May 2015

Over-the-top TV platforms may be growing, but OTT providers may not be getting an apportioned amount of revenues from users. A third-quarter 2014 survey says 11 percent of all US broadband home relying exclusively on shared OTT accounts when using subscription OTT services, according to Parks Associates. The finding says that 8 percent are using a OTT video account held by someone outside of their home; and 6 percent are exclusively using a shared OTT account. Parks says 57 percent of US broadband households access to some OTT.

Looking at some key OTT areas, Parks says 11 percent of Netflix users, 10 percent of Hulu Plus and 5 percent of Amazon Prime Instant Video are using an account paid for by someone else. Younger TV homes are the highest in terms of using shared OTT accounts -- 22 percent of 18-24 viewers who use an OTT service use a subscription that was paid for by someone outside of their homes. Parks says this OTT account-sharing research includes OTT services that are independent of pay-TV services. Brett Sappington, director of research, Parks Associates, stated: “OTT video accounts for a disproportionate amount of content consumed when compared to expenditure -- over one-third of video consumed per week is OTT, but it is only 9 percent of the household video budget.”

Verizon may get some landline relief in New Jersey: The state's utilities commission will likely move this week to lift some pricing regulations around basic residential telephone service, making it possible for the carrier to raise its rates for plain old telephone service (POTS) as much as 36 percent -- and possibly higher, in time. The agreement Verizon is working out with the New Jersey Bureau of Public Utilities (BPU) would keep landline service rate caps in place for five years, during which the carrier can only raise rates by up to $6. Basic residential service in the state currently costs $16.45 per month. However, after the five-year period is up, Verizon's services will be reclassified as competitive and no longer subject to regulation -- meaning it can set landline rates without having to get BPU approval first. The move to reclassify Verizon's PSTN services has raised the ire of advocacy groups, including AARP. "We know (telephone service) is a necessity for all New Jerseyans, but particularly for people 65 years or older," said AARP New Jersey associate director Evelyn Liebman.

Will Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) be moved? That's the question the Senate is asking itself as it enters its last legislative week before key provisions that authorize some of the government's sweeping domestic surveillance powers are due to lapse at the end of May. And if May 17 is any indication, the answer is clear: No, not a chance. "This has been a very important part of our effort to defend the homeland since 9/11," Majority Leader McConnell said on ABC's This Week. "We know that the terrorists overseas are trying to recruit people in our country, to commit atrocities in our country. You saw a great example of just what I'm talking about in the Boston Marathon massacre. I don't want us to go dark, in effect."

Majority Leader McConnell hasn't flinched from his position that a full reauthorization of the Patriot Act's three expiring spy provisions -- including Section 215, the legal edifice the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of US call data -- is necessary to keep Americans safe and thwart terrorist plots. Majority Leader McConnell's intransigence has been unbowed despite an apparent groundswell of support over the past month in favor of NSA reform.

The nearly $1 billion awarded to Apple by a jury in a trademark and patent case against Samsung Electronics just got sliced by about 40 percent. An appeals court rejected a big chunk of the $929 million Apple was expecting to receive. By Samsung's estimates, it should now owe only $547 million, though the final judgment will be decided by a lower court. Samsung did violate several patents but did not dilute iPhone design elements that could not be protected under trademark law, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said.

Apple had argued that the iPhone’s rectangular design was part of a trade dress, a legal term for design features that communicate who made the product. But features that are functional can’t be protected, and Apple failed to show that the look of the iPhone screen or its shape were not functional, the appeals court found. The jury had also found that Samsung violated several Apple user-interface patents, including pinch-and-zoom gestures. The appellate ruling is a partial victory for Samsung, which had also sought to reduce claims to only profits attributable to the features covered in the infringed patents as opposed to total profits. Apple and Samsung remain the world’s top two smartphone makers but both have been slightly undercut by smaller rivals in the two years since the case was first heard. Apple said in a statement that it was pleased the ruling was only a partial setback. "This case has always been about more than money," Apple stated. "It’s about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love, which is hard to put a price on.”