Sure Universal will demo at CES interoperability among manufacturers' set-top boxes, gateways, smart TVs and appliances with the Open Connectivity Foundation standard, it said Wednesday. Sure’s client software is the first to be certified by OCF and it will enable remote operation of smart home devices, it said.
Cable companies invest heavily in voice remote capabilities, but there isn't strong evidence consumers are embracing such capabilities, nScreenMedia's Colin Dixon blogged Tuesday. Pointing to TiVo data indicating half the people with access to voice search capabilities actually use it, with that percentage being roughly flat year over year, he said voice search is apparently slow to catch on with consumers. The analyst said one area showing growth is use of voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home for searching for video content.
Charter Communications and Viacom's announcement this week they reached a tentative carriage agreement gives Viacom CEO Robert Bakish "breathing room" for his turnaround strategy and also is a vote of confidence in the value of Viacom's networks to MVPDs, Credit Suisse's Omar Sheikh emailed investors Wednesday. The deal, when finalized, likely will include full carriage of Viacom networks, though Charter might enjoy a reduction in its affiliate rate, the analyst said.
Charter Communications urged the FCC to spur broadband deployment "in a technology-neutral manner," including by pre-empting "the practice, by some municipalities, of assessing broadband licensing fees on providers who already have compensated municipalities" through cable franchise fees covering rights of way. Citing the agency's wireline and wireless infrastructure proceedings, the cable company said pole-attachment "reforms" should "balance the streamlining of new deployment and the rights of existing attachers." Communications Act "Section 214 discontinuance proposals should not have the unintended effect of creating regulatory burdens on non-discontinuing providers," said a filing Monday in docket 17-84 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai and other agency staffers. Localities repeated arguments and said a model small-cell license agreement is "being replicated" throughout Colorado, said a filing by a counsel representing the Colorado Communications and Utility Alliance (a NATOA chapter); Ranier Communications Commission, Seattle and Tacoma, and King County, Washington; Jersey Access Group of New Jersey (another NATOA chapter); and the Colorado Municipal League. The counsel and other local representatives met with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly and various agency staffers. Countering industry comments "that all small cell sites look good and only have minimal visual/aesthetic impact," the counsel attached photos "of good siting and best practices" to "demonstrate that collaborative efforts are working and without local impact, significant negative impact to local community character will occur."
Concurrent agreed to sell its Content Delivery & Storage business to network technology manufacturer Vecima Networks "for a base purchase price of $29 million, subject to adjustment for normalized net working capital," the VOD and streaming gear maker said Monday. "Rapid growth in IPTV delivery across both MVPD private" content delivery networks and over-the-top "providers will continue to accelerate," said Vecima CEO Sumit Kumar.
With coming augmented and virtual reality services driving a need for greater upload capacity, CableLabs finished its Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 specification, blogged Belal Hamzeh, vice president-research and development, wireless technologies. It would allow for upstream and downstream traffic flowing at 10 GB concurrently, the group said Wednesday. The specification will be released later this month.
Fox's planned buy of Sky wouldn't bring news providers "under common material influence" because it doesn't affect either the ownership or degree of control the Murdoch Family Trust has over Fox or News Corp., Fox said in a submission Tuesday to UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). It said the deal isn't a full combination of Fox, Sky and News Corp., since the affected Sky News and News Corp. news outlets would stay under the ownership of separate companies -- Fox and News Corp. -- with separate, majority independent boards. Fox said there can't be an adverse finding unless CMA concludes the transaction would lead to insufficient plurality, but the rise of online news sources and intermediaries has resulted in big pluralities in the news market. Fox said the alleged Murdoch Family Trust influence isn't a basis for finding insufficient plurality because increased influence isn't the same as insufficient plurality and there's no reason to believe the deal would materially enhance the Murdochs' influence over the news agenda. U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Karen Bradley last month referred Fox/Sky to CMA for a full, six-month investigation (see 1709140020). CMA said provisional findings are due in December.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last month affirming a lower court's overturning of a jury's decision that Cox Communications illegally tied cable services to set-top box rentals (see 1709200027) conflicts with previous 10th Circuit decisions, appellant Richard Healy said Tuesday in a docket 15-6218 petition (in Pacer) for rehearing en banc. The cable operator didn't comment Thursday.
The stand-alone price of Comcast's Performance Starter broadband package, offering speeds of 10 Mbps/2 Mbps, is $49.95 a month in all the major metropolitan markets where it operates, but pricing of its Performance plan -- offering speeds up of 25 Mbps/5 Mbps -- can vary, according to the latest annual broadband pricing the company posted Wednesday in FCC docket 10-56. Comcast said its Performance pricing can be from $64.95 a month -- in markets such as Indianapolis and Nashville -- to $74.95 a month in markets such as metro Baltimore and Pittsburgh. The report also showed different pricing in different markets for some other broadband service offerings, such as its Gigabit service -- 1 Gb/35 Mbps -- ranging from $104.95 to $159.95. The report is required as a condition of Comcast's buy of NBCUniversal. Comcast didn't comment Thursday.
Altice and Disney reached a distribution agreement for Disney content to Altice's Optimum video customers, Altice said Thursday. Under the multiyear deal, Disney content including various ESPN channels would remain accessible to Optimum customers who also would have access to additional multiplatform, digital and expanded on-demand content, Altice said. It said Optimum will add ESPN’s SEC Network in late 2018 and launch ACC Network in August 2019. It said the two would partner on ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product, set to launch early next year.