The Supreme Court reaffirmed in last month's Spokeo v. Robins decision that violating a federal statute can provide the basis for standing, with the violation needing only to result in "particularized" and "concrete" harm -- exactly the type of harm plaintiff Alex Braitberg suffered at the hands of Charter Communications, his counsel responded Wednesday in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Spokeo also made clear that some statutory violations constitute Article III injury, Braitberg said. The filing was in response to a previous Charter citation arguing Spokeo confirmed Braitberg lacked Article III standing since his allegation that Charter violated a Cable Act requirement that cable operators destroy personally identifiable information when it's no longer needed for the reason it was collected is divorced from any concrete harm. Braitberg -- a former Charter subscriber who sued in 2013 after finding out such data as his Social Security and credit card numbers were still on record with the company -- is appealing a decision by a U.S. District judge in St. Louis to throw out his initial lawsuit on the basis for lack of Article III standing.

Centralite, a supplier of connected home devices for branded products from cable companies and retailers, is now selling direct under its own label, it said Thursday in a news release. The company said it was responding to “overwhelming consumer demand” for connected products not offered on other home automation platforms. Centralite’s portfolio has more than 30 devices that it produces for brands including Comcast, Lowe's and Time Warner Cable, and with the branded line it’s enabling partners and customers to access offerings “central to the complete connected experience,” it said.

Al-Jazeera's claim its sports doping documentary never actually accused athlete Ryan Howard of taking performance enhancing drugs fails to make clear why a viewer wouldn't reasonably see it conveying the cable network's endorsement that such an accusation is true, Howard said in a motion (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. The Philadelphia Phillies first baseman sued the now-defunct Al-Jazeera America network, plus Al-Jazeera Media Network and Al-Jazeera International for defamation, with Al-Jazeera and defendant Deborah Davies, a reporter, filing a motion to dismiss, while another reporter defendant, Liam Collins, separately filed a dismissal motion. In his opposition Tuesday to the twin motions to dismiss, Howard said the fact Al-Jazeera and the reporters knew that the source of the doping allegations in "The Dark Side" had recanted them before the documentary aired, their failure to corroborate or investigate those allegations and their "motive and even need to generate a sensational story" all go to show they acted with knowledge of probable falsity or reckless disregard for the truth, and the motions to dismiss should be denied. Al-Jazeera didn't comment.

The FCC's set-top proposal should exempt small cable operators, said a letter from the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy that was praised by the American Cable Association. “Our office has concerns that the FCC’s proposed rules will be disproportionately and significantly burdensome for small multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs),” the letter said. “The Office of Advocacy represents an important voice for small business stakeholders who are worried about the disproportionate economic impacts on smaller operators,” ACA said in a release. “Given the impact of the proposed rules on small MVPDs, and the fact that the FCC can achieve its regulatory goals without their compliance, we believe the FCC should exempt small MVPDs when it finalizes its new rules,” the letter said.

The FCC Media Bureau reversed itself on whether Adams, Massachusetts, is subject to effective cable competition. In an order Thursday, the bureau upheld Time Warner Cable's petition for reconsideration of a 2015 order saying the town wasn't subject to effective competition. The bureau cited TWC's reconsideration petition argument that the bureau had miscalculated the subscriber count in the town, and that the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable had agreed not to fight the petition in a settlement it reached with TWC.

Dish Network is expanding the international programming available on it and its Sling TV service through a long-term renewal agreement with Asia TV USA, part of India's Zee group, Dish said in a news release Thursday. Dish said the renewal will keep the 10 Zee-branded channels it already offers and add 27 more Zee channels. Dish said it and Sling also will be the exclusive U.S. providers of Zee's on-demand library of films and video titles, with Sling eventually becoming the exclusive over-the-top U.S. provider for Zee's South Asian channels except for one as Zee moves viewers from its direct-to-consumer services to Sling TV or authenticated access.

Commercial-free streaming services like Amazon and Netflix may need to incorporate advertising as content and production costs rise but subscribers already are paying at or close to what they feel the services are worth, market researcher GfK said in a news release Wednesday. Hulu already is ad supported. According to GfK, $10-$11 is the maximum most subscribers would pay monthly for Amazon Prime or Netflix, and cost was the most important attribute in choosing a streaming service. The firm said cost was cited by 75 percent of people surveyed, followed by availability of specific programs -- cited by 69 percent -- and availability of new movies, at 68 percent. Having original/exclusive content ranked ninth, cited by 47 percent of users of major streaming services, GfK said, saying the proportion of Amazon Prime and Netflix users citing original content as a reason for using the services is growing. David Tice, GfK senior vice president-Media and Entertainment team, said Hulu and other ad-supported services offer premium "ad-free" options, and Amazon Prime and Netflix "may need to introduce ‘ad-inclusive’ subscriptions to hold the line on monthly subscription costs for their price-sensitive customer segments.” Amazon and Netflix representatives didn't comment.

Worldwide set-top box shipments grew 4.8 percent last year to reach 353 million units, said IHS, but revenue fell 5.4 percent to $22.2 billion due to lower demand for higher cost pay-TV set-top boxes in North America, said an IHS report Tuesday. Apple TV, ranked ninth globally in revenue among set-tops in 2014, jumped to third in 2015 due to industry consolidation and continued strong growth in consumer retail video streaming players, said the report. More than 10 million Apple TVs shipped last year, behind Arris (which acquired Pace), Technicolor (which acquired Cisco's set-top business), Skyworth and ZTE, said IHS. Apple TV’s success results from “translating consumption habits from across Apple’s wider device ecosystem onto the TV screen,” said analyst Daniel Simmons, saying Steve Jobs once called the Apple TV business a “hobby.” Apple TV’s rise in the set-top category reflects the trend that pay-TV-specific boxes “are becoming less important for consumers to access premium content” because Netflix, HBO Go and others offer top-tier content through over-the-top boxes, said Simmons. “As retail STBs have grown in the market, traditional pay-TV set-top vendors have been forced to re-position themselves, with significant consolidation at the top of the market, diversification toward software and services in the middle, and low-end vendors moving toward broader volume.” Global growth of set-top shipments was driven by IPTV in China, where telecom companies are pushing IPTV services to fund investments in fiber-to-the home for high-speed internet access, said IHS. Global set-top Q4 revenue grew by 3.4 percent over the year-ago quarter to $5.7 billion, partly driven by Apple, Amazon and Roku device refreshes, said IHS.

Minority-targeted programmers would “suffer disproportionately” if the FCC set-top proposal allows third-party box makers to disregard negotiated channel lineups and neighborhoods, BET CEO Debra Lee and Viacom executives told Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in a meeting Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing. The proposal also lacks a sufficient enforcement mechanism, the programmers said. Clyburn should “address the concerns raised as the proceeding moves forward,” the filing said. It was posted Friday in docket 97-80; Viacom owns BET.

A 2012 complaint by cable line technicians against Comcast may be headed to settlement. In a status report (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, attorneys for the plaintiffs and Comcast said a settlement in principle was reached through private mediation. They also asked for the court to adjourn pending trial deadlines and instead set a deadline for filing a joint motion for approval of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) settlement. But in a docket entry (in Pacer) Friday, the court said the deadlines will stand and the court will endeavor to rule quickly on any joint motion for approval of settlement once one is filed. Magistrate Judge Young Kim in February granted part of the plaintiffs' motion to reconsider and threw out his 2015 summary judgment ruling (see 1602260066). The lawsuit alleged FLSA and Illinois Minimum Wage Law violations by Comcast for encouraging technicians to spend time before and after shifts doing such tasks as loading or unloading their vehicles, and they were entitled to compensation for time they spent on call because they were “highly restricted” during such on-call shifts.