The American TV Alliance raised a litany of retransmission consent-related issues with FCC Media Bureau staff, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-216. Much of the discussion involved ATVA proposals for preventing broadcasters from using blackouts for leverage in contract talks and for allowing temporary import of distant signals, plus the FCC's authority to restrict out-of-market joint negotiations. ATVA also disputed NAB assertions that regulatory action on retransmission consent fees will enrich multichannel video programming distributors instead of benefit consumers (see 1601140026), citing economic evidence from AT&T/DirecTV indicating otherwise. In a statement Friday on the coalition of pay-TV and other interests backing retrans reform, NAB said: "No one should be fooled by Big Pay-TV bankrolled American Television Alliance’s claim that it is ‘pro-consumer.' Even the FCC has admitted that nothing in this proceeding will translate into cable and satellite companies lowering cable prices for consumers. The pure and simple truth is ATVA is seeking to disenfranchise broadcasters’ ability to negotiate fairly for the most-watched programming on television.” ATVA also said it discussed CBS' recent lobbying against any changes to the totality of circumstances test (see 1602110062), saying CBS' claim that broadcast programming is always available online or over the air ignores "the largest online blackout in history ... during which CBS' programming was decidedly not available to millions of Time Warner Cable Internet customers. ... If CBS has decided that it will no longer engage in such behavior, we look forward to its endorsement of ATVA's online blocking proposal." CBS didn't comment.

The funeral of Judge Dan Brenner, longtime cable lawyer with NCTA and in private practice, is 11 a.m. Friday at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, 6001 West Centinela Ave. in Los Angeles, said a spokeswoman for Los Angeles County Superior Court. Brenner was a judge there (see 1602170018). The FCC held a moment of silence for Brenner during its open meeting Thursday. "He was a mentor to many in the policy community, he was a friend to us all," Chairman Tom Wheeler said. "He's truly going to be missed."

The FCC OK'ed contested requests for Comcast and Time Warner Cable to get out of rate regulation in some communities in Minnesota and Ohio, in orders Thursday. The Ohio communities of Yellow Springs and Piqua are subject to effective cable competition, so TWC is exempt from cable rate regulation there, said an order. It rejected opposition by Yellow Springs, which said if TWC had used the nine-digit ZIP codes, it would have found that DBS subscribership there didn't meet the 15 percent threshold. Since the FCC doesn't require cable operators to use the nine-digit ZIP code, the village's case is based on "general, theoretical assumptions," the bureau said. It separately backed Comcast's petition for a declaration that Fridley, Minnesota, is subject to effective cable competition and exempt from cable rate regulation there. Comcast's petition previously had also included Bloomington, and the bureau OK'd the cable operator's request to withdraw it from the petition.

NextVR and Fox Sports signed a five-year deal that will see virtual reality coverage of Fox-carried sports events, the two said in a news release Wednesday. The two have tested such programming in HD virtual reality coverage of the Premier Boxing Championships and the Auto Club 400 NASCAR race and have a planned test of Sunday's Daytona 500, the two said. NextVR Chairman Brad Allen said that "this wide-ranging agreement is proof that our technology provides an exciting and compelling option to witness great sporting events in virtual reality." The two said future announcements of virtual reality programming on Fox Sports will be forthcoming and available on the NextVR portal, which will have a dedicated Fox Sports section.

Cablevision's Optimum TV customers now can stream CBS live online and on mobile devices, as the cable company is the first operator to provide access to live streaming on CBS.com and the CBS app, the companies said Tuesday. The live feed includes CBS daytime, primetime and late-night programming, plus local news and sports and special events, they said. Cablevision Executive Vice President-Programming Tom Montemagno said the cable company "now holds distribution rights for all of CBS’s streaming platforms, demonstrating our commitment to providing customers with the ability to watch the high-quality content they desire on their own terms.” The two announced last year that a new multiyear carriage agreement between them also let Optimum Online customers have access to CBS All Access and Showtime Internet services (see 1508250019).

Liberty Global and Vodafone plan to combine their Netherlands operations by year's end, with the 50/50 joint venture creating what they said in a Monday news release would be a "national unified communications provider ... with complementary strengths across video, broadband, mobile and B2B services." Vodafone will pay Liberty Global 1 billion euros (roughly $1.11 billion) to equalize ownership in the joint venture, they said. “The combination of Vodafone’s leading mobile business with Ziggo’s successful broadband and TV business creates a strong and competitive integrated communications player, which will invest in digital infrastructure, entertainment services and productivity applications for Dutch consumer, business and public sector customers," said Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao. The joint venture will operate under both the Vodafone and Ziggo brands, the two said.

Cablevision Executive Vice President-Strategy and Development Thomas Dolan is receiving $21 million to settle litigation on compensation claims from 2005-2008, when he was on an unpaid leave of absence. In an SEC filing Friday, Cablevision said the agreement signed earlier this month has Dolan's father, Charles, the company's chairman, and Thomas's brother, James, the CEO, paying Cablevision $6 million aggregate personally "in partial reimbursement of the Company's settlement payment ... if [its] pending merger with Altice N.V. is not consummated." According to the SEC filing, an independent committee of the company's board approved the settlement. Thomas Dolan, a board member, sued Cablevision in 2011, and the company was appealing an April summary judgment ruing by a New York Supreme Court judge in Thomas Dolan's favor.

Cox Communications pushed back at BMG Rights Management's motions for a permanent injunction and for a judgment as a matter of law for vicarious infringement, in a pair of filings Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. BMG simultaneously filed an opposition to Cox's motion for a new trial. The court is scheduled to hear oral argument Feb. 26 on BMG and Cox motions on the copyright infringement complaints first brought by BMG in 2014 (see 1601270012). The BMG-sought injunction "is hopelessly vague to the acts that it would restrain or require [and] strongly suggests that it expects Cox to spy on its customers' activities and terminate their Internet accounts," Cox said. Such an injunction also wouldn't stop piracy of BMG works via BitTorrent sites and would punish "consumers by terminating their Internet accounts based on mere accusations, with no due process," Cox said. Even if the court granted such an injunction, Cox said it plans to seek a stay of the judgment, including any injunction. On BMG's motion seeking to overturn the jury ruling that Cox wasn't liable for vicarious infringement, Cox said BMG isn't complaining about the court's jury instructions and said BMG is arguing essentially that the court should reverse that ruling "because the jury did not accept BMG's arguments about supervision." Cox said trial evidence showed it had no direct financial interest in any BMG infringement. In its own motion, BMG said Cox's new trial motion "seeks to re-litigate a smorgasbord of legal and evidentiary issues that the Court has previously decided against it -- often multiple times." The jury's findings of contributory infringement, direct infringement and willful actions by Cox came from "overwhelming evidence" while the jury received proper instruction, BMG said. It said Cox -- contrary to the cable ISP's arguments -- produced ample testimony and documents about its graduated response system and handling of copyright infringement on its network.

Cinemax added a stand-alone over-the-top offering via Sling TV for $10 a month, Sling TV said in a news release Thursday. Previously, Cinemax and its Max Go app offering were available only to cable subscribers, Sling TV said.

Small, rural multichannel video programing distributors face plenty of retransmission negotiation problems with broadcasters but don't file formal complaints with the FCC largely due to the costs of doing so and the question of how long it might take to get a resolution, said WTA, Interstate Communications and Northeast Nebraska Telephone (NNT) in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-216. Often the legal costs "and economic damage from failure to reach agreement" outweigh the benefits of filing a complaint, they said, noting the FCC's review of the totality of circumstances test to good-faith negotiating. WTA and others said small, rural MVPDs "are in a vastly inferior bargaining position" with network affiliates and talks are usually of the "take it or leave it" ilk, meaning their aggregate per-subscriber retrans consent fees paid to local stations have gone up exponentially in the past 10 years. They also pushed for more transparency so the FCC could decide whether large MVPDs pay notably less in retrans consent and other programming fees than small MVPDs. WTA said some MVPDs have created a "broadcast fees" line item on consumers' bills that still complies with contractual nondisclosure obligations but gives subscribers some idea of the drivers of cable and IPTV rate hikes. Small MVPDs also have seen broadcasters seek contractual language regarding new linear cable networks that could be bought or created in the future, yet balk at retrans consent terms that reflect the costs rural pay-TV providers face when they have to engage third parties in receiving broadcast signals at their head-ends, they said. The rise of retrans consent fees and other programming costs could be slowed through such steps as a la carte pricing and allowing MVPDs to negotiate for retrans with stations outside their designated market areas, WTA and others said. The filing recapped a meeting WTA, Interstate and NNT representatives had with FCC staff, including Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake. In a statement Friday, NAB said broadcast retrans consent fees "remain just a small fraction of a typical cable bill. The fact is that high cable rates can be pegged to exorbitant set top box fees, high DVR fees, and rising fees for cable networks that are rarely watched.”