The nation's nearly 50 million pay-TV "defectors" -- who have reduced or are contemplating cuts to their pay-TV service -- vastly outnumber the roughly 22 million "desirers" loyal to or interested in expanding their pay-TV subscription, GfK said in a news release Wednesday. It said the data comes from its just-issued Cord Evolution report tracking traditional and streaming TV trends. According to GfK, defectors have marginally higher income than desirers -- $62,000 annually vs. $60,000 -- and stream less video (62 percent of defectors having done so in the past month, compared with 72 percent of desirers). Desirers, meanwhile, are more receptive to advertising, more prone to binge viewing of TV shows, and have stronger affinity for watching live linear TV, GfK said.

The FCC Media Bureau rejected a request by the Campbell County, Kentucky, Cable Board seeking certification to regulate basic cable service rates. In a letter posted Wednesday, the bureau said the county's Cable Board Form 328 filed last month failed to show why it should be allowed to regulate rates despite the agency's presumption of effective competition.

The Open Internet Consortium's planned purchase of UPnP Forum means UPnP "will be maintained and supported for as long as cable requires," CableLabs principal IoT architect Clarke Stevens said in a blog post Wednesday about the significance of the acquisition to the cable industry. OIC will put together a UPnP Working Group for maintenance of UPnP specifications and certification, which helps as some cable products require UPnP certification, CableLabs said. Much of UPnP Forum's work involved IoT matters in recent years, and the online OneIoTa tool it developed under CableLabs guidance for developing and adopting device definitions also will be available to OIC members, CableLabs said. CableLabs said it was "a major contributor" to both UPnP and OIC standards development, and the combination will turn OIC "into a system that enables cable operators to offer a coherent and simplified Internet of Things service to cable customers."

Comcast urged customers to use home automation features to protect their homes this holiday season. In a blog post, Comcast said more than 70 percent of Americans plan to travel this holiday season. To keep the home secure, it suggested turning lights on and off remotely or to set a lighting schedule using smart home devices. Comcast cited Lutron products that can also manage window shades controllable from an app. “This way, the house looks occupied when you’re away, and you don’t have to worry about remembering to switch off the holiday lights, which can save money on electricity bills,” it said. Surveillance cameras monitor a home inside and out, which can be useful for watching for package deliveries or to see if a puppy is drinking tree water, it said. Homeowners can watch security video from a laptop, tablet or smartphone, it said. Comcast suggested 24/7 professional monitoring on a secure network with cellular and battery backup. It also encouraged smart home customers to set rules via “if this, then that” actions so appliances, electronics and other devices work in harmony. An option with Xfinity Home customers: Get a text if the front door doesn’t open between certain hours when the dog walker is supposed to visit or get a text when a package is delivered to alert a neighbor for pickup.

NCTA will distort facts and “say almost anything” to prevent competition to leased set-top boxes, TiVo said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 15-64 responding to a recent NCTA filing (see 1512020050) that argued that the company was trying to manipulate the agency to create more targets for patent litigation. TiVo has “initiated” only four patent lawsuits, the company said. “Contrary to NCTA’s assertion, the majority of TiVo’s revenues come from services provided to MVPDs and retail customers." With consolidation of multichannel video programming distributors on the rise, “giving consumers a choice of user interface to access their pay TV programming” is increasingly important, TiVo said. Increasing set-top competition would benefit MVPDs by increasing “pay TV subscriber satisfaction” and making cord cutting less attractive, TiVo said. “Nonetheless, NCTA has chosen to oppose any meaningful consumer choice by suggesting that TiVo, which has approximately one percent of the set-top box market share, is trying to use patent litigation to harm device competition.” NCTA didn’t comment.

The FCC should minimize the burdens of any online public filing requirement that would apply to cable carriers, because of “the large number of cable systems and the numerous documents that must be retained in local public files,” NCTA told Media Bureau staff in a meeting Wednesday, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-127. The database should be designed so a single upload can populate multiple files, and any new system should enable cable operators to link to existing company electronic databases, NCTA said. “Any new rules should provide an appropriate transition period to avoid unduly taxing company resources.”

Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia are significantly more "attached" to the Internet than the nation as a whole, judging by response to NCTA's Onward Internet survey, wrote NCTA Senior Director-Digital Strategy John Solit on the group's blog. Roughly 23 percent of survey takers from the region indicated they would have "serious trouble" unplugging -- that response perhaps pointing to Washington's being tied to the news cycle or the high educational attainment levels of area residents, NCTA said. Onward Internet was launched in 2014 and relaunched earlier this fall, and focuses on a nine-question online survey about the Internet and Internet use (see 1511190040).

The Consumer Video Choice Coalition-backed downloadable security proposal doesn’t require a “second box” along with a set-top box, despite what pay-TV carriers have said, Public Knowledge told FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, Chairman Tom Wheeler’s aide Gigi Sohn, and Media Bureau staff in a meeting Wednesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 15-64. Depending on how multichannel video programming distributors “choose to implement support, customers could require no consumer premises equipment beyond a smart television or a cable modem, which is already required for broadband,” PK said. Pay-TV carriers are also incorrect in portraying the proposal as a “technology mandate,” PK said. “Since the competitive navigation proposal does not mandate any form of common reliance, MVPDs would have to change nothing about their proprietary set-top boxes and nothing would change for consumers who are not interested in purchasing competitive devices.” Third-party devices wouldn’t endanger MVPD licensing agreements, PK said. “Under the competitive navigation proposal, MVPDs would remain as free as ever to design boxes and interfaces however they like and to enter into whatever content agreements seem appropriate.”

Neither TWC SportsNet nor SportsNet LA -- both owned by Time Warner Cable -- is likely to get significantly higher equilibrium affiliate fees if Charter Communications' buy of Bright House Networks and TWC goes through, Charter said in an FCC filing posted Friday in docket 15-149. The bulk of the filing was an analysis by economists of programming foreclosure issues for the regional sports networks owned by TWC. Also unlikely would be permanent foreclosure of TWC SportsNet, which is carried by numerous multichannel video programming distributors in the Los Angeles area and some outside of it, Charter said. New Charter would profit less by refusing to supply TWC SportsNet to a rival MVPD than it would make from affiliate fees, Charter said. And while the Charter deals could result in higher equilibrium affiliate fees, it said, consumers on balance would be better off because of transaction-specific efficiencies elsewhere. Only Charter, BHN and TWC carry SportsNet LA, so analyzing temporary foreclosure issues is problematic, the analysis said, saying there's no evidence a deal would lead to foreclosure or a significant hike in affiliate fees charged for SportsNet LA.

Small and mid-sized video providers likely will jump onboard Amazon's rumored plans to offer third-party video services as part of its Amazon Prime Instant Video offering, because they're the ones facing the biggest travails in setting up their own distribution networks, wrote The Diffusion Group Senior Adviser Joel Espelien in a blog Wednesday. Being an add-on to Instant Video wouldn't be enticing to a major multichannel network since Amazon solely would be in charge of the app's home screen and such related issues as placement of third-party content and user experience, TDG said. The provider also would cede to Amazon the consumer billing relationship and control of consumer usage data from the app, it said. "It is difficult to imagine a large video provider (i.e. HBO, Hulu) getting very excited about Amazon’s offer. These providers have their own brands and their own user bases, and are understandably going to be pretty reluctant to hand over the keys to the kingdom to Amazon," TDG said, saying for small and mid-sized streaming video on demand providers, the chief difficulty is in building a customer base. "For these providers, a large ecosystem platform like Amazon (or Apple or Google or Microsoft) is very tempting indeed." Amazon didn't comment Thursday.