RCN launched a free app, RCN2Go, that allows customers to watch on-demand and live video content via their Android devices, it said Thursday. The app follows a similar RCN iOS app for watching on Apple devices, RCN said.

New consumer products like the Apple TV box and Amazon's $50 Fire tablet and its updated Fire TV point to a TV future with tablets rather than DVRs or videogame consoles being the foundation of living room streaming, The Diffusion Group analyst Joel Espelien said in a blog Tuesday. Apple TV and the iPad Air 2 share the same A8 processor, while Fire TV's MediaTek MT8173 processor is similar to the MediaTek 8135 behind the new Fire HD tablets, TDG said. That means Apple and Amazon streaming boxes will be on the same annual upgrade cycle as their tablets -- something "unheard of in living room devices," TDG said. It also creates a challenge for Microsoft as it now needs to consider putting out a $99 Surface-based Windows 10 streaming box "to get away from the long product cycles endemic to video console design," TDG said. The new consumer products also indicate that voice search is increasingly a staple of the mobile phone and tablet space operating systems. "Consumers are steadily evolving toward a new paradigm of video consumption based on app stores, device home screens (that show multiple apps), app home screens (that show featured content) and anchored by robust voice search," TDG said, adding that the traditional electronic program guide "is history." Amazon's plan to support 4K streaming video in Fire TV illustrates the likelihood that streaming, not broadcast, will be the driver of 4K adoption, TDG said. The Apple TV hardware platform almost surely will support 4K by next fall, TDG said.

A total of 14.9 percent of pay-TV subscribers plan to make changes in their plans over the next six months, Digitalsmiths said in its Q2 2015 Video Trends Report issued Tuesday. The most common plan was to change providers (8.1 percent), followed by cut service (4.5 percent) and switch to an online app or rental service (2.3 percent). Another 31.7 percent said they might change providers, Digitalsmiths said. Of those planning a change, 41.1 percent said they would stay if content search functionality improved, according to the survey. While 76.6 percent of pay-TV subscribers are "very satisfied" or "satisfied," the "unsatisfied" category was 23.4 percent -- up more than six percentage points from the Q2 2013 survey, Digitalsmiths said. Increasing fees for cable/satellite service and for Internet service were the two leading reasons for dissatisfaction among those surveyed, with poor customer service close behind, Digitalsmiths said. Among those surveyed, 57.7 percent subscribed to an over-the-top service, up nearly 30 percentage points in two years, according to Digitalsmiths. Named as the biggest draws for OTT are convenience, ability to watch certain TV shows and their whole seasons, and cost, the survey said. The survey was conducted in Q2 by a third-party survey service, Digitalsmiths said.

LTE-U must have a "listen before talk" (LBT) protocol to ensure no interference with Wi-Fi, the cable industry said in the form of a NCTA blog post Wednesday in response to a separate CableLabs blog post Tuesday. The way LTE-U currently is being configured lacks any requirement "to share fairly in time, to avoid interrupting Wi-Fi transmissions mid-stream, or to adapt to different levels of Wi-Fi usage and traffic," CableLabs said. "In the ‘off’ state, LTE-U may still send discovery signals that can also interfere with Wi-Fi. LTE-U 'listens and talks anyway' regardless of whether somebody else is talking or not." Meanwhile, the general consensus in the rest of the world is that LBT "is a fundamental coexistence requirement," CableLabs said, pointing to EU and Japanese regulations and 3GPP rejecting non-LBT approaches to the license assisted access standard. The LTE-U Forum should follow 3GPP, CableLabs said. NCTA echoed CableLabs as it said LTE-U "should follow the lead of international standards" and come up with sharing protocols and other fixes. Such politeness protocols "are not merely clever features -- they’re fundamental to fair coexistence in unlicensed bands," NCTA said. Wireless carriers and Wi-Fi advocates such as the cable industry have been sparring over concerns of LTE-U interference with Wi-Fi, with Qualcomm and Verizon last week demonstrating interoperability testing that showed the throughput of numerous Wi-Fi access points unaffected when an LTE-U access point was turned on (see 1509160039). In an email Wednesday, CTIA Chief Technology Officer Tom Sawanobori said CableLabs "did not actually conduct a test of LTE-U. As extensive testing has shown, LTE in the unlicensed band makes consumers’ wireless experience better. Given that 57 percent of current mobile traffic is offloaded on Wi-Fi networks today, wireless companies are invested in making LTE in the unlicensed band work for all users. We are confident policymakers will overlook the attempts by the cable companies to try to limit what they always supported, which is ‘permission-less innovation.'"

Bright House Networks, Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable have an Oct. 13 deadline for turning over substantial amounts of data about their businesses to the FCC as part of the review of Charter's proposed $89.1 billion takeovers of BHN and TWC. The data requests posted Monday run 44 pages long to BHN, 50 pages to TWC and 58 pages to Charter, and online video distribution (OVD) issues come up repeatedly in them. Among the information sought is how the three have responded to such online video distributors as Amazon Instant Video, CBS All Access, HBO Now, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV and Vue; and information about any company decisions to block, hinder or prioritize any OVD service or content. Open Internet issues also play heavily in the data requests, with the FCC seeking Charter documents related to its rationale for not imposing usage-based caps on residential Internet service, as well as seeking copies of written communications with Akamai, Cogent, Google, Level 3, Limelight and Netflix regarding interconnection agreements. The FCC also asks for past, current and future deployment plans for IP set-top boxes, any OVD service, and time-shifted and place-shifted video programming. And the three also must identify each instance in which they looked into or considered introducing or acquiring an OVD service. The FCC also is demanding documentation that will describe the "specific precautions" to be in place to ensure Liberty Broadband -- which has a stake in Charter -- and Bright House parent Advance/Newhouse will not have undue influence on post-merger Charter and that those two -- as well as Liberty Broadband Chairman John Malone -- will not withhold programming from multichannel video programming distributors or OVDs to the benefit of post-merger Charter.

Groups like the National Cable Television Cooperative qualify as buying groups without any change in the rules governing what buying groups are, and any clarifications or amendments to that language "must preserve the bedrock principle" that even if multiple members of the group default, the programming provider's payments for programming so far delivered is guaranteed, NBCUniversal said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 12-68. NBCUniversal said that any curtailing of the requirement that a buying group keep cash or liquid reserves sufficient to cover a one-month cost of programming purchases could add to the risk that the buying group wouldn't be able to ensure full payment. The American Cable Association has been pushing for a redefinition to cover NCTC (see 1507020018), though NBCUniversal said there "is less reason than ever" to expand program access rules. The reasons, NBCUniversal said, include a steep decline in vertically integrated programming, most ACA members aren't affected by any theoretical incentive by cable-affiliated programmers to impede access to programming, there is no evidence small multichannel video programming distributors have more difficulty getting cable-affiliated programming than nonaffiliated programming, and the prices paid for programming by large and small MVPDs are narrowing. The filing encapsulated a meeting between Margaret Tobey, NBCUniversal vice president-regulatory affairs, and Media Bureau staff.

Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable shareholders approved Charter's $89.1 billion takeover of TWC and privately held Bright House Networks. Charter and TWC held shareholder votes Monday on the set of deals. Charter said that more than 98 percent of votes cast, excluding votes associated with Charter Class A common stock beneficially owned by Liberty Broadband and its affiliates and associates, were for the two acquisitions. The FCC officially began its review of the transaction earlier this month (see 1509110055) in docket 15-149. TWC said at its special shareholder meeting Monday that voters also approved the deal.

Local franchising authorities (LFAs) have until Dec. 8 to apply to keep their certification that the local cable operator isn't subject to effective competition, the FCC said in a public notice Thursday and released in the next day's Daily Digest. Not filing a Form 328, including a rebuttal of the presumption of effective competition, will mean LFAs' existing certification expires, the FCC said. The agency in June ruled that cable effective competition was a rebuttable presumption nationwide, stopping franchising authorities from regulating basic cable rates (see 1506020060).

A class-action lawsuit alleging Cox Communications violated antitrust laws when it forced customers to rent a Cox set-top box with their premium-tier cable packages is scheduled to start Oct. 13 before U.S. District Court Judge Robin Cauthron in Oklahoma City. The suit involves more than 20 different lawsuits filed since 2009 and combined into one and transferred to the Oklahoma court. According to court documents, a plaintiff's expert estimated classwide damages at more than $49 million. Cox responded that Premium Cable customers could buy all those same premium-tier services from a variety of other providers, such as AT&T, Dish Network and DirecTV (which now is part of AT&T), and customers can use off-the-shelf set-top boxes like Moxi or TiVo for some Cox services such as premium channels. While set-tops that could provide VOD or pay per view were generally not available in the Oklahoma market, that wasn't Cox’s fault, the cable company said. The trial is expected to last roughly four weeks, according to court documents.

Cox Communications sued Tempe, Arizona, and Mayor Mark Mitchell over its new video regulations that Cox says unfairly skew in favor of Google Fiber. The lawsuit, filed Sept. 14 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, seeks a declaration that the city's ordinance and licensing of Google Fiber as a video services provider rather than a cable provider is illegal, and an injunction stopping the city from giving Google Fiber a license for a video services system and right-of-way use agreement. Cox said Google Fiber's proposed video service to the city "is indistinguishable" from Cox's cable service there, but video service providers are exempt from the "substantial statutory and regulatory obligations" put on cable operators. The city altered its codes in December to create a license category for video service providers, and gave such a license in July to Google Fiber, waiving such standard requirements as underground construction. Rules on service standards, consumer information protection and billing requirements also don't apply to Google Fiber, though they apply to cable operators, and Google Fiber won't have to comply with federal emergency alert system regulations under its license, Cox said. The city declined to comment Friday.