Comcast doesn't see its broadband subscriber growth slowing in the near future, Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh said at a UBS investor conference Wednesday. Comcast has added a million-plus broadband subscribers annually the past 10 years, and expects to ultimately add about 1.3 million this year, roughly the same as 2015, Cavanagh said, saying it still has big potential markets such as the roughly 6 million DSL homes in its footprint. Asked about the likelihood of the Trump administration undoing FCC Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband, Cavanagh said opposition to that change was about "the overhang of where it could go" in new regulations. "Hopefully, that chilling effect is gone" with any Title II rollback, he said. Meanwhile, 5G is "plenty of opportunity" for Comcast but also potential threat if there are use cases that impinge on the company's offerings, he said. Cavanagh said penetration of Comcast's X1 video platform is about 45 percent of its footprint and that growth isn't expected to top out soon.

Pointy Vulcan ears and a bowl haircut aren't enough characteristics to define a distinctive character, and the Star Trek universe elements that Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios cite as evidence of copyright infringement by a fan film are for the most part unprotectable, said defendants Axanar Productions and Alec Peters in a filing (in Pacer) Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles supporting their motion for summary judgment. They also said their Axanar online fan film works qualify as fair use because the Copyright Act says copying "for purposes of 'comment' may be fair use without any limitation as to the type of comment or the target of the comment." They said the Prelude to Axanar short film is obviously intended as a mockumentary, saying it's "irrelevant" they didn't explicitly claim fair use as parody or satire before being sued. In a reply brief (in Pacer) Monday in support of their motion for partial summary judgment (see 1611250021), Paramount/CBS said the Copyright Act allows the plaintiffs exclusive rights to derivative works and the Axanar/Peters' read of the law "would destroy the longstanding rights of content owners." Paramount/CBS also said Axanar/Peters haven't demonstrated the application of the fair use defense and disputed that the works qualify as satire or parody: "By the Defendants' own admission, [they were] never meant to be anything other than a 'professional' and 'independent' Star Trek work." The plaintiffs also said there's no precedent for saying creation of a non-satirical sequel or prequel is transformative.

Netflix for 2017 will debut about 20 “unscripted shows” for the first time, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told a UBS investor conference. They will include “one of our more high-profile shows” in Ultimate Beastmaster, a global competition series that’s executive-produced by Sylvester Stallone and will feature athletes and announcers from six countries, he said Monday. When the show appears in Mexico, "it will be with Mexican announcers and Mexican contestants, and in the U.S. it will be purely American product,” Sarandos said. Netflix sees unscripted TV as “a very interesting business,” Sarandos said. “The content itself appears to be largely interchangeable, meaning that if you want to watch a show about hoarding, there’s three different shows about hoarding that you can watch, and people watch it with seemingly equal passion when you swap them out.” Sarandos doesn’t see his company stepping into live sports anytime soon, he said. To the extent the “liveness is the selling point” of live sports, Netflix is “not a great solution,” he said. Broadcasting and cable are “great for the live sports,” he said. Tuesday, Netflix announced a video preview feature to keep subscribers there while searching for content. The preview service shows content in real time to help subscribers “decide whether to hit play,” said Stephen Garcia, director-product innovation for TV, and Chris Jaffe, vice president-product innovation, in a blog post. A new interface that will roll out globally over the next few weeks will be available on Netflix-enabled devices, including “the majority of game consoles and Roku devices,” they said. A company spokeswoman emailed us that initial products to support view previews are the Sony PS3, PS4, Xbox One and S and Roku 2, 3 and 4 streaming media players. Smart TVs and the Xbox 360 will be updated in coming months. The phased global rollout was used to ensure smooth deployment, the spokeswoman said. Video previews aren’t teasers or conventional trailers, said the blog post, but are “specially designed video synopses” that help subscribers choose content by “quickly highlighting the story, characters and tone of a title.” Previews vary in length and can be as long as a “couple of minutes,” said the representative.

James Murdoch, 21st Century Fox CEO, sees the growth of virtual multichannel video programming distributors as possibly helping grow video consumption the way direct broadcast satellite, AT&T's U-verse and Verizon's Fios did, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors Monday. Murdoch also considers the direct-to-consumer over-the-top business particularly difficult, saying Fox intends to look instead at third-party MVPDs and advanced advertisements, with a lot of its growth focused on video consumption, Fox News and Fox Sports 1 and 2, Ryvicker said.

The Wireless ISP Association is opposing AT&T's proposed $108.7 billion buy of Time Warner. The deal "would disadvantage the small, entrepreneurial companies that are investing private capital to bridge the digital divide while further solidifying the market power of the same massive conglomerates that have failed to provide choice and competition in the rural broadband market," said WISPA Legislative Committee Chairman Jimmy Carr in a statement Monday. WISPA also cited AT&T's zero rating of its DirecTV Now service and said ISP favoritism of content negatively affects small broadband providers that don't own content, and said regulators should block the deal unless there are enforceable conditions that prevent consumer harm. It still isn't clear if an AT&T/TW deal could be structured so the FCC wouldn't have regulatory oversight (see 1610260022). The acquirer didn't comment Monday.

Cable has little to fear from cord cutting -- especially from customers dropping their video service for a competing over-the-top offering -- since much of that lost revenue will come back from charging for stand-alone broadband and from customers opting for higher speed tiers, said MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors Thursday. His analysis is based in part on a Survata survey of 507 online respondents, with the analyst saying the results indicating those who said they are or would consider dropping their pay-TV service for OTT also would upgrade to a faster broadband service if they switched, even though most of them said their current speed was sufficient for satisfactory Internet video. Moffett said that and the net recovery that could come from dismantling a bundled discount provide "dramatic" protection against cord cutting.

Netflix added off-line viewing as a feature to its streaming video service, it said in a blog post Wednesday. The company said the download function comes at no extra cost, and some content is available for offline viewing "with more on the way."

Altice plans to roll out a fiber-to-home network across most of its territory delivering up to 10 Gbps broadband speeds by 2022, it said in a news release Wednesday. The deployment will start in 2017, reaching all of its Optimum footprint and most of its Suddenlink footprint within five years, it said. The company said the U.S. plans mirror similar fiber deployments in its territories in France and Portugal.

TiVo and Netflix signed licensing agreements that will have TiVo continue integrating the streaming video service into its set-top boxes and Netflix having access to TiVo patent portfolios and to Intellectual Ventures' over-the-top patent portfolio, the companies announced Monday. They said the deal is one of the first licenses given under TiVo's exclusive partnership with Intellectual Ventures.

CNN bought video messaging app firm Beme, Beme Chief Technology Officer Matt Hackett wrote on Medium. Beme will shut down Jan. 31, he said, saying he's "unsentimental about ending it." Beme "as a single product failed. Beme as a vision for the kind of technology and media that must be built is just getting started," Hackett said Monday, saying the company will be able to do more with CNN resources. CNN said separately it's starting a stand-alone company with Beme founders Hackett and Casey Neistat, with Hackett and the Beme development team building the technology behind it, and developing mobile video capabilities for CNN, while Neistat will be the focal point of "a new media brand for a new audience." CNN said the company -- to launch by summer 2017 -- will focus on "filling the world with excellent, timely and topical video and empowering content creators to use technology to find their voice. It won’t be what most people think of as 'news.'"