Sling TV's live and on-demand Internet TV app now supports Google Chromecast, and as a promotion is offering a free Chromecast to customers who prepay for three months of Sling TV's Best of Live TV service, the company said in a news release Tuesday.

Cox Communications expanded its 1 GB residential Internet service to parts of downtown Providence, Rhode Island, with plans to expand that footprint, the company said in a news release Tuesday. The G1gablast service is an additional $35 per month atop existing Cox service bundles or available for $99 per month stand-alone, Cox said. G1gablast has been introduced in 10 states and 1 GB speeds will be available in all Cox markets by the end of 2016, it said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is seeking comment on an NCTA petition that its members be included in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules waiver. Comments are due Dec. 3, replies Dec. 18, the bureau said in a public notice published Tuesday. Like the Coalition of Mobile Engagement Providers, the Direct Marketing Association and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which received the July waiver, NCTA members "have suffered the same confusion, and are exposed to the same kind of 'pointless and expensive class action litigation' ... and should accordingly receive the same relief" in the form of a waiver of the prior-express-written-consent requirement from Oct. 16, 2013, through Oct. 7, 2015, NCTA said in its October petition in docket 02-278.

Free Press slammed data overage fees Comcast is charging as part of its testing of different broadband service models. “It’s long past time for lawmakers and public interest regulators to get answers about Comcast’s justification for its data caps, and the impact these caps have on the affordability and openness of high-speed networks," Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood said in a statement Wednesday. Comcast has launched trials of data usage plans of 300 GB a month in some markets, with customers paying additional fees when exceeding that (see 1510260037), among a series of data plan experiments in different markets, including unlimited data for a flat monthly fee in parts of Florida and Atlanta, the company said. The aim is to find a "flexible and fair" broadband offering that lets heavier data users pay for that and light data users pay less, a company spokesman said. Free Press pointed to such overage fees as it renewed a call it has made in the past for the FCC to investigate whether the use of data caps "unfairly and unreasonably penalizes customers." It said the FCC this year received "thousands" of Comcast customer complaints, most of them about billing problems and "confusion about added fees related to data caps." It didn't give further details on the complaints. "There are almost no costs that the cable giant incurs from expanded data usage -- but Comcast keeps imposing these arbitrary limits and penalties on more of its customer base simply because it wants to," Wood said. “Data caps have a very real impact on Internet users’ wallets and online behavior. Imposing such caps is also part of Comcast's scheme to stifle innovation and choice in online video and cloud-based services. Access providers including Comcast try to justify caps by suggesting that they mitigate broadband-traffic congestion. Yet there’s absolutely no real-world evidence of congestion on wired networks across the board."

Zoom Telephonics petitioned the FCC to deny Charter Communications' buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, saying Charter's modem policy sends "an important and dangerous message to other cable operators." Minus a denial, the FCC should condition any approval on Charter's adopting "reasonable policies" for customers attaching modems to its system, including its no longer subsidizing or bundling the leasing of cable modems, its breaking out the cable modem rental charge on bills as a separate item, and not charging that fee if customers supply their own cable modems, Zoom said in a petition posted Wednesday in docket 15-149. According to Zoom, since June 2012 Charter hasn't allowed many subscribers to use their own cable modems on Charter's network -- and while it loosened that policy in August 2014, "it has pointedly refused to acknowledge its legal obligation to allow such attachments." Charter also has put "unreasonable technical limitations" on certifying the cable modems it will allow, the cable-modem maker said. Charter -- unlike TWC -- charges a single bundled rate for Internet service that includes a cable modem, Zoom said. While Charter said in its public interest statement that it plans to offer broadband services on a stand-alone basis as well as bundled and without modem fees, customers who use their own modems don't get a savings benefit -- thus eliminating an incentive for people to buy their own modems, Zoom said. Charter/TWC/BHN would mean even more retailer locations in New Charter's footprint, so its modem policy would "dramatically reduce retailer sale of cable modems," Zoom said. Charter didn't comment Wednesday. In a filing posted Tuesday in response to opposition to the deals (see 1511030024), Charter said Zoom's tying its complaints about Charter's modem policies to the transactions means "any allegation of preexisting harm would be transaction specific on the theory that the transaction would cause the 'offender' to grow" -- an argument it said the FCC rejected in AT&T/DirecTV. Charter also said it follows the relevant navigation device rules, and is allowed to prevent customers from using devices that could cause electronic and physical harm, and that some wireless routers integrated with cable modems have insufficient memory, "which locks up both the Internet service and the home networking functionality." Charter also said rules don't require it to include a separate cable modem rental fee on its bills, and neither the Communications Act nor the net neutrality order gives the FCC the authority to regulate cable modems.

A+E Networks' H2 channel will become Viceland, a 24-hour channel programmed and produced by Vice Media, a youth media brand, A+E said in a news release Tuesday. Viceland is expected to launch in early 2016 with distribution to roughly 70 million homes, with the content developed in house by Vice, A+E said. H2 will continue to operate outside the U.S., it said.

An NAB-criticized Incompas/NTCA survey was never meant to be a broad measure of the video market, but was intended to "demonstrate the reality" members face as access to programming remains a large hurdle to serving residential customers, the telecom associations said in an FCC filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-216. The aim was to partially quantify anecdotes the groups had been hearing for years, and did its job "as it reaffirms the direct link between the offering of video programming and broadband adoption rates, the challenges small businesses and new entrants face when trying to negotiate content contracts and provides a percentage comparison between the rising costs of broadcast and non-broadcast content," Incompas and NTCA said. NAB had criticized the survey as flawed and devoid of any evidence of a dysfunctional video market (see 1510290027) -- criticisms Incompas and NTCA called "inflammatory language and specious accusations." That content costs climb while consumer choice has increased demonstrates market failure, Incompas and NTCA said. They urged NAB to talk to members about waiving nondisclosure clauses in contracts "so that the public and policy makers can finally see for themselves how this 'marketplace' is really working." An NAB spokesman Tuesday said the organization "is not in the business of dictating contractual terms of retransmission contracts for our member companies. However, we do believe that if we polled our members, we would find unanimous frustration with how pay TV companies are using their customers as pawns in attempting to create a retrans crisis, hoping against hope that the FCC will inject itself into private, free-market negotiations that almost always end successfully.”

A North Carolina man who unsuccessfully sued Cartoon Network for alleged violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act is asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take a new look at its ruling. Mark Ellis sued the network in 2014 for sharing with third parties data about users of the Cartoon Network app, including what clips and shows they watch. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash of Atlanta ruled later that year that Ellis' Android phone ID given to a data analytics company doesn't constitute personally identifiable information -- a decision that was upheld in October in an appeal by the 11th Circuit, though on different grounds, with the appellate court saying a person partaking of free content on a free app isn't a subscriber or consumer under the VPPA. In a petition for rehearing en banc to the 11th Circuit filed Friday, Ellis said the appellate court ruling "showed a misunderstanding of smartphone technology [and] unwittingly licensed video providers to disclose ... the viewing history and identity of any person who watches videos on a smartphone or tablet app" as long as the app doesn't require a login or registration process. "This result is contrary to the VPPA's purpose and robs smartphone and tablet users of important privacy protections guaranteed to them by Congress," he said. The appeal also asks that if the court isn't willing to reconsider, the case should be remanded so Ellis can amend his complaint. Cartoon Network didn't comment Tuesday.

TiVo and Viacom agreed to tie Viacom data and advertising products like Viacom Vantage with TiVo Research's measurement tools for better targeted ad campaigns to customers, they said Monday in a news release. Viacom's predictive engine and TiVo's set-top box data, "matched directly to purchase and consumer engagement data in a privacy protected manner, allows advertisers to see much more than if their campaign was viewed," said Frank Foster, general manager-TiVo Research. "This partnership will not only enable advertisers to see how effectively a campaign reached the target audience, but it will shed light on whether the campaign enticed consumers to take action such as going to a store or buying a product."

An Oklahoma jury awarded Cox Communications subscribers $6.31 million in their lawsuit alleging the cable company illegally made rental of a Cox set-top box a prerequisite for accessing all content and features in its Premium Cable subscriptions. The Friday verdict followed a two-week trial in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City. Similar Premium Cable class-action subscriber suits filed in 2009 were consolidated into one case. In their verdict, the jurors said Cox had sold Premium Cable in the Oklahoma City market only on condition that subscribers also lease a set-top box, that Cox had sufficient market power there to let it restrain trade in the set-top box market, that the tying "foreclosed a substantial volume of commerce" in Oklahoma City to other set-top box sellers or potential sellers, and that the plaintiffs were injured because of the tying arrangement. Cox filed a motion asking for the jury verdict to be overturned because it "did not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for plaintiff." In a statement, Cox said it was "disappointed in the verdict, but gratified that the jury recognized most of the damages plaintiffs were seeking were unwarranted" and that its motion stood on "solid grounds."