monday in dockets 15-47 and 15-42. The waiver requests were unopposed, the bureau said. CEA submitted the only comments in either docket and did so to urge the bureau to quickly eliminate the analog tuner requirement for all manufacturers (see 1503130017). Though the bureau stopped well short of granting CEA's request to eliminate all analog tuner rules, it agreed with EchoStar and Funai that a digital-only device has “several advantages over equipment using both analog and digital tuners,” including lower costs that can be “passed down to consumers,” it said. It also agreed that granting the waivers “would have a minimal impact on consumers” because “the vast majority” of their target markets “would be entirely unaffected by the elimination of an analog tuner,” since they buy pay-TV subscriptions or will have the devices hooked up to TVs that already have built-in analog tuners, it said. The bureau will hold EchoStar and Funai to their “voluntary commitments to educate consumers and retailers about the capabilities and limitations” of their devices, it said. Each company commits to “provide retailers with an in-store product information data sheet and consumer education materials describing their respective devices’ functionality,” it said. They also must “clearly disclose in product guides that their devices lack the ability to receive over-the-air analog signals,” it said. EchoStar and Funai must offer free 30-day return or exchange privileges if the customer purchased a device with the “mistaken belief that it receives analog services,” the bureau said. “We believe that these commitments will adequately protect any consumers that this waiver will affect.”
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was among those remembering Benton Foundation Chairman Charles Benton, who died Wednesday at 84 (see 1504300048). "Charles Benton dedicated his life to ensuring that our communications networks serve everyone regardless of age, race or economic means," Wheeler said in a Friday written statement. "He was among the first to recognize that access to communications networks is more than an economic or first amendment issue; it is a social justice issue." Gifts can be made in Benton's honor to his foundation, at 1560 Sherman Ave., Suite 440, Evanston, IL 60201, the group said.
GreenPeak Technologies released a white paper on the benefits of the ZigBee RF4CE wireless communications protocol for smart home applications. ZigBee RF4CE was developed by the consumer electronics industry to connect remote controls to TVs and set-top boxes but can also be adopted by leading cable companies and ISPs and remote control makers in the U.S. as a smart home accessory, said GreenPeak CEO Cees Links. More than 100 million new set-top boxes and remote controls use ZigBee, he said. Links cited the protocol’s “outstanding range, reliability and robustness” and said its “ultra-low power requirement means that batteries never have to be replaced.” Links positioned the ZigBee remote as the control mechanism for the smart home as an alternative to the smartphone when users are inside the home. “When you are at home, it is much easier to just press a button on a remote control to change the lighting, lock the doors, and turn on your air conditioning,” he said. Using a TV remote for smart home control frees up the smartphone for talking and texting, he said. Versus competing protocols, Links touted radio frequency's (RF) technology benefits including no need for line-of-sight transmission and the ability to penetrate walls, floors and furniture. RF’s ability for two-way communication enables features such as “find-my-remote” and gives operators the ability to send subscribers notices of upcoming shows, special offers and the ability to receive software updates to add features to the remote, he said. Because RF is mature and has been available in high-volume production, it's a low-cost option for control, he said.
Some NBCUniversal video clips and segments will be available to stream on the AOL On website and mobile app beginning this summer, NBCU said in a news release Wednesday. The content will come from NBCUniversal's broadcast networks, cable channels and digital networks, “including Bravo, CNBC, E!, Esquire, MSNBC, NBC, Oxygen, Syfy, Telemundo and USA,” the programmer said. AOL and NBCU will also “co-develop and co-produce original Web video series for distribution over the NBCUniversal and AOL platforms, and are in discussions on creating weekly live programming together,” it said.
U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment content rose only 0.23 percent in Q1 to $4.6 billion from the year-ago quarter as double-digit increases in electronic sell-through and subscription streaming helped negate a double-digit decline in sell-through of packaged goods, the Digital Entertainment Group said Wednesday. Subscription VOD was Q1's big winner, rising 22.9 percent to $1.14 billion, while electronic sell-through jumped 22.3 percent to $430.9 million, DEG said. “Consumers electronically purchased significantly more catalog and family films, underscoring their preference for enjoying and collecting filmed entertainment digitally,” DEG said. Sell-through of physical media declined 13.3 percent to $1.58 billion, DEG said, though it accentuated the finding that Blu-ray players, including set-tops and game consoles, are installed in more than 90 million U.S. homes. It said HDTV penetration has grown to nearly 105 million U.S. homes. Wednesday's release of DEG’s report on the rapid rise of SVOD consumer spending in Q1 happened to coincide with Hulu's announcement Wednesday that within the first 90 days of 2015, total streams on its service increased 77 percent over the year-ago period. Viewers year to date have streamed more than 700 million hours of premium content on Hulu, it said. On average, each Hulu viewer is watching at least 30 percent more content on the service than a year ago, it said. “Every category of measurement including hours watched and hours streamed is up dramatically year over year,” Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins said in a statement.
Disney signed a multiyear patent license deal with Kudelski Group, a Kudelski news release said Tuesday. It said terms are confidential, and the pact gives Disney a license to Kudelski’s patent portfolio, "subject to certain limitations." Kudelski "continues to invest heavily in developing technology and intellectual property that help enable industry leaders like" Disney "to deliver their popular, world-class video and entertainment platforms to the market through streaming video properties, such as ESPN.com and ABC.com,” said Kudelski Senior Vice President-Intellectual Property and Innovation Joe Chernesky.