Pandora shares were up 6.5 percent in mid-day trading Friday to $12.78 after an announcement Thursday of a 7 percent workforce reduction and higher-than-forecast Q4 revenue projections. CEO Tim Westergren called the job cuts a “tough, but important” moment in evolving to a “large, enduring” business.” In a news release after markets closed Thursday, the company said it expects to exceed previously announced Q4 2016 revenue projections ($362 million to $374 million) and adjusted EBITDA loss guidance ($51 million to $39 million) ranges, crediting “strong advertising performance.” The company, due to launch its long-awaited on-demand music service this quarter, surpassed the 4.3 million paid subscriber mark in Q4, it said. Pandora launched its mid-tier Pandora Plus plan at the end of Q3 -- a remake of its Pandora One offering -- and said it generated more than 375,000 net new subscribers by year-end. It did so largely through homegrown marketing, saving on customer acquisition costs, said Westergren in a letter to shareholders. “More than 70 percent of our new subscribers came from in-app promotion,” said Westergren, saying that’s a competitive advantage that bodes well for Pandora being able to upsell existing customers to its upcoming premium subscription business. In the two months since the completion of direct agreements with music labels and publishers, the company saw a “dramatic increase” in partnership activity, with “thousands of artists” publishing more than 7,000 messages heard by Pandora listeners over 600 million times. Such artist engagement is driving listening session length, said Westergren. Dougherty & Co. analyst Steven Frankel maintained a “neutral” rating on Pandora in an investor note, citing stiff competition from Apple, Spotify and others as it rolls out its on-demand services. “Given the execution risk,” Dougherty will maintain its rating “until we have more confidence in management's ability to reach, maintain and scale profitability," Frankel said.

The design of the incentive auction is flawed, and FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly should pause it and rethink “the entire process of spectrum allocation,” said broadcast company Max Media CEO Gene Loving in a letter to the commissioners Thursday. “Taking a cue from President-Elect Trump’s efforts to reevaluate all government programs, I urge you to consider whether this auction, which was started under the previous administration, will likely end up as 'failed' just as the new commission takes over, leaving the new administration holding the proverbial bag,” said Loving. “I’m certainly not an expert in auction theory, but the results of the forward auction are clear evidence of a flaw in the design, possibly due to the wireless bidders being told over and over that if they don’t like the price, the auction will be rerun again and again and again,” the letter said. “Perhaps rather than announce the clearing values, the commission should have kept that information confidential. Wireless bidders should have been told only how much spectrum would be made available.” Under the new FCC administration, the auction could be temporarily halted and redesigned “to ensure the future spectrum needs are truly met that reflect the reality of the market, not a flawed auction process,” said Loving. “In line with the Trump administration business approach to running government, all 126 megahertz cleared in Stage 1 could be purchased by a specific purpose entity financed through the issue of bonds. That entity could then be charged with selling spectrum when demand merits the sale, meaning when prices are high enough so that the US Treasury could make a profit, or even better, leasing spectrum to the wireless industry at a monthly fee to create a long term income stream for the government and an ongoing return to U.S. taxpayers.”

Norway’s decision to become the first country to begin the “forced turn-off” of analog FM (see 1701090023) “is causing not just static, but outright anger,” said NAB Chief Operating Officer Christopher Ornelas in a Thursday blog post. “The angst stems from the fact that the shutdown could leave tens of thousands of people without access to some of their favorite free and local radio stations.” Norway’s example “has prompted a smattering of press reports suggesting that America may eventually follow suit,” said Ornelas. His “bottom line” response is that “no way will America go Norway’s route and ‘turn off’ FM radio,” he said. “It’s just not going to happen, in my lifetime or yours.” Norway uses the Eureka-147 digital audio broadcasting system, but “we in the U.S. chose a different path to digital radio,” he said. The HD Radio system in the U.S. “uses identical spectrum and the same channels for both analog and digital services,” he said. “Thus, there's no cost-saving advantage to shutting down analog FM services in America,” as there is in Norway, which requires “two separate swaths of spectrum for radio” to run analog and digital services with the same content, he said. “Turning off analog FM is apparently seen by the Norwegian parliament as a cost-saving efficiency -- even though actual radio listeners in Norway are quite unhappy about losing this service.”

FCC political file rules could be made stricter through upcoming legislation, said Reps. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and John Yarmuth, D-Ky., in a joint statement Thursday. The Media Bureau's recent clarification of political file rules (see 1701090064) is encouraging but “more work needs to be done,” they said. “We hope that the incoming Administration keeps its word to drain the swamp by strengthening disclosure requirements to reveal the true donors behind issues ads, as well as making the online political file machine readable,” said the statement. “The public deserves to know who is funding the political ads that they see, and that information should be easily accessible to all. We plan to reintroduce legislation this Congress that will do just that.”

Various court challenges of the FCC 2014 quadrennial review ownership rules were transferred, as expected (see 1611170055), to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said an order (in Pacer) filed by the court clerk Wednesday. Though appeals of the FCC rules had been filed both in the 3rd and D.C. circuits, the case was given to the D.C. Circuit in a lottery to determine venue. The Prometheus Radio Project filed an unopposed motion to move the case to the 3rd Circuit, since that court heard the previous iterations. Other petitioners challenging the rules are the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, News Media Alliance and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. NAB appealed the rules to the FCC, and several attorneys said they expect the court to allow the process at the agency -- which will shortly be controlled by Republicans seen as hostile to the ownership rules -- to play out first.

The ATSC 3.0 suite of standards will have “future extensibility” to support an upgrade to 8K resolution, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Tuesday through a spokesman. ATSC 3.0's H.265 video codec “can be extended to support delivery of 8K video,” Richer said. ATSC 3.0 also “incorporates a number of other mechanisms for future extensibility, including the “flexible boot strap signal” in the standard’s physical layer and the internet protocol layer, he said. “These and other features of 3.0 could be used to signal the presence and parameters of the 8K transmission to new receivers.” ATSC 3.0's framers for years have positioned 8K as “within the realm” of where the standard ultimately would “evolve to” (see 1404080061). As an issue, 8K jumped in importance at CES with the multitude of 8K TV prototypes showcased on the main show floor and analyst projections that 8K product would make it to market soon (see 1701090053).

The Media Bureau granted a one-week extension of the deadline for comments on reconsideration petitions appealing FCC 2014 quadrennial review ownership rules, said an order released Wednesday. The deadline for comments is now Jan. 27, replies Feb. 3. “The need to develop a full and complete record in response to the petitions provides good cause for waiving the Commission’s rule to allow for additional time,” the order said. Prometheus Radio Project and other public interest entities sought a one-month extension based on the holidays and the changeover in FCC leadership. NAB and Nexstar objected, saying an extension wasn’t needed for an issue as well-worn as media ownership (see 1701060059). “A shorter, one-week extension of time is warranted in these circumstances and ... such an extension will not unduly delay the Commission’s consideration of the reconsideration petition,” the order said.

Univision “had a productive meeting with President-elect Donald Trump” (see 1701090069), it said in a news release Monday. The meeting concerned “issues facing Hispanic and multicultural communities in America,” it said. Univision and Trump were seen as having a contentious relationship during the presidential election. “Our Univision News team will continue to cover the Trump administration with the rigor that we have brought to the coverage of every administration that preceded it,” the media company said.

The UHD Alliance will soon broaden its outreach to broadcasters on certification criteria for high dynamic range and other premium performance attributes, Dan Schinasi, director-product planning at Samsung Electronics America, told us at CES. Typifying that outreach, the alliance will have the European Broadcasting Union host the next alliance meeting in late January at its Geneva headquarters, said Schinasi, alliance spokesman. “There’s no simple answer” how the alliance’s Ultra HD Premium certification logo could be applied to broadcast content that qualifies for it, he said. “Really what’s important” is that broadcasters throughout the world “are interested in making sure that HDR metadata -- if there is metadata attached to it -- that it’s transported, that we don’t lose anything,” he said. It’s the subject of a “very active discussion” as to what performance attributes would be included in a UHD Alliance spec for broadcasters, he said. “Certain attributes are more demonstrable than others,” he said. “There’s different thoughts, different philosophies, of what’s important.”

FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel issued a protective order that will apply to “commercially sensitive confidential information” in license renewal hearing proceeding for Entercom's KDND(FM) Sacramento, according to the text of the order. KDND's license was designated for hearing based on an incident involving a radio contest that led to the death of a participant (see 1701090050). The protective order will apply to documents in the proceeding and to documents from investigations of Entercom that predated the proceeding, the order said.