April’s five fastest U.S. ISPs for Netflix streaming speeds remained atop the list in May, the company said in a blog post Monday. Verizon FiOS held the top spot among major ISPs at 3.56 Mbps, followed by Cox, Cablevision Optimum, Bright House and Comcast. CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream, Verizon DSL and Clearwire rounded out the bottom half of the list of major providers. A one-position swap between Suddenlink, now at the eight spot, and Mediacom, now at the nine spot, was the only change to the list in May. Abroad, New Zealand’s Bigpipe fell three spots in the country’s Netflix speed index, down .34 Mbps from the previous month to 3.11 Mbps. Kabel Deutschland found its way back into second place on the list in Germany, clocking in at 4.0 Mbps -- up from 3.81 Mbps in April.

Despite having launched its Fire TV streaming box and stick in 2014, Amazon has quickly established itself at the top of the rankings in the U.S. digital media streamer market, taking a 30 percent share of Q1 shipments, Strategy Analytics said last week, citing the availability of its quarterly vendor share report. Market concentration is prevalent in the stand-alone digital media streamer space, as the top four brands -- Amazon, Roku, Google and Apple, in the order of their rankings -- accounted for more than 90 percent of Q1 shipments, the research firm said. Other findings: (1) A total of 35.7 million digital media streamers are installed in U.S. homes, and about a third of U.S. broadband homes own at least one such device. (2) Apple has shipped in excess of 15 million Apple TV units since its 2007 launch. (3) Apple TV, Roku streaming boxes, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV in Q1 accounted for 18 percent of all connected TV streaming devices installed in U.S. homes, up from 14 percent in Q1 a year earlier. "Low-cost standalone digital media streamers are proving hugely popular with consumers who want a quick and easy way of accessing their favorite online streaming services on the living room TV and the entry of instantly recognizable brands such as Google and Amazon is helping maintain growth in the sector," said David Watkins, Strategy Analytics service director-connected home devices.

PMCM TV will have to operate its WJLP Middletown, New Jersey, station on virtual channel 33 instead of virtual channel 3, the FCC Media Bureau said in a declaratory ruling released Friday. It grants the request of Meredith Corp., licensee of WFSB Hartford, which operates on virtual channel 3. PMCM had sought to operate on virtual channels 3.10 and up, though broadcasters are usually seen as having dominion over all the virtual channels in their market that start with their main channel digit (see 1409160043). The two stations have “significant overlap,” the bureau said. “The Commission has never assigned the same major channel number to separately owned stations for concurrent use in the same area, nor has it ever limited a broadcaster in the number of minor channel numbers it may use."The declaratory ruling also denies a waiver request from PMCM to be allowed to use virtual channel 3.10 and an emergency stay request also connected with the channel request.

An FCC failure to complete international coordination before the incentive auction could threaten the viability of broadcasters near the borders, NAB said in a meeting Wednesday with Commissioner Ajit Pai’s Chief of Staff Matthew Berry. “Until channel assignments are coordinated with Canada and Mexico, broadcasters and the Commission itself cannot possibly know with certainty the channels to which stations will need to move,” NAB said. “These stations should not be forced off the air solely because there is not a new channel to which they can relocate.”

Online advertising will surpass broadcast TV advertising in 2015 and “become the single largest ad class by next year,” FTI Consulting said in a news release Monday. Online advertising will climb 10.3 percent over the next five years, from $37.5 billion in 2014 to $41.8 billion in 2015 and to $55.6 billion by 2018, FTI predicted. Broadcast ads will rise 4.2 percent in the same period, FTI said. “Broadcast ad revenues are expected to rise minimally in 2015 to $38.9 billion and to $45.5 billion by 2018,” the release said. Online advertising will surpass both broadcast and direct mail as the single largest advertising category, FTI said.

The compromise replacement for the HD carriage exemption proposed by the American Cable Association and NAB (see 1505280054) doesn't require carriers using the exemption to submit filings to the FCC on their progress toward being able to retransmit HD signals, WTA said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 98-120. The FCC shouldn't do so either, said WTA, which supports the compromise plan.

An NAB ex parte filing describing a meeting Thursday between numerous associations and wireless carriers and FCC staff is too brief and violates agency rules, said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino in a formal complaint. The NAB filing doesn't meet “the level of disclosure required by the FCC” and asked that “a proper detailed filing be made as soon as possible,” Gravino said. The meeting involved commission staff and the Association for Public Television Stations, AT&T, the Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, NAB, PBS, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, said the NAB filing. The ex parte letter said NAB and APTS “discussed some of the potential challenges associated with the process of repacking broadcasters following the incentive auction,” while the wireless officials “discussed the importance of certainty and transparency in the spectrum reallocation process.” All participants “agreed to collaborate to allow as expeditious a transition as possible” and “to continue to engage on this issue,” the NAB ex parte letter said. “How was the agreed upon collaboration proposed to be structured?” asked Gravino, in a list of questions he said the ex parte filing should have specified, including what specific challenges were discussed, and whether low-power TV or translators were discussed at the meeting. “Does this “collaboration” rise to the level of collusion between sellers and buyers?” asked Gravino. The NAB filing ”does not meet the requirements for proper ex parte disclosure,” he said.

The FCC released the text of 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act items involving the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program approved at its May 21 meeting. The released items are an order extending the program providing communications equipment to low-income individuals who are deaf-blind and an NPRM seeking comment on making it permanent.

Equal Employment Opportunity mid-term reports on FCC Form 397 must be filed June 1 for radio groups in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia with more than 11 full-time employees, said a reminder public notice issued by the Media Bureau Tuesday. “Other station groups must file a Form 397, on a rolling basis, on the four-year anniversary of the most recent filing deadline for the license renewal applications for the units’ stations, as those anniversaries arise.” The form requires licensees to identify an EEO compliance person, and attach their last two EEO public inspection file reports, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Wednesday. The FCC uses the reports to assess broadcaster hiring outreach efforts, to make sure they were “sufficiently broad to attract applicants from all significant groups within the station’s service area,” Oxenford said. Every two months, new stations in different states will have to submit their reports, Oxenford said. “ Be prepared for the scrutiny that this will bring to your EEO performance,” he said. The Media Bureau has received “a number of inquiries” concerning the appropriate filing procedures for groups that include both radio and TV stations, or stations licensed to multiple states, and therefore multiple Form 397 deadlines, the PN said. Stations licensed to multiple states should have selected their renewal groups by now, the bureau said, while units containing radio and TV should file by the four-year anniversary of the filing deadline for the television station’s renewal application, the PN said. They don’t need to file by the earlier radio deadline, the PN said.

Audio streaming services could charge more for their products and consumers would still pay for them, research from Atenga shows, said the firm in a news release Wednesday. ITunes could maximize revenue by raising its price from $25 annually to $15 monthly and Pandora could double its price from $5 to $10 per month, it said. Those surveyed were more conflicted over the issue of music choice versus quality, with about half responding that audio quality is less important than music choice. Those who preferred Spotify and YouTube, which allow users to select specific songs, not surprisingly showed more preference for choice over quality, the research shows. The survey of 857 American adults done by Atenga, a pricing consulting group, has a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of 2.5 percent.