A former Viacom executive is suing the company for being fired in 2014 after she allegedly voiced concerns about the legality of a Viacom tax avoidance plan involving revenue from licensing rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, asks for Nataki Williams' reinstatement to her job, along with back pay and interest, or front pay if she isn't reinstated. Williams, who was vice president-financial planning and analysis when she was fired, said in her suit she had raised issues multiple times with Viacom about its plans to attribute the licensing rights revenues to the Netherlands for tax purposes -- which would save Viacom millions of tax dollars -- and that her firing over an employee benefits issue was a pretext. In a statement Wednesday, Viacom said Williams "is a former Viacom employee who was terminated in 2014 for fraudulently claiming company benefits to which she was not entitled. Her legal claims are completely without merit, and we will vigorously defend against these claims in court.”
DreamWorks Animation and Netflix are expanding their multiyear agreement, with Netflix streaming some new DreamWorks series, the two said in a news release Tuesday. The new deal also includes streaming rights to DreamWorks Animation's feature films, and extended rights for current DreamWorks series, they said.
Shenandoah Telecommunications (Shentel) is buying cable/phone/Internet company Colane Cable TV for $2.4 million, it said in a news release Monday. Colane's service territory in southwestern West Virginia is adjacent to part of Shentel's service area, it said. The acquisition is expected to close in Q1, said Shentel, which provides video, voice and Internet services in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
The FCC Measuring Broadband America report is proof broadband speed and performance are "keeping pace with our everyday online necessities and lifestyles," NCTA said in a news release Monday. The report (see 1512300037) "confirms how Americans are well served by ISPs who are investing billions of dollars annually to increase network speed, capacity and reliability," said the group.
Set-top box company Arris finished its $2.1 billion takeover of Pace, it said in a news release Monday. Arris said last fall it expected to close on Pace in early 2016 (see 1510190008), and the Justice Department closed its review last month without imposing any conditions (see 1512020017). Arris said its operational and worldwide headquarters would remain in Suwanee, Georgia.
The National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) and AMC Networks signed a new carriage agreement keeping AMC's channels available to NCTC members, the two said Monday. Terms weren't released. NCTC had criticized AMC for its contractual demands and said last month many of the small cable companies it represents were considering dropping AMC channels as a result (see 1512160035).
Last year was Time Warner Cable's best ever for residential subscriber growth, including the first time it added residential video customers in nine years, the company said in a news release Monday. In 2015, TWC said it had 32,000 additional video subscribers, 1 million addition high-speed data customers and nearly 1.1 million additional voice customers. It announced the subscriber growth independently of its Q4 2015 financial results, which haven't been made public.
The FCC Media Bureau paused for 16 days the 180-day shot clock on Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, saying the extra time "will contribute to a more efficient and expeditious review." As of Monday, the clock stood at 115 days. In a letter dated Monday to Charter, TWC and the Advance/Newhouse partnership that's the Bright House parent, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake referenced the variety of supplemental materials filed by the applicants in recent weeks and said pausing the clock to Jan. 20 "will ensure the commenters have sufficient time to review and comment on this new information and will provide Commission staff with the necessary time to review both the ... materials and any responses." In a statement, Charter said that having submitted supplemental information "to underscore the benefits of these transactions ... it is expected that the FCC would want to give the public time to comment. We are working well with the FCC on its review of our deal and continue to look forward to a timely approval.”
Altice and Cablevision relied on unsubstantiated assertions and unwarranted assumptions, while ignoring the findings of opponents, in their joint rebuttal (see 1512230046) to opponents and critics of Altice's proposed takeover of Cablevision, MFRConsulting said in a filing Wednesday in FCC docket 15-257. The $17.7 billion deal faces opposition or calls for conditions by parties including MFR, the Communications Workers of America and Zoom Telephonics. In its filing in response to Altice/Cablevision joint reply comments, MFR repeated its previous arguments (see 1512090034) that Cablevision post-acquisition could face "substantial risks" from the debt load that Altice would assign it and from Altice's "well documented verifiable pattern of anti-competitive and other ultimately customer-hostile business practices." In a statement, Altice said it anticipates "a fair and open regulatory process with the relevant authorities in connection with our proposed Cablevision transaction, and as in all of our other territories we expect to deliver significant benefits to consumers and their communities."
General Communication is dropping AMC Networks and Univision and adding One World Sports, Discovery Family and Outside Television in 2016, the Alaska cable operator said Monday. General Communication said AMC and Univision will no longer be carried "because of substantial price increases," with AMC seeking close to a 200 percent increase in carriage fees for its channels. In a statement Tuesday, AMC said, "We have extraordinarily high regard for the NCTC [the National Cable Television Cooperative] and for its members. We have long supported smaller cable operators, and the particular challenges and considerations that they face in the service of their markets. We will continue to endeavor to do everything we can to make them successful.” General Communication said AMC's The Walking Dead series still will be available via the Vudu app on the cable operator's TiVo service, and it's offering its TiVo customers a $50 Visa gift card to "encourage existing customers to explore ... new content available through apps such as Vudu and Netflix." The American Cable Association and the National Cable Television Cooperative earlier this month charged AMC with being a bad actor in programming negotiations with small and mid-sized cable operators (see 1512160035).In a statement, Univision Communications (UCI) said it "is committed to reaching a fair agreement with all of our distributors. Despite us making every effort over the last several months to reach a deal with General Communication, we were surprised and disappointed to learn of their plans to no longer offer the Univision Network to their customers in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, Alaska. UCI's mission is to entertain, empower and inform our community, which is why we continue to invest in the technology and content to better serve our loyal audiences. Univision's news, entertainment and sports programming are a lifeline for our viewers and we will continue to work diligently to reach a mutually beneficial agreement."