Consumer spending on electronic sellthrough of home entertainment content jumped 43 percent in Q1 compared with same quarter a year earlier, the Digital Entertainment Group said. Consumers bought digital home entertainment content “at such a rapid pace” in Q1 that electronic sellthrough revenue is on track to overtake that of VOD for the first time later this year, DEG said. That the 43 percent rise in electronic sellthrough came despite a decline in the box office for titles released for home entertainment is evidence of “the broader availability of titles and increased access to digital content,” DEG said. Blu-ray hardware penetration also is on the rise, it said. The 4.2 million Blu-ray players sold in Q1, which includes standalone set-tops, PlayStation and Xbox One consoles and Blu-ray transports sold as part of boxed home theater systems, is a 38 percent increase from a year earlier, pushing hardware penetration to nearly 75 million U.S. homes, DEG said. Not all was rosy in the Q1 report. Total consumer spending on home entertainment content fell 3.8 percent, including a 13 percent decline in all packaged media, DEG said.

A new Colorado technology and engineering research and development lab Charter Communications is building to add space and staff (CD April 30 p24) will consolidate two labs in that state, while a lab in St. Louis will continue to be used for R&D and another lab there will be repurposed, a company spokeswoman emailed us Tuesday.

Comcast said there is only one method that is technically feasible for over-the-top (OTT) message providers to use to route the texts and some 911 location information to public safety answering points that could be installed by a Dec. 31 deadline. “Implementation on certain operating systems could result in customer confusion and make it more difficult for consumers to send a text to 911 successfully,” the company reported executives told officials in the FCC Office of Strategic Planning and Public Safety Bureau. Possible ways to improve that one model that works for Comcast, what it called a “CMRS-network based” one, could include cooperative work among OTT providers, operating system vendors and CMRS providers to “develop a dedicated application programming interface solely for emergency services,” said a filing Monday in docket 11-153 (http://1.usa.gov/1kqclYa). Comcast provides OTT texting services to some of its subscribers linked to their home phones.

Reference design kit (RDK) and games are among NCTA Cable Show categories where interest appears to be growing among exhibitors, said the Technology Policy Institute blog Monday (http://bit.ly/QRvzf9). Twenty exhibitors at this week’s show in Los Angeles claim RDK as a service, said TPI Vice President Scott Wallsten and Research Associate Corwin Rhyan. “Games and consultants showed a strong increase in representation as well,” said the economics think-tank. Cable programming, VOD, IPTV and multiscreen content ranked numbers one to four among most popular this year, said TPI. “The number of exhibitors continues to fall as it has in each of the past 4 years, from 345 in 2010 to 241 in 2014.” RDK, part of a joint venture of Comcast, Liberty Global and Time Warner Cable, is an operating-like system for cable operators.

Hallmark Channel launched its TV Everywhere App. The app “will provide fans authenticated access to a rich array of the network’s original content,” Hallmark said in a news release. Developed by Bottle Rocket, the app will feature social- and email-sharing capabilities “and a customizable watch list,” the network said. The app is now available as a free download on the App Store and Google Play Store, it said. Content includes Cedar Grove and Signed, Sealed, Delivered and other scripted series, it said.

Netflix reached a deal with three cable companies to offer its content through TiVo set-top boxes, said some of those operators in news releases Friday. RCN, Atlantic Broadband and Grande Communications are the operators involved in the deal. Customers of the three cable companies who are also Netflix subscribers will be able to access the service. “The partnership eliminates the complexity of multiple boxes, remote controls, input ports and cables,” said RCN. “Customers can use their TiVo DVR to easily search, browse and binge on a rich selection of commercial-free TV shows and movies that Netflix offers.” The cable companies are the first U.S. cable providers to offer Netflix on their set-top boxes, said RCN. It said the service is expected to begin this week, and involves no additional charges beyond TiVo subscription fees.

Netflix opposes the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal not out of support for net neutrality, but to shift interconnection costs to all Internet consumers, said Comcast in a post on its corporate blog (http://bit.ly/1jybPoY). “Netflix should be transparent that its opinion is not about protecting the consumer,” said Comcast, in response to a letter sent by Netflix to Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., about the deal (http://1.usa.gov/1lK0pEy). “The fact that Netflix paid to protect our consumers is evidence of Comcast’s power,” said Netflix. “Acquiring Time Warner Cable will only increase this leverage.” Comcast’s paid-peering deal with Netflix (CD Feb 25 p2) is “nothing unprecedented,” the cable company said. Netflix approached Comcast to set up the deal, cutting out the wholesaler transit companies -- such as Akamai, Cogent, and Level 3 -- it had used in the past, Comcast said. “This arrangement was thus about Netflix exercising its market power to extract a more favorable arrangement directly from Comcast,” said the cable company. Netflix said this wasn’t the case in its letter to Franken. “Netflix agreed to paid peering with Comcast to reverse an unacceptable decline in our members’ video experience,” said the letter. “Our agreement with Comcast is the first time that Netflix was forced to pay an ISP for what amounts to access to their subscribers.” If Netflix doesn’t like the arrangement, Netflix could work with a transit company instead, Comcast said. “Netflix can work with any of the multiplicity of partners that connect with Comcast. There was and is no need for Netflix or any other Internet content provider to work directly with us or any other specific ISP.” Netflix argued that, regardless, the pathways provided by transit companies are still ultimately controlled by Comcast. “Every transit provider must ultimately negotiate with Comcast for a connection to Comcast’s network and Comcast controls the terms of that access,” Netflix said. Using that argument in opposition to the Comcast/TWC deal is “unfounded,” Comcast said, because it applies to the industry as a whole. “Netflix’s arguments are not transaction specific,” Comcast said.

One America News Network will be carried nationwide on AT&T’s U-verse TV in a so-called cable news neighborhood in standard definition, and elsewhere on the telco’s video lineup in HD, said the channel’s owner Herring Networks in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1fbeQyq). The network will add 5 million subscribers with the carriage, said Herring. It lost previous FCC challenges to get its cable network -- now called A Wealth of Entertainment -- on major cable operators, and that channel now is in 17 million homes, and 11 million for One America, Herring President Charles Herring told us by email.

Charter Communications began providing International Media Distribution’s TV Japan in standard and high definition for $14.99 monthly on the operator’s cable systems in eight states, said the programmer in a news release Tuesday.

Time Warner Cable video subscribers will have access to Fan TV in Q2. Fan TV allows viewers to access TWC content with on-demand streaming services, allowing all choices to be seen on one screen, the companies said in a news release Tuesday. The first wave of streaming services available on Fan TV will include Redbox Instant by Verizon, Crackle, Target Ticket and the Rhapsody music streaming service, they said. More streaming services will be added over time, they said.