Pandora signed separate multiyear licensing agreements with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc., that will benefit Pandora while “modernizing compensation in the U.S. for ASCAP and BMI songwriters and publishers," it said Tuesday. In the BMI agreement, Pandora agreed to withdraw its appeal of the May order in a recent BMI rate case (see 1505150039). ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews called the agreement “good news for music fans and music creators” and “a sign of progress” in the push for better streaming payments for songwriters, composers and music publishers. BMI’s agreement with Pandora is “comparable to the other direct deals in the marketplace, but it also allows us to amicably conclude our lengthy rate court litigation and focus on what drives each of our businesses -- the music,” said BMI CEO Mike O’Neill. Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews said the company’s agreements with performing rights organizations and direct deals with music publishers demonstrate the company's "progress in working together to grow the music ecosystem.” Terms weren't disclosed, but the parties said they allow ASCAP and BMI to deliver improved performance royalties for songwriters and publishers, while Pandora will benefit from more rate certainty and the ability to add flexibility to its product offering over time. The public performance royalties Pandora pays to rights holders of master recordings aren't affected by the agreements.

Comcast said it looks "forward to participating" in an FCC probe into a variety of industry practices involving products that don't count against customers' data caps. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday said the agency had written Comcast, AT&T and T-Mobile, asking company representatives to come in and talk about Stream TV, the Sponsored Data and Data Perks programs, and Binge On, respectively -- a move criticized by the GOP commissioners (see 1512170030). In a statement Friday, Free State Foundation President Randy May said he was concerned the FCC "will end up banning most zero-rated and sponsored data plans without evidence of consumer harm. The pro-regulation forces appear to driving the Commission's agenda. And at the end of the day the agency seems to be more concerned with protecting competitors than protecting broader consumer interests." In a statement Thursday, Comcast said its Stream TV video service "is not a zero-rated Internet service but a cable service that only works in the customer's home. Our Stream TV service does not go over the public Internet." At the same time, the company said, "We are happy to cooperate with this request."

A rulemaking on classifying over-the-top video distributors as multichannel video programming distributors could be “rolled into” other video proceedings expected to take place in 2016, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said during a news conference after the commissioners' meeting Thursday. The FCC “hit pause” on the OTT-MVPD proceeding after receiving information in response to its NPRM, he said. The OTT-MVPD rules could become part of a proceeding on content and “local rights,” he said. The FCC doesn’t want to obstruct innovation in video, he said. We had first reported that the proceeding was at a standstill (see 1510230025).

Pandora and Warner/Chappell Music signed a multiyear licensing agreement covering Warner/Chappell's entire catalog. Specific terms of the licensing agreement remain confidential, but the deal means Warner/Chappell can “obtain its goal of delivering improved performance royalties for its songwriters, while Pandora will benefit from greater rate certainty,” Pandora said Tuesday in a news release.

Pandora launched on Monday Thumbprint Radio, what it dubbed a “hyper-personalized” station that's tailored to listeners’ unique thumbs-up feedback. Chief Product Officer Chris Phillips called Thumbprint Radio a “collaboration between each listener and Pandora,” a dynamic collection of users’ favorite music that they’ve selected with a thumbs-up. The more a listener “thumbs,” the “better their station will get,” Phillips said. Our first listen to Thumbprint Radio started with Clair de Lune by Debussy, followed by Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies, and then jumped to House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and Time of the Season by The Zombies -- all tunes we pegged as favorites but decidedly not in the same list or for the same listening mood. Pandora said Thumbprint Radio is “not simply all of your thumbs up on shuffle” but “an experience that will seamlessly guide listeners through the wide variety of their favorites, while weaving in new music discovery along the way.” Once listeners have shared their stations, Pandora said, it dynamically updates the channel in real time based on subsequent thumbs-up ratings.

Hulu, Yahoo and Zealot Networks will join Time's video distribution network, meaning Time video will be available via those online video distributors, Time said in a news release Thursday. Time said it now has 18 such distribution partners, including Amazon/Amazon Video Shorts, AOL/AOLon, CBS Local Digital Media, Cinesport, Gannett/USA Today, Nexstar and Vessel’s Video Service, and also said it intends to expand that distribution network internationally.

DearMob released an upgrade for 5KPlayer for Windows version 3.2 that it said Friday is to optimize H.265/HEVC video codec playback of 4K and 8K UHD videos for “much smoother” H.265 streaming. The upgrade added a feature that allows the app to play a portion of damaged H.265 files, it said.

Multichannel video programming distributors that don't carry local broadcast signals and aren't employing retransmission consent benefits that come with MVPD regulation shouldn't be subject to the regulatory burdens of those rules either, Telletopia said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-261 on a call between Telletopia and staff of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The nonprofit over-the-top service (see 1511100014) said online video distributors (OVD) carrying local broadcast signals need to be classified as MVPDs to be competitive with cable, satellite and other video providers. Without a retrans mechanism for online provision of local broadcast stations, local broadcast programming can't be distributed online and stations can't be compensated, said the nonprofit. The obligations and privileges that come under MVPD regulations "are of particular importance to entities seeking to retransmit local broadcast station signals -- the full content of which is unavailable to consumers over the Internet via other sources," Telletopia said. But if an OVD classified as an MVPD isn't interested in station carriage, it said, "the obligations of the MVPD rules should not be triggered."

Pandora is now on Apple TV, it said Thursday, joining Apple Music as a native music content source. The Pandora app is on more than 1,000 CE devices, including connected speakers, gaming consoles, smart TVs and wearables in the U.S. Australia and New Zealand, the company said.

The nation's nearly 50 million pay-TV "defectors" -- who have reduced or are contemplating cuts to their pay-TV service -- vastly outnumber the roughly 22 million "desirers" loyal to or interested in expanding their pay-TV subscription, GfK said in a news release Wednesday. It said the data comes from its just-issued Cord Evolution report tracking traditional and streaming TV trends. According to GfK, defectors have marginally higher income than desirers -- $62,000 annually vs. $60,000 -- and stream less video (62 percent of defectors having done so in the past month, compared with 72 percent of desirers). Desirers, meanwhile, are more receptive to advertising, more prone to binge viewing of TV shows, and have stronger affinity for watching live linear TV, GfK said.