Adding connected home control to Comcast’s X1 voice remote is a “work in progress” because “we’ll never really be done,” said Bryan Kissinger, digital home product management, in a Monday blog post about expanding the X1 voice remote to the smart home. The cable ISP last month announced new voice commands for home automation and security, enabling customers to adjust temperature by saying “Xfinity Home, I’m cold,” or to change colors of smart bulbs. It added a “guard word” -- Xfinity Home -- for connected home commands, for instance, to ensure the platform didn’t search for a movie or song called “disarm” when a customer wanted to disengage the security system, Kissinger said. A new voice team is building voice integrations for connected home commands. While Xfinity Home is a mouthful, Kissinger said part of the power of the X1 voice remote is that a trigger word isn’t required. A challenge, he said, is that “there are a lot of different ways you can say something.”
DOJ has challenged numerous other vertical mergers in the past, but its lawsuit to block AT&T/Time Warner is notably different in that, unlike those others, it doesn't have parties agreeing to behavioral conditions that let the deal go forward, Free State Foundation's Theodore Bolema blogged Friday. The last time the U.S. government went to court to force structural changes to a merger was in 1979, and the FTC lost, he said. FSF has been skeptical of DOJ chances in blocking AT&T/TW (see 1802080045). DOJ didn't comment.
Cable signal quality requirements adopted by the FCC in September (see 1709220057) take effect April 23, saysThursday's Federal Register.
Cable-TV bills are rising fast because of lack of competition, Public Knowledge Technology and Policy Fellow Katrina Worsham blogged Friday. A small number of cable operators "overwhelmingly dominate," and in many locations face little to no meaningful competition, she said: Cable operators reduce the competitive threat from direct broadcast satellite and online video providers by bundling video and broadband subscriptions. “Is this 2018 or 1998?" NCTA emailed us Tuesday. "Public Knowledge must somehow have missed the last two decades of marketplace developments which provide consumers with literally dozens of ways and price points to enjoy the video content of their choosing.” Earlier this month, the FCC reported on 2015 price increases (see 1802120026).
Starz petitions about its carriage disruption on Altice USA's system were dismissed, now that the companies reached a carriage agreement (see 1802130059), the FCC Media Bureau said Tuesday in docket 18-9, granting Starz' request to withdraw.
Rovi filed another Section 337 complaint alleging Comcast set-top boxes are infringing its patents. Rovi said the Comcast X1 DVR and related hardware and software, including interactive program guide software, voice remote controls and remote apps, copy its patented technologies. Model numbers identified in the complaint include the brand names Arris, Pace, Cisco, Humax and Samsung. The ITC recently issued a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against Comcast in a related investigation, requested by Rovi, that covered different patents. Comments on the second complaint are due to the ITC by Thursday.
Video distributors and allies are in lockstep wanting the FCC to eliminate Form 325 reporting requirements. ITTA and the American Cable Association in docket 17-290 comments this week said most of the information requested by 325 hasn't been recently used in any major policy decisions, and the information the agency has used is available from other sources. ACA said the form's data -- asked only of cable operators -- is of shrinking value to evaluating the video market given cable's shrinking slice of that pie. It said short of eliminating the reporting requirements, the FCC should no longer require it of cable operators with fewer than 20,000 subscribers. ITTA said supports the NPRM tentative conclusions (see 1711160054) the form no longer should include channel lineup information, available elsewhere, or modem and telephony data, also being collected on Form 477. ITTA said if the agency retains the document, it could "alleviate its burdensomeness" by staggering the filings so smaller systems file only every five years rather than via random sampling and by establishing a fixed filing date so as to give abundant notice. ITTA said if 325 is retained, the FCC should automatically designate some sections as confidential since the information often has confidentiality requests. NCTA said 325 is "a prime example of unnecessary regulatory burden." Verizon said if the FCC needs similar information for a regulatory or reporting purpose, it can ask providers on an as-needed basis. Replies are due Feb. 27 (see 1712110009).
Amazon is “extremely well placed” within the current smart home voice platform market, but Google and Apple are “awake to the importance of the market and are ramping up their own plays” as cable takes note, ABI analyst Jonathan Collins told us. Amazon hasn’t been able to reach and leverage a smartphone user base in the way Apple and Google have, he said. Voice will increasingly be used where it’s the most convenient human interface instead of a control panel or smartphone app, he said. Players with smart home installed bases -- Comcast, for one with its X1 voice platform -- could populate its technology “to expand and improve the appeal of their smart home offerings,” he said. ABI also reported Tuesday on such challenges to Amazon's Alexa. Its rivals also could include Samsung's Bixby, Collins told us.
The FTC won't seek to challenge Amdocs buying Vubiquity (see 1801310016), the agency said.
Cox isn't required to carry leased access programming on its cable system without reasonable insurance covering that programming, the FCC Media Bureau ordered Tuesday, denying StogMedia's petition for relief (see 1801110047). The bureau said it wasn't looking at reasonableness of the terms of the insurance Cox requested since there's no evidence that StogMedia requested the MVPD justify the reasonableness of those terms. The bureau said StogMedia isn't precluded from raising the reasonableness issue in the future when it meets the threshold requirement of getting coverage for the programming at issue. StogMedia didn't comment.