"Explore the New Worlds of Knowledge" headlines a 14-page "conference guide" that CEA just sent via presorted first-class bulk mail to drum up paid attendance for the CES conference and workshop program. The guide was sent to all who have preregistered for the 2015 CES, those who purchased a conference "track" at last CES, "plus about 7,000 people who receive Dealerscope magazine," Karen Chupka, CEA senior vice president-events and conferences, emailed us Friday. "The purpose of the mailing was to promote the conference program, upsell current registrants and generate interest." The highest of three tiers of conference passes trumpeted for sale in the guide is an All-Access Pass that costs $1,300 for an advance purchase, $1,600 for purchase onsite at CES. It’s "like the proverbial golden ticket," and will admit the buyer to "nearly every conference track at CES," the guide says. "CES offers over 300 conference sessions," Chupka told us. About 10 percent of the sessions "are included at no additional charge in the exhibits plus pass," she said. "The remaining sessions are paid sessions and can be purchased individually at $150 per session or in various packages. The All-Access Pass has been in existence for five years and the pricing has remained consistent." Other features of the guide: (1) The uncaptioned photo in the keynotes section on page 7 is that of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who keynoted the last CES. Her photo is situated next to a description of Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who is scheduled to give the opening-afternoon CES keynote on Jan. 6. The photos used in the guide "were a sampling of keynote speakers from previous years since at the time of printing we didn’t have current images yet," Chupka said. (2) The "Register Now" boxes that appear in six places throughout the mailing advise conference pass purchasers to "Use Priority Code C1" when registering. "That priority code is for marketing tracking purposes so we can analyze which pieces generate a response," Chupka said. "We want to see who is using the guide, but there is no specific discount or other special purpose associated with it."

Few in the CE industry who knew CES founder Jack Wayman knew that he "was adopted by loving parents," said Pete McCloskey, former president of the Electronic Industries Alliance, one of several industry luminaries and family members to pay homage to Wayman at a memorial tribute and luncheon Monday in New York organized by CEA. "He never knew his birth parents," McCloskey said of Wayman, who died Aug. 30 at the age of 92 at his home in Boulder, Colorado, after a long illness (see 1409030064). "Not knowing where he came from, I believe, made him prejudice-free," said McCloskey. "He accepted people as they were and judged them on what they accomplished." Wayman's introduction to show business came when he was a younger man and dressed up as a Seminole to wrestle alligators, McCloskey quipped. McCloskey also hailed Wayman as a war hero who earned a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts as a veteran at Normandy Beach and in the Battle of the Bulge. McCloskey recalled how Wayman and then-MPAA President Jack Valenti were "on opposite sides of the Betamax case." Valenti "had a locker a row or two away from me at my golf club, and he kept asking me, ‘Who is Jack Wayman?’" McCloskey said. "Well, he soon found out." McCloskey also recalled Valenti "famously" told Congress that "the VCR is to the American film producer what the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone." But Wayman in those same congressional hearings countered that the VCR would be Hollywood’s "salvation," McCloskey said. "I was particularly pleased to tell Valenti in 1987 that far from strangling the industry, video incomes to the studios exceeded box office incomes."

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman prodded the Chinese government to put more concessions on the table in Information Technology Agreement expansion negotiations, saying such progress would be a “concrete contribution to strengthening the WTO system at a time when such a boost is needed.” The World Trade Organization is dealing with the late July collapse of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. While ITA expansion talks have not yielded any real breakthrough in years of negotiations, supporters of the agreement are eyeing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which began Friday, as a window for progress (see 1411050010). Speaking at the APEC summit in Beijing Friday, Froman also praised slashed tariffs among APEC members.

Aereo is cutting staff in its Boston and New York offices, Vice President-Communications and Government Relations Virginia Lam emailed us Thursday. “We are continuing to conserve resources while we chart our path,” Lam said. “This was a difficult, but necessary step in order to preserve the company.” In a letter to the company's Boston employees obtained by website Betaboston, Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia said the company has been unable to obtain outside investments since the recent nationwide injunction was granted against it by U.S. District Court in Manhattan Judge Alison Nathan. Lam said the company is looking for a way to continue. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and other commission officials have recently mentioned Aereo extensively in connection with a draft NPRM on classifying linear over-the-top video services as multichannel video programming distributors. The broadcasters' case against Aereo in New York has yet to be tried on the merits, and would likely continue in some form even if Aereo were to go out of business, Fletcher Heald attorneys Harry Cole and Kevin Goldberg told us. Though not involved in the case, Cole and Goldberg follow it for the firm's blog. Though broadcasters could pursue their case even if Aereo were to go out of business, the sort of default judgments that likely would occur with a defunct defendant are unlikely to further the broadcasters' legal agenda, said Cole and Goldberg. Fletcher Heald represents broadcasters, though not in any cases involving Aereo. Lam declined to comment further on the scope of the layoffs.

Average household bandwidth requirements will increase 31 percent annually over the next five years, a Ciena study said. The study, released Wednesday and done by ACG Research, provides information to help network planners model the impact of residential households’ increasing use of broadband and subscription video services across varied devices on specific network scenarios, Ciena said in a . Internet video use, including smart TVs, is expected to grow from 12 percent of overall peak average bandwidth in 2014 to 25 percent in 2018, it said. It will be the largest contributor to household bandwidth consumption by 2018, said Ciena. It said use of 4K streaming video services will grow from 2 percent in 2014 to 12 percent in 2018.

Sixty-three percent of Amazon’s global workforce is male, said the company’s diversity report released Friday. Whites made up 60 percent of Amazon’s workforce in the U.S.; blacks, 15 percent; Asians, 13 percent; Hispanics, 9 percent; and “other” races made up 3 percent, it said. Amazon said it gathered its employees' gender statistics in September; its racial statistics in July. Amazon’s racial disparities increased when applied to manager positions in the U.S., it said. Blacks and Hispanics each were 4 percent of Amazon's managers, compared with 71 percent for whites and 18 percent for Asians, it said.

Nineteen app companies from 12 European countries joined the Application Developers Alliance, the group said Friday. The new members included AppsFunder (Belgium); AppStud (France); Concise Software (Poland); D-Labs (Slovenia); DigiMark (Bulgaria); Instant Api (U.K.); Pollfish (Greece); and PubNative (Germany), it said. It’s “crucial that European developers’ voice is heard in Europe,” said Alliance President Jon Potter. “We want to ensure the developers have the right tools, opportunity and policy environment to continue to innovate and deliver great apps for users."

U.S. trade policy continues to lag behind Internet-related developments in global trade, and the U.S. should adjust its trade approach more for services as that sector grows at a quick pace, said the Computer and Communications Industry Association in comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. USTR asked for comments in mid-August to compile its annual report on foreign trade barriers. "The Internet has been the single biggest component of the cross border trade in services, with many of those services facilitating the international goods trade as well,” said CCIA in the comments released Wednesday night. “To protect U.S. economic interests, U.S. trade policy needs to prioritize addressing barriers to the Internet and Internet enabled services, given their key role in the U.S. economy and U.S. export growth.” Digital trade is inhibited by global Internet infrastructure mandates for local production, filtering and blocking of online material, and poor intellectual property protections, the CCIA said. Customs procedures and small shipment tariffs are also obstacles, said the association. Several lawmakers recently asked the USTR to work to ease cross-border data flows (see 1410280026).

Early 2016 may still be too ambitious of a schedule for the TV incentive auction, Credit Suisse said Wednesday in a research report. “Given the forward and reverse structure of the Incentive auction, it is the most complicated of the spectrum auctions so far,” the firm said. “These complications in addition to the broadcasters' challenges are likely to delay the auction further, in our opinion.” The FCC recently delayed the auction's start to early 2016 (see 1410240048). Mid-2016 seems more likely, the firm said. Credit Suisse also said there is a “moderate chance” the FCC will opt for a “full blown” Title II Communications Act reclassification of broadband. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler “could look to apply Title II or some form of Title II to broadband services, but will face much less of a challenge if he can find some middle ground with the broadband providers,” the firm said.

Hulu and Viacom extended their partnership by bringing more Viacom content to the streaming service. Hulu will add top titles from Nickelodeon to Hulu’s kids’ offering, like Drake & Josh and Hey Arnold!, Hulu said Tuesday on its blog. Hulu also will expand its Latino programming for kids by adding some Nickelodeon shows, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Spanish, it said.