Disney is perhaps the only cable network that wouldn't suffer hugely as purely an over-the-top business, Citi said in a report Thursday. "In a pure OTT world, most firms would see their equity value fall." The rates of decline vary widely in Citi's analysis, from a 58 percent decline in Viacom's equity; to a 10-25 percent drop for Comcast, Fox, Scripps and Time Warner; to a less-than-10 percent drop for CBS. "Virtually every media firm will have difficulty generating as much revenue as they do today by shifting to a la carte," Citi said. However, Disney would see its equity up about 10 percent "even with $1.5 billion in incremental OTT costs," Citi said. The Citi analysis used a model plotting demand curves for various channels, with ESPN topping the list for Disney. Under that same model, Citi said, NBC, USA and SyFy are Comcast's most popular channels, while HBO and TNT have the highest modeled demand at Time Warner, Fox News is tops at 21st Century Fox, Nick and TV Land win out at Viacom, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet at Discovery, and HGTV and Food at Scripps. The Citi model then focused on finding the profit-maximizing retail price for each of those channels. And then with those estimates, Citi was able to compare current revenue with theoretical a la carte revenue; operating as online video distributors Disney would generate the most revenue at $12.2 billion, and do better than it does today, while most other content companies would be worse off financially -- though Discovery would be near parity, Citi said. "We expect most media companies to preserve the status quo and [perhaps] limit the content they sell" to subscription VOD providers, Citi said. Disney hasn't made that switch, likely because it would be then competing against a number of companies that also distribute ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC; it would not be able to raise affiliate fees at the same rate; and costs of selling direct to consumers would go up, such as marketing and billing expenses, Citi said. "But if Disney ever faced an existential crisis, investors can be fairly certain ... that each of these potential hurdles could be overcome."

The James M. Cox Foundation is giving a $288,500 grant to EveryoneOn, said a news release from Cox Enterprises. The grant will fund a pilot program providing 1,500 tablet computers, preloaded with educational content, to families in Georgia who are enrolling in Cox Communications' Connect2Compete discounted Internet service program, it said Wednesday. Connect2Compete is EveryoneOn's program offered in partnership with ISPs and available to K-12 students and families who qualify for the National School Lunch Program, it said.

Roku nicked $10 off the price of a Roku 3 streaming media player in a sports promotion that runs through Saturday. The promo page spotlights new premium sports channels available through Roku, including the Yaveo by DirecTV Spanish language channel, the FuboTV soccer video channel, BTN Big Ten football, College Sports Live and a Rugby World Cup 2015 channel.

Comcast Business is starting an Enterprise Services unit targeting Fortune 1,000 companies and other large businesses with multiple locations nationwide, the company said in a Wednesday news release. Enterprise Services will have a variety of enterprise offerings, including broadband, business continuity, ethernet, security, voice and Wi-Fi. Comcast has signed network agreements with other cable operators to support national accounts, and in August bought Contingent Network Services, a technology deployment and managed services firm, it said. Glenn Katz, ex-CEO of SpaceNet, is general manager of the Comcast Business group, it said.

Seven Steptoe and Johnson employees are the first to submit acknowledgements of confidentiality under the FCC's new protective order on access to confidential documents made public Friday (see 1509110055). The firm is representing Dish Network in Charter Communications' buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, and their acknowledgements were posted Wednesday. In an FCC blog last week, General Counsel John Sallet said the new confidentiality rules fulfill the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's insistence on clarification of procedures for the handling of confidential information in transaction reviews. So far, only the unredacted version of the application is subject to the protective order, he said. "The Commission has yet to ask the Applicants or others to produce any kind of video programming information at issue [in the court decision] thus there has not yet been any decision whether the Commission will collect such information," Sallet said. "In the future, if the Commission staff seeks such information, then the protective order procedures ensure that any objecting programmers have ample opportunities to protect their interests before any information is made available under the protective order."

Comcast will add Chamberlain’s MyQ control software and Netgear’s Arlo camera to its Xfinity Home smart home offerings, it said Tuesday. Comcast customers will be able to monitor and control their garage doors from “virtually anywhere” with their Xfinity Home app later this month, Comcast said. App control for Arlo will be available early next year, it said. “While there are more connected devices available than ever, consumers continue to struggle with the best way to make them work together,” Dan Herscovici, Xfinity Home general manager, said. The addition of MyQ and Arlo is part of a strategy to “aggregate the best home automation and security features” and bring them into a “common, easy-to-use and seamless experience,” he said.

Government involvement in the set-top box market "is backward looking and puts undue faith in industrial planning over naturally occurring innovation," NCTA CEO Michael Powell said in a counterpoint editorial Monday in USA Today. Powell's piece was in response to an editorial in USA Today backing FCC intervention in the set-top box market. "Nothing prevents any company from making and selling a cable box," Powell wrote. "Buying a cable box is just not that compelling for most consumers." Meanwhile, Powell said, the set-top is becoming somewhat superfluous as pay-TV companies make services available through apps. "Just last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared, 'The future of TV is apps.' And several cable providers offer Netflix on the same box with cable content," Powell said.

Low-income citizens' access to broadband is becoming an issue in the FC's review of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. In a filing posted Monday in docket 15-149, Charter said Alex Hoehn-Saric, senior vice president-government affairs, met with one of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's staffers to talk about ways post-merger Charter "could fulfill its commitment to provide affordable, fast broadband through its proposed low-income program." Various operational and technical issues -- such as eligibility, enrollment and speed offerings -- also were discussed, Charter said.

Arris' TG1682 residential voice gateway is now part of Comcast's XB3 home Wi-Fi service, Arris said Monday. The companies began jointly working on new broadband modems last year, it said. XB3's aim includes gigabit wireless speeds, IP video technology and integration of home automation and security, Arris said. Its TG1682 combines 24DS channel bonding, two analog voice lines, a 4-port gigabit router and a dual band 802.11ac wireless access point into the device, said the vendor.

The comments period on their merger having closed a month ago, Altice and Suddenlink asked the FCC Wireline Bureau where their $9.1 billion deal stands. According to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-135, Cequel General Counsel Craig Rosenthal and Altice Head of Business Development and M&A Burkhard Koep were among company officials who met with Wireline Bureau top staff to talk about "the status and timing of the regulatory approval process" and the review standards applicable to Altice's takeover of Cequel -- Cequel doing business as Suddenlink. The public comment period ended July 24, with replies on comments due Aug. 10. The docket saw sparse opposition to the proposed deal (see 1507240027). The FCC declined to comment Monday.