Poor urban areas aren't disproportionately falling outside cable ISPs' footprints when compared with middle-class and rich neighborhoods, NCTA said Wednesday in an analysis of FCC broadband mapping and Census Bureau data. It said 91% of urban households in low-income areas have access to 1 Gbps, compared with 94% of middle income households and 90% of upper income neighborhoods. It said cable gigabit service is available for 92% of areas with the highest percentage of black residents and 94% for Hispanic residents, while for neighborhoods with the lowest portion of black and Hispanic residents, the availability is 92% and 93%. NCTA said gaps in adoption are sizable based on income, with about half of households with family incomes below $30,000 subscribing to fixed residential broadband, while about 85% of households with family incomes exceeding $100,000 subscribe.
Comcast is expanding the eligibility criteria for its low-income Internet Essentials broadband service to include Federal Pell Grant recipients, it said Tuesday.
Plaintiffs claiming secondary copyright infringement liability by WideOpenWest for movie pirating by its broadband subscribers are "part of a well-known web of copyright trolls" and haven't shown any WOW subscriber committed direct infringement or that WOW had knowledge of alleged infringements, the cable ISP told U.S. District Court in Colorado in a Tuesday motion to dismiss (docket 21-cv-01901, in Pacer). Outside counsel for plaintiffs 211 Productions and others didn't comment.
Roku is heading into the holiday quarter with new 4K streaming sticks with voice control and an upgraded operating system, said the company Monday. OS 10.5 updates get customers to content more quickly and add improvements to the voice remote experience, said the company. “Nearly any channel” in the search function supports the feature now, including Netflix and Spotify, it said. A new Wi-Fi receiver delivers up to 2x faster Streaming Stick Wi-Fi speeds than previous models, said the company.
Comcast customers averaged more than six hours watching TV daily in first-half 2021, said the MVPD Friday. Some 70% of live viewing occurred outside prime time. Comcast households watched an average 30 networks, with the top five getting 31% of all viewing. Viewers were 214% more likely to watch news and 73% more likely to watch sports on traditional TV versus streaming; they were 153% more likely to watch young adult content via streaming instead of TV. Three-fourths of streaming occurred on a TV screen. Citing “major upheaval” in the past year, John Brauer, vice president-insights and analytics for its Effectv advertising sales division, said viewership will continue to evolve, “and advertisers can no longer rely on TV or streaming alone to reach their audience -- they need both.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau extended comments on Mediacom’s petition for declaratory ruling that rights and privileges granted to one ISP by West Des Moines, Iowa, violated Communications Act Section 253, said an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Mediacom and the city sought an extension because they've "initiated settlement discussions.” Comments are now due Oct. 7, replies Oct. 27, in docket 21-217.
FuboTV will carry Root Sports, with Seattle Mariners and Portland Trail Blazers regional games, said the virtual MVPD Thursday. The regional sports network will have coverage of more than 300 live regular-season games, including the Seattle Kraken NHL team's first season.
FuboTV is now on Vizio’s SmartCast platform, said the TV maker Thursday. Subscriptions to the sports-focused service start at $64.99 for up to six users. Sports “continue to be one of the most popular categories of programming on television,” said Katherine Pond, Vizio vice president-business development.
Music label plaintiffs want a legal regime where ISPs terminate any connection accused once of infringement, replacing "the flexible, fault-based doctrines of secondary copyright liability with notice-and-terminate," defendant-appellant Cox Communications told the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a reply brief Wednesday (in Pacer, docket 21-1168). It's appealing a U.S. District Court upholding a jury's $1 billion verdict (see 2101130025). Cox said it didn't directly profit from subscribers' copyright infringement and that plaintiffs don't dispute courts have widely held that a set-up fee and flat periodic payments don't constitute a benefit here. The cable operator denied it could monitor in real time the activity of its six million broadband subscribers. Counsel for the plaintiff-appellees didn't comment.
Sling TV added the Barstool Sports Channel as an exclusive feature, said the streaming company Friday. It features live content from the Barstool brand's portfolio of video podcasts, blogs and video series. New episodes will be available exclusively on Sling for two weeks.