Cablevision's appeal of an administrative law judge finding it discriminated against Game Show Network (GSN) will be taken up by the commissioners at the July 13 meeting, as an item was added to the sunshine agenda released Thursday. According to the agenda and the FCC, the agency will consider a memorandum opinion and order on exceptions filed by the MVPD in January to the ALJ Richard Sippel's initial decision in 2016 that GSN's retiering by the MVPD was discrimination (see 1701050019). No draft of the memorandum opinion and order was released; it had been on circulation for several weeks. Cablevision, in its exceptions, argued that being forced to follow Sippel's initial decision would violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the company's due process rights. It also urged the commissioners to follow a 2015 Enforcement Bureau decision in its favor (see 1510150044).

Petitions to deny Liberty Interactive's buy of General Communications Inc. and calls for conditions (see 1706200044) are "tired complaints" about GCI's ongoing terrestrial middle-mile investments masquerading as transaction-specific harms, Liberty and GCI said in a joint opposition to petitions to deny and conditions posted Thursday in docket 17-114. Wednesday was the deadline for replies. Liberty and GCI said even if the complaints were true -- "which they are not" -- they existed before the transaction and the merger wouldn't alter market concentration or other market conditions, and the merger review isn't the right venue for addressing them. Liberty said Quintillion and Alaska Communications System complaints about GCI rates and practices ought to be addressed in a formal complaint under Section 208 of FCC rules. Citing the remote Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta's technology infrastructure woes, tribal consortium the Association of Village Council Presidents said the merger "can only be successful" if it creates accessible and affordable telco services for rural Alaska. Democratic State Rep. Zach Fansler in a letter sought more GCI transparency about how the post-merger entity will provide better and cheaper broadband service, including more community outreach to rural Alaska for purposes of getting input. Fansler said "costs have not yet gone down," despite FCC subsidies to GCI's Terra project. He said the FCC should consider changing federal funding of rural broadband in the state.

Dozens of ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates will join the DirecTV Now lineup starting this week, DirecTV said in a news release Friday. There was no mention of CBS in the announcement. AT&T said the added affiliates will more than double its number of supported local stations and will mean DirecTV now will have live local coverage for 70 percent of U.S. households. It said the additions include more than 30 ABC affiliates in markets such as Atlanta and Boston; four new NBC markets, including Salt Lake City and Milwaukee; and the Fox affiliate in Juneau, Alaska. AT&T said it expects to add further ABC, NBC and Fox channels through August.

That U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Karen Bradley is leaning toward referring Fox's proposed purchase of Sky to receive further investigation bodes well for the deal, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said in a note Thursday to investors. Given Bradley has voiced concerns about Fox/Sky having too much media power in the U.K., Ryvicker said, "The ball is in [Fox's] court" to offer more concessions, which seems likely "and more procedural than anything else." In a statement Thursday to Parliament, Bradley said Fox/Sky would give the Murdoch Family Trust that controls Fox "material influence over news providers with a significant presence across all key platforms," and the deal "may increase members of the Murdoch Family Trust’s ability to influence the overall news agenda and their ability to influence the political process and it may also result in the perception of increased influence." Bradley gave Fox and Sky a July 14 deadline to respond.

Awarding BMG attorneys' fees in its torrent piracy lawsuit against Cox Communications was an abuse of discretion, given the novel issues the case presented and the "strong and substantial basis" of Cox's position, Cox said in a supplemental opening brief (in Pacer) filed Wednesday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Cox also said the lower court erred in saying Cox couldn't recover costs and attorney fees incurred defending itself against claims brought by plaintiff Round Hill that were dismissed on summary judgment. It said determining the prevailing party in a complaint with multiple plaintiffs has to be done independently for each opposing party, or else plaintiffs bringing frivolous claims wouldn't face liability for fees because their cases would be consolidated with that of a plaintiff without a valid claim. Cox is fighting BMG's motion for $10.48 million in attorney's fees and $2.92 million in expenses (see 1610030005).

U.K. and U.S. sports programming rights holders face a similar problem of declining viewership but are taking different steps, nScreenMedia's Colin Dixon blogged Tuesday. He said Sky -- facing a big drop in Premier League viewers -- is repackaging premium sports by creating sports-themed channels and making sports watching more affordable for viewers whose primary interest is just one or two sports. Neither the NFL nor programming rights holders "seem ready to act as decisively as Sky," he said. The NFL is reducing the number of advertising breaks, but the total number of ads won't change, he said, saying games remain unavailable via virtual MVPD or broadcaster apps since Verizon Wireless owns those exclusive rights. Dixon said last year's Twitter experiment with Thursday night games "was a start in the right step," but subsequently selling the rights to those games to Amazon Prime "seems like a retrograde step." The NFL didn't comment Wednesday.

The FCC opened a pleading cycle on Radiate Holdings' planned buy of Wave Holdco. Comments and petitions on license transfers are due July 26, reply comments and oppositions to petitions Aug. 10, said a public notice in docket 17-158 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Radiate controls cable systems run by RCN Telecom Services and Grande Communications Networks, and Wave subsidiaries operate fiber networks that provide internet access, dark fiber, cable TV and competitive telecom services to 473,200 customers in California, Oregon and Washington, said the PN, citing the companies.

The Supreme Court, in invalidating a law barring registered sex offenders from some social networking sites in its ruling earlier this month on Packingham v. North Carolina, was clear on the centrality of Internet access to protected First Amendment activity, Cox Communications said in a filing (in Pacer) Monday in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Thus if cutting off some Internet access to convicted sex offenders is unconstitutional, so too is the lower court's reading of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by requiring ISPs end all Internet access to people merely accused of copyright infringement, Cox said, calling Packingham "directly relevant" to determining appropriate circumstances for Cox terminating Internet access. The cable ISP is appealing a U.S. District Court ruling in BMG Rights Management's torrent piracy lawsuit (see 1608190030). BMG counsel didn't comment Tuesday.

Though pay-TV providers argued last year that FCC moves on set-top boxes are unnecessary because industry is correcting issues of competition and pricing, providers haven't followed through on those corrections since the threat of action went away, Public Knowledge said in a letter in docket 16-42 Tuesday. “In the absence of pressure from regulators the incumbent MVPD players have little motivation to unlock, ditch, or otherwise rid consumers of the unloved rented Box,” PK said. “This pattern is not unfamiliar, and should inform the FCC’s willingness to accept industry promises in lieu of regulation more generally.” NCTA didn’t comment.

Charter got a temporary license from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology to run tests in the 3650-3700 MHz band. Tests are to start July 1 and run through the start of 2018, said a report posted by the FCC. The application's purpose is to test “a variety of experimental equipment,” the document said: “The testing will evaluate coverage, capacity, and propagation characteristics in the 3650-3700 MHz band. The proposed operations will advance Charter’s understanding of technology and network potential in the band and will advance deployment of fixed and mobile services.” Tests also will look at coexistence of devices in that band and in the FCC’s adjacent Citizens Broadband Radio Service band, said a filing by the cable ISP. It said it's working with Federated Wireless, one of coordinators in the CBRS band. The tests will take place in the Tampa, Florida area.