NAB will work with consumer groups to develop a set of best practices for the electronic newsroom technique (ENT), the association said in an ex parte FCC filing posted Friday in docket 05-231 describing a Feb. 5 meeting with officials from Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Hearing Loss Association of America and Gallaudet University's Technology Access Program. ENT involves creating captions for a live news broadcast by using the script for that broadcast rather than transcribing what is actually said. ENT is the best solution for increasing accessibility without straining the resources of broadcasters in small and medium markets, NAB said. The best practices identified by NAB and the consumer groups include captions formatted to increase readability, increased training at the station level, and more accurate scripting for weather segments, the filing said. ENT isn't broadcasters' long-term solution to the question of captioning news broadcasts but is the best solution until real-time captioning technology improves, NAB said.
The FCC should have included discussion of the diverse programming on low-power TV in its notice of inquiry on programming diversity (see 1602180044), said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino in an emailed newsletter Friday. “The Commissioners and staff spoke over 22k words yesterday, and not one of them was about LPTV programming,” said Gravino. “The diverse network programmers which air on LPTV and translators, and also air on pay tv platforms, well, they don't count,” he said. By overlooking LPTV and the effect the incentive auction will have on programming diversity, the commission is ignoring “a heck of a lot of independent programming creating content for free over the air broadcasting,” Gravino said.
Pilot, NAB's technology division, invested an undisclosed sum in news curating platform Haystack TV, NAB said in a news release Thursday. "America's local broadcasters can potentially leverage this type of application to reach and engage an even larger audience," said NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny, who will join Haystack TV in an advisory position.
The FCC's changed broadcast contest rules took effect Feb. 12, the agency said in Friday's Federal Register. "This means that, among other things, stations are now able to post their contest rules on their websites and avoid the hassle of extended on-air announcements of those rules," said a blog post on the website of Fletcher Heald.
Gray Television completed its deal to buy all Shurz TV stations (see 1602120061), the buyer said in an SEC filing Tuesday.
Brands will be forced to shift advertising from TV to mobile devices, BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield wrote investors Tuesday. Although must-watch live TV events such as sports and awards shows will continue to make a strong case for live TV, “The concept of flipping through channels and watching linear, live TV will fade away for most consumers,” Greenfield said. Shifting TV ad dollars away from TV networks to mobile will benefit platforms including Facebook, Google, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, Greenfield said. Citing enthusiasm from CBS CEO Les Moonves' prediction last week of a “substantially higher” 2016 upfront ad-selling season, Greenfield said Moonves “appears to be in full-on denial." The analyst cited a comment from CBS Chief Operating Officer Joe Ianniello on an earnings call last week, where Ianniello said the network’s All Access viewing by millennials was a “really good promotional vehicle for the catch-up,” before “they start watching back at the network.” TV network executives “keep hoping an improved TV Everywhere product can help solve their live, linear ratings problem,” Greenfield said. “Forcing consumers to watch heavy, unskippable and often repetitive ad loads is only going to push consumers even faster toward binge viewing on ad-free platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu (in addition to HBO Now, Showtime and Starz).”
The “great future for television when it comes will be in high definition, high frequency color,” Zenith Radio Founder-CEO Eugene McDonald told Variety magazine in a letter that was 70 years old to the day Sunday that LG said Friday it had unearthed from the Zenith archives. “Television will one day be a great industry,” McDonald said in the Feb. 14, 1946, letter. “There is nothing wrong with it that money will not cure but it needs a box office,” said McDonald, who was 59 then. “The advertisers, in my opinion, do not have the kind of money it needs to supply appropriate acceptable programs in quantity that will be needed to make television a great industry,” said McDonald, who also founded NAB in 1922 and was its first president.
HDTV antenna retailer Mohu joined TVFreedom, the coalition of broadcasters and allies said in a news release Thursday. Mohu is the 30th member of TVFreedom, it said. TVFreedom's membership also includes the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC TV affiliates associations, said its website.
The FCC Media Bureau approved Gray Television's $442.5 million buy of Schurz's stations, and some related waivers of the duopoly rule, said a letter posted online Friday. Gray had asked the bureau to allow an existing joint sales agreement involving a Wichita, Kansas, Schurz station to be grandfathered until 2025 as though it hadn't been transferred. The bureau denied that request as not being in the public interest. Instead, Gray has one year to unwind the JSA. The bureau did allow Gray to hold onto a duopoly of stations in Augusta, Georgia, with the condition that Gray must sell WAGT Augusta if its license isn't surrendered in the incentive auction. The bureau also granted a waiver to allow Gray to own two stations in the Cheyenne-Scottsbluff market in Nebraska, while one undergoes a community of license change proceeding to be moved into the Denver market. The bureau also granted a failing station waiver and a satellite exception.
Univision said it and Republican presidential contender Donald Trump settled litigation over the company's decision to stop broadcasting the Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty pageants. Terms weren't disclosed in a Univision news release Thursday, and Trump's company had no immediate comment. Trump and Univision CEO Randy Falco mentioned their yearslong business relationship in the statement. The broadcaster reportedly dropped the pageants last year over Trump's derogatory remarks about Mexicans.