In an update to a streaming media report, Parks Associates said 10 percent of U.S. broadband households bought a streaming media player or stick in the first three quarters of 2014, matching 2013 full-year sales figures. At the end of October, Roku led the market at 29 percent share, while Google's Chromecast replaced Apple TV in the No. 2 slot with 20 percent share versus Apple’s 17 percent, Parks said Tuesday. Amazon’s Fire TV holds the fourth spot at 10 percent penetration, it said. With the introduction of Amazon’s Fire TV Stick in November, Apple is now the only top streaming media hardware maker without a stick form factor, said Barbara Kraus, research director. On the content side, Showtime and Sony are planning to launch over-the-top video services to compete with HBO and Netflix, she said. Parks plans a session on “Monetizing Smart Home Solutions and Connected Devices” Jan. 6 as part of CES. The Parks Connections summit will include six executive sessions and a networking cocktail reception.

Consumer sentiment toward the overall economy slipped 1.2 points in November but is above that of last year, said a CEA report released Tuesday. Consumer expectations about technology spending, meanwhile, climbed 7.3 percentage points in November, 1.6 points above the year-ago period, CEA said. “Consumers appear to have held off slightly on tech purchases in October in preparation for holiday shopping, including Black Friday,” said Shawn DuBravac, CEA chief economist. For the holiday period, the association is forecasting 2.5 percent growth in tech spending, compared with 0.9 percent growth for the period in 2013, to reach a record $33.76 billion.

Changes to the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor to include over-the-top video services should include rule changes to promote localism, NAB said in an ex parte filing posted in FCC docket 12-83 Wednesday. OTT services should “limit the geographic scope of their offerings” consistent with the scope of the retransmission consent rights they negotiate and FCC exclusivity rules, NAB said. The FCC should also take “swift action” on proposals to revitalize AM radio, NAB said. “Modifying the Commission’s rules to effectuate technical and policy changes will enhance AM signal quality and promote the continued viability of AM radio broadcasting."

LG is playing a big role in the kickoff event this Sunday in Washington of the "Broadcast TV Liberation Tour" to trumpet consumer awareness of over-the-air DTV reception through an antenna, the company said in a Tuesday announcement with co-sponsors TVFreedom.org and antenna and accessories merchandiser AntennasDirect.com. The kickoff event runs 1-5 p.m. at Washington’s Eastern Market, the promoters said. "All the way back to our Zenith days, LG has been a big believer in terrestrial broadcasting around the world," John Taylor, LG vice president-public affairs, told us Wednesday when we asked what’s in it for LG to take part in the event. "We view this as part of our efforts to support broadcasting and to help educate consumers that there’s lots of ways to get digital signals today, and one of the best is free, over the air." LG will contribute a 42-inch LCD TV as a contest giveaway at the event, but its "larger role" will be to provide the dozen large-screen Ultra HD and 1080p TVs "around the room," Taylor said. "Each of them will have an antenna attached to it. So that’s 12 different channels so attendees can really understand how much diverse programming and the excellent picture quality you can get over the air. It’s for consumer education more than anything else."

The ZigBee Alliance has unified its various wireless standards into a single spec that will be called ZigBee 3.0, the alliance said in an announcement Tuesday. ZigBee 3.0 "will provide interoperability among the widest range of smart devices," it said. It enables interoperability among devices for home automation, connected lighting, energy efficiency and other markets, "so more diverse, fully interoperable solutions can be delivered by product developers and service providers," it said. All device types, commands and functions defined in current ZigBee PRO-based standards are available to developers in the new standard, it said. ZigBee 3.0 is undergoing testing. A draft standard is available to alliance members and is expected to be ratified in Q4 2015, it said. ZigBee 3.0 demonstrations are planned for CES, it said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s characterization of a draft NPRM to extend multichannel video programming distributor privileges to over-the-top providers as taking away barriers that hindered innovators such as Aereo doesn’t show respect for the law, said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan Monday in a blog post. “Aereo was innovative only in its creative attempt to skirt the copyright laws,” said Kaplan. “Shouldn’t it matter to the FCC, at a bare minimum, whether content is distributed legally or illegally?” Kaplan also took issue with Wheeler's pinning Aereo’ s court defeat on broadcasters and outdated FCC rules. The barrier to Aereo’s success was the Copyright Act, Kaplan said. “Even if the Chairman could unilaterally change the FCC’s ‘old rules’ today, Aereo’s business model would still violate the law,” Kaplan said. Though NAB supports the FCC’s examination of including OTT services under the MVPD definition, “tough questions loom” about the rule change, Kaplan said. Those include “how to handle a deluge of new potential MVPDs, how to avoid further homogenizing news, weather, sports and entertainment, and how to prevent stifling new business models outside of the MVPD context,” said Kaplan. Representatives in Wheeler's office didn't comment.

​Buzz about a forthcoming Senate vote on the USA Freedom Act (S-2685) grew late last week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., filed for cloture in the middle of last week, setting up a potential vote this week. CEA wrote to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., asking him in a Thursday letter to vote yes on such a bill. CEA President Gary Shapiro pointed to global distrust due to revelations about U.S. government surveillance in the past year. “This distrust hurts U.S. companies competing globally for business, and could result in the loss of thousands of jobs,” Shapiro said. “Several companies, including members of CEA, have already lost contracts with foreign governments worth millions of dollars.” Another branch of CEA known as the Innovation Movement asked people to write to their representatives urging them to back the USA Freedom Act. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote the bill and issued another statement Friday requesting the Senate pass the bill.

More than 11,000 people attended the Content & Communications World and SATCON event at New York's Javits Convention Center last week, NAB said in a news release. Total attendee registration is based on pre-show and onsite registration, “and is subject to final reconciliation following the event,” NAB said. The previous organizer, JD Events, said last year’s attendance was 6,898, NAB said. There were 324 exhibiting companies, up from about 260 last year, it said. NAB acquired the event last year (see 1312240044)

Two library groups opposed extension of an e-reader accessibility waiver at the FCC requested by Amazon, Kobo and Sony that other industry stakeholders backed, according to comments and replies in docket 10-213. The Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers, representing the three makers of the devices, had sought what it called an "ongoing extension." The Association of Research Libraries and American Library Association oppose the request. "While disabled persons already must routinely (and unacceptably) wait several years before various mainstream technologies become accessible, the proposed waiver extension would leave basic e-readers in a near-permanent state of inaccessibility," said the library groups in a filing last week. "The record contains ample evidence that basic e-readers are designed with, marketed, and used for advanced communications services [ACS]." CEA said an ongoing extension would serve the public interest by permitting the continued availability of the e-readers "while recognizing that accessible alternatives are available in the marketplace," according to its comments. There's no evidence that ACS is the primary purpose of the class of devices, said the association. The library groups disagreed, saying the products are designed for ACS, pointing to use of email and social media. The Internet Association backs the waiver extension request and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau's Jan. 28 order saying uses like for social media aren't evidence of ACS. "Our thriving industry would benefit from the certainty that merely adding a browser does not mean that future smart, non-ACS devices will be limited by potentially product-altering, ACS accessibility regulations," said the association, which has members including Amazon, AOL, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative seeks comment on telecom sections of the World Trade Organization General Agreement on Trade in Services, North American Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Central American Free Trade Agreement and FTAs with Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Morocco, Oman, Panama, Peru and Singapore and all mutual recognition agreements that relate to telecom equipment. Comments are due Dec. 5, and USTR will “conduct” a review by 2015, it said in a Friday Federal Registernotice. USTR prefers comments be submitted via www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2014-0022. U.S. trade law requires USTR to ask for comments on telecom agreements. The comments should focus on access to foreign telecom markets for U.S. companies, USTR said.