CEA PONDERS CHALLENGE TO CHARTER WAIVER— Opponents of the FCC's conditional waiver to the charter for set-tops with downloadable security, which includes notably the Consumer Electronics Association, have until the end of this week to appeal that decision. A spokesperson for CEA said it was "considering all options," but FCC staffers are anticipating that it will appeal the bureau-level decision. It has 30 days from the FCC's grant of the waiver, which was adopted April 17. Two commission sources confirmed CEA representatives have met with commission officials recently to argue that the waiver went too far, and that the fact that it does not require the boxes with downloadable security also to be CableCARD compliant -- the charter argued it would be too expensive and delay the move to digital security -- will encourage others to seek the waivers and effectively eviscerate the requirement of separating the security and surfing functions. That FCC move was meant to spur the market in the retail set-tops produced by CEA members. Back in December, CEA asked the FCC to deny the charter's request for a waiver of the FCC's ban on integrated digital set-top boxes, calling its proposal a "nominal and partial 'solution' that cannot fairly be projected to work in the real world." The FCC in 2007 instituted the prohibition on settops that combine channel surfing with security. Cable ops were required to use a removable CableCARD security add-on, a move the FCC hoped would promote a retail market in boxes, though it conceded a downloadable software security option would be preferable to the hardware in the long run. WEB SPECS VEX TEX. REP: JOE BARTON, OTHERS SEEK INFO ON GOOGLE GLASS—Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), cochair of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, along with other members of that caucus, has sent a letter to Google expressing concerns with the privacy implications of Google Glass, the "wearable computer" glasses. They pointed to Google's own promotion of the device as able to "take pictures, record and share what you see hands free, obtain directions, send messages and basically ask whatever is on your mind right before your eyes." They said that given that Google Glass has not yet been released, and they are unclear about the associated privacy protections, they want some answers to a number of questions. One is how Google will keep Google Glass from inadvertently collecting information about users, or non-users, without consent. Google has had to settle claims that it collected info from Wi-Fi Nets without permission -- Google has said the collection was inadvertent. Other questions include what "proactive steps" Google is taking to protect privacy, whether it will be able to use facial recognition to "unveil" personal info, whether the new technology will need to result in any changes to current privacy policies and more. The caucus wants answers by June 14. Other caucus members signing on to the letter were Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.), Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Rep. Henry C. "Hank" Johnson Jr. (D-Ga.), Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Rep. Richard Nugent (R-Fla.), Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.). FTC CLEARS SINCLAIR BUY OF FISHER—The Federal trade Commission has no antitrust issues with Sinclair Broadcasting's purchase of Fisher Communications. Sinclair said in March it had agreed to buy the Fisher's 20 TV stations for $373.3 million. The FTC Thursday granted the deal early termination, which means that it found no reason to seek conditions on or try to block the transfer. The FCC has not yet approved the license transfers. According to an FCC spokesperson, the deal has a week and a half more on public notice. The commission allows for a certain period of time for the public to Page 1 of 6 weigh in on the deal before it makes a decision. The FTC (or Justice, they divide up the oversight) vets the deal for antitrust concerns, while the FCC goes beyond to look at public interest considerations as well as competition issues. An FTC or DOJ review for potential competition issues, and the requirement that companies submit the deal for that review, is triggered by any transaction valued at $70.9 million or more. CW CHANGES FIVE NIGHTS— The CW will shake up its schedule in the fall, making changes on all five nights according to the 2013-14 primetime schedule the network released on Thursday. New drama Reign, about a young Mary Queen of Scots, will get The CW's strongest launch pad, leading out of The Vampire Diaries on Thursday. Rookie The Tomorrow People, about a young man (Robbie Amell) with special powers, will also get a big push on Wednesday following Arrow, the network's highestrated new series this season starring Amell's cousin Stephen. Its third new fall drama, the Vampire Diaries spinoff The Originals, will anchor Tuesdays leading into Supernatural, which moves from Wednesdays. Hart of Dixie shifts up a day to Mondays at 8 p.m., followed by sophomore Beauty and the Beast, relocated from Thursdays. The Sex and the City spinoff The Carrie Diaries will move to Fridays at 8 p.m. where it will be paired with America's Next Top Model. Remaining new dramas StarCrossed and The 100 will premiere in midseason, as well as the just-ordered reality series Famous in 12. Nikita, which had been airing on Fridays this season, will also end with a six-episode run in midseason. In addition to its fall schedule, The CW also announced a three-year deal with Clear Channel to broadcast the iHeartRadio music festival as well as its Holiday Jingle Ball and Ultimate Pool Party. Under the agreement, the network will also air album release parties and other concert specials and have the rights to stream the specials online following their TV premiere. USA GREENLIGHTS FIRST COMEDIES—USA Network on Thursday picked up its first two original half-hour comedies to series, ordering Denis Leary's Sirens and buddy comedy Playing House. Sirens follows three Chicago EMTs who are skilled at their jobs but disastrous at relationships. Leary and Bob Fisher co-wrote the pilot, which is based on a UK format, and executive produce the series. The single-camera Playing House is about a motherto-be who asks her single, career-driven best friend to return home from her job overseas to attend her baby shower. The series is inspired by the real-life friendship of co-writers Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair, who also star and executive produce. USA has additionally order the comedy pilot Love is Dead, about a company that specializes in breaking up romantic relationships. It also announced that Modern Family will premiere in syndication on the network on Sept. 24. TW CABLE WEIGHS STAKE IN HULU—Time Warner Cable is in talks about taking an equity stake in the Hulu video hub, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources said to be familiar with the discussions. Bloomberg said those talks are in the "early stage," noting that a deal might not come together. In addition to providing a new revenue stream, TWC could be interested in Hulu to help it obtain out-of-market distribution rights for top TV programming, and help it deliver subscription-based services outside its traditional cable footprint. TWC lost 119,000 video subs in the first quarter. TWC declined to comment on the speculation. TWC's purported interest in Hulu follows other recent speculation about who is looking to land Hulu, which recently surpassed 4 million paid subscribers. Last month, former News Corp. chief Peter Chernin was reported to have a $500 million bid for Hulu, which he helped found in 2007. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was Page 2 of 6 exploring a bid for Hulu as she looks to reignite Yahoo's online video strategy. Amazon.com and Guggenheim Partners reportedly have also shown interest in Hulu. Jason Kilar, the founding CEO of Hulu, left the company at the end of March. Hulu senior VP of content Andy Forssell has stepped in as acting CEO. FTC SIGNALS IT IS STICKING WITH JULY 1 DATE FOR COPPA CHANGES—The Federal Trade Commission has signaled that it will not be postponing the July 1 deadline for companies to come into compliance with changes in its rule enforcing the COPPA (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act). The Digital Marketing Association, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Motion Picture Association of America and others had asked the FTC to delay implementation from July 1 to Jan. 1, 2014, saying they needed more time to implement the changes. But earlier this week, the FTC began sending letters to companies advising them of the July 1 deadline and what they needed to do to comply. In December, the FTC unveiled the final version of the FTC's proposed changes and updates, which includes bringing geolocation, cookies (plug-ins), online user names, and photos, videos, and audio of kids into the definition of personal information that can't be collected without parental permission, and brings behavioral targeting explicitly within the rule. It also makes websites responsible for third-party collections. Companies also have to ensure that any third party receiving information can protect it and its confidentiality and is abiding by new rules on how it can be kept and stored. HOUSE DEMS: AUCTION LAW DOES NOT PREVENT FCC SPECTRUM SCREEN MOVE—Leading House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats have given the FCC their take on what incentive spectrum auction legislation has to say about FCC policy regarding the spectrum holdings of wireless companies. In a letter to outgoing chairman Julius Genachowski (he is exiting Friday, May 17), Ranking E&C member Henry Waxman and ranking Communications Subcommittee member Anna Eshoo, both from California, said the law clearly states in a "carefully negotiated" addition to the original bill that the FCC cannot prevent someone from bidding how meets certain criteria. But it "does not require the FCC to allow every carrier to bid for every megahertz of a spectrum band," they said. In a separate proceeding, the FCC is considering modifying the local-market spectrum screen it uses to determine how much spectrum in one market held by one company should trigger additional review. That could potentially affect AT&T and Verizon, expected to be bidders in the spectrum auction. The Dems point out that the law also allowed for the FCC "to adopt and enforce rules of general applicability, including rules concerning spectrum aggregation that promote competition." They argue that, in addition to the cap, the FCC could require post-auction divestiture of spectrum, so long as that was part of a generally applicable rule. Back in April, the Republican leadership wrote the FCC to take issue with the Justice Department's support of ensuring that smaller nationwide networks get a chance to bid, and of weighting spectrum holdings according to the type of spectrum as well as the amount. Lower-band spectrum like that being reclaimed from broadcasters is more valuable to wireless companies because of its propagation characteristics -it more easily travel through walls and buildings. IDOL PERFOMANCE FINAL DOWN SHORTLY— Fox aired the performance finale of American Idol on Wednesday for a 2.9 rating with adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnight numbers. While that was even with last Wednesday, it was down 34% from last year's performance finale (which aired on a Tuesday). The second night of So You Think You Can Dance's two-night Page 3 of 6 premiere was up 21% from Tuesday to a 2.3. Fox won the night with an overall 2.6/8. ABC grabbed second with a 2.0/6. The Middle and Modern Family both rose 6% to a 1.9 and 3.5, respectively. Family Tools and How to Live With Your Parents were each flat at 1.2 and 2.0. At 10 p.m., Nashville was up 13% to a 1.8. CBS' finale of CSI was down from both last week (9%) and last year (17%) to a 2.0. Criminal Minds was even with another 2.5. CBS ended up in third (but second in total viewers) with a 1.9/6. NBC aired the finale of Chicago Fire for a 1.9, up 6% from last week and even with its series premiere back in October. Dateline was even with its last airing three weeks ago with a 1.3 and Law & Order: SVU declined 21% to a 1.5. NBC was in fourth with a 1.6/5. The CW rounded out the evening with a 0.9/3, airing a pair of finales. Arrow ended its debut season with a 0.7 in the net's targeted 18-34 demo, down a tenth from last week (it was also down 36% from the 1.1 it premiered to in October). With 18-49s, the finale drew a 0.9, flat with last week and down 31% from the show's premiere (1.3). Supernatural's finale was even with 1834s with a 0.8 and down 10% with 18-49s to a 0.9. HBO ORDERS MIKE JUDGE COMEDY—HBO has ordered a comedy series from Mike Judge (Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill) about Silicon Valley's tech boom. The logline for the untitled series is: A half-hour comedy set in the high tech gold rush of modern Silicon Valley, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success. The pilot was written by Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, who serve as executive producers along with Michael Rotenberg and Scott Rudin. The pickup comes one day after HBO ordered an untitled Michael Lannon dramedy project. ESPN GETS ALL OF U.S. TENNIS OPEN—Beginning in 2015, ESPN will be the exclusive rights holder for the entire Tennis U.S. Open thanks to an 11-year deal with the United States Tennis Association announced Thursday. ESPN has televised approximately 100 hours of live US Open matches since 2009; now it will air over 130 hours, adding day-long coverage of the "middle weekend" -- Saturday, Sunday and Labor Day Monday -plus both the men's and women's semifinals and finals. The tournament finals, and weekend play, had been carried by CBS since 1968. Also starting in 2015, the women's semifinals will be played on a Thursday in primetime, with the men's semifinals taking place on Friday. The women's finals will be on Saturday and the men's finals on Sunday. All telecasts will be available on ESPN's TV Everywhere offering, WatchESPN. ESPN also gains expanded digital rights, with every match on all 17 tournament courts available on ESPN3. Currently, six of the 17 courts have coverage. With the deal, ESPN will now have complete rights to the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. It shares coverage of the French Open with Tennis Channel and NBC, which airs that tournament's championships. "Certain sporting events become synonymous with when they are held, and there is no better - or bigger way to celebrate the end of summer than at the US Open in New York," said John Skipper, ESPN president and cochair of Disney Media Networks. "We look forward to capturing every match, every star, every championship and all the drama on this grand stage." Sources peg the agreement's annual value at as much as $75 million. That's almost double the current combined outlay under which CBS and ESPN are paying $20 million apiece for Open rights. ESPN has offset some of those costs through a sublicensing deal with Tennis Channel, which airs some 70 live hours from the Open, as part of 250 overall with encore programming. CBS Sports issued the following statement about the Open: "We are proud of our long-term association with the USTA and wish them well. Looking ahead, we have profitable partnerships with all of our key sports Page 4 of 6 franchises locked up for many, many years to come, including the NFL, NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, SEC Football, PGA Tour and the PGA Championship. And in the meantime, we look forward to two more years of tennis on CBS." PROSPECT PARK ADJUSTS ROLLOUT SCHEDULE FOR SOAPS—Prospect Park will adjust their rollout schedule for episodes of soaps All My Children and One Life to Live. The company will now release two episodes of each per week: All My Children on Monday and Wednesday and One Life to Live on Tuesday and Thursday. The Friday recap shows will also be condensed into just one. Hulu will keep all of the episodes on its free service. With the new schedule, OLTL and AMC will produce about 110 episodes this year instead of the planned 168. In a note to fans, Prospect Park founders Jeff Kwatinetz and Rich Frank said that the "viewing patterns resemble more closely the typical patterns of online viewing rather than how one would watch traditional television. This leads us to believe we are posting too many episodes and making it far too challenging for viewers to keep up." TUMULTY NAMED EVP OF AFFILIATE RELATIONS AT CBS—Elizabeth Tumulty has been named executive VP of affiliate relations for the CBS Television Network. She starts June 1 and will report to Diana Wilkin, president of affiliate relations. Based in Los Angeles, Tumulty will work closely with Wilkin on negotiating affiliation contracts and coordinating with the affiliates board, among other things. She will also be the West Coast point person on affiliate issues. "I'm thrilled to have someone of Elizabeth's professional caliber joining our team," said Wilkin. "Her business acumen and vast knowledge of the inner workings of the affiliate-network relationship make her well-suited to keep CBS and its affiliates at the forefront of an always-evolving industry." Tumulty comes from The CW, where she was executive VP of network distribution, serving as the network's head of distribution and affiliate relations when it launched in 2006. Tumulty's role grew to include oversight of affiliate marketing, while she added several key CW Plus Network responsibilities in 2012. Prior to joining The CW, Tumulty was senior VP of affiliate relations and communications for The WB Network. BOB PAPPER EXITING HOFFSTRA—Bob Papper, author of the annual RTDNA-Hofstra University TV station surveys, is stepping down as distinguished professor of journalism and department chair for journalism, media studies and public relations at Hofstra, to live out west. He will continue to conduct the surveys on behalf of Hofstra and the RTDNA, and will retain a distinguished emeritus professor of journalism title. Papper, a newsroom veteran at WCCO Minneapolis, WSYX Columbus and KPIX San Francisco, among others, leaves New York May 28 and will live in Las Vegas. Born in New York, he spent his high school years in Albuquerque. "I never really got the west out of me," he says. "There's something about it." The illuminating RTDNA-Hofstra studies look at profitability, staffing and news output, among other things, in local TV and radio, and are the definitive word on trends in local news. U-VERSE UPGRADES ON-DEMAND STORE—AT&T's Uverse has rolled out a new U-verse On Demand storefront that is designed to make it easier for customer to find and access movies and TV shows. Improved tools for finding On Demand content has become an increasingly important issue for multichannel operators as the amount of On Demand content continues to grow. "Customers have access to thousands of titles today, and our new On Demand storefront will help them quickly discover the best movies and titles," said Mel Page 5 of 6 Coker, chief marketing officer, AT&T Home Solutions in a statement. The new interface was tested in AT&T Labs in Austin, Texas and then trialed with customers in Austin and San Antonio before launching on May 16. It is currently available in Austin, Bakersfield, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Charleston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbia, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Dayton, Daytona Beach, Decatur, El Paso, Fayetteville, Fresno, Grand Rapids, Greensboro, Greenville, Houston, Jackson, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Knoxville, Lansing, Los Angeles, Louisville, Lubbock, Memphis, Miami, Midland, Milwaukee, Mobile, Monterey, Nashville, Reno, San Antonio, San Diego, South Bend, Springfield, St. Louis, Topeka, Tulsa and Wallingford. Additional markets will be rolled out over the rest of the year. New features include an improve user interface; advanced search tools; colorful poster art to simplify the process of finding interesting content; a My Videos section to keep track of current rentals in one place; and a My Queue section where users can save titles for later viewing. In the future, the telco is planning additional improvements that will include an advanced recommendation engine. AMAZON EXPANDS NBCU AGREEMENT—Amazon.com has inked an expanded content licensing agreement with NBCUniversal Cable and New Media Distribution that adds a variety of shows to its Prime Instant Video offering. As part of the agreement, Prime subscribers got exclusive unlimited subscription streaming access to prior seasons of NBC's Grimm and USA's Suits and Covert Affairs on May 16th. Later this year, users will get access to NBC's Hannibal and in early 2014 will be able to stream Syfy's new show Defiance. The deal also includes such shows as NBC's Smash and Syfy's Alphas, Eureka and Warehouse 13 shows. In addition, the agreement will make such kids fare as Curious George and Land Before Time available on Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. "We listen carefully to our customers to find out which TV shows and movies they find the most entertaining," said Brad Beale, director of digital video content acquisition for Amazon in a statement. "Our expanded agreement with NBCUniversal gives Prime members access to even more exclusive content that they can stream instantly, at no additional cost." Frances Manfredi, president, NBCUniversal Cable and New Media Distribution, added in a statement that "with Amazon, we're giving our established viewers a chance to catch up on what they missed while simultaneously reaching and engaging new audiences who may not have seen these great series on their premiering networks." CBS NAMES VP, NEWS SERVICES—CBS News has named Kurt Davis VP of news services, the network announced Thursday. Davis will head up the satellite newsgathering team that supplies CBS' 200 affiliates and international markets, working out of CBS' New York office. Prior to joining CBS News, Davis served as executive news director at CBS' San Antonio, Texas affiliate, KENSTV, following a long career in broadcast journalism at stations around the country. Page 6 of 6