The FCC should issue a public notice refreshing the record on whether streaming services such as Hulu and Fubo should be classified as MVPDs, said the Television Operators Caucus, a broadcast lobbying group, in separate meetings this week with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, according to ex parte filings posted Thursday in docket 14-261. The video programming and distribution marketplace “has changed dramatically” since comments were last solicited in the docket in 2014, said the lobbying group, which includes Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb and Morgan Murphy Media Vice President Business Development Chris Cornelius. Local broadcasters can't negotiate directly with streaming services over carriage the way they do with cable and satellite companies, the group said. “The current model effectively allows the national television Networks to dictate the economics of distribution agreements with [virtual MVPDs],” the filing said. Since MVPD subscriptions and thus retransmission consent revenue is declining, “affording local stations the right to negotiate fair compensation” is “important to the long-term health of local stations,” the filing said.

Newsmax went dark on DirecTV's channel lineup at the end of Tuesday, the MVPD said Wednesday. A DirecTV spokesperson emailed that the MVPD has repeatedly indicated it wanted to continue carrying the network "but ultimately Newsmax's demands for rate increases would have led to significantly higher costs." "We expect DirecTV, and its majority owner AT&T, to treat Newsmax on a fair and equitable basis in relation to all of the channels it carries, especially after both companies de-platformed OAN last year," a Newsmax spokesperson emailed. The network's being dropped has been a subject of House Republican criticism (see 2301240032).

The Communications Equity and Diversity Council scheduled a media ownership diversity symposium on “Expanding Digital and Media Ownership Opportunities for Women and Minorities” Feb. 7. The event will feature panels on competitive hurdles for minorities in media, strategies for cultivating diverse media leaders, and ways to improve access to capital for would-be minority owners, said a public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest. An agenda will be released before the event, the PN said.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on a proposal from consumer groups on what factors the agency should consider when deciding whether closed caption display settings are accessible for some devices and MVPDs, said a public notice in docket 12-08 Tuesday. Under the proposal (see 2202180065), the FCC would consider what it described as four factors when gauging caption accessibility: “proximity, discoverability, previewability, and consistency and persistence.” Proximity involves how many steps it takes to access the closed captions, and discoverability concerns how intuitive that process is. Previewablity measures whether the selected closed caption appearances can be previewed, and “consistency and persistence” concern whether the settings are consistent across multiple devices and persistent over time, the PN said. The Media Bureau seeks feedback on whether those factors should be considered with those meanings, and whether other factors should be considered, the PN said. The proposal stems from 2022 filings by groups including Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the National Association of the Deaf. The Media Bureau seeks further comment on the matter in part because CTA “expressed concern about the proposed factors, and asserted that further public comment was necessary,” the PN said.

The FCC’s competition report “wholly neglects to articulate agency actions necessary in response to the acknowledged dominant position of streaming services,” said a blog post by Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long Tuesday. The report (see 2301060048) acknowledges viewers are leaving traditional media for streaming services but doesn’t recognize “the inequitable role that the lopsided regulatory status quo plays in anointing these winners and losers,” or a need for a deregulatory response, Long said. “The report presents a compelling factual case for MVPD deregulation,” he said, urging the FCC to eliminate set-top box rules, network nonduplication, and program carriage rules.

DirectTV is "not trying to de-platform Newsmax," the MVPD wrote House Republican Conference members this week in response to their letter earlier this month complaining about the news network potentially being dropped from DirecTV's lineup. "We want to continue our carriage of Newsmax on the same terms as at present, and we have made that clear to Newsmax," wrote General Counsel Michael Harman, saying, with the current agreement expiring, it began a short-term extension to allow more negotiating time. A DirecTV spokesperson told us the programmer, which has been carried for free, now is seeking payment, though its programming is available free via YouTube, Newsmax's website and streaming platforms such as Google Play, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. The Jan. 20 letter from the House Republicans to DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow, AT&T CEO John Stankey and TPG Capital CEO Jon Winkelried accused the direct broadcast satellite operator of "actively working to limit conservative viewpoints on its system." The House Conference members cited Vice Media being carried by DirecTV and receiving higher fees than Newsmax does. The letter said Congress plans "extensive oversight on the extent to which House Democrats and officials in federal offices" limited and restricted free speech, with the investigations "not ... limited to social media companies." It demanded ratings for and fees paid to the networks. AT&T and TPG respectively have majority and minority stakes in DirecTV. Newsmax didn't comment Tuesday.

Comcast's good-faith negotiation complaint about a blackout of WPIX New York (see 2212130029) accuses Nexstar of violating standards "that Comcast itself flouted," the broadcaster said Wednesday in its docket 22-443 answer. Comcast's complaint raises novel good-faith objections that never came up in the companies' negotiations, said Nexstar, saying Comcast not withdrawing the complaint now that the two have reached an agreement "underscores that its filing was merely a pretext for trying to force a proceeding based on arguments that Comcast has already presented to the FCC." It said the complaint doesn't offer a cognizable claim for good-faith violation and urged that it be dismissed. Comcast outside counsel didn't comment.

Nexstar and Charter settled their legal battle over a retransmission consent agreement for Mission Broadcasting’s WPIX New York, according to a filing Monday in the superior court of Delaware. Nexstar reached a settlement in a related court proceeding with Comcast in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York last month (see 2212200057). Both breach of contract cases began after Nexstar sought to apply clauses to WPIX’s retransmission consent contracts after Mission acquired WPIX. Nexstar operates all of Mission's stations through sharing arrangements. In Monday’s filing, Nexstar and Charter asked the court to stay the proceeding in anticipation of the companies requesting a voluntary dismissal in the wake of the settlement. Nexstar and Charter didn’t comment on the terms of the settlement.

Programmers, the Video Advertising Bureau and OpenAP are partnering to create a measurement certification and streaming viewership dataset for determining ratings, OneAP said Monday. Programmers joining the Joint Industry Committee (JIC) effort are Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery. OpenAP said measurement certification standards will be formalized and officially announced March 1. It said JIC goals include a programmer data set that harmonizes streaming viewership data and hiring of a third-party audit firm to verify the accuracy of the streaming viewership dataset. In a joint statement, Paramount CEO Bob Bakish, TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said premium video's advertising model "depends on an ecosystem for measurement that is transparent, independent, inclusive, and accurately reflects the way all people consume premium video content today. By coming together to establish this JIC, we can collaborate and accelerate the efforts to implement a new multi-currency future that fosters more competition, inclusivity and innovation and will ultimately better serve advertisers, agencies and consumers."

The emergency alert system test reporting system (ETRS) is now accepting Form One filings from EAS participants, said an FCC Public Safety Bureau public notice Tuesday. The forms are due Feb. 28. “EAS Participants must renew their identifying information required by ETRS Form One on a yearly basis,” said the PN.