Cable-TV rule revisions mandating cable operators no longer need maintain a current channel lineup listing at their local office or as part of their online public inspection files are in effect, says Wednesday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved the changes at their April meeting (see 1904120058).

The “pay video service arena is turbulent to say the least,” said Harmonic CEO Patrick Harshman on a Q1 call Monday evening. “We have several large customers who are in the midst of a variety of M&A activities, all fighting ferociously with each other as well as a whole host of new players.” A “dimension” of that competition involves “quality of service,” he said. “Incumbents” and “new players” are making “significant investments in new streaming capabilities,” he said. Quality is “a big deal,” he said. “Consumers more than ever are expecting high-quality services.” Streaming is an “opportunity-rich area,” he said. “You see some of our customers on the defense and some of them are on the offense.” They have “more flexibility than they've ever had to go to market with in this really rapidly changing environment,” he said.

Slipping DirecTV Now subscriber numbers mean it has a penetration level well below the 15 percent needed to constitute effective competition, Hawaii said in an FCC docket 18-283 posting Monday. Online video distributors, regardless of whether affiliated with LECs, don't have the inherent market power telcos do in communities served by that facilities-based infrastructure, it said, so the FCC should make clear Congress intends for its statutory LEC test to apply just to facilities-based video programming offerings of LECs and deny Charter Communications' petition for determination of effective competition. The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable, filing in the docket, recapped meetings with aides to all five commissioners at which it said it's not arguing that streaming services can't provide competition to cable, but that DirecTV Now doesn't pass the LEC test for effective competition. It said granting Charter's petition would "provide the elemental framework necessary" to claim all streaming video providers are MVPDs, and broadcasters could put retransmission consent obligations on streaming services and let streamers put nondiscriminatory program access requirements on cable operators. Massachusetts also said the FCC should focus more on the basic cable rates regulation Further NPRM proceeding as a route for easing cable regulatory burdens but without all the regulatory uncertainty. The states have argued against Charter's petition (see 1810260026).

Cable operators won't easily get out of the bundle business, and it won't be until they drop the penalty for canceling video service -- where the price for remaining services in subscribers' bundles go up -- that it's clear they're serious about it, CCG President Doug Dawson blogged Friday. He said the service bundle is likely eventually doomed because profit margins for video are nothing or even negative, due to both programming costs and operational expenses such as service calls to deal with customer complaints about such issues as picture quality.

If Verizon markets YouTube TV at a “meaningful bundled discount,” it could “accelerate subscriber growth” for the streaming video service, which ended 2018 with about 1 million subscribers and raised monthly fees from $35 to $45 to $50 within the past 12 months, BTIG's Richard Greenfield wrote investors Friday. Verizon said Tuesday it's bringing YouTube TV to customers across platforms this year. Greenfield cited Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg saying the provider wants to focus on the network, platform and integration but not invest in a TV platform or content. He touted Verizon’s distribution, network and brand for being able to attract partnerships like Google’s with YouTube TV. “Time will tell how serious Verizon is about marketing YouTube TV,” said Greenfield, but if it does push hard, pay attention, because its marketing muscle could “make a huge dent” in a 5 million subscriber threshold required for Google to impact the overall broadcast-cable ecosystem. He imagined YouTube TV having enough future clout to win rights to something as high-profile as NFL Sunday Ticket, which AT&T/DirecTV owns through 2022. YouTube TV’s recent price hike “gave us pause,” said the analyst, who believes there’s more to Google’s strategy than being “just another distributor of the bloated legacy bundle.” He believes Google finds a way to scale the service to where it can have leverage. YouTube TV provides “one area of consumer data Google is missing today,” said Greenfield. It also gives Google a route to the access TV ad spending, which Greenfield pegged at $70 billion in the U.S.; the ability to mingle YouTube content with linear TV content; and an opportunity to "replace Nielsen’s antiquated measurement standard.”

The FCC needs to make clear states and localities can't charge duplicative fees and taxes beyond the franchise fees for use of public rights-of-way, because they jack up the cost of broadband internet access, various civil rights and minority interest groups said in a docket 05-311 posting Friday. It said the fees levied by some local franchise authorities atop franchise fees are regressive, hurting lower-income households disproportionately. Signatories of the letter included the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, Hispanic Federation, NAACP, Latino Coalition and U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Virgin Media will be the first of Liberty Global’s European operations to integrate the Amazon Prime Video app into a set-top box. Customers will be able to access 4K content from the V6 set-top box beginning in summer, it said.

Charter Communications met with aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai as part of its continuing lobbying for its petition for a declaration of effective competition in Massachusetts and Hawaii due to DirecTV Now's presence (see 1902210028), per a docket 18-283 ex parte posting Tuesday. It said interested parties have had five months to comment.

Verizon and Google are bringing YouTube TV to Verizon customers nationwide this year, said the companies Tuesday. Verizon Wireless, Fios and 5G Home customers will be able to subscribe to YouTube TV through Verizon on “whatever platform they choose.” Pricing and availability will be announced later this year, a Verizon spokesperson emailed. The companies have another promotion that's currently running: Free YouTube TV for three months to customers who order 5G Home, available in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Houston and Indianapolis. Under that plan, after the first three months, YouTube TV goes up to $49 per month, said the Verizon website. YouTube TV offers live TV that can be watched on a phone, tablet, TV and computer. The over-the-top video service offers on-demand programs and its more than 70 networks include broadcasters ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC and cable networks HGTV, Food Network, TNT, TBS, CNN, ESPN and FX, it said. A YouTube TV membership includes six accounts per household and personal DVR with no storage space limits. In January, Verizon Wireless announced (see 1901160010) it was offering free Apple Music to subscribers of its top two monthly plans.

Cable installation companies Cable Line and McLaughlin Communications never showed what authority the court has to extend antitrust liability to cover a purchaser with market power in a vaguely defined market opting to reduce its supplier base, and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' role "is not to imagine that extension for them," a three-judge panel ruled Friday. In the decision affirming a lower court's dismissal of an antitrust and discrimination complaint against Comcast, the 3rd Circuit also said the appellants didn't present arguments and authority to support their claims Comcast chose a rival cable installation company because it's black owned. Judges Thomas Ambro, Felipe Restrepo and Morton Greenberg filed the docket 18-2316 opinion, which Ambro penned. Appellants' outside counsel told us Monday there are no further appeals to be had since it's a non-precedential decision, and said both installation companies have gone out of business due to Comcast's consolidating its supplier base.