Download speeds for Connect2Compete, a low-cost internet service from Cox Communications for families with school-age children enrolled in low-income assistance programs, increased to 25 Mbps, the company said Wednesday.
The FCC should stay its local franchising authority (LFA) order pending the outcome of legal challenges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, said organizations representing localities in a motion for stay posted Tuesday (see 1908010011). The groups, which include the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, are also petitioners in the court case, say they’re likely to succeed on the merits, and allowing the order to proceed in the meantime would cause them “irreparable harm.” The order “assumes that tens of thousands of franchise agreements in effect today can be summarily changed -- regardless of the existing modification process set forth under the Cable Act -- in 120 days,” the motion said. Local governments will be unable to replace their institutional networks (I-Nets) in the FCC’s time frame because of budgetary and procurement rules, the motion said. Cable operators wouldn’t be hurt by a stay because they, LFAs and the FCC “have all been operating under the status quo for 35 years, the motion said. “The public interest supports a stay to avoid impacting public safety and blocking public benefits while the legality of the Order is ascertained.”
Accounting for time-shifted TV content is important to weighing viewing habits, blogged Nielsen Monday. In Q1, a quarter of U.S. adults spent nearly four hours weekly watching such content, it said, influencing them to be “more patient” viewers. In Q4 last year, traditional viewing beyond live or same day out to 35 days provided a 10 percent viewing lift, Nielsen said, translating that to 2.7 million more viewers. That quarter, delayed viewing beyond live-plus-same day -- up to 35 days -- helped drive ratings 40 percent higher for primetime dramas among all people and 65 percent higher among consumers 18-49.
Comcast and the Vermont Access Network asked to dismiss a case on the legality of the Public Utility Commission's requirement that Comcast in a cable franchise agreement build 550 miles of new cable and enhance support for public, educational and governmental channels (see 1909170027). The PUC agrees with the dismissal request, Comcast and VAN motioned Wednesday (in Pacer) at U.S. District Court in Rutland. The commission approved changes Sept. 27 to a certificate of public good that was needed to effectuate a July 11 settlement among the parties.
Forty-six percent of U.S. homes have multiple over-the-top video subscriptions vs. 33 percent in early 2017, reported Parks Associates Wednesday. Most OTT households have Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video, but a single service doesn't meet their interests, said analyst Steve Nason. Small and medium-sized services are building their brand and subscriber bases by filling in gaps in content, he said. Overall adoption and awareness of OTT is high, but awareness of individual services is low, making it difficult for smaller services to compete against the scale and resources of larger players, he said. Smaller OTT players have to team with content or marketing partners to boost awareness, he said. Other findings: 53 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to at least one OTT service and a pay TV service; nearly three-quarters have an OTT subscription.
Nov. 18 is the deadline for MVPDs that received 2019 equal employment opportunity audit letters from the FCC Enforcement Bureau, said a public notice Wednesday. EB selected more than 30 MVPD systems randomly.
TiVo announced a new video network and two DVRs to find content via live TV, DVR and online streaming services. The company said Tuesday it partnered with publishers on channels such as TMZ; others will follow from Gannett, Newsy, Tastemade and others.
Maine's a la carte cable TV programming law likely won't survive the legal challenge by Comcast and programmers (see 1909100041), but if it does, expect it to be replicated in other states, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Tuesday. He said programmers likely would pull content from any cable distributor that tried to implement a la carte offerings because that would surely violate contracts: And no one has developed the software to allow custom blocking down to the individual channel level. Others expect an uphill legal battle (see 1909170064).
Comcast's read of the Federal Arbitration Act saving clause violates Supreme Court and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals precedent, plaintiff-appellees Charles Tillage and Joseph Loomis of California said Monday in opposition (in Pacer, docket 18-15288) to Comcast's petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc (see 1908120009). The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected the idea arbitration agreements are immune to most general defenses available for other contracts, but it's that narrow interpretation Comcast wants to argue yet again, they said. Comcast asked the 9th Circuit to revisit its rejection of the cable company's appeal of a lower court decision denying Comcast's motion to compel arbitration in a complaint by the Comcast customers alleging false advertising of cable TV pricing. It didn't comment Tuesday.
Cable operators have made it increasingly difficult for subscribers to find and watch public, educational and government channels, and the Cable Act allows Maine to require cable operators to return PEG stations to their original channel numbers and include the channel information in programming guides. So said state Attorney General Aaron Frey in opposition Monday to NCTA's motion for preliminary injunction of a PEG law (see 1909160027). Maine filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-00420) that Congress gave local governments broad authority over PEG service provision and that the cable industry's unlikely to succeed on the merits so the preliminary injunction should be denied. NCTA didn't comment.