Vodafone likely has its eyes on Liberty Global's German, Czech, Hungarian and Romanian assets, plus Liberty's 50 percent of their Netherlands joint venture, but not U.K. and Ireland, Citi analyst Simon Weeden wrote investors Monday. He said the deals likely will get regulatory approval, though conditions for Germany might be particularly strong since Vodafone is the largest cable operator there. Vodafone said Friday it's in early talks with Liberty Global about buying some European assets of Liberty Global, though not in merger talks.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' affirming summary judgment on Cox Communications ineligible for Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbor protection (see 1802010026) came as the record was clear Cox took every effort to not reasonably implement its own repeat infringer policy, Stanford Law Center for Internet and Society affiliate scholar Annemarie Bridy blogged Sunday: The 4th Circuit makes clear Cox's failure was in implementation, not design, of the 13-point copyright warning system. The decision "lays to rest" any notion DMCA means adjudicated repeat infringers when it refers to repeats, Bridy said. Some amici worried the 4th Circuit would end up limiting ISP latitude in designing repeat infringer policies, but it didn't criticize the design of Cox's "relatively forgiving system," she said.
Some Charter Communications new product rollouts backburnered in 2016 and 2017 by the Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks integration will happen this year, CEO Tom Rutledge said during a Q4 earnings call Friday. They include broader distribution of its WorldBox set-top, of which 2 million have been deployed, and adding volumes of HD titles to its VOD service, he said. By year's end, its cloud-based Spectrum Guide will be available to almost all new customers, and 1 GB speeds using DOCSIS 3.1 will be available to almost the entire Charter footprint, he said. Rutledge said 30 percent of the legacy TWC and 60 percent of the legacy BHN footprints remain analog but will be digital by year's end. Rutledge said most of the integration is complete. Regarding the mobile service the cable provider plans to launch mid year using the Verizon mobile virtual network operator platform, Rutledge said there's no decision on pricing. He said Charter has been experimenting with licensed and unlicensed spectrum that potentially could become "licensable" alongside Wi-Fi. He said the company may want to bundle licensed spectrum with Wi-Fi spectrum for a broad mobile and in-home platform, though that's not a goal for this year. The ISP said 2017 revenue was $41.6 billion, up 3.9 percent pro forma. It ended 2017 with 16.5 million residential video customers, down 292,000 from a year earlier; 22.5 million residential Internet customers, up nearly 1.2 million; and 10.4 million residential voice customers, up 100,000. Charter stock closed up 4.4 percent Friday at $387.50. Citing federal tax changes and the FCC Communications Act Title II net neutrality rule rollback, Charter blogged it's setting its minimum wage at $15 an hour over the next year. It said most Charter workers are call center representatives, field technicians and Spectrum store workers. The company didn't say how many workers currently make less than $15 an hour. It said the tax changes and rollback also reinforce its plans for a $25 billion broadband network buildout by 2020.
The FCC Media Bureau established "permit-but-disclose" ex parte procedures for Starz's complaint against Altice USA, said a docket 18-9 public notice Wednesday. Starz alleges the Jan. 1 blackout of its channels on Altice's Cablevision violated rules requiring 30-day notice to subscribers (see 1801160058).
Time Warner added 5 million U.S. HBO and Cinemax subscribers in 2017, its largest annual increase, said its Q4 earnings announcement Thursday. It said HBO in November started 11 over-the-top services in Central Europe. It said revenue overall rose 9 percent to $8.6 billion and it recognized $279 million of costs for the year related AT&T's planned takeover. For 2018, TW expects Turner full-year subscription revenue to be up a mid-single-digit percentage compared to 2017, and programming costs to moderate compared with 2017. It expects Home Box Office -- which includes HBO and Cinemax -- subscription revenue to be up at a similar rate as 2017, though content and other revenue to be down significantly due to the mix of home video releases and the comparison to international licensing deals done in 2017. AT&T hopes to prevail in court so it can buy TW, AT&T's CEO said on its Q4 call Wednesday (see 1801310074).
Charter Communications should end its advertising claims about direct broadcast satellite signal vulnerability to rain, the National Advertising Division said Monday. NAD said DirecTV challenged the ads. NAD said Charter is appealing to the National Advertising Review Board one of its determinations that the company should discontinue a particular version of one of its rain commercials.
Game Show Network's appeal of the FCC's 2017 order that there was no evidence Cablevision discriminated when it retired GSN in 2011 (see 1709140012) was dismissed, said a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit docket 17-1203 order (in Pacer) last week. GSN and the agency stipulated to a voluntary dismissal (in Pacer) Jan. 12.
Subscription VOD services Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix combined are expected to be spending $10 billion annually by 2022 on producing original content, The Diffusion Group said Tuesday. TDG said original content is "extremely important" to retaining subscribers, with 62 percent of Netflix subscribers considering originals critical or very important to their decision to keep Netflix. It said with studios pulling their most compelling content from the big three SVODs, a strong schedule of original content becomes increasingly necessary.
Comcast's declining 2017 pay-TV results show a top-notch user interface, like Xfinity, isn't sufficient to overcome the high cost of cable, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Thursday. He said the results show consumers increasingly are putting incremental entertainment spending toward subscription VOD instead of cable, and that consumers value the cable bundle far less than programmers do. The cable operator didn't comment Friday. The company ended 2017 with 21.3 million residential video customers, down 185,000 year over year (see 1801240037).
Starz "moved swiftly" for FCC action in its blackout on Altice USA's Cablevision system, but it was the MVPD's misinformation campaign and avoidance of customer concerns that escalated the issue to the point where "seeking emergency relief became imperative," Starz said in an FCC docket 18-9 filing posted Friday. The programmer said it "is aware" of close to 60,000 consumer complaints, with its emergency petition aimed at "stop[ping] this confusion." The filing responded to Altice opposition (see 1801230054) to Starz seeking a petition for emergency injunctive relief. The content company argued the cable operator broke rules by giving customers minutes' notice before the Jan. 1 blackout and denied the emergency petition is aimed at getting regulator involvement in a commercial dispute. The programmer said Altice can opt to not carry Starz channels once the MVPD complies with agency requirements for advance notice to customers. The operator didn't comment.