Comcast launched a $5.99 monthly digital security service to protect home devices connected to its Xfinity Advanced Gateway. XFi Advanced Security uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to monitor and analyze a home’s Wi-Fi traffic and will automatically block identified suspicious activity in real time, said Comcast Wednesday. Customers can monitor activity on the digital dashboard in the Xfinity app. It cited Cisco figures saying by 2022 North American consumers will have an average 13 connected devices and Symantec data saying the number of IoT attacks jumped 600 percent 2016-17.

AT&T unveiled new advertising offerings it said were the result of collaboration between its ad business Xandr and Time Warner's Turner. Those include Turner's data-centric AudienceNow using Xandr's viewership insights, for quicker understanding of ad campaign results, it said Tuesday. AT&T bought TW in 2018.

When Comcast and Viamedia have oral argument Feb. 7 in Viamedia's appeal before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, DOJ wants five minutes to address the proper standard for refusal-to-deal claims under the Sherman Act's Section 2, the agency said Friday in a docket 18-2852 unopposed motion (in Pacer). In an amicus brief (in Pacer) filed Nov. 8 in support of neither side, Justice said the 7th Circuit and Supreme Court have been clear that a monopolist's refusal to deal with a competitor violates Section 2 only in limited circumstances. It said the 7th Circuit should make clear a refusal to deal isn't actionable under Section 2 unless that refusal makes no economic sense except as a way to eliminate to lessen competition. Viamedia is appealing a U.S. District Court's rejection of antitrust claims involving Comcast's refusal to deal with the ad rep services competitor over Comcast-owned interconnects (see 1812270041).

Universal Electronics is starting a connected home platform for its customers, which include pay-TV players, so their subscribers can quickly deploy smart-home services. It includes a safety and security platform using Ecolink Zigbee, Zigbee connected thermostat and a voice-controllable solution, and energy management and entertainment control, said the vendor Thursday.

The Zigbee Alliance and Thread Group started Dotdot over Thread smart-home certification, the groups said. Dotdot lets universal device language work over Thread’s low-power IP network, they said Friday.

TV providers are “fast-tracking” new search and discovery products on intense competition and to “maximize viewer engagement,” said Chief Product Officer Simon Adams of Gracenote, which launched such a new product. Recommendation offerings rely on traditional genre descriptors such as action, comedy and drama that lack personalization, Gracenote said Thursday and Adams noted to us: TV content providers are bolstering catalogs of original and licensed TV shows and movies and developing voice-driven capabilities to meet changing technology. Genres have been expanded to include mood, theme, scenario and characters, and structured keyword sets for individual shows and movies describe content in progressively more granular terms.

Roku is adding a “premium subscriptions” option to watch either free advertising-supported content or paid premium programs through one interface, said the company Wednesday: Subscriptions will be available from a “wide variety” of content providers, including Epix, Showtime and Starz. An updated mobile app for iOS and Android will soon let users watch the Roku Channel on smartphones or tablets.

If the FCC axes only the requirement that cable operators maintain channel lineups in their local offices, it needs to not put a new regulatory obligation on small cable systems to post their channel lineups in their online public inspection files or other government-run databases, the American Cable Association told Media Bureau staffers, according to a docket 17-105 ex parte posting Thursday. Small systems -- not required to maintain online public inspection files -- provide the channel lineup information on their websites and other publicly available platforms, and shouldn't need to face additional record-keeping requirements, it said.

A U.S. District Court's finding that Viamedia didn't show evidence that Comcast conditioned providing its interconnect services to MVPDs on their purchase of Comcast ad rep services doesn't square with testimony from Comcast and independent MVPDs, appellant Viamedia said in a docket 18-2852 reply brief (in Pacer) Thursday filed with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The only rationale for Comcast's refusal to deal with Viamedia as a rival ad rep services competitor through Comcast-owned interconnects was to eliminate competition, and the lower court's ruling otherwise was incorrect, the appellant said. The filing was in response to Comcast's appellee brief (in Pacer) this month in which it said the lower court was right to find Comcast's not dealing with Viamedia was motivated by valid business purposes of replacing intermediaries.

Today's leased access rules put big administrative and procedural burdens on cable operators that rarely are recouped by the maximum fees operators can charge under the existing implicit rate formula, the American Cable Association told FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey in a docket 07-42 ex parte meeting recapped in a posting Monday. ACA suggested several routes to reducing the cost of responding to requests for information about leased access, such as the FCC allowing cable operators to determine the rates they can charge for leased access via a uniform, nondiscriminatory "safe harbor" per channel rate card cable operators can use instead of calculating individualized rates. It also suggested cable operators be allowed to calculate leased access rates on a specific date and use those rates for all leased access agreements for the next three years, and that cable operators be allowed to simply affirm whether there's sufficient capacity to accommodate a time slot sought in a request rather than provide information about the total amount of capacity on a cable system. They also should be allowed to provide rates specific to the details of a request instead of a complete schedule of actual full- and part-time leased access rates, it said.