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Google gets antitrust attention in Spain over news licensing

Google can add another antitrust investigation to its stack. This one has been opened by Spain’s competition authority, the CNMC, which said today it’s concerned about possible anti-competitive practices related to the licensing of news content by local publishers.
In a press release it said it is investigating “a series of practices that could involve an abuse of Google’s dominant position vis-à-vis the publishers of press publications and news agencies established in Spain” [NB: We’ve translated the text from Spanish with machine translation].
“In particular, these practices would consist the possible imposition of unfair commercial conditions on the publishers of press publications and news agencies established in Spain for the exploitation of their content protected by intellectual property rights,” it also wrote. “On the other hand, the investigated behaviors would also include practices that would constitute acts of unfair competition that could distort free competition and affect the public interest.”
The competition authority said it is acting following a complaint by the Spanish Center for Reprographic Rights (aka, Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos or CEDRO).
We’ve reached out to all concerned.
News licensing is an area where Google has faced severe sanction in Europe already. Back in July 2021, France’s antitrust authority fined the tech giant over half a billion dollars for breaching an order to negotiate copyright fees with news publishers for reuse of their content. That followed the EU a copyright reform, agreed back in 2019, that extended IP to snippets of news content — requiring platforms like Google to negotiate with publishers.

Google fined $592M in France for breaching antitrust order to negotiate copyright fees for news snippets

Spain transposed the EU reform into its national law in November 2021, paving the way for a return of Google News to the country.
Google’s news aggregation service had closed in Spain in 2014 after the country passed a law that aimed to force Google to pay a collective licensing fee for the news snippets. The EU copyright reform replaced the prior fee regime with a requirement to negotiate with individual publishers — and Google News duly reopened in Spain in June 2022.
At the same time, the company also announced it would launch its News Showcase product in the country. Google’s News Showcase product was spun up by the tech giant in fall 2020 as lawmakers in Europe and elsewhere were zeroing in on making it pay for news content reuse — creating a licensing vehicle it could use in the looming, inexorable negotiations with publishers.
It’s not immediately clear whether the Spanish probe will focus on Google’s News Showcase licensing arrangements or on copyright fees talks — or both.
While it remains to be seen what Spain’s investigation of Google’s news licensing practices will finally determine — the authority has up to 18 months to conduct the probe — it said its preliminary information-gathering phase found “indications of possible infringement”.
Germany’s antitrust authority, meanwhile, has already pushed back over Mountain View’s practices in this area after starting to scrutinize its news-related fine print in summer 2021. The regulatory attention on Google from the German FCO — which is currently armed with beefier powers to tackle Big Tech than other European countries (thanks to a 2021 update to competition law squarely targeted at digital giants) — has led to Google offering a series of concessions over how it operates News Showcase locally, including an offer not to include the showcasing of licensed content in general search results (which is one trigger for antitrust concerns).
The News Showcase product provides the prospect of raised visibility for participating publishers, since the offer is for Google to feature participants’ content to users across a number of touchpoints. However that could create a disadvantage for publishers who don’t pay Google (i.e. if it leads to their content being less visible in Google’s general Internet search, given its continued dominance of the Internet search and content discovery market).
Google has also sought to co-mingle negotiations with publishers over News Showcase with what are, under the pan-EU reform, legally required talks over copyright fees — something France’s watchdog slapped down in its hefty enforcement in mid 2021.

Google offers not to put News Showcase into search results in Germany as antitrust probe rolls on

Google users not given sufficient choice over its data processing, says German antitrust watchdog

Google gets antitrust attention in Spain over news licensing by Natasha Lomas originally published on TechCrunch
Google gets antitrust attention in Spain over news licensing

Amazon expands Fire TV lineup with more QLED models, entry-level 2-Series TVs and new markets

As competition among smart TV makers heats up, Amazon today is introducing an expanded Fire TV lineup which now includes more sizes for its top-of-the-line Omni QLED series as well as a new, lower-cost Fire TV 2-Series that will start at $199.99. The company is also bringing its TVs to new markets globally, updating some features — like the Omni QLED’s “ambient” mode — and will roll out its cloud gaming service Luna to countries outside the U.S. for the first time.
Amazon first announced its Omni QLED TVs last fall as a way to bring better picture quality to customers with a 4K QLED display. The sets, which initially shipped in both 65-inch ($799.99) and 75-inch ($1,099.99) sizes, were the first Amazon Fire TVs to ship with Dolby Vision IQ. They also support HDR 10+ Adaptive and Adaptive Brightness, which adjusts the picture brightness and contrast based on the room’s brightness.

Amazon updates its Fire TV lineup with a new Fire TV Cube, QLED TVs and Alexa Voice Remote Pro

Now, the company is expanding its QLED lineup with three new models starting at $449.99, in 43-inch, 50-inch and 55-inch sizes. Like their larger counterparts, these will still include QLED displays with up to 96 dimming zones and the sensor-driven “Ambient Experience” features.
The TVs ship with a custom sensor package on the front that includes a presence sensor that allows the TV to turn its “Ambient Experience” on or off based on whether someone has entered or left the room thanks to an ambient light sensor that helps the TV understand the context of the movement. That is, if you just walked past the TV to get a midnight snack it may remain off, but if you walk into the room in the morning, it may load the ambient experience to help you start your day.
Image Credits: Amazon
The experience includes a free package of artwork and photography and various Alexa widgets that can be displayed either compacted or expanded, delivering things like news and headlines, your calendar, notes and reminders, streaming recommendations and more.
Now, Amazon says the experience is being updated with new art, too. Specifically, it’s adding something it’s calling “dynamic art,” or art that adapts to the current environment. The art will change based on factors like the time of day, temperature, weather and more. Initially, Amazon is working with contemporary artist Samuel Stubblefield to create the dynamic art package.
“We want to make smart TVs that are actually smart. That means things like bringing together content usefully…but we also want them to be beautiful and useful throughout more parts of the day and infused with ambient intelligence to make them more powerful for customers,” noted Daniel Rausch, VP of Entertainment Devices & Services at Amazon, in a conversation about the new Fire TV products.
Image Credits: Amazon (Fire TV Omni QLED Series)
These newly added QLED models will become available for preorder today and ship on May 11. The 43″ will be $449.99; the 50″ is $529.99; and the 55″ is $599.99.
Amazon is also now introducing a new line of more affordable Fire TVs, dubbed the Fire TV 2-Series, which slots in below the existing QLED and 4-Series. These will ship in two models to start: 32-inch ($199.99) and 40-inch ($249.99) options in HD. The 2-Series lineup supports HDR 10, HLG and Dolby Digital Audio and comes with an Alexa Voice remote.
Image Credits: Amazon (Fire TV 2-Series)
These models can be ordered now and start shipping today.
In addition, Amazon says it will now begin to ship its Omni QLED Series, 4-Series and new 2-Series in the U.K., Germany and Mexico for the first time.
Rausch says the company has now sold more than 200 million Fire TV devices worldwide, including TVs and media players, and has shipped over 260 Fire TV models with its partners, like TCL, Hisense, Yamada, Xiaomi and others. As TV sets themselves become more powerful, many consumers are now opting to buy a TV with Fire TV baked in, rather than as a streaming player add-on. This has resulted in TVs becoming the fastest-growing part of the Fire TV business, he notes.
Image Credits: Amazon (Luna)
Alongside the TV expansion, the company will also bring its Luna cloud gaming service to new markets outside the U.S. for the first time.
Designed to work with Fire TV, Luna offers Prime customers a rotating selection of monthly games that can be streamed and played using a Bluetooth controller like Amazon’s Luna Controller, or even with a smartphone through a companion app.
Luna customers can optionally choose to subscribe to premium packages, like Luna+, Ubisoft+ and Jackbox Games. Luna+ includes a broad selection of games like action, adventure, platformer, indie, shooter, racing and classic games for $9.99 per month. The Ubisoft+ subscription, meanwhile, features top titles and fan favorites like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry for $17.99 per month. And Jackbox Games offers a party gaming set for $4.99 per month.
The service has been generally available in the U.S. for over a year and is now coming to the U.K., Germany and Canada, Amazon says, which will allow it to reach some of the new Fire TV markets.

Roku unveils its first-ever TVs designed and built by the company

Amazon isn’t alone in targeting consumers with TVs running its own OS — rival Roku in January revealed its first-ever TVs designed and built by the company. But neither effort is meant to preclude the companies from working with partners — it’s more of a way to demonstrate what’s possible from the company’s own software and specs while generating additional revenue from hardware sales.
Amazon expands Fire TV lineup with more QLED models, entry-level 2-Series TVs and new markets by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
Amazon expands Fire TV lineup with more QLED models, entry-level 2-Series TVs and new markets

Despite challenges, Netflix says its ad tier is doing well

In November, Netflix unveiled its long-anticipated ad-supported tier which offers customers in select markets, including the U.S., the ability to offset the cost of a Netflix subscription by allowing their viewing to be interrupted with ad breaks. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Netflix President of Worldwide Advertising, Jeremi Gorman, offered some initial insight into how the product has been performing as well as the streamer’s future plans.
During an interview at Variety’s Entertainment Summit at CES, the exec said the company has been happy with the debut selection of advertisers and their diversity.
“It’s really across the board,” said Gorman, of the variety of brands participating. “We’re seeing CPG companies, luxury companies, automotive companies…[and] retail. We’re seeing a broad swath.” This is also good for the consumer experience, she noted, as it means viewers won’t be bored by one car ad after another. “There’s a wide variety of advertising types, and I think we’ll continue to see that,” Gorman predicted.
The interview also touched on some of the early complaints and concerns about Netflix’s foray into ads.
Among them is the key pushback the company has been receiving over its high ad prices, asking for what one industry exec dubbed “Super Bowl CPMs.” Gorman, however, justified the pricing but admitted the market will ultimately dictate what sort of pricing Netflix will be able to get.
“From a supply-demand perspective, the premium CPMs are reflective of two things: one is that we just couldn’t take that many advertisers. We certainly didn’t want to disappoint anybody. Then secondarily, the premium content environment in which the ads run I think warrants a high CPM.”
Whether Netflix constitutes a “premium environment” is up for debate, of course. But Netflix seems to be adjusting its expectations.
“I think we’re certainly humble enough to very much understand we’re top of market, and in addition to that, the market will more or less dictate to us what are reasonable CPMs,” Gorman said.
Another concern about Netflix’s ad-supported service has to do with which content can include ads. As the streamer wasn’t set up as an ad-supported service to begin with, many of its content deals didn’t include AVOD rights (advertising video on demand). That means Netflix has limited ad inventory, and couldn’t even run ads against some of its own “Netflix Originals” if the deals didn’t include the proper rights.
Gorman addressed this as well, saying Netflix was actively working on the licensing issues.
“That’s progressing, as we speak, day by day. We’re renegotiating deals we made a long time ago,” she said, adding that the “vast majority” of content that people watch regularly is available in the ad tier surface. In the meantime, Netflix has about 85% to 95% of its content available on the ad tier, Gorman said.
Then there’s the real concern that, from a business perspective, offering a lower-cost tier has the potential to cannibalize Netflix’s existing subscriptions as customers drop to cheaper tiers at a quicker rate that’s not offset by growth in the ads tier. Gorman, though, downplayed those concerns saying Netflix customers historically have remained on the plan they’re currently on.
The exec, unfortunately, couldn’t speak to the uptake of the ads-supported product, as Netflix is poised to announce earnings, but said “we’re pleased with the growth we’re seeing.”
At present, Netflix’s ad tier is available in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. The company has no immediate plans to expand, but longer-term would aim to target any larger ad market. In addition to ads, subscribers on the Basic with Ads plan have to deal with lower video quality (720p HD) and are limited to streaming from one device. They also can’t download content to their devices for offline viewing.
Going forward, Netflix aims to do a bit more than just running typical ads, including things like dynamic insertion of ads near moments that are relevant to marketers, single-show sponsorships, and more. It will also later allow marketers to target ads by age and gender.
Despite challenges, Netflix says its ad tier is doing well by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
Despite challenges, Netflix says its ad tier is doing well