Netflix will offer a “Families Page” with content recommendations for parents, information on the best ways to stream, and videos about how other families use its service, it said in a Tuesday release (http://prn.to/11MFbXc). The launch was timed for the summer, when Netflix sees a 30 percent increase in family and kids’ content viewing, it said. Based on a survey it commissioned from Wakefield Research, Netflix also said 84 percent of families have three or more Netflix-capable devices, but 59 percent do not use them to stream Netflix, it said. The online study canvassed 500 parents of children aged 5-12, it said.

The Center for Internet Security will partner with the Department of Homeland Security to promote cybersecurity awareness, the nonprofit group said in a Tuesday release (http://bit.ly/11lNPiQ). It said the center, with activities also including the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center, will join the department’s Stop.Think.Connect campaign to make industry, university, and government organizations more aware of potential cybersecurity threats, incident responses and other best practices and solutions.

Pandora’s music royalty payments are the same or lower than other online retailers, said the MusicFirst coalition in a Tuesday release (http://bit.ly/11lPuVD), based on the results of a paper it helped fund (http://bit.ly/11JnFSI). MusicFirst, which represents record labels and some artist groups, and which has opposed Pandora’s efforts to reduce its royalty rates, said major online retailers such as 1-800 Flowers, Netflix and Overstock.com pay the same proportion of revenue for “the products they purchase from others and resell to consumers.” At least two of Pandora’s competitors in the Internet radio space, Spotify and iTunes, pay higher proportions of their revenue in royalties, it said. Spotify’s website said it’s not bound by the same licensing arrangement as Pandora (http://spoti.fi/1aq8Xb0), which avails itself of government-set rates. Based on the March 2012 Billboard article the paper cites for the relevant iTunes figures, those percentages do not correspond to the percentages iTunes pays for its new Internet radio service, but rather for its music downloads (http://bit.ly/1aq7jpX). When asked about the comparison, a spokeswoman Kristen Hainen said “it’s not apples to oranges to consumers. They view all of these as alternatives and complements to each other.” The paper was written by Jeffrey Eisenach, managing director at the consulting firm Navigant Economics.

Comments on proposed FCC rules on user interfaces, video programming guides and other products being accessible to those with problems seeing are due July 15 in docket 12-108, replies Aug. 7, said a commission notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/16est6U). “We also propose new rules to require activation of closed captioning and accessibility features via a mechanism that is reasonably comparable to a button, key, or icon.” The NPRM also proposed to do away with an “outdated” rule that analog TV makers label the sets based on whether they have a captioning decoder. Commissioners approved the item last month, with Ajit Pai concurring in part (CD June 3 p15).

Charter Communications’ north Texas systems are all-digital, and customers in Fort Worth and 40 surrounding communities can get free set-top boxes, said the cable operator in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/13YY2A9). It said the upgrade is part of $40 million in improvements to those systems that also include “replacing hundreds of miles of aging cable and making other core infrastructure improvements that will continue into 2014.” The company has a two-year CableCARD waiver from the FCC Media Bureau (CD April 22 p3).

Amazon added kids content from Disney, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Electronic Arts to its Kindle FreeTime Unlimited subscription service, Amazon said Tuesday. The company launched the service, which combines books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows for kids, six months ago. It since has added more than 1,000 new titles, said Peter Larsen, vice president-Amazon Kindle, in a news release. New content being added includes Disney’s Puffle Launch and Toy Story Smash It!, Warner’s Scribblenauts Remix, and EA’s Tetris, Bejeweled 2, Monopoly Millionaire and The Game of Life, said Amazon. “Many more titles will be added throughout the coming year,” Amazon said. While Kindle FreeTime is a free feature on the current-generation Kindle Fire line of devices, Amazon charges Amazon Prime members $2.99 a child or $6.99 a family per month for the optional extension of it, Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. Customers who aren’t Prime members pay $4.99 a child or $9.99 a family.

Globalstar said research firm Jarvinian’s testing of TLPS, “an innovative wireless broadband technology using new carrier-grade equipment manufactured by Ruckus Wireless,” shows that use of the technology results in “a carrier-grade service that vastly exceeds the performance of public Wi-Fi.” The tests were conducted on a 22 MHz channel using 2.4 GHz spectrum, under an experimental license from the FCC, Globalstar said in a news release. In November, Globalstar filed a petition at the FCC asking to use its licensed Mobile Satellite Service spectrum terrestrially to support mobile broadband applications throughout the U.S. (http://bit.ly/18Wwpyu). “With almost 600,000 mobile satellite service customers, Globalstar remains committed to its satellite business while pursuing additional opportunities to offer innovative new mobile broadband services such as TLPS,” said Globalstar CEO Jay Monroe. “That commitment is clearly demonstrated in our completion of the launch of a new satellite constellation, our introduction to the market of new satellite-based products and services, and my personal financial commitment to turn our plans into reality.” The test results are at http://bit.ly/19NDIbe.

Sea Launch AG and Eutelsat announced an agreement to launch the Eutelsat 3B (E3B) spacecraft in April 2014, said Sea Launch in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/100i0v4). The E3B will use the Sea Launch Zenith-3L launch system and launch from the ocean-based Odyssey launch platform. The E3B will operate in the C-, Ku- and Ka-bands with high levels of operational flexibility to serve video, data, Internet and telecom customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South America, they said. “This new contract increases the flexibility we need to pursue our in-orbit expansion plan of six new satellites by end 2015 that will diversify our overall resources, increase our operational flexibility and further raise in-orbit security,” said Eutelsat CEO Michel de Rosen in a statement. The E3B will operate from Eutelsat’s orbital slot at 3 degrees east and have a separated launch mass of more than 6 metric tons.

A crowdfunding website devoted to gigabit communities launched Tuesday (http://bit.ly/19NfKNe). CrowdFiber describes its mission as “bringing service providers, local governments, utilities, community organizations, interested citizens, consumers and businesses together to create sustainable gigabit communities” and already lists several communities in the process of raising money. It lists five featured campaigns, all with varying amounts of money raised and time left in which to raise it. The community of Clarkesville, Ga., has raised more than $62,000 for the Habersham EMC Trailwave Service, with seven months left in its fundraising campaign -- the only one that shows substantial donations at launch. Other communities include Lawrence, Kan.; Baltimore; Rome, Ga.; and Baldwin City, Kan. In Kansas, a group called Free State Broadband proposes “an all-fiber gigabit plus network to Baldwin City,” which also calls for running lines through eastern Lawrence and would connect them; the Baltimore Broadband Coalition of several neighborhoods indicated a desire to expand network choices and wants to focus on north Baltimore; and Parker FiberNet has been at work to bring gigabit service to downtown Rome. According to the CrowdFiber blog (http://bit.ly/100cokD), it’s a product of the consulting firm Civitium, which plans and engineers broadband networks.

Ohio’s most populous county chose Emergency CallWorks to provide next-generation 911 services. Cuyahoga County has 1.28 million residents, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, and includes Cleveland. “During the Cuyahoga selection process, Emergency CallWorks won all five technical categories used as decision-making criteria,” the company said Monday (http://yhoo.it/17VyB86). “The selected system supports geo-diverse configurations and covers 45 call taking locations and will be centrally hosted.” The goal is “more advanced functionality and holistic emergency incident management while at the same time lowering costs,” it added.