Charter Communications stock closed down 12 percent Friday at $263.32 after the company reported accelerating video losses. CEO Tom Rutledge in a Q1 earnings calls said integration of Charter with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks "is going quite well and pretty much as planned." But, he added, "It has lumpy aspects." He said a move to an app-based video delivery system should help cut capital costs. He said there's still potential for video growth, but little profit margin in the video business, so such growth is "relatively immaterial" to the company's future. Charter said it ended the quarter with: 16.4 million residential video customers, down 122,000; 22.87 million residential internet customers, up 331,000; and 10.37 million residential voice customers, down 52,000. Q1 a year ago, it had residential video losses of 100,000. It said Q1 revenue was $10.7 billion, up 4.9 percent. Rutledge said 20 percent of legacy TWC and 60 percent of legacy BHN footprints remain analog, though the company's all-digital effort should be done by year's end. He said 45 percent of Charter's footprint has access to 1 Gbps, and such service should be virtually universal by year's end. He said the company is raising minimum speeds to 200 Mbps at no additional cost faster than planned. Mobile service should launch in the middle of this year, with the company doing a field trial, and modifying several hundred of its retail stores, he said. He said Charter is testing in bands including 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz, and it's working toward a combination of small cells with its existing terrestrial network and DOCSIS products to offer high-capacity low-latency fixed wireless and mobile services. Chief Financial Officer Chris Winfrey said churn is up due to a focus on disconnects of non-paying subscribers, but sales are up and by the end of Q2 or early Q3, those disconnect numbers should taper off.

Comcast's Xfinity Home customers can use their Xfinity X1 voice remote to locate Tile devices and see the result of their search on TV, Comcast blogged Thursday. It’s the first video and voice control partnership for Tile, whose trackers can be attached to cars, backpacks, suitcases, keys and wallets to help users locate them. Sri Solur, senior vice president at Comcast, said the partnership solves “real-life problems,” giving the example of a child coming home from school without his backpack and a parent being able to see the pack is at school by asking the X1 remote.

El Centro, California, -- being sued in U.S. District Court by Charter Communications for allegedly interfering in the cable company's carriage dispute with Northwest Broadcasting (see 1804060003) -- is now pursuing its own complaint against the operator. Charter, in a docket 18-cv-00785-JLS-BLM removal notice (in Pacer) Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, said the March El Centro complaint should move from California Superior Court to federal court because the civil penalties being sought could exceed $75,000 and because Charter is headquartered in Connecticut. Outside counsel for the city said Thursday that removal is automatic, though it has 30 days from the filing of a notice of removal to file a motion to remand. El Centro said Charter was violating the California False Claims Act in removal of two Northwest Broadcasting affiliates from its channel lineup without then reimbursing the city, a Charter subscriber. It said the operator continues to bill the city in full despite "knowingly submitting false claims for payment." The company didn't comment Thursday.

DOJ is still processing Protect Democracy Project's Freedom of Information Act requests about White House/agency communications on Disney's proposed buy of Fox, the agency said in a docket 1:18-cv-00506-APM answer (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington. DOJ said it hasn't made a final decision. PDP sued in March, saying Justice hadn't responded to its information request (see 1803060004). The group is pursuing similar litigation for FOIA requests it sent to Justice seeking all White House/DOJ communications about AT&T's buy of Time Warner.

Comcast, if allowed to buy Sky, would maintain Sky News spending for 10 years at a level equal to Sky's FY 2017, set up a Sky News board to maintain its editorial independence for 10 years, keep Sky News' U.K. headquarters for five years and not buy a majority interest in U.K. newspapers for five years. Those are the commitments Comcast made as it said Wednesday it made a $31 billion cash takeover offer. In Comcast's Q1 earnings call, CEO Brian Roberts said the Sky deal will boost Comcast’s strategy of vertical integration of distribution and content while bringing “new and attractive geographies” in an internationalization of NBCUniversal. The 52 million combined customer base of the two companies will allow more investment in programming and technology, Roberts said. The bid signals Comcast belief "the required scale for next-gen media will be enormous," MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors. He said the cable business is slowing, but instead of generating cash for investors, cash flows are being "diverted to a high-risk gambit for massive scale in Media." Roberts disputed that. He said Comcast doesn't see Sky as a necessity but was opportunistic because the company became available. He said international isn't a broad strategy for Comcast but Sky fits into its existing vertical strategy, with the added benefit of geographic diversity. Comcast's bid for Sky is seen by many not facing as much regulatory difficulty as Fox's pending bid has (see 1802270011). Comcast said Q1 had revenue of $22.79 billion, up 10.7 percent. It ended the quarter with 21.2 million residential video customers, down 93,000; 24.2 million resident broadband customers, up 351,000; and 10.2 million residential voice customers, down 70,000. Roberts said the video subscriber losses were partly due to increasing competition from virtual MVPDs. He said Xfinity Mobile ended the quarter with 577,000 customer lines. Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh said Comcast sees continued broadband growth due to new home construction in its footprint, to the company expanding its network within its footprint, and from market share gains. Comcast closed at $34.26, up 2.7 percent.

The cable industry is looking for simplified and updated basic service tier rate regulation process. In a docket 02-144 filing posted Tuesday, NCTA recapped a meeting it, Comcast and Charter Communications had with Media Bureau representatives including Chief Michelle Carey, at which the cable interests pushed for rate regulation process changes, noting the time that has passed since the FCC established its benchmark rate rules.

FCC adoption of digital cable signal quality rules (see 1709250063) makes moot Grande Communications Network's petition seeking relief from analog proof-of-performance testing requirements, the Media Bureau said in an order dismissing the petition. Grande didn't comment Tuesday.

NCTA and cable operators are urging the FCC to affirm the mixed-use rule in light of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in July rejecting the agency counting various in-kind charges toward franchise fees (see 1707120039), in a docket 05-311 ex parte filing posted Monday. It said that affirmation is necessary because local franchising authorities still are subjecting non-cable services delivered over cable systems to "duplicative regulations and fees." The cable interests told the Media Bureau the "substantial" non-cash contributions LFAs seek in the franchising process should qualify as franchise fees under the Communications Act, meeting staff including Chief Michelle Carey. Charter, Comcast, Cox Communications and NCTA were represented.

The Supreme Court won't take up Puerto Rico Telephone Co. antitrust claims against San Juan Cable, denying a PRTC petition of writ of certiorari, the court said Monday on its website. PRTC (see 1803020004) and a variety of antitrust scholars (see 1804030001) had said the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in favor of San Juan Cable, doing business as OneLink, ran contrary to past 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 9th circuit decisions.

Comcast Xfinity is sponsoring the CNET Smart Home in San Francisco, a demonstration facility to be used to teach consumers how to benefit from smart home devices, cable and high-speed internet, said the companies Thursday. The 2,952 square-foot single-family home, with a one-year lease, won’t be open to the public but will be used by CNET for creating “explainer videos” based on an Xfinity internet backbone and used by Xfinity for marketing events, a Comcast spokesman told us Friday. A goal is to let consumers know the smart home “is not theoretical; it’s here,” he said. Xfinity Home partners Lutron and ecobee are featured with Xfinity devices, he said. On whether the cable ISP is looking to host similar homes elsewhere, the spokesman said it would be open to the idea and could be a platform for other cities. Comcast’s Xfinity stores are being redesigned to showcase all its services and related products, including mobile, in stations with product specialists.