The various approval conditions being proposed in connection with Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable don't point to anything indicating the deal won't get FCC approval or include topics that have not come up before, New Street Research emailed investors. New Street also said the objections don't alter its opinion of the transaction likely being approved in March, with additional conditions likely but nothing "so great as to affect the material prospects" of New Charter. That Netflix is backing the transaction disarms many arguments that it could put online video distribution (OVD) in jeopardy, and Dish Network's opposition -- repeating much of what it said against the now-abandoned Comcast purchase of TWC -- is weaker this time around, New Street said. The Charter/TWC/BHN opposition also lacks the level of pushback Comcast/TWC saw in the form of opponents "hiring big name economists ... to do the kind of analysis necessary ... to block the deal," it said. The opposition comments that were due Tuesday (see 1510140009) also didn't make a case that New Charter will have the kind of market power to stifle OVD composition, the analysts wrote. Numerous opponents brought up the specter of coordinated effects, but that likely won't scotch the deals given that antitrust laws would ban such moves, though it may result in some imposed conditions aimed at preventing coordinated actions, New Street said. Charter's voluntary three-year interconnection commitments likely will shift, perhaps being extended to five years, and there might be some government-imposed "tweaks" to them, New Street said. Meanwhile, some proposed conditions, like Dish recommending a mandatory unbundling of its cable network, likely won't be seriously considered, it said.

Government regulation -- forced by pay TV -- is largely to blame for the growing "video divide" where once-free content, from broadcasts of sporting events to journalism, is increasingly rare, Jonathan Blake, retired partner at Covington & Burling, emailed us in an essay. While program choices via pay TV are abounding, providers "did not live up to their promise of no or less advertising" or of effective public, entertainment and government channels -- a requirement pay-TV providers have actually tried to eliminate, Blake said. Broadcasters already are far more regulated than cable, and now the FCC is moving to "gut television stations' intellectual property rights" through its proposed repeal of exclusivity rules, he said. All this points to an FCC that is devaluing local broadcast TV, meaning it is "less worthy of preservation, less worthy of the freedom and flexibility to adapt to new technologies, changing consumer tastes and needs, and expanding business and service opportunities," Blake said. Considering that the FCC "is just now investigating the troubled plight of AM radio" -- a decline 40 years in the making -- "Congress and the FCC should avoid a similar outcome here," he said.

More than 330 million 4K Ultra HD TVs will be sold worldwide by the end of 2019, up from 2 million sold in 2013, Parks Associates said in a report issued Wednesday. Among U.S. broadband households planning to purchase a flat-panel TV in 2015, 56 percent think that 4K picture quality is an important feature. However, Parks data indicate 4K still has an uphill climb to make with many consumers. Among flat-panel shoppers not planning to buy a 4K TV, Parks said, 42 percent weren't familiar with 4K/Ultra HD technologies, while 44 percent either were turned off by the price or felt the picture quality did not justify the price.

Modem manufacturer Zoom Telephonics filed an FCC petition Tuesday to deny Charter Communications' pending buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. Public Knowledge also sought a denial of the deal as proposed. Zoom alleged that Charter, unlike TWC and Comcast, has "not reasonably allowed customer-owned modems to be attached to its network." Zoom said Charter, contrary to the practices of TWC and BHN, doesn't separately state a price for cable modem leasing and subsidizes the cost of leasing, and that the company's attachment and pricing practices are "contrary to law and FCC regulations and are not in the public interest." Public Knowledge also filed a petition asking the FCC to deny Charter's acquisitions of TWC and BHN unless certain concerns are addressed, it said in a news release Tuesday. "The proposed combination of Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House raises serious questions as to whether consumers will lose out in an ever-consolidating video marketplace," said John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge senior staff attorney. Charter had no immediate comment.

The FCC Media Bureau requested information from several ISPs and Internet companies in connection with its review of Charter Communications' planned buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, according to letters posted Friday on the FCC transaction website. The companies receiving information requests include Akamai, AT&T/DirecTV, CenturyLink, Cogent, Dish Network, Netflix and Verizon -- many of the same companies that received information requests from the bureau during the Comcast/TWC and AT&T/DirecTV reviews. The information requested varied from company to company. AT&T was asked about planned improvements to its network, peering agreements and data caps, while Netflix was asked about the effect of ISP data caps on its business, and how degradation of streaming quality affects subscribership. Dish was asked about subscriber data and what causes subscribers to disconnect from the service. Responses to the requests are due Oct. 23.

Comcast's Xfinity Home customers can now use the Xfinity Home app to control a variety of third-party devices like August's Smart Lock, Chamberlain's MyQ garage controller, Lutron's Caseta wireless light controller and dimmer, and Nest Learning's thermostat. The aim is a " 'total home' experience" instead of multiple smart home apps, the company said in a blog Friday announcing the move. Comcast said eventually customers will be able to control such devices through their TVs using the X1 platform and voice remote.

The Video Choice Coalition’s proposed downloadable security solution in the Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee’s final report would be an “FCC mandate” on how content can be distributed, said NCTA in a blog post Thursday. Proposals in the FCC DSTAC report that would allow third-party set-top boxes to use their own user interface on a video feed provided by multichannel video programming distributors would be “akin to allowing Hulu to show Netflix content,” NCTA said. The FCC should instead support the MVPD-backed DSTAC proposal for a proprietary app-based system as is currently used by many MVPDs, said the association. “The system we have is clearly working and rapidly improving.” The coalition’s proposal -- which NCTA repeatedly compared to the defunct AllVid proposal -- “creates a soupy mess” from “unique, curated TV experiences,” NCTA said. Apps, in contrast, “have proven their success,” NCTA said. “It’s reassuring that the ultimate conclusion to the DSTAC report -- no consensus for FCC action -- is that the TV marketplace is thriving and not in need of a governmental fix.”

U.S. broadband households with a streaming media device watch more video on TV than those without, said Parks Associates research released Tuesday. Streaming media device owners watch 22 hours a week, six of that Internet video and eight hours of broadcast TV, compared with 18 hours a week for non-owners, though non-owners watch more broadcast TV -- 10 hours a week, Parks said. Streaming devices, along with more over-the-top video options, have "altered the video environment, demanding new business models in advertising, content creation, and video subscriptions," said Brett Sappington, Parks director-research, in a statement.

The video headend proposal in the Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee final report would make third-party navigation devices more competitive, said Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer in a discussion Monday with FCC Deputy Chief Technologist Alison Neplokh, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-64. The video headend proposal for a downloadable security, supported by Public Knowledge’s representative on the DSTAC, “would allow for third-party navigation devices to meaningfully differentiate themselves from and compete with each other,” Bergmayer said. The FCC “should proceed to a rulemaking proceeding” using that approach, which would result in “a clear, nationwide standard for video device compatibility with MVPD [multichannel video programming distributor] systems,” he said.

Within 10 years, half of all TV watchers under the age of 32 will be "cord nevers," who have never paid for traditional cable service, said a Forrester report released Tuesday. The problem of dealing with such cord nevers eclipses the business challenges for cord cutters, Forrester said in the study. While paying customers for cable still are about 75 percent of the population, and the number of cord cutters is growing slowly -- today they're about 6 percent and are unlikely ever to top 15 percent -- cord nevers now are 18 percent of the population, the research firm said. And particularly worrisome are the ages 18-31 "digital cord nevers" -- who have "grown up believing they can have all of the TV they want without paying a traditional TV distributor for it," Forrester said. That group watches nearly eight hours of streaming video a week, particularly on laptops or desktops and smartphones, and often through such services as Netflix or YouTube, the company said. They're far less likely, though, to watch Hulu or Amazon Instant Video, meaning "ample opportunities for over-the-top (OTT) service providers to appeal to them with services that complement Netflix," Forrester said. Such digital cord nevers are "a permanent change that will only accelerate," meaning marketers need to focus more efforts into advertising during marquee events and into mobile video advertising, and take part in linear TV experiments targeting such cord nevers, like Sling TV or CBS All Access. Meanwhile, for programmers such trends indicate content will continue to be the gold standard, Forrester said: "It may not make as much money per viewer as it wants, or as it used to, but it still has the power to control most of the money that it and others make by windowing premium content and reselling rights to some players while denying rights to others." Also, programmer direct relationships to viewers will play a bigger role as some programmers will bypass Amazon or Netflix and start their own OTT services or create apps with the aim of deeper engagement with audiences, Forrester said. Programmers are likely to begin insisting on better data from online distributors beyond just aggregate program viewing numbers, so that by 2020 "no data, no deal" terms will likely be the norm, Forrester said.