Time Warner Cable complied fully with a 2011 state court order it provide documents to San Antonio for the city to complete its franchise fee audit of the cable company, and now the city's 2017 federal lawsuit seeking back fees from the period in question plus from an additional period should be barred for its lack of timeliness, said TWC in a motion to dismiss Friday in U.S. District Court in San Antonio (in Pacer, docket 17-cv-01232). Even if timely, the claims also are outside of general accounting principles, it said. City outside counsel didn't comment Monday. San Antonio filed an opposed motion (in Pacer) for leave to file a second amended complaint, citing ongoing discovery turning up clarifying information.

The roughly 7% decline in cable subscribers top companies had in 2019 was "a free fall of traditional cable TV," and 2020 losses will likely eclipse them, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Friday: Uncertainty of household incomes will likely drive even more to move to cheaper entertainment.

Charter Communications might not be able to identify and terminate all users who pirate copyright materials, but the cable ISP hasn't argued it can't terminate some, U.S. District Judge Brooke Jackson of Denver said in an order Wednesday (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-00874) denying Charter's motion to dismiss a copyright suit brought by numerous record labels (see 1903250004). The order adopted Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty's recommendation on the dismissal motion. Charter didn't comment Thursday.

Much as auto insurers are refunding customers some money due to less driving during the pandemic, cable TV subscribers should get back some of what they pay for sports channels no longer carrying live games, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Wednesday. Cable companies also shouldn't have to pay sports networks, he said.

Cable operators have been adding residential broadband share for a decade, and the pace picked up during the pandemic, when people are highly reliant on the service, New Street Research's Jonathan Chaplin wrote investors Tuesday. He said that trend isn't expected to reverse. Residential trends will face some headwinds from the recession, as household formations slow, pay TV declines, business failures accelerate and advertising drops, the analyst said. Residential broadband should grow through the recession, and cable is well positioned to take advantage of that, he said. Charter Communications reported it added 119,000 internet subscribers in March due to its 60-day free offer for new customers with students or educators in the household. The cabler said residential internet connects, excluding the free offer, also were up this March over March 2019.

Roku pulled back its 2020 forecast, citing economic uncertainties due to COVID-19. It expects Q1 revenue to be slightly higher than projected due to effects of sheltering at home, with other metrics generally in line with the prior outlook. “While we believe that our offerings to consumers, content providers and advertisers will enable our Company to deliver value in these uncertain times," there are "wider business and consumer impacts, as well as the duration of the pandemic,” said Chief Financial Officer Steve Louden Monday. Roku expects Q1 revenue of $307 million-$317 million vs. a midpoint outlook of $305 million in February's shareholder letter. The streaming media provider estimated it had 39.8 million active accounts March 31, a net increase of nearly 3 million since Dec. 31. Streaming hours will be 13.2 billion, a 49% year-to-year bump, it said. In early Q1, Roku completed the rollout of its “Are you still watching” feature, which exits video playback after long periods of user inactivity, a feature that will moderate streaming hour growth, the company noted. CEO Anthony Wood said Roku has been working with advertisers to help update their plans to reflect new viewing patterns and adjust their overall marketing mix, “which has been affected by social distancing.” Wood expects some marketers to pause or reduce ad spending near term. Tuesday, Pivotal Research raised its 2020 net new active accounts forecast to 11.5 million from 10 million and sliced platform monthly revenue per average active accounts from 21% growth to a 2% decline “to attempt to account for what appears to [be] 40-50% declines in on-line video CPMs,” analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote investors. The combination drove a reduction in Pivotal's 2020 revenue growth forecast from 40% to 23%. The company's path to profitability is "unclear," as it looks to navigate "a likely recession while expanding its workforce to support its next leg of growth," Wedbush's Michael Pachter wrote investors. It will take time to achieve profitability in international markets, said the analyst, "while declining advertising demand puts the current year at risk." Roku's Q1 report is May 7. The stock closed 10.3% higher Tuesday at $106.53.

The FCC circulated a draft order clarifying aspects of the TV Viewer Protection Act based on the NPRM released in January on retransmission consent talks between MVPD buying groups and large station groups (see 2001310047), the agency told us. It went on circulation last week (see here).

EPB of Chattanooga, with 108,000 broadband customers, had demand increase sharply during the workday after the COVID-19 crisis started, below early evening average peak hours, said Ryan Keel, vice president-technical operations. Primetime peak demand is up as more people stay home, he told a Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday (see 2004080054). EPB hasn’t had “very many issues in total” and addressed some downstream electronics problems, he said.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Comcast's request for a rehearing or rehearing en banc of the court's reversal of a lower court's dismissal of antitrust claims brought by Viamedia (see 2003250002), said an order Tuesday (docket 18-2852, in Pacer). Comcast outside counsel didn't comment Wednesday.

Overall national consumer downstream peak usage is up 19% since March 1, but a drop of 1% last week could point to consumer usage and demand leveling off, NCTA blogged Tuesday. Others that day and in recent days reported similar (see report, this issue, or 2004060038). NCTA said overall upstream peak growth is still growing -- at potentially a slower level. It said since March 1, national upstream peak growth rose 33%. It will take more than one week of data before reaching conclusions, it said.