Charter received waiver removing 2,127 census blocks from the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction eligibility list. "Charter has deployed or will soon deploy service to these blocks under a settlement agreement with the State of New York" related to the cable operator's past takeover of Time Warner Cable, said a staff order in Monday's Daily Digest.
Children worldwide are increasingly growing up viewing TV programming online and on-demand, said S&P Global Friday. In about half of homes with children that were surveyed, parents let their kids choose what they watch, and 66% of parents report using some form of parental controls. Most parents canvassed impose rules to limit their children’s daily TV viewing. In the U.S., U.K. and Sweden, the portion of households with children viewing subscription VOD content is about equal to that of live TV, it said.
Cox launched the Elite Gamer service, it announced Thursday. It lowers latency by routing PC game traffic, after it leaves Cox’s network, via the most efficient internet path to gaming services, cutting lag up to 32%. Panoramic Wifi customers get one active game connection free and up to three more at $4.99 each, it said. Other customers can get an active Elite Gamer connection for $6.99 monthly and up to three more at $4.99 each.
Regulation of cable TV's rate structure is the same as rate regulation, and Maine's argument that its prorating law isn't rate regulation because it requires rebates after service is canceled is "wordplay," Charter said Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor. The cable operator's opposition (in Pacer, docket 20-cv-00168) to the state's motion to dismiss Charter's legal challenge to the prorating law (see 2006030036) said a requirement a particular rate structure be offered as a customer service requirement makes Congress' ban of state rate regulation "largely toothless." Maine didn't comment.
Maine's a la carte law, by applying solely to cable operators, doesn't trigger First Amendment scrutiny, Gov. Janet Mills (D) and Attorney General Aaron Frey said Thursday in a reply brief with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (in Pacer, docket 20-1104). There's no precedent for the argument editorial discretion includes bundling decisions, they said. Cablers can still package channels as long as they also unbundle the channels on request, they said. Maine is appealing a lower court's preliminary injunction of the state law on First Amendment grounds (see 2004300011). Outside counsel for appellees Comcast, A&E, C-SPAN, ViacomCBS, Discovery, Disney, Fox Cable Network Services and New England Sports Network didn't comment Friday.
FCC OK of Charter Communications buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks has a five-year sunset of data caps and interconnection conditions (see 1605100050), so the commission should terminate them next year, the acquirer said in a docket 16-197 petition Thursday. It said such MVPD competitors as AT&T, Comcast, Cox and Altice have data caps that haven't hurt the online video distribution market: That "flourishing OVD marketplace" also justifies ending the interconnection condition since other broadband providers not under such a condition voluntarily signed interconnection agreements with OVDs. Charter asked that the conditions end May 18, the five-year anniversary of the deal's close. The FCC didn't comment. Other ISPs may impose stricter monthly broadband usage caps after June 30, when a voluntary FCC pledge ends (see 2006180002).
July 20 will be the effective date for revamped FCC retransmission consent rules for talks between MVPD buying groups and large broadcast station groups, says Thursday's Federal Register. The buying group order -- stemming from the TV Viewer Protection Act -- was approved in May (see 2005130021).
The FCC's look at its cable leased access rate formulas needn't delve into constitutional issues, said broadcast interests in docket 17-105 Friday. The FCC should make clear any decision that gets into underlying constitutional issues applies only to commercial leased access rules at hand, not MVPD carriage of noncommercial stations, America's Public TV Stations and PBS said, taking no position on rate formulas. They said the FCC should recognize a changing market doesn't alter underlying governmental interests in ensuring access to noncommercial educational public TV stations. Also saying they have no position on rate formulas, Ion and Trinity Broadcasting Network said courts have been clear leased access doesn't violate the First Amendment.
Connected TV (CTV) is maturing, with similar usage to linear TV, a Comcast unit reported Thursday. And eMarketer says more consumers are watching on connected sets. "No longer an emerging technology," CTV "is a destination for premium video viewing," said FreeWheel. "CTV is now a mature platform,” said David Dworin, vice president-advisory services. “The viewing patterns we’re seeing on CTV are mirroring what we’ve historically seen in linear TV." EMarketer says over 60% of the U.S. population is expected to view video content on connected TV in 2020, FreeWheel reported: Digital video viewers surpassed 235 million last year, or more than 70% of the population. As CTV demand continues to grow, “the potential for fraudulent activity increases,” said the study: Companies are developing ways to certify and authenticate viewership to ensure viewers are human audiences.
Cable TV leased access rules should make clear average implicit fee calculations are done only on request and no more than once every 12 months, ACA Connects representatives told FCC Media Bureau staff, according to a docket 20-35 posting Thursday. The FCC is considering simplifying the formula, but a limit of doing that calculation every 12 months still seems appropriate, ACA said.