The Justice Department closed its review of Arris' buy of Pace without imposing any antitrust conditions, Arris said in a news release Tuesday. The takeover still is going through merger control regulatory review in Brazil, though it received needed clearances in Colombia, Germany, Portugal and South Africa, Arris said. The set-top box company cited regulatory review issues -- particularly DOJ concerns -- when it said in October that the $2.1 billion deal likely would happen in early 2016 instead of Q4 (see 1510190008).

From the harm it could bring to the online video distribution (OVD) market to "the suffocating duopoly" it would create in the nation's broadband market, with New Charter and Comcast controlling too much of the residential broadband marketplace, Charter Communications' buying of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable can't be allowed to go through, Dish Network said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday on a meeting between Dish CEO Charlie Ergen and top company executives and a variety of FCC staff, including Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake. At the meeting, according to the filing in docket 15-149, Dish repeated its major talking points in opposing the merger. Not even the open Internet rules would be adequate to restrain New Charter, especially since adjudicating disputes takes time and new OVDs "are fragile as they try to grow into maturity," Dish said. Dish also said behavioral conditions would be inadequate as OVD protection since "OVD sabotage can be achieved in many opaque and subtle ways." In a statement Wednesday, Charter said, “With minimum broadband speeds of 60 Mbps and no data caps, no usage-based billing, no contracts and settlement-free interconnection, Charter is an industry leader in how to treat broadband consumers and online video distributors like Netflix. Claims that New Charter and Comcast would create a duopoly are baseless; New Charter would serve only 23 percent of broadband subscribers -- a smaller percentage than Comcast serves today and less than half of the percentage Comcast/TWC would have served, and the companies have different strategies on issues including data caps, usage-based billing, contracts, interconnection and customer equipment.” Dish has been a constant opponent of Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1511300049).

Paramount Pictures will release the first two films for sale and rent online later this month under its online video revenue-sharing initiative with movie theaters, it said in a news release Tuesday. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension will be available via online sale and rental on Dec. 8 and 15, respectively. Paramount said that under the revenue-sharing agreement with some theatrical exhibitors, the films could be made available via online video distribution 17 days after they were available in fewer than 300 domestic theaters. Both films came out theatrically in October, Paramount said.

Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), being purchased by Liberty Global, is seeking FCC International Bureau approval to transfer control of a variety of international Communications Act Section 214 authorizations and of the licenses to operate the Arcos-1 fiber cable system and CFX-1 fiber submarine cable system as part of that deal. In a series of IB filings Monday (see here, here, here, here and here), CWC said under the deal, submarine cable landing licenses and the Section 214 authorizations will be transferred to newly incorporated CWC New Cayman, then CWC New Cayman will be transferred to a another newly incorporated holding company, CWC New Cayman Holdco, with Liberty Global having indirect ownership and control of CWC New Cayman and other license subsidiaries will be transferred to Liberty Global. Liberty Global's takeover of CWC -- which Liberty Global says it hopes to complete in Q2 (see 1511160022) -- comes as CWC was partway through its own takeover of Columbus International, announced in 2014. Liberty Global said that transaction isn't expected to be completed and that it and Columbus instead ask for transfer of control of the Columbus subsidiaries that operate the fiber cable systems to it.

Promised public benefits of Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable would happen regardless of those $89.1 billion deals going through, and might actually slow down BHN's technology upgrades, Dish Network said in an FCC filing posted Monday in docket 15-149. For example, Dish said, BHN's all-digital conversion was expected to happen sooner than the 30 months Charter has cited. Similarly, Charter's pledge of a minimum 60 Mbps broadband service to BHN customers contrasts with BHN being "well-positioned to offer a higher level of speed tiers to customers whether or not the merger is consummated," Dish said. While Charter says it, BHN and TWC will join the Cable WiFi consortium, BHN and TWC already are members and Charter shouldn't need the takeover "to push it to join," Dish said. In a statement Monday, Charter said the "many commitments, including to provide faster broadband service without data caps or modem fees, establish industry leading interconnection policies, offer advanced video services, increase competition in the SMB and enterprise business markets, and return thousands of overseas jobs to the U.S., puts this transaction squarely in the public interest.” Dish is one of the most vociferous opponents of Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1511230031).

Charter Communications said its cable modem policies are better for consumers than what competitors offer. "Unlike other ISPs that charge $8-$10 per month, Charter provides its customers modems for free," the company responded to us about a filing in docket 15-149 by Zoom Telephonics against Charter's pending purchases of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable (see 1511240028).

The FCC should streamline the Lifeline application process, Time Warner Cable executives told Chief Matthew DelNero and others in the Wireline Bureau, in a meeting on what factors likely will affect the participation of TWC and other broadband providers in the program. Other recommendations included cutting "administrative burdens relating to the eligibility verification and reimbursement processes" and using "a third-party verifier to alleviate privacy concerns arising from existing document-retention requirements," said TWC in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-42.

Either stop Charter Communications from buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable or make Charter unbundle its cable modem rental prices from its Internet service and offer it at an unsubsidized price, Zoom Telephonics said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-149. It recapped a meeting between the company's outside counsel and a variety of Media and Wireline bureau and Office of the General Counsel staff at which Zoom repeated the case it has made before in the FCC review of the $89.1 billion set of deals (see 1511130021). A ruling putting those unbundling and anti-subsidy requirements on Charter "will not require a complicated regulatory structure," Zoom said. Charter didn't comment.

With a federal court having tossed out a proposed $15.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against Comcast, the plaintiffs are asking for a stay as they appeal. A motion to stay -- unopposed by Comcast, according to court paperwork -- was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. The motion said the stay is needed because an appeal of U.S. District Judge Anita Brody's decision (see 1511060011) could result in certification of a settlement class in the case. The multidistrict litigation is a combination of 24 civil actions against Comcast consolidated in 2009, alleging the cable company wrongfully tied subscribing to its Premium Cable tier to rental of a Comcast set-top box. In her rejection of the proposed settlement earlier this month, Brody said a better model for determining who was eligible to be a member of the class was needed. In a petition for permission to appeal Brody's order filed Monday with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the petitioners said district courts too often use "a rigid manner to prevent class certification" in cases where records might be incomplete and that such an appeal was a chance for the court "to clarify that plaintiffs in consumer class cases can meet the ascertainability threshold even when defendant companies have discarded a number of their customers' records."

AT&T and A+E Networks signed a long-term, multiplatform distribution agreement for A+E content to remain on AT&T's U-verse and DirecTV offerings, the companies said in a news release Monday. In a statement, AT&T said the contract includes linear, TV Everywhere, VOD and mobility terms for a variety of A+E channels. AT&T also will carry Viceland, which is replacing H2 (see 1511030048), they said.