The cable industry is floating a proposed methodology for establishing fair-market valuations of cable-related in-kind contributions. A docket 05-311 posting Friday on a meeting with FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and Office of General Counsel staff said the three-step process would begin with cable operators identifying the fair market value of in-kind contributions based on existing market metrics, followed by local franchising authorities having some period such as 60 to 90 days to decide whether they want to keep, reduce or forego their in-kind contributions and notify the MVPD. Step three would be the cable operator implementing the LFA's election. The cablers said if an authority doesn't give notice of its election within the time frame, the operator would cut franchise fee payments based on its valuation information until it gets election notice. They anticipated few disputes over fair market value because of the numerous alternatives for most cable-related in-kind contributions. The cablers said the FCC should make clear that disagreeing with the value of an in-kind contribution isn't a valid reason for a franchise authority to delay or deny a new or renewed franchise agreement. Representatives of NCTA, Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox attended the meeting.
Roku added HBO to its premium subscription offering, and Cinemax will follow soon, it said Thursday. Users of The Roku Channel can trial HBO for free for seven days; after the trial, subscriptions are $14.99 a month. It promoted its “one-click” signup process in the My Account section on the Roku website. Premium subscriptions are only viewable within the Roku channel, it said.
Telemundo, NBC and NBCUniversal's cable networks were to have gone dark Thursday night on Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico's system after Liberty's Latin America board rejected a carriage agreement its management team in Puerto Rico had accepted, NBCU said Thursday. It said it's "sensitive to challenges on the island and proposed terms and prices that recognized the difficult situation in Puerto Rico." NBCU also set up a website urging tweets about and emails to Liberty. Liberty didn't comment.
Arris is now part of CommScope, with the telecom equipment provider announcing Thursday it closed on its $7.4 billion purchase of the consumer tech company. The deal was announced in November (see 1811080051). CommScope said the closing lets it provide more end-to-end communications solutions that neither it nor Arris could previously achieve independently.
Local government officials met FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Media Bureau staffers and aides to the regular commissioners about the benefits of public, educational and government programming and to tackle what they said was "flawed" NCTA analyses, according to a docket 05-311 posting Thursday. They said congressional intent was clear that nonmonetary payments aren't franchise fees and the FCC must assess what effect saying that in-kind contributions count as franchise fees, credited against the statutory cap, would have on existing franchises. They also said it's not relevant whether PEG channels are operational or capital costs and ultimately they're voluntary commitments and not impositions. At the meeting were representatives of the Association of Washington Cities, Washington State Association of Counties, Colorado Communications and Utility Alliance, Washington localities of Thurston County and Everett, Kent, Lacey, Olympia, Seattle and Tumwater, and the Rainier Communications Commission. NCTA didn't comment.
Fifty-eight percent of U.S. broadband homes that "trial" an over-the-top video subscription service convert to a paid subscription, Parks Associates said Wednesday. Some OTT providers expressed concern that consumers are churning through trials to avoid paying for service, but the high rate of conversion suggests "most users are actively evaluating for genuine adoption,” said analyst Brett Sappington. Though some churn likely occurs, among users trying out three or more services, nearly 80 percent subscribe to at least one service they tested, he said.
Charter Communications must respond by April 12 to a data request by the California Public Utilities Commission Public Advocates Office (PAO), CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer ruled Tuesday in docket A15-07-009. PAO asked Charter for data supporting claims that it’s upgrading broadband as conditioned in CPUC’s OK of the company’s 2016 buy of Time Warner Cable and Bright House. Wednesday, Charter didn’t comment.
NCTA and America’s Communications Association jointly opposed Metrom Rail's proposal to operate ultrawideband positive train control systems in the 3.272-5.014 GHz band (see 1809200041). “While Metrom’s goal of promoting railway safety is worthy, Metrom has not provided any interference analysis -- much less the detailed interference analysis that is warranted given the importance of incumbent operations” in the C band, the cable groups said in docket 18-284, posted Tuesday. The FCC should approve the plan only with detailed technical analysis demonstrating its proposed operations won't interfere with C-band downlinks, they said.
Cable One expects to close in Q4 on its $525.9 million cash acquisition of Missouri-based cable ISP Fidelity Communications, it said Monday. Fidelity's network passes roughly 190,000 homes in Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, it said.
BeIN Sports' latest carriage complaint against Comcast included an additional pleading without first asking the Media Bureau and it didn't show the circumstances that would allow the FCC to accept an otherwise-prohibited pleading, the bureau said in a docket 18-384 order Friday dismissing the complaint. It said though beIN included in the February complaint (see 1902060052) a new allegation of unreasonable refusal to deal that wasn't in its two 2018 complaints, the programmer should have made that claim in its second complaint since the allegation comes from the same set of facts as the second complaint. BeIN outside counsel didn't comment.