The FCC should put on hold the issue of whether some online video distributors (OVDs) should be reclassified as multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) until it first handles a variety of other issues, NATOA said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-261. "It is important that the Commission first establish ‘the rules of the game’ before deciding who's eligible to play," it said. Those rules to be set include a review of program access rules, clarifying good-faith negotiation standards in retransmission consent "and a full review of the technical challenges faced by OVDs" that could make compliance with such MVPD regulations as closed captioning and emergency alert difficult, NATOA said. The organization also criticized the argument that OVDs should have the option of whether to be considered MVPDs (see 1508120012). "The goals of increased competition and more consumer choice would be hindered if these new services are not subject to the mandates that apply to established providers," NATOA said. Since competition already is strong among OVDs, there may not be a sound public policy reason for reclassifying them as MVPDs, it said, echoing NCTA (see 1508030057). In a separate filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-261, Oregon's Metropolitan Area Communications Commission also backed the idea that any OVDs reclassified as MVPDs should have the same obligations as other MVPDs, including carrying local public, educational and government community programming. However, the FCC's tentative conclusion that a cable operator's over-the-top video service shouldn't be regulated as a cable service is wrong, MACC said. Taking away cable's public interest obligations when it uses a different technology to deliver its video "would put the Commission in the position of creating incentives to undercut franchise obligations for no public or consumer purpose," MACC said.

Broadcasters' opposition to a petition for new blackout rules "takes real chutzpah" because networks and big station groups are the primary drivers in rising costs of basic tiers and in forcing carriage of unwanted channels, cable company Mediacom said in a filing posted Wednesday in RM-11752. Mediacom said broadcaster opposition focused on "a variety of alleged sins" by cable instead of addressing cable's argument for rules preventing local broadcasters from imposing blackouts unless a station's signal is available for free over the air or via Internet streaming to 90 percent of the homes in the relevant market (see 1507070061): that universal access to free broadcasts "is far from a reality." Since making those signals more accessible would actually encourage cord cutting, Mediacom said its blackout-curbing proposal "is motivated by the desire ... to respond to the unhappiness of our customers subjected to blackouts and ever-rising video costs because of content owners' and broadcast stations' pricing practices." Instead of providing evidence their signals reach most viewers in the designated market areas in which they operate, which would neuter the petition, broadcasters "provide excuses why they do not," such as the digital transition, and the 2013 freeze on license modifications, Mediacom said.

The cable industry's 2.7 million employees receive $116 billion in pay annually, and that employment has grown by 1.25 million since 2002, Bortz Media Group said in a cable industry study released Wednesday by NCTA. The overall economic impact of cable TV is $386 billion, NCTA said. The report includes a litany of what it calls pluses of the industry, including more than $2.4 billion paid to local municipalities last year in franchise fees and $3.4 billion in subscriber taxes and fees paid to state and local governments. Cable network gross advertising revenue topped $30 billion in 2014, up from $27 billion two years earlier, the study said. Of the $40.4 billion spent in 2014 on program network production and acquisition, $33.7 billion went to national and regional networks, with another $3.9 billion to premium networks and $2.7 billion to pay-per-view and VOD services. The number of cable broadband customers in 2014 was 55.8 million, up from 49.6 million in 2012. The industry's phone service customers totaled 28.5 million, up from 26.4 million two years earlier.

Over-the-top companies gathered Tuesday for the latest quarterly meeting of the Streaming Video Alliance, an invitation-only event hosted by Charter Communications at its Charter Technology and Engineering Center in Denver. Formed in 2014, SVA said its aims include definition of a streaming open architecture and establishment of best practices. Beamr, CableLabs, Cedexis, Conviva, Irdeto, NeuLion, Nominum, Sky and Time Warner Cable are all new members to the alliance, SVA said.

The end of being forced to rent a set-top cable or satellite box could be at hand, Comptel said Monday as the FCC Media Bureau said it sought comments on the Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee report submitted that day. "The FCC comment period marks the beginning of an effort to bring creative competition to the video device marketplace," Comptel CEO Chip Pickering said in a statement. "In an age where television consumers are cutting the cord and breaking the bundle, unlocking the box is an important step in the evolution of video and competition. The movement to free customers from the shackles of cable set-top boxes will open the door to consumer freedom and more competition." The deadline for comments in docket 15-64 is Oct. 8, with replies due Nov. 9, the Media Bureau said. The DSTAC report contains a pair of technical proposals on security for content flowing into set-top boxes, and two accompanying proposals on other aspects of the proposed systems such as navigation (see 1508280035). The CableCARD technology that was to be an alternative to renting a set-top box "has been beset by technical and logistical problems" like not being compatible with VOD and a lack of uniformity in CableCARDs, said Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer, a DSTAC member, in a blog post Monday. While DSTAC was too split to make a single recommendation, both of "these approaches are inspired by technologies that have been used elsewhere," Bergmayer said. "The relevant question at this point isn't which of these proposals will work technically, but which of them will achieve the desired outcome: a market for devices that can access pay TV content," he wrote, saying that under the cable industry-backed proposal "third-party devices won’t be able to be significantly better than the cable-provider ones."

Set-top boxes should be an off-the-shelf item available from any manufacturer and compatible with cable lines or satellite dishes "as long as they meet basic technical standards," The New York Times said in an editorial Monday. The editorial referenced the possibility of new set-top box rules following the FCC Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee's submitting its final report Friday (see 1508280035). "The virtual monopoly that cable companies have over set-top boxes is reminiscent of the way AT&T used to require customers to rent phones from the company and prohibited them from using other devices," the Times said. "Consumers might be more inclined to pay for cable if the industry stopped trying to nickel-and-dime them." Pointing to the booming use of mobile apps that reduce reliance on set-top boxes, and such emerging technologies that will further the trend like whole-home connectivity and TVs being manufactured to access pay TV content without set-top boxes, an NCTA spokesman said Monday the cable industry disagrees "that there's a need for new federal regulations of the video device marketplace."

Hulu and Epix signed a multiyear subscriber VOD agreement that will bring new-release motion pictures from Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount to Hulu starting Oct. 1, the over-the-top service said Sunday in a post on a company blog. Epix is a joint venture of Lionsgate, MGM and Viacom and its Paramount Pictures unit. The Hulu deal was a blow to rival Netflix. In a blog post Sunday, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said the company "decided not to renew our agreement in the U.S. with Epix ... which means that some high profile movies including Hunger Games: Catching Fire, World War Z and Transformers: Age of Extinction, will expire at the end of September in the US. If you want to see them on Netflix US, now is the time."

A bandwidth-based standard -- such as a 1 GB outage of 30 minutes or more -- would be well suited for reporting outages of IP-based transmission networks, Comcast officials told FCC Public Safety Bureau representatives, said a filing in docket 04-35 posted Monday. The filing was an elaboration on a July filing by Comcast in which it argued that DS3 isn't the proper metric for determining a major transport facility outage.

The FCC Media Bureau approved allowing Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative to operate an open video system. The Minnesota operation filed an application for certification Aug. 20 and it attracted no comments, the Media Bureau said in an order released Friday.

Cablevision and Verizon agreed to an extension until Oct. 1 of a temporary restraining order in the companies' legal fight over an advertising campaign. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Brown in Central Islip, New York, granted an order requested by Verizon earlier this month, blocking any ads asserting Verizon is telling lies in its ads (see 1508120027). Cablevision sued Verizon in federal court in January over Verizon ads saying it offered "the fastest WiFi available." Both companies are to appear back before Brown Oct. 1 for a hearing, said a notice filed Monday in the case.