Epix's streaming video app will be integrated into the rear-seat entertainment systems of Honda's 2018 Odyssey minivan, in what Epix said in a news release Wednesday was the first connected car entertainment video service. Epix said the app will give rear-seat passengers who are subscribers access to the network's video library and its four live linear channels, and the ability to add content to a personal queue.

Much of Sky Angel's legal fight with Discovery and its Animal Planet network may involve what Discovery knew about how Sky Angel distributed content and when did it know its signals were being carried online to Sky Angel subscribers. In dueling briefs filed Tuesday in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see here and here, in Pacer), Sky Angel cited emails and other communications with Discovery since 2007 that noted its internet distribution, while Discovery/Animal Planet said that throughout dealings with Sky Angel, it never knowingly allowed distribution of its linear networks over the internet, regardless of the distributor. Sky Angel is appealing a 2016 verdict in favor of Discovery (see 1609120042) after the former over-the-top MVPD's 2013 suit claiming breach of contract after Discovery ended their affiliation agreement (see 1303070045). Sky Angel, which now distributes via Dish Network, in 2010 filed a still-open program access complaint against Discovery. The lower court verdict wrongly focused on Discovery's view of the contract rather than on agreed-upon language, as well as whether the programmer was dissatisfied, Sky Angel said in its opening appellant brief. Thus the lower court ruling focused on Discovery internal policy "rather than on any information of which Sky Angel would have been aware," it said. It said U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, erred when it found the phrase "high-speed data connection" in the affiliation agreement to be ambiguous. Such a connection "need not be the public Internet, [but] that is an obvious possibility," Sky Angel said in a reply brief (in Pacer) also filed Tuesday. It said Discovery doesn't explain how such a term "can be interpreted to exclude 'the public Internet.'" The lower court's finding "is only reviewable for clear error, and Sky Angel's appeal never comes close to -- or could come close to -- the clear error standard," Discovery/Animal Planet said in an appellee brief. It said Sky Angel, faced with sizable evidence the termination right was exercised in good faith, "takes the Court through a maze of detours and dead-end turns" by arguing for de novo review that gives no deference to the lower court's previous ruling, instead of clear error review. Discovery/Animal Planet said it hadn't allowed any distributor at that time to distribute via IPTV in part because it didn't have internet distribution rights for some licensed content, and due to security and signal quality concerns, and that letting any distributor do so could trigger most-favored nation obligations to other distributors.

Broadcasters worldwide are increasingly concerned with what subscription VOD is doing to cultural identity, given increased exposure to U.S. and global content, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. He said that issue was underlying concerns voiced at the Future TV Conference last month in Copenhagen about competing with global over-the-top providers like Netflix, with growing recognition children are unlikely to return to traditional TV.

Pointing to his son's taking a job at Greenberg Traurig, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman said in an order (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in Miami that he would recuse himself from litigation about alleged bribery in exchange for exclusive South American Football Confederation TV rights. Goodman said the firm represents a party in the case, in which GolTV and Global Sports are suing a variety of parties, including Fox Sports Latin America, alleging they were denied those TV rights despite offering the highest bids.

Charter Communications data will be integrated into comScore's TV measurement service, comScore said in a news release Wednesday. It said with the addition of Charter markets, plus viewing data from Charter's Spectrum TV Everywhere app, its TV measurement service will cover over 35 million homes.

The Copyright Royalty Board sought comment Tuesday on an NPRM that would require cable systems to pay a separate “Sports Surcharge” per-telecast royalty for secondary transmissions of sports events in addition to other royalties mandated under Copyright Act Section 111. The proposed royalty stems from a January settlement reached by the American Cable Association and NCTA to terminate an ongoing proceeding on sports royalties, the CRB said in a notice in the Federal Register. The proposed surcharge would amount to 0.025 percent of a cable system’s gross receipts during the semi-annual accounting period in which a sports event was retransmitted. The proposed surcharge would affect only major Section 111 “Form 3” cable systems and would take effect Jan. 1, the CRB said. Comments are due June 20.

If the FCC lets cable operators deliver annual customer notices electronically, cable operators will follow the consumer protections NCTA and American Cable Association previously laid out (see 1607150058), ACA told an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, said a docket 16-126 ex parte filing posted Tuesday. Those protections include letting customers opt out of electronic notices, that such opt-out methods "would be readily available and not difficult to exercise," and that the verified email address used for such notices would be the one the customer gives the operator as opposed to the other way around, ACA said.

Former and current Time Warner Cable inbound sales representatives suing the company for the 15-20 minutes of unpaid time daily spent logging into their computer and phone systems are asking the court to file an amended complaint that would narrow the class definition. In a motion (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio, counsel for named plaintiffs Daylon Howard and Tracy Dewald said the second amended complaint would limit the class to former and current inbound TWC and Charter Communications sales representatives who worked more than 40 hours in a week between May 24, 2014, and the present; whose onboarding documents contained arbitration agreements and/or who earned commissions surpassing 50 percent of their total compensation in every calendar year since May 24, 2014. Plaintiffs said the narrower class would conform with the arguments TWC raised in motions to dismiss and for summary judgment. Charter bought TWC last year. Counsel for TWC didn't comment Friday.

Requiring digital cable systems to do proof-of-performance testing would burden and cost operators "without yielding any corresponding benefits," NCTA said in an FCC docket 12-217 filing Thursday. Even one-time testing to verify compliance with the ANSI/SCTE 40 standard "would be expensive and burdensome," NCTA said, saying members' cost estimates for multiple system operators range from slightly less than $1 million to several times that, depending on the number of required test points and equipment needs. The association said such testing is particularly labor intensive and the training and time spent doing the testing would divert system technical staff from regular duties. NCTA said such testing could negatively affect subscribers since operators might have to turn off some channels.

A number of Viacom networks are returning to Suddenlink channel lineups under multiyear advertising and content distribution agreements signed with the MVPD, the two said in a news release Thursday. They said they will use Altice audience data, multiscreen ad platforms, and measurement and analytics capabilities with Viacom's ad offerings to deliver local and national advertising across multiple screens. They said the distribution agreement includes early renewal of Viacom networks on Optimum and distribution rights of multiplatform, digital and next-generation Viacom content -- including select virtual reality and 4K. Suddenlink dropped Viacom channels in 2014.