The five nonbroadcast networks that fall under FCC video description rules as of July 1 are Fox News, ESPN, USA, MSNBC and HGTV, the Media Bureau said in a public notice Friday. It said networks have 30 days after the notice appears in the Federal Register to seek an exemption from the list, which is based on Nielsen ratings.

Calling StogMedia's leased carriage access complaint "incoherent ramblings," Cox Communications asked the FCC Media Bureau to disregard StogMedia's response to opposition and motion to dismiss, which Cox is calling unauthorized. StogMedia filed a petition for relief in November asking the bureau to compel Cox to provide leased carriage access on its system, claiming Cox was violating rules on liability insurance for leased access programming by requiring unreasonable levels of coverage and making "excessive and forceful" demands about content. Pointing to StogMedia's docket 17-314 reply last month, Cox in a filing Thursday said FCC rules allow only for filing a petition for relief and a response and don't provide for pleadings beyond that, and that StogMedia's response doesn't clarify past arguments but tries to obfuscate that StogMedia hasn't provided liability insurance covering any programming it wants Cox to carry on its system and that coverage is within cable operators' rights to require. StogMedia didn't comment Thursday.

Any regulatory approvals needed for the Altice USA spinoff from Altice NV "are pro forma given there is no change in control," Altice USA said Thursday. The company said it will meet with the relevant regulatory agencies to discuss the restructuring, but didn't specify which agencies. Altice said it expects the spinoff to conclude by the end of Q2 (see 1801090045).

Democratic Reps. Yvette Clarke and Hakeem Jeffries are urging Altice USA and Starz to come to an agreement in their ongoing carriage talks. Both represent New York City districts. In a letter Thursday to the heads of the MVPD and programmer, the lawmakers said Starz content "is of particular importance to the African American community" and said they're "disappointed" by the blackout, which started Jan. 1 (see 1801020039). Altice said Starz has "refused all offers, including many offers to extend our current arrangement." It said the fact customers also can subscribe to Starz directly through its over-the-top service "makes it all the more surprising that Starz wouldn’t enter into an agreement with us to help them promote their own product.” Starz didn't comment.

Discovery Communications plans to move its headquarters from Silver Spring, Maryland, to New York City in the second half of next year, it said Tuesday. It also said, contingent on the close of its Scripps Networks Interactive buy, it will set up a national operations center at Scripps' Knoxville campus. It said all Discovery and Scripps employees located at different New York facilities will be brought under one roof in the move. Discovery said its media distribution facility in Sterling, Virginia, will be become a technology center and it will maintain a network hub in Maryland to house some network and support functions, plus government relations. Discovery said it employs close to 1,300 in the Silver Spring area.

Forty percent of customers in Cox's footprint now have access to gigabit-speed broadband service, with nearly all customers to be reached by the end of 2019, it said Tuesday. It said DOCSIS 3.1 technology accelerated rollout of its G1gablast service.

Wall Street is bullish on Altice USA's pending spinoff from parent Altice NV. Altice apparently listened to shareholders with the announcement of Altice USA's spinoff from parent Altice NV, given the "dismal" stock performance of the two last year, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors Monday. And MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett emailed investors that Altice USA "suffered" from its connection to the European parent with its heavy debt load and aggressive cost reductions. Altice USA shares closed Tuesday at $23.11, up 9.6 percent. Altice announced the spinoff Monday and said the two will have separate management teams after the transaction, with Altice founder Patrick Drahi retaining control of both companies and acting as chairman of Altice USA. Altice said the separation will let the two companies focus on different market dynamics, strategies and regulatory regimes. It said Altice USA's business strategy will be a focus on revenue growth, its Altice One set-top box and full-scale deployment of its fiber-to-the-home buildout. It said the separation is expected to close by Q2, after Altice NV shareholder and regulatory approvals.

The average video viewer is watching 4.4 hours a day, plus spending another 28 minutes searching for content to watch, TiVo said Tuesday. Its online survey of 8,500 pay-TV and over-the-top subscribers in the U.S., U.K, France, Germany, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia also found about 90 percent of households are paying for traditional pay-TV service, while 60 percent also subscribe to an OTT service. In the U.S., more than 75 percent of video consumption still takes place on TVs, while in Latin America 50 percent of viewing takes place on some other digital device, it said.

Viacom will buy influence marketing company Whosay in a bid to deepen its advertising, marketing and digital content capabilities, it said Monday. Terms of the deal weren't made public. It said Whosay capabilities range from crafting campaign strategy to casting to producing content and analyzing data and performance. Whosay CEO Steve Ellis blogged the Viacom deal follows a two-year partnership in which it did more than 50 campaigns for various Viacom brands including MTV and BET.

Comcast and Liberman Broadcasting agreed to suspend any statute of limitations applicable to any claims that Liberman might bring against Comcast while its petition of Media Bureau dismissal of a program carriage complaint against Comcast is pending (see 1609260049), the two said in a tolling agreement posted Monday in docket 16-121. They said under the accord, Comcast won't bring any statute of limitations defense and Liberman won't file any additional complaint before the FCC or bureau enters a decision on the petition.