Comcast and the Vermont Access Network asked to dismiss a case on the legality of the Public Utility Commission's requirement that Comcast in a cable franchise agreement build 550 miles of new cable and enhance support for public, educational and governmental channels (see 1909170027). The PUC agrees with the dismissal request, Comcast and VAN motioned Wednesday (in Pacer) at U.S. District Court in Rutland. The commission approved changes Sept. 27 to a certificate of public good that was needed to effectuate a July 11 settlement among the parties.

Forty-six percent of U.S. homes have multiple over-the-top video subscriptions vs. 33 percent in early 2017, reported Parks Associates Wednesday. Most OTT households have Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video, but a single service doesn't meet their interests, said analyst Steve Nason. Small and medium-sized services are building their brand and subscriber bases by filling in gaps in content, he said. Overall adoption and awareness of OTT is high, but awareness of individual services is low, making it difficult for smaller services to compete against the scale and resources of larger players, he said. Smaller OTT players have to team with content or marketing partners to boost awareness, he said. Other findings: 53 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to at least one OTT service and a pay TV service; nearly three-quarters have an OTT subscription.

Nov. 18 is the deadline for MVPDs that received 2019 equal employment opportunity audit letters from the FCC Enforcement Bureau, said a public notice Wednesday. EB selected more than 30 MVPD systems randomly.

TiVo announced a new video network and two DVRs to find content via live TV, DVR and online streaming services. The company said Tuesday it partnered with publishers on channels such as TMZ; others will follow from Gannett, Newsy, Tastemade and others.

Maine's a la carte cable TV programming law likely won't survive the legal challenge by Comcast and programmers (see 1909100041), but if it does, expect it to be replicated in other states, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Tuesday. He said programmers likely would pull content from any cable distributor that tried to implement a la carte offerings because that would surely violate contracts: And no one has developed the software to allow custom blocking down to the individual channel level. Others expect an uphill legal battle (see 1909170064).

Comcast's read of the Federal Arbitration Act saving clause violates Supreme Court and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals precedent, plaintiff-appellees Charles Tillage and Joseph Loomis of California said Monday in opposition (in Pacer, docket 18-15288) to Comcast's petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc (see 1908120009). The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected the idea arbitration agreements are immune to most general defenses available for other contracts, but it's that narrow interpretation Comcast wants to argue yet again, they said. Comcast asked the 9th Circuit to revisit its rejection of the cable company's appeal of a lower court decision denying Comcast's motion to compel arbitration in a complaint by the Comcast customers alleging false advertising of cable TV pricing. It didn't comment Tuesday.

Cable operators have made it increasingly difficult for subscribers to find and watch public, educational and government channels, and the Cable Act allows Maine to require cable operators to return PEG stations to their original channel numbers and include the channel information in programming guides. So said state Attorney General Aaron Frey in opposition Monday to NCTA's motion for preliminary injunction of a PEG law (see 1909160027). Maine filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-00420) that Congress gave local governments broad authority over PEG service provision and that the cable industry's unlikely to succeed on the merits so the preliminary injunction should be denied. NCTA didn't comment.

BitTorrent traffic is rising, with the fragmented streaming video market seemingly a major cause, BroadbandGenie blogged Friday. It said increased streaming services with exclusive content are driving some to "cheaper and easier" piracy rather than paying multiple subscriptions. It said rather than being spurred by price, some are prompted by the need to use multiple interfaces and difficulty of finding particular content: Streaming services could retain some subscribers who might otherwise turn to piracy through use of a unified interface.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court's dismissal of a Charter Communications customer's lawsuit against the MVPD over a rate hike. In a docket 19-1460 opinion Thursday, Judges James Wynn, Pamela Harris and William Traxler said U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel of Beaufort, South Carolina, didn't make a reversible error in dismissing the case after the plaintiff never responded to a Charter motion to dismiss. Plaintiff Heather Hoffman of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, sued in 2018 alleging a cable and broadband rate hike was done without the required 30-day advance written notice.

The numerous MarkMonitor notices sent Cox Communications on alleged copyright infringement by its internet subscribers were "slipshod, incomplete, inaccurate and massively unreliable," but Cox "responded aggressively" to them, meaning secondary liability against the cable ISP can't be established. That according to Cox in an opposition (docket 18-cv-00950, in Pacer) filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, to music label plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment in their copyright infringement suit against it (see 1808020009). But in their opposition to a Cox motion for summary judgment, the music labels said Tuesday (in Pacer) Cox's contention there's no proof of direct infringement relies on believing that the tens of thousands of Cox subscribers identified in MarkMonitor infringement notices were all falsely accused. The plaintiffs in their summary judgment motion (in Pacer) said Cox's infringement enforcement is a "sham" and between Feb. 1, 2013, and Nov. 26, 2014, it received 163,148 notices about infringement on its network involving 57,679 subscribers, with some subscribers being the subject of 14 or more notices. The labels said only a fraction of those subscribers were cut off from internet service. Cox in its summary judgment motion (in Pacer) said there's no evidence any of the files being offered for sharing by Cox subscribers were actually copied by anyone and labels are seeking damages for works they can't prove were infringed while lacking evidence Cox had the practical ability to stop such infringement.