A voluntary agreement (VA) by the pay-TV industry, makers of consumer electronics and energy conservation advocates on energy standards for set-top boxes (CD July 24/12 p12) has saved U.S. consumers around $168 million on energy bills and 842,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, said NCTA in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1lyFTXV). The information on energy saved comes from an annual report (http://bit.ly/1tP3svy) on the VA by an independent administrator hired by the VA participants, said a CEA news release on the report. Under the VA, 85 percent of set-tops bought by pay-TV providers in 2013 met the EPA’s Energy Star 3.0 efficiency levels, using 14 percent less energy than previous models, NCTA said. The agreement has also led to software updates being deployed to enable light sleep for set-tops already in homes, an auto power-down feature in 90 percent of direct broadcast satellite boxes and energy efficiency information being posted by pay-TV providers for all new boxes, NCTA said. The more-efficient boxes “save consumers money on their electric bill, reduce pollution, and work even better than the old ones used to,” said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he directed the Department of Public Service (DPS) to investigate Time Warner Cable’s nationwide broadband outage as part of the Public Service Commission’s review of the company’s proposed takeover by Comcast (http://on.ny.gov/1phWobm). The outage, which affected 11.4 million TWC customers nationwide Wednesday, is a “stark reminder that our economy is increasingly dependent on a reliable broadband network,” said Cuomo, a Democrat, in a statement Wednesday. “That is one of the reasons why I pushed for a stronger standard of review for cable company mergers earlier this year.” New York raised its state regulatory review requirements to require cable merger applicants show that a deal would be in the public interest rather than require the state PSC to approve deals unless they could be harmful to the public interest (CD March 21 p15). Observers said subsequent DPS recommendations on the merger review indicate the PSC’s review will be more aggressive than other states’ reviews (CD Aug 14 p5). The DPS investigation will also review whether the outage affected TWC’s phone service in the state, Cuomo said. DPS will also include its analysis of the outage in its ongoing study of the telecom industry in the state, which is exploring changes in the telecom regulatory landscape, Cuomo said. A TWC spokesman said “we apologize for the early morning disruption in service and we intend to discuss any of the Governor’s concerns with him as well as the many consumer merits of our merger.” The FCC is reviewing Comcast/TWC. (See separate report above in this issue.)

Fletcher Heald law firm plans a free webinar on the must-carry and retransmission consent election process Sept. 9, at 2:30 p.m. EDT. Attorneys Paul Feldman and Dan Kirkpatrick will discuss rights of broadcast, cable and satellite TV operators, “including the upsides and the downsides of the available alternatives,” the firm said Tuesday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1ARPzjA). They'll also explain what has changed since the last round of must carry/retransmission consent elections, potential pitfalls and hidden concerns regarding carriage, “and what the future of retrans may involve,” it said.

The Enforcement Bureau and Time Warner Cable entered a consent decree that requires TWC to pay a civil penalty of $1.1 million to resolve the investigation into whether it complied with FCC network outage reporting requirements. TWC admits to failing to timely file the required reports in violation of the rules, the bureau said Monday in an order (http://bit.ly/1pz8LiH). TWC also will implement a three-year plan to ensure future compliance with the FCC’s requirements, the bureau said. The cable company will work with the FCC to ensure that its outage reporting requirements are properly implemented and followed, a TWC spokesman said.

Charter Communications experienced a “widespread” outage of its Internet network Saturday, but service was restored Sunday, said a company spokesman. The cause of the outage is under investigation, he said. Media reports linked the outage to a possible attack on Charter’s Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure. Charter hasn’t confirmed that its DNS infrastructure was compromised, said ICANN in a statement. “We don’t have information that the issue has gone beyond Charter.” Because the DNS has “notoriously had flaws,” it’s an “interesting target for an attacker that wants to attack infrastructure in the U.S.,” said Tyler Shields, senior mobile and application security analyst at market research firm Forrester, in an interview. Shields said it was too early to identify the nature of Charter’s Internet failure.

Comcast launched Xfinity On Campus, a service that lets college students watch live TV and on-demand content on IP-enabled devices while on campus. The service will be available this fall at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia; Drexel University in Philadelphia; Emerson College in Boston; Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts; and the University of Delaware, Comcast said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1AANHeM). The service is included in room and board expenses at on-campus housing, it said. Other schools will test the program this fall, it said. Xfinity On Campus offers about 80 live cable channels, Comcast said. Students also can access the service off campus using a university credential “to authenticate and access online programming that’s part of their subscription via TV Everywhere websites and apps such as WatchESPN and FXNOW,” it said.

Netflix and Time Warner Cable reached a paid interconnection agreement in June. Interconnection between the companies’ networks began this month, both companies said in separate statements (http://nflx.it/1oSdg8t). This follows the announcement that Netflix and AT&T reached a paid interconnection agreement in May (CD Aug 1 p8).

Cox is expanding its Connect2Compete offering through 2016, and investing $15 million in the program that helps bring broadband to low-income families, it said. C2C offers discounted high-speed Internet service to low-income families with children who qualify for the National School Lunch program, it said. C2C, which launched last year, began as a partnership with Cox, FCC, NCTA and others in the cable industry, Cox CEO Patrick Esser said Tuesday at the National Press Club. The program can help close the “homework gap,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Getting homework done at home takes connecting at home, she said. C2C is important and Cox is “making a big difference in the 18 states where they provide broadband service,” she said. Seven out of 10 teachers assign homework that requires some form of Internet access, she said. FCC and industry must close the gap and “make sure that no child in the 21st century is left off line,” she said. With Connect2Compete, many more students can do their homework, and the service “can mean that their families, too, can participate more fully in a digital world and in modern civic and commercial life,” she said. Rosenworcel also highlighted the FCC’s effort to upgrade the E-rate program and action to begin an initiative to make Wi-Fi more widely available in schools and libraries. Cox and its partners have the power and responsibility “to empower learning beyond the walls of the school,” said Esser. Cox also has a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of America, he said: Cox has invested in and built “more than 70 Cox technology centers in clubhouses throughout the country.” The program needs more partners to help step up its offering, said Zach Leverenz, EveryoneOn CEO. He urged other companies to “get behind Cox” and push forward toward an “opportunity-to-access provided for every single student.” Connect2Compete is the flagship program at EveryoneOn for K-12 students, Cox said in a news release.

MTV should publicly promise that its upcoming Sunday Video Music Awards show will be rated appropriately and won’t contain “explicit sexual content,” said the Parents Television Council in a recent letter to the network, in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1uOoA86). Last year’s VMA show was rated TV-14, but included a performance by singers Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke that was “sexually charged,” PTC said. “Such a rating was simply unacceptable to the families who depend on the television ratings system to be applied accurately and to the millions of families whose children are marketed to by MTV,” said the letter. Along with not including sexualized content and being rated correctly, this year’s VMAs should also abide by MTV and parent company Viacom’s own standards and practices, to avoid the “public relations kerfuffle” caused by last year’s show, PTC said. Viacom had no immediate comment.

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers added Cablevision, Charter Communications and Cox Communications to its Corporate Alliance Program (CAP). There are now six operator partners in the program, SCTE said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1paPe7i). CAP enables operators and vendors to address industry issues, develop solutions and prepare for emerging technologies, and expand access to training through SCTE, it said. Comcast, Suddenlink and Time Warner Cable also are CAP members, SCTE said, and Alpha Technologies and Arris have become beta vendor partners and will help the society start a full vendor program in 2015.