Viacom "has fallen too far too fast" to be successfully turned around, at least in the next 12 months, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said in a note to investors Monday as the bank downgraded the cable programmer's Class B shares to "underperform" from "market perform." Previewing Q2 earnings, Ryvicker said CBS and Time Warner Cable are the "most stable/least risky." For Viacom, Wells Fargo said the problems include negotiating subscription VOD contracts (see 1606170013) and Comcast putting Viacom's Spike channel on a lower tier. That Viacom B is trading above CBS, Comcast and 21st Century Fox A shares "just doesn't make sense to us," Ryvicker wrote. Viacom B closed Monday at $44.36, down 1.9 percent. Viacom didn't comment.

Fox News head Roger Ailes is attempting to send a sexual harassment complaint by former Fox Channel host Gretchen Carlson into arbitration. In a motion to compel arbitration (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, Ailes said Carlson's 2013 employment agreement with the cable network contained an arbitration provision but Carlson ignored that when filing her harassment complaint earlier this month in New Jersey Superior Court "so that her counsel could tar Mr. Ailes' reputation publicly, try this case in the media press, and coerce him to settle." Ailes said suing only him, and not Fox News, was "a transparent attempt" to sidestep that employment agreement's arbitration requirement. In a statement, Carlson's lawyers said Ailes "is trying to force this case into a secret arbitration proceeding. Gretchen never agreed to arbitrate anything with Mr. Ailes and the contract on which he relies does not mention him and is not signed by him. Gretchen intends to fight for her right to a public jury trial, a right protected by the discrimination laws and our Constitution. It is disturbing that the head of a large media company would try to silence the press and hide from the public a matter of such importance."

Rovi and TiVo landed “early termination” of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period on Rovi’s proposed TiVo buy for $1.1 billion in cash and stock (see 1604290044), the companies said in a joint Monday announcement. The deal still awaits “other customary closing conditions,” including formal approval of both companies' shareholders, they said. The companies still expect the deal to close in Q3, they said.

With Charter Communications and Frontier Communications in talks that could end their reciprocal federal lawsuits regarding advertising claims (see 1606280011), Charter is asking for more time to respond to Frontier's initial complaint and motion for a preliminary injunction. Response to the injunction motion was due Monday, and response to the complaint is due Tuesday, Charter said in a motion for extension of time (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The company said moving both deadlines to July 18 would let both parties "continue to concentrate on negotiations to resolve this matter." Charter said Frontier agrees to the motion.

National Geographic Partners' Nat Geo Wild network is launching its first dedicated online series, wild_life With Bertie Gregory, which will premier Aug. 3 on NationalGeographic.com and the network's YouTube Channel, it said in a news release Wednesday. National Geographic Partners is a joint venture between the National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox.

Patrick Dolan, son of Cablevision founder Charles Dolan, is heading a group that bought 75 percent of Newsday Media Group from Altice, which closed in June on its $17.7 billion takeover of Newsday Media parent company Cablevision (see 1606210026), Newsday Media and Altice subsidiary Altice USA said in a news release Thursday. Altice will keep 25 percent, and Dolan will be president and majority owner of Newsday Media and remain president of its News 12 Networks, while Charles Dolan will be on the Newsday Media board and hold a small ownership stake, the companies said. Newsday Media holdings include the Newsday and amNewYork publications. “My father and I, together with our Altice partners, are deeply committed to preserving the state-of-the-art journalism that Newsday has consistently provided and that has served Long Islanders so well," Patrick Dolan said. "We also look forward to continuing the collaborations with News 12 Networks that have resulted in breakthrough multi-media projects and digital services.” The companies said under the agreement, Altice USA's Optimum Online customers will still get access to Newsday.com and the Newsday mobile apps.

NCTA criticisms of the FCC set-top plan are “based on a false rendition of copyright law,” said the Consumer Video Choice Coalition in a letter posted in docket 16-42 Thursday. “Time and again, NCTA mistakenly claims that the NRPM’s [sic] proposed approach grants rights to 'unlicensed parties,' when in fact the NPRM simply gives consumers meaningful choices in how they access and view the MVPD programming packages they have paid ever-growing amounts to subscribe to.” NCTA’s copyright “attack” on the NPRM is based on “claims to rights that are held by others -- the subscribers who buy access to programming for personal viewing and recording, and the public at large,” CVCC said. “Empowering subscribers to view the content they pay for is not copyright infringement,” CVCC said. “There is no exclusive right in the Copyright Act that gives an MVPD the power to require subscribers to forfeit their First Amendment rights to find the same or other programming from competitive sources.” Multichannel video programming distributor representatives, including from NCTA, recently lobbied the FCC for MVPDs' alternative proposal to the NPRM (see 1607060043).

Comcast added voice control to its home automation platform and bowed a Wi-Fi-enabled, indoor/outdoor HD camera for its Xfinity Home service, it said Wednesday. Users can create rules for the xCam that trigger other smart home devices, and there is voice control. Later this year, planned Comcast Xfinity Home launches will include a touch screen, sensor and keypad, said the company. Comcast said it's redesigning its core smart home devices, while continuing to integrate third-party products including Alphabet's Nest thermostat.

A CNN app user who subsequently sued CNN has no standing under Article III for an appeal of that unsuccessful lawsuit since the plaintiff didn't allege he or any hypothetical class suffered any qualifying injury from CNN's disclosures, CNN said in a motion to dismiss (in Pacer) filed Tuesday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. CNN said Ryan Perry's complaint rests solely on the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and pointing to the Supreme Court's Spokeo v. Robins decision -- which requires concrete injury even in a statutory violation in order to have standing -- said, "This is not enough." Perry sued CNN in 2014, alleging violations when the network shared data of its mobile app user with its analytics provider, Bango, and a U.S. District judge in Atlanta subsequently granted CNN's motion to dismiss. In a civil appeal statement (in Pacer) filed in June with the 11th Circuit, Perry said under VPPA subscribers are authorized to sue for unlawful disclosure of some data, but the 11th and 1st circuits have been divided over the meaning of the word "subscriber" in the VPPA. Counsel for Perry didn't comment Wednesday.

NCTA and AT&T discussed the availability of HTML5 as the basis for a set-top plan, in multiple meetings last week with aides to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Chief Technologist Scott Jordan, Media Bureau staff, an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, and staff from the Office of General Counsel, the association said an ex parte filing in docket 16-42. It said they discussed possible requirements for protecting privacy and copyright in HTML5 and support for closed captions in HTML5. Also discussed was HTML5 EME "as an open, royalty-free standard; support available for implementing HTML5 EME; and support for closed captioning in HTML5 EME," said NCTA. Programmers are warming to pay-TV providers' counter -- based on HTML5 -- to Wheeler's unlock the box plan (see 1607010066).