The FCC and U.S. would be better served by net neutrality rules based on Communications Act Section 706 rather than Title II, said NCTA in a blog post Friday (http://bit.ly/1ujKL2b). Title II doesn’t provide a “bright line” standard for what would be reasonable under open Internet rules, said NCTA. Such decisions are “rarely simple or straightforward and they are never quick,” the association said. NCTA also disputed the idea that Title II regulation would cost less. Imposing new Title II regulations on the Internet “will involve significant legal, regulatory, and administrative work” even under the mildest form of Title II regulation, NCTA said. Forbearance provisions won’t make being regulated under Title II any easier, NCTA said. “The idea that it will be easy for the Commission to decide whether to forbear with respect to dozens of Title II provisions for hundreds of companies defies all logic and experience.” The American “light touch regulatory regime” is more successful at attracting broadband investment than European models, said the association, which has been sparring with groups that want Title II in comments on the net neutrality NPRM. “Imposing Title II regulation on broadband providers and services introduces a risk of stagnation that should be of significant concern to the Commission."

Comcast’s buying Time Warner Cable would have a “direct and harmful effect” on the spot cable advertising market, said spot ad company Viamedia in an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-57 Thursday (http://bit.ly/1DlYITB): “Eliminating TWC and facilitating Comcast’s ability to achieve significant growth and even greater scale will have a direct and harmful effect on competition within the $5.4 billion spot cable advertising market.” Comcast/TWC would have a 71 percent share of the spot cable ad market, and already owns 80 percent of cable ad company National Cable Communications (NCC) and controls 54 percent of the interconnects used for spot cable commercials, Viamedia said: “Holding the dominant share of cable homes, owning NCC, and controlling the Interconnects are the three bottlenecks that would allow Comcast absolute control of the distinct cable spot cable advertising market.” The FCC should address this through deal conditions, said Viamedia. “Comcast’s increased dominance means that any technological development in next-generation advertising technologies would be on Comcast’s terms."

Ericsson agreed to pay $95 million for Fabrix Systems, a provider of video cloud storage, computing and network delivery that includes cable and telecom cloud DVRs. The deal lets video providers more quickly move customer services and applications to the cloud and ensure high-quality video delivery to TV Anywhere devices, the companies said in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/WTf4Sa). It said the deal is expected to be completed next quarter. IDT said separately that it agreed to sell its approximately 78 percent stake in Fabrix to Ericsson (http://bit.ly/YDuv2R).

Comcast deployed CSG Content Direct’s content monetization and management platform to launch its Xfinity On Campus service. Comcast debuted the service last month (CD Aug 22 p13). CSG facilitates the sale of premium services through the Xfinity On Campus service “by using a student’s university ID to provide a seamless user experience,” Comcast said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1qNnghI). A commerce management engine also facilitates recurring payments for the premium subscription services that students select “by storing preferred payment methods in a fully integrated eWallet function to provide convenient and flexible purchase options,” it said.

Comcast and Univision Communications reached a long-term agreement for the operator to distribute Univision Deportes Network, Comcast said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1p84kWV). It said UDN will go to XFINITY TV customers who receive Comcast’s Digital Preferred or XFINITY Latino service. UDN is a 24-hour all-sports Spanish language network showing professional and international soccer, Formula 1 races, boxing, NFL, NBA, MLB and other sports leagues, said Comcast. “This partnership speaks to the growing influence of Hispanics,” said Univision President-Sports Juan Carlos Rodriguez.

NCTA again said if the FCC opens a proceeding to consider requiring that cable operators post public inspection files online, it should examine how to tailor requirements to cable operators’ obligations. Seeking to minimize undue burdens on cable operators is important “in light of comments that describe problems television stations have experienced with the existing online database,” it said in reply comments in docket 14-127 (http://bit.ly/1qedwza). “Real world experience with the impact of the increased volume of television station activity on the commission’s database during the fall 2014 political advertising season” before considering expanding the rules, it said. The Campaign Legal Center continued to urge the FCC to propose and adopt a rule expanding the online public file regime to cable and satellite TV operators, and to radio stations (http://bit.ly/1pMx8Ey). Small commercial radio stations shouldn’t be exempt, it said. CLC supports allowing waivers in certain, narrow circumstances where a station can show that it isn’t physically capable of uploading the documents to the system, “or the station’s situation is such that online filing truly imposes a heavy burden,” it said.

Time Warner Cable representatives spoke with staff from the FCC Media Bureau and Comcast/TWC deal task force Friday about TWC’s responses to the agency’s information requests related to the deal (CD Aug 26 p1), said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-57 (http://bit.ly/1rV1wnW). It said TWC explained “areas for which we believe a modification would either reduce the burden of responding, deliver the Commission a more fulsome response, or both."

The public interest harms if Comcast buys Time Warner Cable “far outweigh” the benefits, said representatives from several public interest groups in meetings with FCC commissioners and their staffs last week, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1BpTF2D) in docket 14-57. Representatives from Consumers Union, Free Press, The Open Technology Institute at New America Foundation and Public Knowledge held a series of meetings with Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, along with their staff and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s Chief of Staff Adonis Hoffman, the filing said. A Comcast/TWC would be in “a prime position to extract tolls before allowing content providers to reach its massive subscriber base,” said the public interest groups. Comcast “greatly overstates” the amount of broadband competition it faces “by defining the product market improperly,” they said. “DSL and wireless broadband offerings do not serve as substitutes for advanced broadband services such as cable and fiber-based broadband.” Comcast’s claim that it will control 35.5 percent of the broadband market post-deal “is sorely misplaced,” because it counts broadband subscribers at speeds as low as 3 Mbps, the groups said. “That number fails to meet the Commission’s current definition of broadband; and the Commission itself in multiple proceedings has suggested that such speeds are woefully outdated and insufficient to meet consumers’ current and future broadband needs."

The current system for resolving customer complaints on closed captioning is “unfair, inefficient, and ineffective” because it requires video programming distributors to get contractual commitments from programmers to comply with FCC rules, said the American Cable Association in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 05-231 (http://bit.ly/1ufHnYo). Programmers “have little incentive to comply with their obligations with respect to smaller [multichannel video programming distributors] as these smaller providers are less likely to seek legal recourse in the event of a closed captioning problem due to the costs involved in doing so,” said ACA. Instead, the FCC should hold programmers liable for closed captioning errors when the programmer is the source of the problem, ACA said. The FCC reached a similar conclusion in the IP closed captioning order, ACA said. There, the commission recognized that “video programmers and owners should bear responsibility and liability for compliance with the quality standards while video programming distributors would continue to be responsible for passing through the captioning intact,” ACA said.

The FCC should rely on Telecom Act Section 706 authority in creating rules governing net neutrality, said Comcast officials in a meeting Thursday with staff from commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O'Rielly’s offices, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-57 (http://bit.ly/1nGEYQG). “Comcast agrees with the Commission’s tentative conclusion to limit its rules to the provision of broadband internet access services to end users.” Comcast also lauded the benefits of a “light touch regulatory approach” and pointed out that its plan to buy Time Warner Cable would extend its “open Internet commitment” to “millions of additional broadband customers."