Altice completed its $17.7 billion takeover of Cablevision, it said in a news release Tuesday. Altice said, with Cablevision and Suddenlink under its belt, Altice USA is the No. 4 U.S. cable operator, with 4.6 million customers in 20 states. The New York Public Service Commission approved the deal last week (see 1606150056). Altice founder Patrick Drahi said Altice USA "is a key pillar of our business" and the next step is to "accelerate network investments and bring innovative products and services to U.S. customers by leveraging our global operational expertise, scale and resources." It said goals for Altice USA include increased broadband speeds through network upgrades; introduction of a low-income broadband offering; rollout of an all-in-one home center that puts set-top boxes, routers and Wi-Fi modems in one device and debut of a new customer interface that integrates VOD, online content and improved navigation and recommendation tools. Company president Dexter Goei will be chairman and CEO of Altice USA, with co-President/Chief Financial Officer Charles Stewart and co-President/Chief Operating Officer Hakim Boubazine, Lisa Rosenblum as general counsel and Lee Schroeder as head-government affairs. Separately, Zoom Telephonics Monday filed a reply to Altice/Cablevision opposition (see 1606140015) to the Zoom petition for reconsideration of FCC approval of that deal. In its reply in docket 15-257, Zoom said Altice/Cablevision argued there was ample time through the ex parte process to bring its arguments to the agency, but Zoom said the FCC put a Dec. 7 deadline on submission of pleadings and that it had been in talks with the applicants on trying to resolve the cable modem practices but those talks ended in April when Altice/Cablevision for the first time said they believed they were in compliance with FCC rules and wouldn't make any changes. "Since this was just a few days before the staff issued its decision, it would not have been possible to prepare and file anything with the Commission in time for it to have been considered," Zoom said. It petitioned the FCC to reconsider its approval of Charter Communications buy of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (see 1606100043). In its opposition to the petition filed Monday in docket 15-149, Charter said the Zoom complaint reargues complaints about modem billing policies that already were rejected by the FCC in its approval of the deals.

Broadcast and pay-TV interests have been making numerous trips to the FCC -- and the Office of General Counsel in particular -- to lobby on the agency's possible totality of circumstances test reforms. Multichannel video programming distributor representatives including Mediacom Senior Vice President-Government and Public Relations Tom Larsen, American Cable Association Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman and Dish Network Deputy General Counsel Jeff Blum met with FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet to discuss commission authority to deem it a violation of good-faith negotiating rules to refuse to extend a retransmission consent agreement under some circumstances and to require interim carriage of a station as a means of remedying violations of good-faith retrans, said an ex parte filing in docket 15-216 Tuesday. The MVPD group filers said nothing in Section 325 of the Cable Act precludes the FCC from ordering a station to give its consent to interim carriage as a remedial measure. They said last week's U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision upholding FCC net neutrality rules (see 1606140023) backs the idea that the Administrative Procedure Act's notice requirements don't bar the agency from being able to order interim carriage as a remedial measure or the revised good-faith rules that have been proposed for reforming its totality of circumstances test. Broadcasters also met with Sallet to argue Section 325 authority. They said its "express authority of the originating station" language about who can grant retrans consent is unambiguous and the FCC has no discretion to read that it has implied authority. Whatever authority the agency has under Section 325 to set up regulations for retrans "cannot strip stations of the basic right to decide whether or not to consent," said the broadcast group -- including Anne Lucey, CBS senior vice president-regulatory policy; Susan Fox, Disney vice president-government relations, Jared Sher, 21st Century Fox associate general counsel; and Victoria Jeffries, Univision assistant general counsel-public policy -- said an ex parte filing Tuesday. The broadcaster group also met with Chairman Tom Wheeler aide Jessica Almond, said an ex parte filing. It said the group said the argument broadcasters can force cable distributors to carry affiliated nonbroadcast networks "defy empirical marketplace realities," and treating bundling as a per se violation of the good-faith bargaining requirement would hurt competition. The broadcasters submitted as proof 2015 pay-TV subscriber data showing networks affiliated with broadcasters "have a variety of penetration levels." NAB, in an ex parte filing recapping its own meeting with Sallet, said it argued its case that under the Copyright Act, the FCC lacks authority to stop a blackout of copyrighted programming from online distribution to the benefit of pay-TV broadband subscribers during a retrans consent impasse. It also said MVPDs are ignoring the underlying issue: whether the FCC "can stretch its narrow good faith authority to regulate broadcast stations' copyrighted content generally and their online offerings specifically." The agency "cannot presume ... it can regulate online content simply because that content is distributed via the Internet by an entity that also happens to be a broadcaster who at times engages in retransmission consent negotiations," NAB said.

A delay in wrapping up a major subscription VOD agreement and the underperforming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows will mean down earnings for Viacom for the quarter ending June 30, the company said in a news release Friday. The company said Q3 earnings, to be reported Aug. 4, will likely show adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1-$1.05; Q3 2015 brought adjusted diluted EPS of $1.47.

The Media Alliance is backing a push by over-the-top multichannel video programming distributors, broadcasters and BitTorrent for reclassification of some OTT providers as MVPDs, with a certification step for non-facilities based online video distributors that would have them subject to MVPD rules (see 1606140018). In an FCC filing Friday in docket 14-261, Media Alliance said the TV Neutrality Alliance idea "is a common-sense way to interpret the rules" that will alleviate regulatory uncertainty.

The FCC Wireline Bureau set up docket 16-197 for monitoring Charter Communications' compliance with conditions imposed by the agency on its buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, the agency said in a public notice Thursday. Conditions range from offering a low-income broadband offering to requiring an overbuild of Charter's broadband network footprint (see 1605060059).

The FCC should take care that its efforts to stimulate third party retail set-top box competition don't interfere with ongoing video standards-making proceedings, said Microsoft in a meeting Tuesday with Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and bureau staff. “It is important for the Commission to be aware of these developments and to ensure that any steps it contemplates taking in this proceeding do not adversely affect these industry efforts.” Time Warner executives met with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on set-top matters Monday, arguing against the FCC proposal. “It is feasible to increase competition and consumer choice through a regulatory regime based on content companies having a direct licensing relationship with device manufacturers, traditional distributors, and online platforms,” Time Warner said. The filings were made in docket 16-42. Pay-TV companies just made an alternate proposal for an HTML5-based unlock the box approach (see 1606160059), rather than the apps approach the industry has backed and the alternative device tack included in the agency's proposal. CEO Chip Pickering of Incompas, which is part of a coalition of tech and other interests allied with the FCC approach, called it "encouraging" that the cable industry made the proffer. "Their current proposal presents both some positive movement and some familiar limitations that could fall short of delivering an open, competitive marketplace," he said Thursday.

BeIN Media is using Technicolor's Ultra HD technology in its Middle East and North Africa broadcast platform, in advance of the Union of European Football Associations Euro 2016 tournament, it said in a news release Thursday. It said the deal between the two has its 4K set-top box technology being used in beIN's 4K UHD receiver, while beIN is broadcasting a number of the Euro tournament's games in 4K on a dedicated channel, beIN 4K.

WHDH Boston is taking the dismissal of its lawsuit against Comcast to the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, it said in a notice of appeal (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston. In its original complaint, WHDH claimed Comcast violated an agreement with NBC affiliates made as part of Comcast's buy of NBCUniversal by planning to switch the NBC affiliation from WHDH to an owned-and-operated station (see 1603110031). In his order (in Pacer) to dismiss the suit issued in May, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns of Boston said WHDH lacked standing to enforce sections of the NBC TV Affiliates Association, and nothing in the affiliates' contract imposes an affirmative obligation on the cable company to negotiate with affiliate stations. He said he also agreed with Comcast's argument that refusing to engage in renewal negotiations doesn't generally amount to monopolistic exclusionary conduct, as WHDH argued. The station argued Comcast's newly owned and operated station will be less successful than WHDH, but at least in the near term "it is a deep-dyed canon of antitrust law that the supplier of a product may vertically integrate its distribution channels without facing liability," Stearns said. Comcast didn't comment Wednesday.

Zoom Telephonics' petition to have the FCC reconsider its approval of Altice's buy of Cablevision regurgitates the same assertions the Media, International, Wireless and Wireline bureaus rejected in their order and fails to rebut that the order said cable modem maker's allegations aren't relevant because they raise no transaction-specific harms, the cable companies said in a joint opposition filed Monday in docket 15-257. Zoom also petitioned for reconsideration of FCC approval of Charter Communications' buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (see 1606100043). FCC OK last month of Altice/Cablevision (see 1605040010) rejected calls by Zoom for modem-related conditions (see 1602050013) as not being transaction-specific. Altice/Cablevision said the thrust of Zoom's argument that Cablevision's modem and billing practices violate FCC rules and the Communications Act was aired during the agency's consideration of the deal: "Zoom's petition identifies precisely the same facts, and rehashes precisely the same arguments, set forth in its Petition to Deny [and] presents nothing new." Altice/Cablevision said Zoom's arguments about the billing practices being contrary to the public interest "involve precisely the sort of unrelated harms that the Commission routinely has refused to consider in its transaction review context." In its petition, Zoom argued the FCC improperly deferred consideration of its allegations relating to cable modem pricing issues and neglected to assess its arguments that the transaction wasn't consistent with the Communications Act, Telecommunications Act and public interest standard. It said it wanted reconsideration of the lack of any conditions to ensure Altice's cable modem certification practices are consistent with FCC rules, and that Cablevision dissuades purchase of third-party modems through misleading information on its website. Zoom said it repeatedly raised the issue of mandating bill transparency during the FCC's consideration of the transaction, but the commission made "manifest error" by neglecting to even consider whether approving the deal without addressing Cablevision billing practices is contrary to the public interest. Zoom's petition wasn't posted on the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System by our deadline, and the agency said it wasn't an ECFS problem.

Cox Enterprises will spend $25 million under the Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action to shrink its environmental impact, the company said in a news release Monday. The company said it will look for ideas through its Corporate Strategy and Investments and its Cox Conserves teams, with the aim of eliminating 3,000 tons of landfill waste and cutting its carbon footprint by 20,000 tons. Cox Enterprises said it has a 2024 goal of generating no landfill waste and a 2044 goal of being carbon and water neutral.