The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision throwing out antitrust claims against San Juan Cable, doing business as OneLink (see 1803020004), contradicts other circuit courts and distorts antitrust petitioning immunity doctrine, antitrust scholars told the Supreme Court in a docket 17-1215 amicus brief filed Monday. The brief was filed on behalf of petitioner Puerto Rico Telephone Co., which argued OneLink's regulatory petitions aimed at blocking cable-TV competition from PRTC. The antitrust academics said the Supreme Court should review the appeal to resolve the circuit split. They said the 1st Circuit's rationale would let a monopolist sidestep antitrust scrutiny of a pattern of petitioning activity as long as each petition meets a minimal threshold of objective merit, thus letting the monopolist abuse the administrative and adjudicative process. Signing the brief were professors Michael Carrier of Rutgers Law School, Peter Carstensen of University of Wisconsin Law School, Nicholas Economides of New York University's Stern School of Business, Einer Elhauge of Harvard Law School, Eleanor Fox of NYU School of Law, Robert Lande of University of Baltimore School of Law, Abbott Lipsky of George Mason University's Scalia Law School, Roger Noll of Stanford University, Sasha Volokh of Emory Law School and others. OneLink outside counsel didn't comment Tuesday. The company in a filing last week said it didn't intend to respond to PRTC's petition for writ of certiorari unless requested by the court.

Many cord-cutting homes likely already are consuming at least half of their 1 TB bandwidth cap with normal TV watching, and even a modest amount of Ultra HD streaming may push them over it, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. He said Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu don't give subscribers robust enough control of when they receive HD content that would let them control their bandwidth use. He said one simple option is to use a Roku, since users can go to a Roku's settings and set the video quality at either HD or below.

Comcast's recent stock slide increases the odds the company will back off on its interest in either Fox or Sky, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors Wednesday. It said investor bearishness on Comcast stock after its bid for Sky reflects a variety of issues, including fears that cash from the cable business would be increasingly diverted to other lines of business, and that the Sky bid reflects a Comcast desire to diversify away from its core cable business that has few growth prospects. It said a key issue is whether Comcast sees Fox as optional or vital for its interest in becoming a global media operator. It said it's increasingly doubtful Comcast pursues Fox even if the U.S. v. AT&T and Time Warner outcome is favorable toward a vertical deal. Comcast didn't comment.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) thumped Charter Communications for allegedly missing broadband expansion deadlines (see 1803190046). “Approval of the Charter Communications acquisition was conditioned on timely performance,” Cuomo said in a Friday statement to New York Public Service Commission Chairman John Rhodes. “Such a breach cannot be tolerated as it places New Yorkers at a competitive disadvantage.” Charter referred us to its earlier statement that it's fully complying with New York requirements and will fight its case.

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to multiple over-the-top video services and consumers expect to access high quality content on any platform at any location, Parks said Wednesday. The average U.S. broadband household has more than seven video access devices, including TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones, said the research firm.

Comcast's subscriber agreement arbitration provision contradicts itself on whether a court or arbitrator decides if a dispute is within the scope of the arbitration provision, and that lack of clarity means a lower court was right to determine a telemarketing complaint fell outside the provision's scope, appellee Richard Wuest said in a docket 17-17093 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals answering brief (in Pacer) Monday. Comcast is appealing a lower court's denial of its motion to compel individual arbitration after Wuest sued under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (see 1801170008). Wuest in the answering brief also said the lower court was right to decide the arbitration provision didn't cover Comcast's nonconsensual recording of a call Wuest made months after his Comcast subscription ended. Comcast didn't comment Wednesday.

The future of TV content won’t follow a linear path as consumers adopt combinations of services, said a Tuesday NPD blog post. Analyst John Buffone identified four personas. The cable customer wants a large channel bundle, has low tolerance for quality of service issues and wants traditional user interfaces, remotes and familiar channel numbers. The morphing cable customer wants streaming media, too, and 45 percent use Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Hulu, driving integration of apps into set-top boxes like Comcast's X1. As streaming TV buffering and latency issues diminish, this consumer will become a core target for virtual MVPD subscriber acquisition. Tech-savvy consumers get a skinny TV bundle through a service such as Sling TV and attach a media player for a few desired channels. Forty-four percent of these virtual MVPD subscribers are 35-54 years old and typically tune into family networks. The direct-to-consumer (DTC) trend adopted by many millennials -- paying for just those channels they watch -- has extended beyond HBO to NBC, CBS, Disney and others. Amazon Channels gave support to this model. The smallest, “most intriguing” future TV customer, checks out a wide range of video options: Snapchat shorts, Facebook originals, “and will identify if a strategy such as Viacom’s mobile partnerships has legs,” Buffone said.

BeIN's carriage discrimination complaint against Comcast (see 1803160069) lacks merit, the MVPD emailed Friday. Comcast said since it became one of the first distributors to carry both beIN sports channels in 2012, it "continues to be a good partner to the network" and that its carriage is consistent with that of most other MVPDs. It said the beIN complaint came in lieu of "engag[ing] in good-faith commercial negotiations for a renewal of its current agreement, which does not even expire for several months." Comcast said BeIN demanded "substantial" fee and carriage increases "that make no business sense for our company and our customers.”

Charter Communications shareholders are being advised to vote down a proposal that would require the company to annually report on lobbying policies, including an itemized list of what it spends annually on direct and indirect lobbying, and its membership in and payments to any tax-exempt group that writes or endorses model legislation. It's one of four shareholder proposals on the agenda for the company's April 25 shareholder vote, it said in a proxy statement filed Thursday with the SEC. It said the proposals were made by the New York State Common Retirement Fund and New York State Local Retirement System. Advising a "no" vote, the Charter board said the lobbying information it makes publicly available "strikes the appropriate balance between transparency and excessive burden and cost." A similar shareholder proposal is also part of AT&T's proxy vote in April (see 1803130003).

FCC arguments against the Competitive Enterprise Institute seeking writ of mandamus (see 1803050023) would have the agency be forever insulated from mandamus by a downgrade "to a mere congressional suggestion" of its statutory duty to respond within 90 days to a petition for reconsideration, CEI said Friday in a docket 17-1261 opposition (in Pacer) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It said the FCC's read also violates the separation of powers since there would be no law that Congress could pass to require the agency to review the CEI petition. And it said the FCC didn't offer any justification for the 21-month delay on its administrative reconsideration petition about overbuild conditions required in Charter's buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks or for any further delay. The FCC didn't comment.