Comcast plans to roll out DOCSIS 3.1-powered gigabit Internet service in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Miami and Nashville later this year, it said in a news release Tuesday. Comcast installed its first DOCSIS 3.1 modems in Atlanta and Philadelphia earlier this year, it said. "Combined with all the upgrades we have already put into our advanced fiber optic-coax network, [DOCSIS 3.1] will not only provide more gigabit speed choices for customers, it will also eventually make these ultra-fast speeds available to the most homes in our service areas," Comcast Central Division President Bill Connors said in a statement. Comcast said DOCSIS 3.1 modems have been tested, but their use in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Miami and Nashville is their first wide deployment.

The FCC’s draft proposed changes to set-top box rules could help “loosen the stranglehold” cable companies have over program guide information, the Alliance for Community Media said in an ex parte filing in docket 15-64 Monday. “PEG organizations are systematically prevented from providing program guide metadata by cable providers which control access to the navigation systems on their set-top boxes,” ACM said. “This means that local governments are unable to direct citizens to program guides to find vital civic information.” The group said it intends to file comments in support of the coming (see 1601270064) FCC proposals.

The purchase of The Weather Co.'s (TWC) nonprogramming assets is complete, IBM said in a news release Friday. IBM didn't buy TWC's The Weather Channel, but said the programmer will license weather forecast data and analytics from it under a long-term contract. IBM said last year when announcing the deal that it expected to complete the buy in Q1 (see 1510280018).

Sky will be the first user of Roku's hybrid set-top box that allows TV services to offer both linear and streaming programming, Roku said in a news release Friday. The Roku Powered set-top will be part of Sky's Now TV service in the U.K., Roku said.

Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable arguments that a Time Warner Cable analysis of the state of cable competition in Adams, Massachusetts, are flawed are in themselves wrong, TWC said in an FCC reply posted Friday. It responded to MDTC opposition (see 1601190068) to the company's petition seeking a declaration that Adams is subject to effective competition. Each of the eight additional ZIP codes missing from MDTC's analysis of Adams represents a residence, and should be counted for purposes of calculating competing provider penetration there, TWC said. MDTC's proposal to discount Adams' direct broadcast satellite numbers because of seasonal homes in Adams goes against FCC precedent, TWC said. Even if that subscriber count were discounted, TWC said, Adams would still reach the 15 percent of DBS subscriber penetration that's the statutory threshold for determining effective competition exists, TWC said. MDTC didn't comment.

Unless pay-TV companies show concrete steps for how they'll address service and billing woes, "Washington’s policymakers should take action" by requiring greater transparency about any such quality control measures being instituted, TVFreedom said in a blog post Thursday. Pointing to various cable and satellite advertisements that take a light-hearted tone on such issues as wait times for technicians and competitors' service quality, the group of broadcasters its website noted include NAB said pay-TV companies themselves at times acknowledge improvements need to be made, but "positive industry changes to improve the customer experience are slow to materialize." It said "anti-consumer tactics ... can’t simply be fixed or laughed away with humorous commercials ... a commitment to dramatically improving customer service would be a positive start." NCTA didn't comment Friday.

A settlement conference is scheduled for March 1 between Time Warner Cable and Cableview Communications of Jacksonville, a cable installation company. In an order filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Florida, Magistrate Judge James Klindt ordered Cableview and TWC to submit confidential memoranda by Feb. 22 "setting forth their respective positions on settlement and the ultimate settlement position to which each party would be willing to agree." Cableview sued TWC in 2013 (No. 1:13-cv-306-J-34JRK), claiming TWC interfered in FTS USA's 2012 purchase of Cableview.

Any regulatory approval of Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable should come with conditions regarding broadband adoption and deployment, including expansion of eligibility for Charter's $14.99 per month broadband offering, the California Emerging Technology Fund said in an ex parte filing Friday in FCC docket 15-149. CETF said it neither opposes nor backs regulatory approval for the deals, but it does support broadband-related conditions if the FCC gives approval. New Charter should have a goal of broadband adoption by 696,000 to 960,000 low-income California households as a public benefit of the acquisitions, it said. CETF also listed a variety of suggested broadband conditions, including setting of performance goals for New Charter's low-income broadband service with its adoption rate being at 45 percent of eligible households within two years, with the eventual goal of 80 percent adoption. Conditions also should include establishment of an independent fund to aid community-based organizations in increasing broadband adoption, and infrastructure-building plans for 10 unserved and underserved broadband areas "with a particular focus on the Inland Empire, San Joaquin Valley, Salinas Valley (Monterey County) and Modoc County," CETF said. Charter pledged to start a low-income broadband offering open to families with students taking part in the National School Lunch Program and/or senior citizens who receive Supplemental Security Income program benefits (see 1512170070), but eligibility for the $14.99 per month service should "include all low-income households (particularly people with disabilities and veterans)," CETF said, and a wireless router should be included with the program's modem. Charter didn't comment. The filing recapped a meeting between CETF and Commissioner Michael O’Rielly.

Comments on the transfer of control of Wide Open West (WOW) to private equity firm Crestview are due Feb. 10 in docket 16-12, replies Feb. 17, the FCC said in a public notice Wednesday. Crestview is buying an ownership interest in Racecar Holdings, of which WOW is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary (see 1601120072), the FCC said.

STMicroelectronics is scrapping its set-top box/home gateway business after a cumulative $500 million loss over two years as it focuses on smartphones, the IoT and other digital areas. The company has reorganized operations and is targeting the connected car and IoT markets, said CEO Carlo Bozotti on an earnings call. For the year, ST’s financial results fell short of expectations due largely to a weak semiconductor market and the winding down of legacy products in what Chief Financial Officer Carlo Ferro called the company’s “post-Nokia phase.” For the year, STMicroelectronics revenue was $6.9 billion below projections and down 6.8 percent from 2014, said Ferro. The decision to shut down the set-top box and home gateway business followed a turnaround plan that didn’t produce desired results, said Chief Operating Officer Jean-Marc Chery. He cited a “much slower than expected market take-off,” operator takeovers and “box manufacturers delaying rollouts,” which led to increasing competition on low-end boxes and high R&D costs. STMicroelectronics plans to “redeploy” roughly 600 employees from its set-top business to support what it called growth areas including digital automotive, Chery said. This year, job cuts are expected to affect about 1,000 employees, he said.