Shipping of self-installation equipment to cable customers was up 200% in 2021 over 2020, WideOpenWest said Monday in its inaugural annual sustainability report. It said it expects self-installation trends to grow. It said it decreased its real estate footprint by 59% in 2021, in part due to its move to a hybrid work environment. It said 98% of customers have access to 1 Gbps data service.

Agriculture, healthcare, education and entertainment will all get major changes in a 10G future, NCTA blogged Tuesday. Citing an analysis by Future Today Institute in partnership with the cable industry group, NCTA said cable's high-speed and high-capacity data networks, when delivering 10G, will enable smart farming using sensors and nanotechnology for real-time monitoring and autonomous harvesting of produce, plus widespread use of wearables and smart-home sensors to capture health data, along with many medical appointments happening virtually. It said 10G will also allow immersive, remote educational and entertainment experiences and artificial intelligence-driven lessons.

Comcast will start offering multi-gigabit symmetrical broadband speeds to subscribers before the end of 2023, following successful testing of technical components, it announced Tuesday. Comcast said it will start live trials of the service later this year. It said the testing demonstrated delivery of Full Duplex DOCSIS 4.0 service over specially designed amplifiers. Teleste said Tuesday it successfully tested a 1.8 GHz end-to-end network using its and other cable equipment vendors' equipment.

Disney stands by its decision to raise pricing 38% to $10.99 monthly on the ad-free Disney+ offering, effective when it debuts the ad-supported Disney+ Basic tier in December (see 2208110015), CEO Bob Chapek told a Goldman Sachs investment conference Wednesday. “I think it’s what the market will bear, which is a direct reflection of price value, and I think we are way underpriced relative to the value that we provide,” said Chapek. “We owe it to our shareholders to try to get that recognized.” Disney has “lots of data” in terms of “what consumers’ intentions are,” he said. “Suffice it to say that we think we made the right move and we are still in some cases significantly under where our competitors are, which again speaks to that introductory price that we came out at.” Disney’s “whole approach” in evolving ESPN as an a la carte streaming service available outside the traditional pay-TV bundle is to “proactively prepare for that moment” without “prematurely” or “unnecessarily” disrupting the business "that it is today,” said Chapek. “Everybody knows” that the traditional cable bundle “is deteriorating over time, and we’re preparing for the moment when the consumer tells us that they are ready for such a step,” he said. “We’ve got tremendous abilities to read the marketplace and understand when it might be time to do that.” There are “significant benefits” to Disney maintaining its cable business, “but at some point, we see the writing on the wall where this is going, and we’re preparing for that,” he said. “But we’re not going to do anything rash or harsh, and we’re going to follow the consumer.”

Yuma, Arizona, suffered no actual harm or damages and it didn't mitigate any purported damages it claims it might have or will suffer, Charter Communications told the U.S. District Court in Phoenix in a response Tuesday to Yuma's amended counterclaim (docket 2:20-cv-01204). Charter is seeking declaratory relief from a set of 2015 right-of-use and maintenance agreements with the city on the cabler's fiber network (see 2208100002). In its amended counterclaim, Yuma said Charter failed to act in good faith under the 2015 agreements and filed suit without any notice or discussions and is acting in bad faith.

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver in Phoenix rejected Charter Communications' motion for judgment on the pleadings in its suit seeking declaratory relief for a set of agreements signed in 2015 with the city of Yuma. In a docket cv-20-01204 order Tuesday, Silver rejected Charter's arguments that the 2015 agreements were interrelated, so when the franchise agreement was terminated in 2020, the other agreements were terminated, and that state law adopted in 2018 bars Yuma from enforcing its indefeasible right of use and maintenance agreements. Silver also granted in part and denied in part Charter's motion to dismiss Yuma counterclaims and said Charter will answer the counterclaim for breach of contract. "While Spectrum may, eventually, be entitled to judgment as a matter of law, it has not established its entitlement to such relief at this point," Silver said.

Altice is having discussions about selling some or all its Suddenlink assets, CEO Dexter Goei told analysts Wednesday during a call as the company announced its Q2 results. He said due to the major Suddenlink upgrade planned for over the next year, it's "a good time" to look at a transaction before embarking on that spending. He said Altice's Optimum assets will be largely fiberized by 2024's end and it's not discussing any sale of those. He said Suddenlink's rebranding as Optimum announced this week (see 2208010002) had been in the works for close to nine months, always planned for early August.

Charter Communications settled two copyright suits, per notices Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Denver (dockets 1:19-cv-00874 and 1:21-cv-02020). They follow its Bright House Communications settling a lawsuit brought by music labels alleging contributory copyright infringement via inadequate policing of broadband subscribers' music piracy (see 2208020034). Neither of the new notices supplied any terms of the settlements. Charter didn't comment Wednesday.

A U.S. District Court decision enforcing the mixed-use rule reinforces the point that the FCC doesn't need to reopen the order on that rule and shouldn't do so, NCTA told Office of General Counsel and Media Bureau staff, in a docket 05-311 posting Tuesday. The district court confirmed in June in a partial summary judgment order the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the FCC's mixed-use rule valid, NCTA said. It repeated its argument (see 2205100051) that to implement the 6th Circuit decision, the FCC just needs to tweak wording on in-kind contributions, and can use a ministerial order that doesn't require notice and comment. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon granted plaintiff/counterclaim-defendant Comcast partial summary judgment on one of its claims against Beaverton, Oregon, which it was suing over the rights-of-way fees the city was charging for Comcast's broadband service provision.

Bright House Networks and record labels suing it have settled, the sides said Monday in a joint notice of resolution (docket 8:19-cv-710) Monday in U.S. District Court in Tampa. A jury trial on the labels' suit charging the Charter Communications subsidiary with not adequately policing music piracy by its broadband subscribers was to start Monday (see 2207140026).