Game Show Network and Cablevision reached an agreement for a discovery schedule in their FCC program carriage dispute, the companies said in a status report Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1pe49gE). The schedule calls for the two sides to produce supplemental documents until September, and identify expert and fact witnesses through December. Depositions will be conducted through January, said the filing in docket 12-122. It said the schedule may “enable the parties to benefit” from any commission ruling on Tennis Channel’s petition for the FCC to take up its dispute with Comcast again (CD March 12 p24).
Wow agreed to divest its South Dakota systems to Clarity for about $262 million. Wow systems in Sioux Falls and Rapid City had more than 52,500 customers March 31, and generated annual revenue of about $81.1 million in 2013, Wow said Friday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1pUl9Ih). The sale will enhance Wow’s operating efficiencies and enable it to continue focusing on long-term strategic initiatives, it said. RBC Capital Markets was Wow financial adviser on the transaction, it said.
The FCC should act on Sky Angel’s four-year-old complaint against Discovery Communications and declare Sky Angel a multichannel video programming distributor, Sky Angel said in docket 12-83 (http://bit.ly/1nckD5Q). Sky Angel “suspended” its audio and video distribution services because without the MVPD designation it can’t purchase the rights to valuable content or compete with MVPDs, said Tuesday’s filing. “Sky Angel simply cannot operate until programmers permit it to purchase competitive video products to distribute on its system.” Sky Angel chastised the commission for not acting on its complaint while completing far more complicated projects, such as the incentive auction order. If the commission did act on its complaint and designate it an MVPD, Sky Angel would “work to resume operations,” said the online programmer that wants access to Discovery’s cable channels.
Bright House Networks is carrying Star India Plus in Orlando and Tampa Bay, the operator said Thursday in a news release. The channel airs Hindi language dramas, children’s programming, Bollywood movies and other content, it said.
Regulators should block Comcast buying Time Warner Cable as being bad for consumers, said the American Antitrust Institute in a white paper released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1xJTv56). The deal would let Comcast “exercise buyer market power against content and middle-market service providers and potentially exclude rivals,” said AAI in a news release (http://bit.ly/1uXUT1Y). “The deal doesn’t pass the cost-benefit test,” said AAI President Bert Foer. With the net neutrality debate and AT&T agreeing to buy DirecTV (see separate report above in this issue) and other telecom deals occurring at the same time as Comcast/Time Warner Cable, regulators should adopt a “go-slow policy” in deciding to approve it, AAI said. “We don’t think the merger is fixable, given what would need to be done on the remedies side to ensure that competition and consumers are not harmed,” said Vice President Diana Moss. Comcast had no immediate response.
A status update on the program carriage dispute between Cablevision and Game Show Network was delayed until Friday at both companies’ request, said an order from FCC Chief Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel posted Tuesday in docket 12-222 (http://bit.ly/1l4OSNF). The companies had requested more time to complete discovery (CD June 6 p14).
There will be a significant uptick of IPTV providers’ adoption of 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology in IP set-top boxes in 2015, Infonetics Research said Thursday. The 802.11n dual-mode and 2X2 MIMO technologies are currently the most prevalent Wi-Fi technologies in IP set-top boxes, but 67 percent of providers who participated in the Infonetics survey indicated they would begin using 802.11ac next year. About 6 percent of surveyed providers said they were already using the technology, Infonetics said. Survey respondents rated remote programming via tablet or mobile devices highest among all set-top box applications, with 67 percent of respondents rating it highly, Infonetics said (http://bit.ly/1kEi92T).
Cablevision and Game Show Network asked an FCC administrative law judge to let them continue to proceed with discovery and provide an update on the status of GSN’s program carriage complaint against the operator June 13, said a status report posted Wednesday in docket 12-222 (http://bit.ly/ScaRGT). GSN v. Cablevision has been on hold while the two sides adjust their arguments and evidence based on the Comcast v. FCC decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which, like GSN v. Cablevision, also concerned a dispute between a cable provider and a programmer over which tier that channel should be carried on.
Bright House Networks added EPIX channels to its lineup, and online access is coming soon. Four channels, including EPIX 1 and EPIX Drive-In, are available to subscribers via TV and on demand, Bright House said in a news release Monday. Bright House will give its digital TV customers an introductory offer that includes three months of EPIX and its multiplex services, at no additional charge, it said.
Comcast representatives met with staff from the FCC Media Bureau and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to discuss emergency information and video description for video transmitted over IP, said an ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1nCIDl5). Comcast has invested in infrastructure and collaborated with vendors to offer that information on a secondary audio stream over IP cable services and the company’s Xfinity platform, the ex parte said. Comcast customers can access the second stream through the Xfinity user interface on “a number of third-party devices,” depending on the devices’ “native audio capability,” the filing said.