Comments now are due Feb. 21, replies March 6, on a Pluto TV ask for a one-year waiver of rules requiring closed captioning of IPTV content, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice In Thursday's Daily Digest. The bureau OK was for a second deadline extension, this sought by Pluto and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing as they said they're collaborating on technical issues. Pluto also received an extension in July.

FCC denial of a motion by the National League of Cities and other local interests for a stay of its cable TV local franchise authority order pending judicial review (see 1911050014) is a disappointment, NLC emailed. The order "is already causing real harm to communities undergoing franchise negotiations or renegotiations with providers," and communities making up the franchise fee difference in their budgets "is not as easy as the Commission suggests ... particularly with little notice," it said Wednesday. "We intend to continue pursuing relief in our appeal."

Civil rights law is meant to ax racial discrimination in contracts, "not as a litigation tool that unhappy plaintiffs can use to browbeat others into making unwanted deals," like the Supreme Court taking up Comcast's appeal in litigation alleging the operator engaged in with racial animus in a programming decision (see 1906100024), Washington Legal Foundation Chief Counsel Richard Samp blogged Thursday. Rather than trying to make it more difficult for minorities to redress discrimination, the cabler is arguing only that proving racial discrimination in contracting means having to prove an injury was suffered, he said. Respondent Entertain Studios Networks, which is suing Comcast, emailed that Samp "is completely incorrect -- it was COMCAST who brought this case to the U.S. Supreme Court, not our company. Mr. Samp also fails to realize that the goal of Congress in passing Section 1981 after the racist Civil War was NOT to make dismissal of race discrimination claims easy, but rather to stamp out racism in contracting. Unfortunately, in partnership with Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, Comcast made a conscious choice to petition the U.S. Supreme Court in their attempt to eviscerate this original civil rights statute (Section 1981), which was put on the books 153 years ago, and currently protects over 100 million Americans.” Oral argument is Wednesday.

Forty-seven percent of TVs in use connect to a pay-TV providers’ set-top box, the first year since 2010 that set-top boxes have been connected to less than half of all TVs, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. Three-quarters of U.S. TV households subscribe to a live pay-TV service, down from 84 percent in 2014 and 87 percent in 2009, but average monthly spending on pay TV, $109.60, is up 6 percent since 2016. Average spending on pay TV across all households, including nonsubscribers, is about $80 per month, slightly lower than in 2015, said LRG. Some 83 percent of adults 45 and over have a pay-TV service vs. 64 percent ages 18-44, it said; 27 percent of TV households have an over-the-air TV antenna, 53 percent for pay-TV nonsubscribers. Among all TV households, 54 percent have both pay-TV and a subscription video-on-demand service, 21 percent have only pay TV, 20 percent have SVOD only and 5 percent have neither, LRG said. “With more options for watching live and on-demand video, consumers are increasingly choosing to cobble together the services that meet the viewing and economic needs of their household,” said principal Bruce Leichtman. Survey results were based on a September-October poll of 1,115 adults ages 18 and older in the continental U.S.

ISPs are committed to providing managed Wi-Fi, but few have a clear strategy for providing cybersecurity and connected home services, reported an industry researcher. Wi-Fi quality of experience is a priority for most ISPs, including lower latency for 4K and 8K gaming and virtual reality, Maravedis said. Few ISPs are attempting to monetize managed Wi-Fi, it said Monday. A top priority for 51 percent of operators is to protect the network from new threats, abuse and unnecessary traffic, ahead of protecting customers from new threats and privacy breaches. Slow Wi-Fi triggers 49 percent of service calls followed by unstable Wi-Fi at 23 percent. Half of service providers plan to deploy Wi-Fi 6 after 2020. NCTA declined to comment Tuesday.

Baltimore, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Oklahoma City and other localities challenged the FCC August cable TV local franchise authority order. Their 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals petition for review Thursday (in Pacer, docket 19-72760) echoed plaintiffs including Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon (see 1909190058), Eugene, Oregon (see 1909120028) and Hawaii (see here, in Pacer, docket 19-72699) in saying the order was arbitrary, capricious and violated the Constitution and the Communications Act. Pittsburgh filed a similar petition last week with the 3rd Circuit (in Pacer, docket 19-3478), and the court said it might be required to transfer the petition to the 9th Circuit, where other such appeals are consolidated (see 1910150015). The D.C. Circuit Thursday ordered (in Pacer) a similar petition by Chicago, Denver, Seattle and others consolidated with the 9th Circuit. The agency didn't comment Friday.

The “highly competitive” pay-TV industry, with its "expensive content and network deals,” will prompt Sony Interactive Entertainment to shut down the PlayStation Vue streaming service in January, blogged Deputy President John Kodera Tuesday. “We have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business,” said Kodera. “PlayStation fans can continue to access movie and TV content through the PlayStation Store on PS4 and via our partnerships with top entertainment apps.”

The FCC should revisit the “arbitrary” five-year sunset of the requirement ATSC 3.0 broadcasts and 1.0 simulcasts be “substantially similar,” said NCTA in a meeting Wednesday with Media Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff, per a filing posted in docket 16-142 Monday. The substantially similar requirement and the use of the A/322 standard should be maintained “until the ATSC 3.0 marketplace is sufficiently developed,” NCTA said. The FCC should also monitor the effects of the transition on cable operators, the group said. “Allowing temporary vacant channel use instead of sharing currently used broadcast channels could impose new and unreimbursed costs on cable operators, such as costs for acquiring new receiving equipment.”

To give the court enough time to consider issues raised in NCTA's motion to enjoin the Maine attorney general from enforcing the state's new public, educational and governmental channel law (see 1909300068), Maine won't start enforcing the law during the pendency of the motion or for 60 days afterward, it said in a letter Friday (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-00420) to U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen of Portland. It said NCTA withdrew a request for a ruling by Nov. 18, the date when one provision of the law was to go into effect.

Hawaii joined the cities and local interests challenging the FCC’s cable TV local franchise authority order. The docket 19-72699 petition for review (in Pacer) Thursday came atop a similar petition the pre- vious day by the Alliance for Communications Democracy (ACD); Alliance for Community Media; U.S. Conference of Mayors; San Antonio; Portland, Maine; Palo Alto, California; Bowie, Maryland; San Fran- cisco; and Marin County, California. The Hawaii and ACD complaints, like those previously filed by other appellants (see 1909190058), said the order violates the Constitution, Communications Act and FCC prec- edent. The agency didn’t comment Friday. In a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit motion Thursday (in Pacer, docket 19-1221), the commission moved to consolidate ACD complaint with other appeals with the 9th Circuit (see 1910150015). The agency also is trying to get the appeals transferred to the 6th Circuit (see 1909170067).