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.

The FCC should block a request from Dish to be given access to confidential documents connected with the Standard/Tegna deal and strike from the record a Dish letter on retransmission negotiation (see 2212290048), said filings from Standard, Tegna and Cox Media posted Tuesday in docket 22-162. “There is no question that DISH is seeking to use an unrelated FCC process to gain commercial advantage,” said CMG in a letter rejecting implications from Dish that CMG violated retrans negotiation rules. DISH is involved in active retransmission negotiations and blackouts with CMG and Standard General, the broadcasters said. The CMG language cited by Dish concerned stations that CMG would own under the terms of the merger agreement, CMG said. The heavily redacted document filed by Dish “implicitly invites” the FCC to “conflate the concept” of after-acquired station clauses with negotiating retransmission consent terms for other broadcaster’s stations, CMG said. The agency should strike Dish’s letter from the record and require any party with access to the document to destroy their copies of it, said CMG. The FCC also shouldn't grant Dish access to the confidential filings from Cox, Standard and Tegna connected with the deal, said a joint filing from those companies. “The risk of allowing DISH to review this information for what appear to be transparently competitive reasons that are, in all events, unrelated to the underlying proceeding, threatens the integrity of the Commission’s processes,” said the filing. The filing also questioned whether Dish could maintain the required separation between the attorneys reviewing the sensitive retrans documents filed in the merger proceeding and those negotiating retrans contracts with the broadcasters. That concern also was raised about the arrangement among Standard, Tegna and CMG parent Apollo Global Management (see 2212290048). Allowing Dish access to the filings while in retrans negotiations “is highly improper and fails to balance the risk of competitive harm,” said the joint filing. Dish didn't comment.

Walt Disney should cease trying to be Netflix and stop airing sexually suggestive and violent content, said Parents Television Council President Tim Winter in an open letter to returning Disney CEO Bob Iger. “I never could have imagined that a company named for Walt Disney would produce and distribute a television program that depicted a teenage girl masturbating in front of her laptop computer,” said Winter, referencing the comedy PEN15. Winter also criticized the cartoon Little Demon “where demon characters chant, “We wanna f*** a corpse! We wanna f*** a corpse!” “Is this what the Walt Disney Company refers to as ‘creativity?’” asked Winter. “Certainly you can help Disney embrace inclusivity without sexualizing, or even sexually exploiting, children.” Iger should reverse the company’s course and “understand, appreciate and value the qualities of the Walt Disney Company that made it so successful, and so wildly valuable,” Winter said.

The NFL signed a multiyear agreement with Alphabet giving YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket starting with the 2023 season, the league said Thursday. "For a number of years, we have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this strategic partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. The Sunday Ticket presents out-of-market Sunday regular-season NFL games. It has been distributed on DirecTV since its launch in 1994. The agreement also extends carriage of the NFL Network and NFL RedZone on YouTube TV, it said.

Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting requested an extension on the due date for their response to Comcast’s complaint alleging a violation of the good-faith retransmission consent negotiation rules (see 2212130029), said filings posted Wednesday in docket 22-443. The broadcasters want the extension to account for this month's holidays, said the filings from Mission and Nexstar. “The majority of this time period occurs during the holiday season, where both principals and counsel will be taking time off from work and engaging in long-planned holiday travel,” Nexstar said. The responses are currently due Jan. 3, but the broadcasters are seeking an extension to Jan 17. Comcast doesn’t object to the extension, Nexstar said. Nexstar and Comcast recently settled a breach of contract lawsuit related to the complaint (see 2212200057).

Verizon opened access to the beta version of its forthcoming +play content hub in a promotion with Netflix, it said Wednesday. Free for Verizon mobile and home broadband subscribers, +play is for tracking online content subscriptions and managing their billing and pricing, it said.

Mission Broadcast's insistence that Comcast carry its WPIX New York station under an agreement with Nexstar and its refusal to negotiate with Comcast directly resulted in a blackout of the station that started Dec. 3, Comcast said in a filing posted Tuesday in a good-faith negotiation complaint (docket 12-1). The WPIX blackout is "an archetypical example of bad faith negotiations" and collusion by the two, as Mission refused to negotiate for WPIX retransmission consent and Nexstar shot down proposals for a standstill and true up agreement for WPIX, Comcast said in the redacted complaint. A Nexstar spokesperson emailed that the broadcaster has been negotiating with Comcast since October but the cabler "seems unwilling to reach a fair agreement, similar to those we have with our other satellite, cable, and telco partners. Nexstar is simply seeking fair market rates for the live sports, local news, and high-quality entertainment programming we provide to millions of viewers across the country. We have a long track record of negotiating fairly and avoiding service interruptions in our markets and we hope to reach agreement with Comcast." Control of WPIX is also the subject of pending ligation between Comcast and the broadcasters, and of a complaint filed by Comcast with the FCC (see 2107140059).

Audience measurement metrics for streaming video need to figure out how to gauge "stickiness," such as measuring viewers returning to a platform frequently, the Media Institute said in a report Wednesday. It predicted increased bundling of streaming service offerings, with bundles' attractiveness to depend on strong marketing and resources. The report said the NFL possibly moving its Sunday Ticket package to a streaming service could lead to other sports leagues migrating from traditional MVPDs to streaming platforms. It said ad-supported VOD services are rapidly growing viewers, but they also face a sizable percentage of potential subscribers uninterested in any service featuring ads.

DirecTV and Fox Corp. inked a multiyear carriage renewal and retransmission consent agreement that headed off a possible blackout (see 2211280058), Fox said Saturday.

Disney's returned CEO Bob Iger (see 2211210038) could decide the fate of the linear video programming bundle, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote Friday. In a note, he said programmers in moving to direct-to-consumer models have lost the advantages of the video bundle -- high lock-in, low marketing expense and strong pricing power -- yet it's not clear any are willing to forfeit customer ownership to return to focusing on the linear bundle. Moffett said Iger was a strong advocate for entertainment being direct to consumer but keeping sports linear. If the linear model is to survive, Disney will have to do it via the Hulu Live virtual MVPD service by dropping Paramount and NBCUniversal channels from the lineup and making Hulu a low-cost bundle offering, he said.