Close to 200 million video players and streamers run software vulnerable to "malicious subtitle files" that are downloaded by media players, with the hackable exploit allowing the take-over of the device, Check Point Software blogged Tuesday: Vulnerabilities are found in a variety of streaming platforms, including Popcorn Time, VLC, Kodi and strem.io, and it's "one of the most widespread, easily accessed and zero-resistance [vulnerabilities] reported in recent years." It said subtitles repositories loaded by users' media players "are, in practice, treated as a trusted source by the user or media player." The company said hackers can then "take complete control over any device" running the Trojan horse subtitle files. The firm reported the vulnerabilities to developers of vulnerable media players.
A lower court judge was right in awarding damages to Time Warner Cable for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local Union No. 3's violation of a no-strike provision and in vacating the part of an arbitral award prohibiting future strikes, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a mandate (in Pacer) Tuesday. Judges Reena Raggi, Denny Chin and Susan Carney in their summary order said Local 3 waived its right to strike when it lodged no challenge to its 2013 collective bargaining agreement until months after an arbitrator issued an adverse interim award. It rejected union arguments the contract can't preclude an orderly protest to unfair labor practices since the Local 3 was "not in fact orderly" when it blocked vehicular access to a TWC facility. In denying TWC's cross-appeal, the judges said the U.S. District Court decision wasn't wrong regarding future strikes, since the questions presented to an arbitrator didn't address future strikes. Charter Communications owns TWC.
A sports-free bundle would let the pay-TV universe finally have a low-cost offering, but Viacom's pursuit of the idea may not fly because its content might not be optimal for such an offering, said nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon in a blog post Monday. Pointing to comments by CEO Bob Bakish that Viacom is putting together a $20 sports-less and news-less bundle offering for MVPDs, it said pay-TV operators should "shake up the unhealthy dynamic driving the cost of pay TV inexorably upwards," with sports being the biggest driver of content cost escalations: Since traditional linear TV viewing is dropping among millennials, Viacom could find that such a bundle "is just not what the young viewer is looking for at any price."
Altice NV will rebrand itself worldwide as Altice, with a new logo and corporate tagline -- "Together has no limits" -- as part of a new global strategy, the company said in a news release Tuesday. It said the aim is "a unique, seamless and simplified experience for customers," with the new brand and logo replacing current brands at the different Altice operating companies by the end of Q2 2018. It said business-to-business brands will transition to Altice Business, while telco sub-brands in certain areas -- like media news brands such as News 12 Networks and i24News -- won't change. Altice closed on Suddenlink in 2015 and took over Cablevision -- now known as Optimum -- last year.
The top U.S. pay-TV providers lost roughly 410,000 net video subscribers in Q1, compared with a 10,000 subscriber gain in the year-ago quarter, Leichtman Research Group reported Thursday. It's the first time the industry posted net subscriber losses in a Q1, said principal Bruce Leichtman, who said declines shouldn’t be interpreted as driven solely by increased cord-cutting. It's "also a function of a decrease in new connects, partially due to some providers less aggressively pursuing lower value customers than in the past,” he said. While most cable companies saw a drop in subscribers, Comcast had 41,000 net adds for an industry-leading 22.5 million subscribers, said the report. Together, the top six cable companies lost about 115,000 video subscribers in Q1 vs. a 50,000 subscriber gain in the year-ago quarter, said Leichtman. DirecTV had no net gains vs. a gain of 328,000 a year earlier, while Dish Network lost 318,000 net subscribers, according to Leichtman estimates for Dish, which doesn't break out subscribers for direct broadcast satellite and internet-delivered services. AT&T U-Verse lost 233,000, FiOS lost 13,000 and Frontier lost 80,000 net subscribers, said the researcher. Internet-delivered services SlingTV and DirecTV Now each added 175,000 subscribers in Q1, Leichtman estimated. At the end of the quarter, the U.S. had 48.6 million cable subscribers, 33.2 million satellite subscribers, 9.8 million phone company video subscribers and 1.7 million customers with internet-delivered video, Leichtman said.
Comcast added Philips Lighting to its Xfinity Home third-party product portfolio, it announced Wednesday. Adding the Philips Hue system rounds out the lighting options “for now,” with Philips joining Lutron’s Caseta switches and plug-in modules, Sengled smart LED bulbs and GE switches, Daniel Herscovici, general manager and senior vice president of Xfinity Home, told us. On the road map for iControl expansion to other markets outside of Comcast’s current cable footprint now that the acquisition is complete (see 1703090014), Herscovici said Comcast is in “active discussions” and “focused on doing things we’ve committed to.” Those include building out an IoT Center of Excellence and investing in the iControl platform “to enhance what wholesale customers can get out of the solution.”
The acceleration of cord-cutting and cord-nevering is due more to costs than virtual MVPD growth, Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge said Wednesday at a MoffettNathanson event. He said subscriber losses over the past five years are at the margins, with the bulk of customers sticking with pay-TV packages. Programmers increasingly are interested in "rekindl[ing] an affiliation" instead of just a transactional relationship, with Charter helping them sell their products, Rutledge said. He said in coming years, the cost trajectory for content "is marginally going to change to our benefit, but not much. On the edges, there's a lot of pressure on the price for content companies."
EstrellaTV's sizable white area distribution is a sign the network is home to largely undesirable programming, Comcast argued in a meeting with FCC Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel staffers. EstrellaTV parent Liberman Broadcasting countered it's a deliberate strategy. The companies Tuesday in docket 16-121 (see here and here) recapped a joint meeting with the FCC on Liberman's 2016 unsuccessful carriage complaint (see 1604080013) and current petition to reconsider (see 1609260049). Finding the EstrellaTV complaint gives it standing in white areas, even if the Media Bureau affirmed its dismissal order, would be valuable, Liberman said. It said in a proceeding before an administrative law judge it would ask that the FCC order Comcast to carry EstrellaTV on similar terms to Comcast-owned Telemundo. Liberman said nothing in the 2016 order disqualifies EstrellaTV from qualifying as a video programming vendor (VPV) under Section 616 of the Communications Act, and determining Liberman isn't a VPV would take away a tool to prevent unlawful MVPD behavior. It said the plain language of the Communications Act, FCC precedent and that EstrellaTV is distributed the same way cable network feeds are point to it qualifying as a VPV. It also argued it's similarly situated to Telemundo, with both having the same target audience and common advertisers. Yet Comcast distributes Telemundo in all of the Telemundo owned-and-operated stations and affiliate markets it serves, but carries EstrellaTV in only three EstrellaTV O&O markets, Liberman said. Comcast said the bureau should affirm its August order finding EstrellaTV isn't a VPV and lacks standing to file a program carriage complaint. It said the bureau should deny EstrellaTV's petition for recon. Comcast argued the record isn't established enough to rule whether EstrellaTV is a VPV with respect to its white area feed. It said if EstrellaTV wants to pursue that line of complaint, it should file a new one, but when looking at the existing record, EstrellaTV has no basis to assert it's a VPV for purposes of its white area feed. It said stations are EstrellaTV's primary distribution mode, so a white area feed -- serving areas outside broadcast signal range -- makes no sense. The cable firm said the Liberman demand for compensation for the white area feed "is out of step with how it is treated in the broader marketplace," since there's no evidence it gets such license fees from other MVPDs. Meeting participants were Comcast representatives including Senior Vice President-Legal Regulatory Affairs Frank Buono, Liberman representatives including CEO Lenard Liberman, and Media Bureau and Office of the General Counsel staffers.
Pay-TV's largest-ever Q1 subscriber loss is because "existing without pay TV is now viable for many," nScreenMedia's Colin Dixon wrote Monday: The cord-cutting trend is due to a confluence of issues, including more availability of premium sports programming and quality scripted shows online, increased consumer love of subscription VOD, and decreased complexity in watching since setting up a Roku or smart TV has become largely intuitive. The analyst said such cord cutting will accelerate amid increased costs of pay-TV packages.
FilmOn X is ending its two remaining appeals arguing whether streaming services are eligible for compulsory licenses for broadcast content, after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month denied the company's petition for a rehearing in a third such case (see 1705010004). In a notice (in Pacer) Monday in the 7th Circuit, FilmOn said it's dismissing its appeal of a 2016 ruling in litigation involving Window to the World Communications. In a notice (in Pacer) Friday in the D.C. Circuit, it said it was doing likewise with its appeal of a separate 2016 ruling in litigation against a number of broadcasters. Counsel for FilmOn didn't comment Tuesday.