Comments on the FCC rulemaking on granting the request of WJAR Providence, Rhode Island, to move from Channel 51 to 50 (see 1504220033) are due May 11, replies May 19, in docket 15-98, the agency said in Monday's Federal Register. "The Licensee has entered into such a voluntary relocation agreement with T-Mobile USA, Inc. and states that operation on channel 50 would remove any potential interference with authorized wireless operations in the adjacent Lower 700 MHZ A Block."

ESPN provided an updated statement on Verizon FiOS's new Custom TV bundling service (see 1504220058) Wednesday night: "The Walt Disney Company has been at the forefront of working with distributors to create new and innovative consumer offerings on multiple platforms. The issue here is that Verizon made unilateral decisions on how to offer ABC Family, Disney Channels, ESPN and ESPN2 that are in violation of our existing agreements," an ESPN spokeswoman emailed. Major broadcasters are "once again" blocking progress and consumer choice, the American Television Alliance (ATVA) said Thursday. Verizon's Custom TV would offer subscribers a customized version of cable programming with greater choice, ATVA said. "Rather than supporting an innovative new option for consumers, big broadcasters are threatening to sue Verizon," it said. ATVA urged Congress to look into why broadcasters that profit from taxpayer-owned airwaves are "desperate to limit consumer choice."

The FCC should take more steps to ensure communities continue to be served by public broadcasting after the spectrum incentive auction and repacking process, said the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) staff, collectively PTV, in an ex parte notice posted at the commission Wednesday in docket 14-252. PTV met with commission staff Wednesday to discuss noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcasters, the auction and repack, PTV said. PTV urged the commission to grant the petition for reconsideration filed Sept. 15 and to revise its incentive auction rules to ensure at least one NCE reserved channel remains in each community after the auction. The petition presents an auction design that allows broadcasters to volunteer to participate and reserves space for new entrants in case an unserved area develops in the process, PTV said. The commission also should adopt a selection priority for displacement applications of translators that NCE licensees operate, it said. PTV also encouraged the commission to provide a selection priority for NCE translators where mutually exclusive displacement applications are filed. The commission shouldn't assign TV stations in the repurposed 600 MHz band during the repacking process, PTV said. "Placing television stations in the 600 MHz band risks creating many of the same challenges faced with channel 51 for years following the digital transition, but magnified and significantly more complicated due to the combined impact of interrelated geography, frequency, and power level variables," PTV said. A contiguous TV broadcast band should be maintained because of challenges with a repacking plan that combines broadcast and wireless services in the band, PTV said.

Turner Broadcasting System and Hulu announced a multiyear licensing agreement, Turner said Thursday. The agreement grants Hulu exclusive subscription video-on-demand rights to previous seasons of Turner’s programming from Cartoon Network and Adult Swim and current and upcoming series from TNT and TBS, it said. It's the first licensing agreement between Hulu and Turner, Turner said.

The FCC scheduled the upcoming auction for FM broadcast construction permits, Auction 98, to start July 23, the Media Bureau and Wireless Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday in docket 15-3. Auction 98 will offer 131 construction permits in the FM broadcast service, the bureaus said. The construction permits to be auctioned are 113 new FM allotments and 18 construction permits that were offered but not sold or were defaulted upon in previous auctions, the bureaus said.

The FCC Media Bureau opened a window for filing for FM translator new station construction permit applications, it said in a public notice Tuesday. Applicants have to file Form 349 applications, an application filing fee and Form 159 through the bureau's Consolidated Database System by May 21. The window is limited to Auction 83 tech box proposals, which the bureau identified as no longer being mutually exclusive with other tech box proposals that remain pending from the Auction 83 filing window, it said. The applications are exempt from the commission's auction procedures, the bureau said.

AT&T added the Disney Story Central platform for its U-verse customers, AT&T said Tuesday. Disney Story Central, a subscription-based on-demand service, offers U-verse TV customers a collection of narrated Disney stories for $8 a month, AT&T said. New stories will be added every few months, it said. U-verse customers already have access to live and on-demand programming from Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD, it said.

The FCC Media Bureau Video Division requested comments on an NPRM in docket 15-98 to substitute Channel 50 for Channel 51 for station WJAR-TV Providence, Rhode Island. The channel substitution would serve the public interest and remove interference with a wireless licensee in the Lower 700 MHz A-Block adjacent to Channel 51 in the Providence, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Boston TV markets, WJAR said. It would also allow the A-Block licensee to fully utilize spectrum adjacent to Channel 51, which was acquired in auction 71, WJAR said. Comments are due May 12, replies May 26.

IHeartRadio, iHeartMedia's streaming radio and digital music service, is now available on the Xbox One, iHeartRadio said in a Tuesday news release. Listeners can download the app from the Xbox Store, it said. IHeartRadio's in-home integrations include Amazon Echo, Android TV, Roku, Sonos and Xbox 360.

Gannett’s broadcasting and digital spinoff will be called Tegna, Gannett said in a news release Tuesday. Gannett is creating two publicly traded spinoffs: one focused on its publishing business, and Tegna, the name of which comes by rearranging the letters in "Gannett" and dropping the double letters, a spokesman told us. “TEGNA is a nod to the more than 100 year-old history of Gannett,” said the release. The publishing business and its affiliated digital assets will retain the Gannett name once the spinoff is completed in mid-2015, Gannett said. It said Tegna will include 46 TV stations and be “the largest independent station group of major network affiliates in the top 25 markets.”