The FCC should let cable operators show compliance with kidvid rules once yearly, not quarterly as now required, the American Cable Association told Media Bureau staff in a March 6 meeting, it filed, posted Monday in docket 18-202. Give operators more time to collect and post programmer certifications, and don't fine small ones that made a good-faith effort to comply, ACA said. “Adopting these reforms would significantly reduce the 16-20 hours per quarter burden that ACA members incur trying to collect, process, and post their certifications.”

A "tier-specific" calculation for basic tier carriage would make more sense than the current leased access rate formula for channels carried on the basic tier, NCTA, Comcast and Charter Communications officials told aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr, said a docket 07-42 ex parte posting Tuesday. The cablers also said accommodating part-time leased access activity is as, or more, burdensome than a full-time leased access channel, and the FCC should ax requirements to provide part-time leased access.

Cable and state franchise authority interests agree about the need for updating the basic cable rate regulatory regime but beyond that are at odds, according to docket 17-105 reply comments posted Tuesday. The lack of consensus beyond the FCC's doing "a nonsubstantive house cleaning" of the current rules points to the need for eliminating outdated requirements but refraining from changes beyond that, Hawaii said. Pushing all rate setting to franchising authorities removes the FCC from its statutorily required role and could lead to inconsistencies in interpretation, Hawaii said. It said the agency shouldn't let cable operators set regulated rates based on what they charge for comparable services in other communities since those rates are often inflated. It said decades of FCC precedent and court decisions are justification for continuing to subject all equipment used to receive basic service tier (BST) to rate regulation. The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable (MDTC) said the proposal to use an unregulated rate comparison as a means of rate regulation violates federal law by ignoring most of the seven criteria the agency is supposed to use in determining BST rates are reasonable. MDTC disagrees with Hawaii that the Further NPRM adopted in October (see 1811300003) could lead to a regime under which any equipment that can be used for both the BST and expanded tiers would be unregulated, and the FCC should make clear that's not the aim. It opposed using the unregulated rate before a franchising authority's certification as the initial regulated rate since rates in unregulated communities aren't "necessarily ... reasonable." NCTA said in many cases the Hawaii and MDTC proposals would worsen existing burdens on operators, local franchise authorities, consumers and the agency. It said its updated competitive benchmark methodology for rate setting falls within the FCC's recognition that a benchmark based on rates charged by systems subject to effective competition is consistent with the Communications Act. NCTA said arguments against changes to equipment rules aren't grounded in policy or law.

The rise of vMVPDs over the past four years “helped mute the pressure” on TV networks from cord-cutting, but a slowdown in vMVPD subscriptions is clouding the future, BTIG's Rich Greenfield wrote investors Monday: Low retail pricing resulted in negative gross margins given how programmers “force large bundles of their channels on both MVPDs and vMVPDs.” Two of the top four vMVPDs are reversing course: Dish Network's Sling growth “slowed dramatically over the past year” and AT&T's DirecTV Now lost 14 percent of its subscriber base last quarter, the analyst noted. Growth is continuing at Hulu Live and YouTube TV, but Greenfield questioned how Disney’s expected acquisition of much of 21st Century Fox in the next few weeks could affect Hulu Live. Disney has a stake in Hulu, as do Fox and others. “That leaves YouTube TV, which has best-in-class technology, a superior user experience and a deep-pocketed parent that can sustain losses for years-to-come,” Greenfield said of the Google affiliate. Greenfield questioned why distributors don’t partner with YouTube TV. Verizon did so tied to its 5G launch. DirecTV Now reportedly is rolling out a $10 price hike and two new packages that remove AMC, Discovery, Scripps and Viacom-owned networks. DirecTV didn’t comment.

Charter Communications plans a series of citizens broadband radio service-based LTE fixed wireless access network tests around central North Carolina, according to an FCC Office of Engineering and Technology experimental license grant given Monday. Charter said it plans to evaluate such issues as throughput and capacity, data latency and customer acceptability for the upper C-band network using fixed locations and customer premise equipment installed at trial participant homes.

If the FCC wants to simplify its complex leased access rate formula, it should at least modify the rate formula in situations where leased access channels are carried on the basic tier, NCTA told an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, according to a docket 07-42 ex parte posting Friday. It also said the Communications Act Section 612 doesn't require allowing the leasing of time on a program-by-program basis but that's an agency-created regulatory burden and it carriers "outsized costs."

A pair of local fiber cuts led to a Cox Communications blackout in northwest Arkansas, the company told us Thursday. It said service was largely restored later that day.

Hours consuming video declined among U.S. broadband households last year, but consumers watch more internet video on a TV, reported Parks Associates Thursday. Hours consumers watched video on a TV grew last year for the first time since 2014, said Parks, reporting 55 percent of respondents say watching TV or movies at home is a top leisure activity. As over-the-top competition “becomes a battle for the living room, the challenge for device makers and content producers is finding the correct product mix to maximize both profit and utility,” said analyst Billy Nayden. With consumers’ experimentation with OTT waning, they will begin to resist adding “another monthly subscription,” Nayden said, so providers are moving to freemium and advertising-based models in anticipation of a pushback. Last year, some 19 percent of consumers subscribed to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video along with another OTT service, compared with 13 percent in 2017. Consumers watched 25.7 hours of video weekly last year vs. 29.5 hours a week in 2016.

The top cable companies added about 2.9 million broadband subscribers in 2018, while telcos lost 470,000, for the fourth straight year of net broadband losses, Leichtman Research Group reported Thursday of 98.2 million total customers. In 2017, telcos had 620,000 net losses vs. gains of 2.7 million for cable. At the end of 2018, cable had 65 percent share of the broadband market, highest since 2003, led by Comcast with 27.2 million customers and Charter Communications with 25.3 million, and phone companies had 35 percent share, led by AT&T with 15.7 million subscribers.

Regulatory approval for Disney's buy of Fox's entertainment assets should come "soon," Disney CEO Bob Iger said at the company's annual meeting Thursday. He said the ESPN Plus streaming service has more than 2 million subscribers, which "bodes well" for the Disney Plus streaming service launching later this year. He said some Fox businesses -- such as FX and the motion picture operations -- will keep the Fox brand after close. He said Disney Plus will include "the entire Disney motion picture library" plus original content. DOJ last year said it would seek to stop Disney/Fox unless 22 Fox regional sports networks were sold (see 1806270016).