The five largest cable companies have deployed more than 574,000 CableCARDs for use in retail CableCARD-enabled devices, said NCTA in a report to the FCC on the cards’ use. The five companies are Cablevision, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable, the report said (http://bit.ly/1deOhAP). If the next four largest cable operators are included, the total climbs to 606,000 CableCARDs, the report said. “By contrast, those nine companies have more than 45,000,000 operator-supplied set-top boxes with CableCARDs currently deployed."

CableLabs added as members companies outside the U.S., as the cable industry’s research and development consortium has expanded membership to Asian and European operators (CD Sept 24 p20). Grupo Televisa of Mexico City, France’s Numericable and Taiwan Broadband Communications are among those joining, said a Department of Justice Antitrust Division notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1gnAZcY). CableLabs made the notification to extend 1993 National Cooperative Research and Production Act limits on recovery of antitrust plaintiffs to actual damages, said the notice. “Membership in this group research project remains open."

21st Century Fox will buy a majority of the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES Network), 21st Century Fox said in a news release Friday. The deal will increase 21st Century Fox’s ownership from the 49 percent it has held since 2012 to 80 percent, said the release. The remaining 20 percent will continue to be held by Yankee Global Enterprises, though the regional sports network will become a consolidated entity of 21st Century Fox, the release said. YES provides local TV coverage of Yankees baseball and Brooklyn Nets basketball games and has a footprint that includes 9 million homes in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania, as well as national carriage on cable and satellite.

RCN Telecom Services in Philadelphia must carry Lenfest Broadcasting’s WMCN-TV Atlantic City on cable systems in Delaware County, Pa., said an FCC Media Bureau order Friday (http://fcc.us/KRJ3UC). Lenfest asked RCN to carry the station in April, but the cable provider never responded, the order said. After Lenfest filed a must-carry complaint, RCN argued that its headend did not receive the WMCN signal at sufficient strength, but failed to submit documentation for that, the order said. Lenfest has also “committed to providing the necessary equipment and to bear the cost for delivering a good quality signal to RCN” if there are signal problems, the order said.

Time Warner Cable’s hard position on the price for which it would agree to a Charter buy is “a polite way of saying they're not interested,” said MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett in an interview Thursday. Although TWC has said an offer of $160 a share would get the deal done, that price is far away from Charter’s offer of $132.50 a share, and isn’t realistic, according to Moffett. TWC asking for that level of compensation is “like saying you're waiting for a unicorn to walk into the room,” Moffett said. Not all analysts agree, however. “It’s a dance,” said Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeff Silva in an interview. While Charter and TWC’s positions appear set in stone now, it doesn’t mean they won’t end up negotiating later, Silva said. Fletcher Heald cable and transactional attorney Thomas Dougherty had told us that TWC is likely hoping for another bidder to drive its eventual sales price up (CD Jan 15 p9), but Moffett disagrees. TWC’s lack of negotiation may indicate that the company is not looking for a buyer, he said. Liberty Media, which owns a substantial stake in Charter, released a statement Thursday from Chairman John Malone supporting a Charter/TWC deal. “The proposed consolidation of Charter and Time Warner Cable, under the respected operational leadership of Tom Rutledge, will enable the cable industry to adopt common technology, brands and service offerings providing the scale necessary to compete in today’s marketplace,” Malone said. Liberty’s support is unlikely to have much effect on the deal, Moffett said, but may be an attempt by Charter and Liberty to keep the deal proposal fresh in the minds of TWC shareholders. “People are getting bored,” Moffett said. “Somebody is going to have to move their position.” Any such deal would need to be resolved by mid-February to allow TWC shareholders to vote on it, Moffett said. However, missing that deadline wouldn’t end the prospect of a deal. “It’s not like if it doesn’t happen this time it’s going away forever,” Moffett said.

Charter is “in contact” with Time Warner Cable shareholders about its proposed buy of TWC, Charter said in an online presentation Tuesday (http://bit.ly/LPsPg4). The presentation is a response to a posting last week from the TWC board dismissing Charter’s offer as a “low-ball proposal,” Charter said in a press release. Charter’s next step “will be determined by the level of support shareholders demonstrate for this combination at a price that benefits both set of shareholders,” Charter said. The Charter presentation said TWC’s response ignored the substantial stake in the new company that TWC shareholders will receive as part of a Charter buy. “TWC management/Board may look at the Charter proposal as a full exit, but it is not a sale for TWC shareholders,” Charter said.

Discovery Communications will acquire TF1 Group’s controlling interest in Eurosport International, it said. The deal is an extension of the companies’ larger strategic partnership announced in 2012, Discovery said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1fX1jKW). The deal to increase Discovery’s interest from 20 percent to 51 percent accelerates the original agreement by nearly one year, it said.

Charter’s proposal to buy Time Warner Cable “fails to adequately compensate and protect TWC shareholders for the risks of owning Charter’s stock,” said TWC in an online presentation released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1fySOpb). The TWC presentation is intended to refute a similar presentation Charter made public this week in an attempt to persuade TWC shareholders that a Charter purchase is in their favor (CD Jan 15 p9). Charter “is not prepared to pay for a one-of-a-kind asset and instead chose to go public with another low-ball proposal in an attempt to steal the Company,” said TWC. The Charter proposal undervalues TWC and doesn’t compare well with recent cable transactions, TWC said. The presentation includes a chart that compares the Charter proposal to buy TWC unfavorably with TWC’s purchase of Insight, Liberty’s buy of Charter shares, and BC Partners buy of Suddenlink. The chart shows TWC’s counterproposal of $160 a share as being on par with most of the transactions. Charter’s proposal “does not reflect the scale and quality of TWC’s assets and the estimated synergy potential,” said TWC.

The U.S. will have more than 103 million pay-TV households by the end of 2014, Parks Associates said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1euMLgd). Parks Associates announced the research Thursday at CES in Las Vegas, the post said. “Remote access to DVR content was the most popular among pay-TV households without that service.” Parks found that 31 percent of pay-TV subscribers want remote DVR access, while 27 percent are interested in TV Everywhere and 26 percent want personalized recommendations, it said. Few providers aside from Dish Network offer remote access to DVR content due to licensing requirements, “and there are tremendous opportunities for companies with the right market strategies,” it said. Parks Associates will address pay-TV services and other topics at its Connections: The Premier Connected Home Conference May 13-15, in San Francisco, it said.

The FCC should update program access rules so they apply to the National Cable Television Cooperative buying group, said the American Cable Association in an ex parte filing Monday (http://bit.ly/JG8kB4). Though “nearly all” multichannel video programming distributors buy content through the NCTC, “flaws” in the way the FCC implemented the program access rules prohibit them from applying to the buying group, ACA said. The commission should “promptly update the relevant rules so that program access protections account for and extend to the longstanding business model of the NCTC given that the group has found near universal acceptance among both programmers and MVPDs,” said ACA.