With Comcast planning to drop Starz channels from its lineup effective Dec. 10, the programmer on Wednesday urged subscribers to put pressure on the MVPD. In a news release, it said subscribers should demand it be kept part of the channel lineup rather than be treated as a premium channel, "or demand a refund."

Quality of user interface plays a major role in whether U.S. video subscribers recommend their over-the-top service, Parks Associates said. Seventy percent of U.S. broadband households with a major video service consider the interface good, with nearly half rating it “very good,” Parks said in a blast emailed Wednesday and dated Monday, with quality of UI and ease of finding content the most relevant factors driving willingness to recommend a service. A fifth of households that canceled an OTT subscription cited inability to find something to watch. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon “have largely set the standard for content navigation and ease of use,” said analyst Kristen Hanich. "As new OTT services launch with greater and greater expectations, innovations in UIs could be an even greater differentiator." When searching for something to watch, 12 percent of OTT users consider recommendations from the service as their first step, said Parks. Apple TV owners give high marks to that UI.

Comcast and an array of programmers are at odds with Maine over a requested preliminary injunction to block the state's a la carte cable TV law. In a docket 19-cv-00410 filing Tuesday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Bangor in support of the injunction ask, plaintiffs Comcast and the others said LD-832 "plainly violates" both the First Amendment and Communications Act, going to the heart of cable operators' and programmers' editorial discretion. State opposition to the injunction request (in Pacer) said federal law doesn't pre-empt here since it doesn't regulate content but instead says content a cable distributor selects must be made available individually. It said cable distributors have no First Amendment right to force bundling. Defendant towns said (in Pacer) Comcast and the others haven't alleged the municipalities tried to enforce the state law. Town managers submitted declarations the communities don't intend to enforce LD-832 for now.

The FCC local franchising order clearly follows the Cable Act, with reasonable interpretations where the statute is ambiguous, NCTA said, opposing a motion by the National League of Cities and others (see 1910080041) seeking a stay of the LFA order pending outcome of legal challenges. In a docket 05-311 posting Wednesday, NCTA said the National League of Cities and others didn't show they need a stay to prevent irreparable harm, especially since they waited more than two months from the order's adoption to seek the stay. The cable association said having to reallocate resources based on a decline in franchise fees isn't irreparable harm but "a core function of state and local government." And it said the ask for a stay doesn't acknowledge the irreparable harm it would cause the cable industry and customers.

The free Apple TV app is available on the Roku platform, and Roku users will be able to subscribe to the premium Apple Plus service through the platform when it launches Nov. 1, said Roku Tuesday. Roku shares closed up 12 percent at $132.82. Last month, the streaming service provider's shares plummeted 19 percent after an analyst (see 1909200064) predicted increasing competition would drive prices for over-the-top video devices such as Roku’s streaming stick “to zero,” while squeezing ad revenue. Pivotal Research Group's Jeffrey Wlodarczak says Comcast's providing its Xfinity Flex OTT device to customers for free is likely to be followed by other MVPDs.

Twin legal challenges to the FCC cable TV local franchise authority order were consolidated, in a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order Friday (in Pacer, docket 19-72219). The order, sought by petitioner cities Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles; and others to consolidate with a similar petition filed by Eugene, Oregon, (see 1909190058) was unopposed, said the clerk's order. The briefing schedule in the consolidated petitions is stayed until an FCC motion to transfer to the 6th Circuit (see 1909170067) is resolved.

Interest in advanced TV solutions is growing among local and regional advertising buyers, said a Thursday FreeWheel report. It found 79 percent of ad buyers are “extremely or very interested” in using advanced technologies including video on demand, over-the-top video, addressable TV, advanced linear TV and streaming full-episode players. More than three-quarters of buyers surveyed expect their spending on advanced TV to increase over the next 12 months as they look to data-driven, audience-based TV advertising to deliver hard-to-reach audiences, reduce wasted impressions and improve cost efficiencies. Fifty-three percent found it easy to measure attribution on advanced TV, 10 percentage points higher than for network TV and cable (43 percent) but behind digital media channels, FreeWheel said. The shift toward data-driven and audience-based buying generally requires more automation to transact efficiently, and 29 percent of agencies said their process for buying local is completely or mostly automated. The online survey of 430 Strata platform users was fielded June 13-July 1.

Download speeds for Connect2Compete, a low-cost internet service from Cox Communications for families with school-age children enrolled in low-income assistance programs, increased to 25 Mbps, the company said Wednesday.

The FCC should stay its local franchising authority (LFA) order pending the outcome of legal challenges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, said organizations representing localities in a motion for stay posted Tuesday (see 1908010011). The groups, which include the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, are also petitioners in the court case, say they’re likely to succeed on the merits, and allowing the order to proceed in the meantime would cause them “irreparable harm.” The order “assumes that tens of thousands of franchise agreements in effect today can be summarily changed -- regardless of the existing modification process set forth under the Cable Act -- in 120 days,” the motion said. Local governments will be unable to replace their institutional networks (I-Nets) in the FCC’s time frame because of budgetary and procurement rules, the motion said. Cable operators wouldn’t be hurt by a stay because they, LFAs and the FCC “have all been operating under the status quo for 35 years, the motion said. “The public interest supports a stay to avoid impacting public safety and blocking public benefits while the legality of the Order is ascertained.”

Accounting for time-shifted TV content is important to weighing viewing habits, blogged Nielsen Monday. In Q1, a quarter of U.S. adults spent nearly four hours weekly watching such content, it said, influencing them to be “more patient” viewers. In Q4 last year, traditional viewing beyond live or same day out to 35 days provided a 10 percent viewing lift, Nielsen said, translating that to 2.7 million more viewers. That quarter, delayed viewing beyond live-plus-same day -- up to 35 days -- helped drive ratings 40 percent higher for primetime dramas among all people and 65 percent higher among consumers 18-49.