Nielsen started measuring “demographic data” on age and gender for its Twitter TV ratings, said a company news release (http://bit.ly/1o7LotO) Monday. Initial demographic data showed a “broad age and gender distribution across programming” and “highlights significant differences in age and gender profiles across programming types,” it said. The new data illustrate “how Twitter enables TV networks and advertisers to reach audiences beyond their core demos,” it said. The data advances “our ability to evaluate and measure the impact of those opportunities and complement our clients’ TV investments with social activation that can improve overall marketing performance,” said David Shiffman, MediaVest executive vice president-research, in the release.

A media-brokers group wants the FCC to nix newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership limits on radio and TV, without changing broadcast-only ownership caps. “Allowing newspaper/broadcast combinations in today’s marketplace, where there are so many choices for reading, viewing and listening, can only strengthen local content and public service,” said a filing Friday in docket 14-50 by the National Association of Media Brokers (http://bit.ly/1j3kuOs). It said ending cross-ownership rules wouldn’t “generate a significant wave” of deals, and may lead to stations investing in papers in smaller markets. The association successfully backed waivers of foreign ownership caps of 25 percent on U.S. stations (CD May 2/13 p5).

Some 42 million U.S. households had a TV connected to the Internet in Q1 via a video game console, Blu-ray disc player, streaming media player or through TV software, said the NPD Connected Intelligence report. From 2013 to 2014, the number of homes connected to the Internet via TV grew by 6 million, driven by growth in sales of connected TVs and streaming media players, NPD said. For the first time, in Q1 the number of streaming media players connected to the Internet outpaced the number of connected Blu-ray players, it said. “Consumers want devices that can deliver high-quality content to their TVs,” said John Buffone, executive director, Connected Intelligence, NPD. The increased penetration in connected TV and streaming media players indicates consumers are looking for “app-related content in the simplest, most effective way,” Buffone said. NPD data show 67 percent of connected TV users said connectivity via Wi-Fi was key to their purchase decision. Other purchase factors related to ease of use with devices or the interfaces for home screens or apps, NPD said. The TV viewing experience consumers want “has not changed, although how they receive it continues to, and an app experience is no different,” said Buffone. “Consumers want easy to find, entertaining programming and a quality picture that does not buffer.” The survey was conducted with more than 5,000 U.S. consumers, age 18 and older, during Q1.

The comment period on the Copyright Office’s music licensing inquiry was extended to May 23, it said in a news release (http://1.usa.gov/STs3Cr) Friday. Responses to the office’s public roundtables on orphan works and mass digitization are due May 21, it said. The office plans a series of public roundtables on music licensing (http://1.usa.gov/Rox0S9) (CD May 7 p5).

Nielsen and NBCUniversal completed a pilot program that used TV, online and mobile platforms as part of Nielsen’s effort to expand its advertising measurement and programs. The solution combines Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings reporting with TV ratings “to deliver unduplicated and incremental reach, frequency and gross rating point (GRP) measures by age and gender for TV and digital advertising,” Nielsen said in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1ggsUle). The pilot measured how consumers watched the 2014 Winter Games and looked at five national ad campaigns that ran heavily across platforms, it said.

Discovery and Liberty Global will buy All3Media for about $930 million. They will co-own All3Media, an international producer and distributor of TV programming, Liberty Global said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/RrBqrW). All3Media will continue operating under its own name with its own executive management team, “and its existing creative operating model as a standalone, independently managed entity,” Liberty Global said.

Disney is looking at more ways to tap into the success of Frozen, the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the best-selling title ever released on Blu-ray, said CEO Bob Iger on an earnings call Tuesday. The company is studying “other forms of storytelling,” including interactive, he said. Results in Disney’s Interactive segment were “significantly better than we anticipated” when the company reported Q1 results, said Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo. Interactive revenue for Q2 increased 38 percent to $268 million from the year-ago quarter, and operating results for the segment swung to a profit of $14 million from a loss of $54 million, driven by the strength of Infinity, which launched in Q4. Iger said in Q&A the company is looking for growth from consumption of new media platforms, including short- and long-form entertainment. Iger cited the recently launched Disney Movies Anywhere app that allows users to buy and play new Disney movies within an iTunes app or to stream content purchased via iTunes without downloading it again on a mobile device. Disney plans to grow the consumption of media on mobile platforms including smartphones and tablets. Commenting on Disney’s recent distribution agreement with Dish Network, Iger said “the bet that’s being made” is that the offering for ABC, ESPN and Disney content has the potential to “attract people who may not have already signed up for multichannel service” and get them to “sign up for something instead of nothing.” He called the offering “complementary to the pay-TV model,” comparing it to Disney’s Watch apps. Iger said it’s Dish’s responsibility to “get critical mass from a program perspective” for the service to take off. “We don’t intend to participate in that pursuit at all,” he said. He called the initiative a “smart thing to do” and “something that we should certainly try.” On whether the Dish deal is critical to business, he said, “No, but it’s certainly critical that it gets critical mass from a programmer’s perspective in order to bring it to market.” Disney is open to working out similar deals with other distribution partners “but we have not engaged in any of those discussions yet,” he said.

Western Pacific Broadcast asked the FCC Media Bureau for extra time to reply to Blue Ridge Cable’s opposition to Western Pacific’s carriage petition. Western Pacific would like to file comments no later than June 4, it said in a filing in docket 12-365 (http://bit.ly/SxhTHm). Western Pacific petitioned the FCC to require Blue Ridge to carry WACP-TV Atlantic City, New Jersey, on its cable system within the Philadelphia area. Blue Ridge opposed the petition last year and claimed that WACP’s signal quality isn’t good (http://bit.ly/RkVhZR). The companies are measuring the WACP signal strength at one of Blue Ridge’s headends, Western Pacific said. The tests were expected to be completed last month, but WACP staff resources were dedicated to the development and analysis on bureau-mandated joint tests of the WACP signal at another cable operator’s headend, it said.

Though Moody’s thinks an Aereo victory in the Supreme Court is unlikely, a win for the streaming TV service could limit broadcasters’ negotiating leverage in retransmission consent deals, the service said in an email to investors. “If Aereo wins the case, cable and satellite providers could also cease paying retransmission fees to carry local programming by setting up their own form of antennae delivery of broadcasting signals,” Moody’s said. Relationships between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors would change “unless Congress acted to update copyright laws,” said Moody’s Senior Vice President Neil Begley in the email. Congress would have the incentive to do so if an Aereo win caused broadcasters to convert to an alternative to over-the-air signals to protect their content, Moody’s said.

A select number of Hulu’s ad-supported TV episodes will be delivered to mobile apps for free this summer, said CEO Mike Hopkins in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1hexL6V) describing the Hulu Upfront for advertisers Wednesday. Hulu’s free service had previously been limited to desktops, it said. The company is planning to release its “In-Stream Purchase Unit” through Pizza Hut, which would allow customers to order food without having to leave Hulu’s website, it said. The purchase unit will be available later this year, it said. The company will also release its Hulu Plus iPhone app later this summer, it said.