With Jaguar Communications and KSMQ Public Service Media resolving a carriage dispute for Jaguar's cable system, the FCC Media Bureau said Tuesday it approved KSMQ withdrawing July's must-carry complaint. It terminated the docket 18-215 proceeding. KSMQ-TV is licensed to Austin, Minnesota.

Perhaps the biggest debate on cable among investors is how much 5G could threaten the industry's broadband market share, a longtime analyst said in a video released Tuesday by Citigroup. It's “a more uncertain environment than it's been” for the industry, said Jason Bazinet. Part of that is how far 5G from small cells will propagate through structures, he told an audience: 1,500 feet as some including in cable think or 3,000 feet as 5G "bulls" expect. The answer "makes a world of difference in terms of whether or not this is real," Bazinet said, because the shorter distance means about 20 percent of Americans can get in-home 5G over wireless networks v. 60 over the longer distance. "It may in fact be a wireless technology that dismantles the cable industry." Adding to uncertainty is whether T-Mobile and Sprint succeed in combining (see 1810310051) and building such a product, since Verizon is the only other major U.S. carrier that says it will do in-home fixed 5G. In a 5G-bullish outcome, "essentially, every single broadband net add is going to go to these networks, and cable stocks are done," the analyst said. "This big tent that the cable industry built because of that big, fat coaxial wire is now really vulnerable," he said earlier: "Because if something goes wrong with the internet" product financial stability, "the whole house of cards comes crashing down." CTIA didn't reply to queries Wednesday and NCTA declined to comment.

Harmonic saw Q3 Ultra HD sales increase 138 percent sequentially, said CEO Patrick Harshman on a Monday-evening earnings call. It was “particularly impressive” because such Q2 sales were up 200 percent year-over-year, he said: “We’re well positioned to take advantage of growing worldwide interest in deploying and monetizing high-quality ultra high-definition programming.”

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' February decision on TVEyes (see 1802270025) is a simple application of copyright law and doesn't implicate any Circuit Court split or involve unsettled questions of federal law, Fox News Network said Wednesday in a Supreme Court docket 18-321 brief opposing TVEyes' petition for writ of certiorari (see 1809120044). It said TVEyes' disagreement with part of the court's finding "does not begin to warrant this Court's attention."

Massachusetts is resisting a Charter Communications effort to get 32 Massachusetts franchise areas and Kauai, Hawaii, to be declared effectively competitive due to the existence of DirecTV Now (see 1809170020). The LEC effective competition test requires a direct physical connection between a company providing local exchange service and the household, and DirecTV Now fails that test, the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable said in a docket 18-283 posting Thursday. It said DirecTV Now doesn't provide service comparable to Charter's and doing so would reclassify online video distributors as MVPDs, subject to cable franchising and other regulatory requirements. It said DirecTV-parent AT&T doesn't provide video programming services in the franchise areas since FCC rules require the LEC have and provide a physical connection -- something AT&T doesn't. And it said finding effective competition by a non-facilities-based over-the-top service would undermine FCC policy goals of limiting internet regulation and encouraging facilities-based investment. The Massachusetts attorney general said in a separate filing DirecTV Now availability depends on Charter's fixed broadband internet services and that "raises serious legal questions" about whether DirecTV Now can be the basis for determining effective competition. It said the FCC should require from Charter information about how common it is for it to be the only fixed broadband internet provider in a franchise area, download speed packages available to customers in those franchise areas, and whether Charter throttles those speeds for customers who don't take its cable TV services. It also requested the FCC consider holding an evidentiary hearing or refer the petition to an administrate law judge. Charter and Kauai County didn't comment Friday.

Direct broadcast satellite's ongoing subscriber losses, as well as virtual MVPDs having to raise their rates after apparently selling below cost, bode well for Charter Communications' video subscriber trends, CEO Tom Rutledge said on an earnings call Friday. AT&T reported a Q3 loss of 346,000 DirecTV subscribers (see 1810240049) while Dish Network hasn't yet reported results. Rutledge said many content companies are going direct to consumer, but their lack of experience in being video distributors means they're often not effectively securing their content, the result being widespread password sharing. Rutledge said Charter's Spectrum Mobile service, launched after Labor Day, ended the quarter with about 21,000 subscriber lines, and that in coming months the company will introduce allowing subscribers to transfer their existing handsets and means for making it easier to switch an entire household's mobile service. For the quarter, Charter said it had revenue of $10.9 billion, up 4.2 percent year over year; 23.3 million residential internet subscribers, up 4.9 percent; 16.1 million residential video subscribers, down 1.6 percent; and 10.2 million residential voice subscribers, down 1.8 percent. Charter shares closed Friday down 6.29 percent to $295.01.

Perception of poor value is consumers' top trigger for changing, downgrading or canceling pay TV, Parks Associates blogged Thursday. Among households that made pay-TV changes in past 12 months, a third were cord cutters, and 10 percent of switchers or cord shavers said they plan to use paid OTT services as a substitute or alternative. “The primary driver for pay-TV cancellation and downgrades continues to revolve around pricing and perceived value,” said analyst Brett Sappington. “When video services with good quality are available for under $15, it forces operators to justify an $80 [per month] pay-TV bill.”

The FCC replaced paper filing requirements for open video system applications and notices with electronic filing procedures, under a commissioner-approved order released Thursday. OVS paper filing rules "have outlived their usefulness," the agency said, saying the OVS application process requires immediate receipt by some staff, and that can be better assured if done electronically.

The Cable Act lets Charter Communications' Insight cable company use the perpetual easement across Indiana resident Stephen West's property to install and maintain a fiber line because a cable operator's use of the easement is inherently compatible with utility purposes, Charter said in a docket 18-1906 appellee brief (in Pacer) filed Tuesday with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That easement "is the very kind of public utility easement that Congress had in mind" when enacting Section 621 to help deployment of cable services, Charter said. It said West is being used by plaintiff's counsel from different law firms as a test case "for sweeping class action litigation" on behalf of property owners seeking damages from communications providers for making cable networks that use easements. West's counsel didn't comment Wednesday. West originally sued Louisville Gas & Electric in 2016, claiming the utility's easement didn't authorize a fiber wire on the electric transmission tower straddling the easement, and later amended the complaint to add Charter. He's appealing Distinct Court dismissal of those Charter claims, while litigation against LG&E is ongoing.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals extended to Nov. 13 the deadline for Charter Communications to respond to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s petition for en banc rehearing of a court panel's ruling that the company's interconnected VoIP is an information service not subject to state regulation (see 1810170010), said a Wednesday order (in Pacer) on Charter's Tuesday unopposed motion (in Pacer). Responding requires much internal coordination and Charter attorneys have other cases, the company said.