Viacom continues to focus on helping distributors implement TV Everywhere functionality, CEO Philippe Dauman told the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference webcast from Palm Beach, Fla., Monday. Distributors’ rollout of such functionality has been slow in coming, he said. But it’s “going to be really important both in retention and expansion” of the number of viewers, he said. If distributors don’t make the content available where viewers want to view it, other companies will come in “to do it,” he said. Viacom’s content must be distributed in a “measured way because that’s how we can get the advertising revenue direct from it,” he said. Viacom content viewers are heavy consumers of the content on multiple platforms, he said. “If we can” get Viacom content “out there more effectively, if we can get it measured,” which is starting to happen, and if Viacom can create content for those new platforms, “particularly small mobile devices, as opposed to the tablets,” it represents a “very significant opportunity” for the company due to the demographics of its viewers, he said without elaborating, although many of its properties skew young. Viacom is “working very hard” with its distributors to achieve all that, he said. The on-demand content offering from traditional distributors, meanwhile, “has not been all that robust,” but the amount of content being offered by at least some of them has been improving, allowing users to “look back” to see older programming, he said. “A lot of it’s been a capacity issue,” Dauman said. “As there’s been more capital spending on the infrastructure, that problem has been alleviated,” he said. Viacom is focused on rolling out and building its apps, as well as increasing mobile distribution and creating content for mobile devices, he also said. Viacom’s Paramount division recently restarted TV production and the company will be announcing a number of greenlit series “over the next several months,” he said. It is doing that with “low overhead” and in an “opportunistic way,” he said. Viacom is, meanwhile, “seeing clear signs of recovery” in Europe and it’s “feeling” that in its ad business and on the “distribution front,” he said. The company sees a “big, big opportunity” in growing its “footprint internationally,” he said. Its MTV brand is distributed globally in many markets and it’s been rolling out its Nickelodeon and Comedy Central brands in more markets also, Dauman said. The latter is now available in 60 territories and Viacom is “continuing to grow it,” he said. As Viacom rolls out its Paramount channel globally, it will roll out another brand globally “behind” it, he said. Viacom will probably expand its Spike brand to more global markets, he said. The company has been creating a lot of original programming on Spike in the U.S. and believes that a lot of it will travel well to other markets, he said.

Cablevision will ask FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel to dismiss Game Show Network’s carriage complaint, Cablevision said in a status update filed Thursday (http://bit.ly/O2Ibyc). The motion for summary judgment would be based on the majority opinions in two recent program carriage decisions, Comcast v. FCC and Time Warner Cable, NCTA v. FCC, both of which were decided in favor of cable companies. GSN v. Cablevision had been on hold while awaiting the resolution of those prior cases, but after the Supreme Court’s recent rejection of a cert petition from Tennis Channel asking for Comcast to be overturned, Sippel said the GSN case should start up again. Cablevision said the motion will be filed in 30 days. GSN is “evaluating the meaning and reach of the Comcast Cable action and whether the material already submitted in this proceeding or gathered through discovery will be sufficient or whether further discovery is appropriate,” the channel said in the status update. Cablevision said it reserved the right to “object to any new discovery as unjustified at this stage.” Both parties asked Sippel to set an April 7 deadline for a further status report “describing the discovery needs of the parties and proposed dates for deposing witnesses, exchanging evidence, and commencing trial."

Cable One launched a Wi-Fi service that will allow small-business owners to streamline communications and operate more efficiently. It also will allow small businesses “to reduce mobile phone data charges by switching from cellular wireless data plans to unlimited on-site Wi-Fi,” Cable One said in a news release. “With the addition of Wi-Fi service, small businesses will be able to increase productivity by mobilizing their workforce with a seamless and secure on-site connection."

Mediacom urged FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to take a fresh look at its filings in the retransmission consent proceeding. Mediacom has “demonstrated persuasively that the commission not only has the authority to update its retransmission consent rules, but the obligation to do so,” it said in an ex parte filing in several dockets including 10-71 and 07-18 (http://bit.ly/1l1ZScp). Net neutrality regulation proponents seek to prevent Mediacom from asking edge providers “to share a fair portion of Mediacom’s burden in operating and upgrading its facilities to handle the volume of traffic created by those edge providers,” it said. The filing pertains to a meeting with Clyburn and Adonis Hoffman, Clyburn’s chief of staff.

The FCC should grant Buckeye Cable a waiver of the integration ban to allow it to deploy its new set-top “Hybrid Box,” Buckeye said in a request filed Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1ndQNyP). “The Hybrid Box represents an innovative development in set-top technology, combining in one device a unidirectional QAM digital terminal adaptor ('DTA') and an Internet Protocol ('IP') video interface,” Buckeye said in the filing. Buckeye needs the waiver so it can gradually transition to an all-IP network, the filing said. “The Hybrid Box will enable customers to continue to receive QAM digital video as currently delivered. Then, as video services are transitioned to IP, customers will have immediate access to those services, without the inconvenience, delay, and cost of obtaining and setting up a new set-top.” The IP portion of the new box “utilizes an industry standard, downloadable security solution supporting third party retail devices” that will “help achieve the Commission’s goal of common reliance on an industry standard conditional access technology,” Buckeye said. The cable provider said it would commit to making at least 85 percent of its video services available in IP within 36 months of receiving the waiver.

All commenters on TiVo’s request for an extension of the June deadline for HD boxes to have IP outputs support the idea, and the FCC should extend the deadline, TiVo said in reply comments Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1dnp2Rg). Though NCTA, Verizon and others were in conflict with TiVo about whether the EchoStar decision stripped away the rules underlying the requirement, TiVo said the commission should clarify its position on the matter. “NCTA and Verizon’s arguments illustrate the need for the Commission to act on TiVo’s outstanding Petitions seeking clarification that the Commission’s CableCARD support rules continue to apply and reinstatement of the technical rules adopted in the Second Report and Order,” TiVo said. CEA and the AllVid Technical Alliance also filed reply comments asking the commission to clarify its rules, and all three entities went further, asking the commission to reinstate the CableCARD rules that were vacated by EchoStar, as TiVo requested. TiVo “stands ready and willing to work with the industry on a successor to CableCARD that achieves these objectives, but urges the Commission to act to reinstate the CableCARD technical standard until such a successor solution is in place,” TiVo said. If it extends the deadline, the commission should give small cable operators an extra three months to comply, the American Cable Association said.

An initiative to reduce the power used by set-top boxes expanded to include another STB maker. Pace PLC joined the voluntary agreement between makers of consumer electronics and multichannel video programming distributors that itself expanded in December to also include advocates for reducing the devices’ energy consumption, said NCTA on its blog Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1n7GVGK). It said a request for proposal for field verification of STB energy use was finalized Feb. 25, when the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and Natural Resources Defense Council first met with the steering committee of CE and MVPD interests that ACEEE and NRDC joined. The RFP will be issued next week, and those interested in being a contractor to confirm that the amount of energy the set-top boxes promise to use isn’t exceeded can contact cable lawyer Paul Glist of Davis Wright at paulglist@dwt.com for a copy, said NCTA. It said CableLabs has now put on its website (http://bit.ly/1czw5mv) information on STB power use of the six largest cable operators, which also are participating in the initiative. CableLabs helped assess the devices (CD March 3 p4).

Comcast NBCUniversal has fulfilled the merger conditions imposed by the FCC as a condition of approving it’s merger deal, the company said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1dgzJF3) on its third annual report on the conditions to the FCC Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1dTHJJc). Comcast said it exceeded conditions requiring preservation of local news by airing more than a thousand hours of local news programming than required on NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations, and surpassed conditions requiring expanded broadband deployment by 6,289 miles, 141 percent of the requirement, said the report. Comcast “extended its broadband plant to 718,511 additional homes, or 180% of the year-three milestone of 400,000 homes-passed,” said the report. Comcast exceeded requirements for the number of VOD offerings it provided, and the number of PSAs it aired. “Total children’s VOD programming choices during 2013 averaged 6,871 per month. This represents 4,093 more children’s VOD choices than the 2,778 average monthly choices available before the deal,” Comcast said. Comcast has also “repositioned Bloomberg Television in all relevant markets” into news neighborhoods as ordered by the commission in September, though its appeal of the matter is still pending. Comcast fulfilled conditions on online video deals by entering into “a variety of contract arrangements” with online video distributors without entering into arbitration, though an application for review remains pending filed by several content companies of a merger condition that would give Comcast access to third-party contract information, the report said. Comcast has not received any program carriage complaints from multichannel video programming distributors, the report said. “It is simply indisputable that we have honored -- in fact, over-delivered -- on our commitments,” said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen in the release. “And we'll continue to do so."

CableLabs plays “a significant role in advancing key strategic cable industry initiatives,” said NCTA CEO Michael Powell about the industry’s research and development organization’s work under its CEO Phil McKinney. CableLabs has been increasingly working on technical issues with stakeholders who disagree with its members on policy (CD March 3 p4). “CableLabs’ expertise was critical in assessing the technical capabilities and power consumption of set-top boxes that led to the historic energy agreement” in December between pay-TV companies and power-use efficiency advocates, said Powell in a written statement Friday. CableLabs has “also led the effort to provide a thorough technical analysis demonstrating Wi-Fi’s ability to successfully share spectrum” in the 5 GHz band “without causing harmful interference,” he added.

After the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Tennis Channel’s cert petition (CD Feb 25 p15), it’s now “appropriate” for the parties in the program carriage case between Cablevision and Game Show Network to consider “scheduling preparation needs for trial,” said Chief Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel in an order issued Friday. The case had been on hold pending resolution of the Tennis Channel matter, which involved a similar dispute over whether program carriage rules require a provider to carry a channel on a specific tier. GSN and Cablevision must submit a joint status report by March 6, “describing discovery needs and proposed dates for deposing witnesses, exchanging evidence, and commencing trial,” the order said.