Set-top box company Arris finished its $2.1 billion takeover of Pace, it said in a news release Monday. Arris said last fall it expected to close on Pace in early 2016 (see 1510190008), and the Justice Department closed its review last month without imposing any conditions (see 1512020017). Arris said its operational and worldwide headquarters would remain in Suwanee, Georgia.

The National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) and AMC Networks signed a new carriage agreement keeping AMC's channels available to NCTC members, the two said Monday. Terms weren't released. NCTC had criticized AMC for its contractual demands and said last month many of the small cable companies it represents were considering dropping AMC channels as a result (see 1512160035).

Last year was Time Warner Cable's best ever for residential subscriber growth, including the first time it added residential video customers in nine years, the company said in a news release Monday. In 2015, TWC said it had 32,000 additional video subscribers, 1 million addition high-speed data customers and nearly 1.1 million additional voice customers. It announced the subscriber growth independently of its Q4 2015 financial results, which haven't been made public.

The FCC Media Bureau paused for 16 days the 180-day shot clock on Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, saying the extra time "will contribute to a more efficient and expeditious review." As of Monday, the clock stood at 115 days. In a letter dated Monday to Charter, TWC and the Advance/Newhouse partnership that's the Bright House parent, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake referenced the variety of supplemental materials filed by the applicants in recent weeks and said pausing the clock to Jan. 20 "will ensure the commenters have sufficient time to review and comment on this new information and will provide Commission staff with the necessary time to review both the ... materials and any responses." In a statement, Charter said that having submitted supplemental information "to underscore the benefits of these transactions ... it is expected that the FCC would want to give the public time to comment. We are working well with the FCC on its review of our deal and continue to look forward to a timely approval.”

Altice and Cablevision relied on unsubstantiated assertions and unwarranted assumptions, while ignoring the findings of opponents, in their joint rebuttal (see 1512230046) to opponents and critics of Altice's proposed takeover of Cablevision, MFRConsulting said in a filing Wednesday in FCC docket 15-257. The $17.7 billion deal faces opposition or calls for conditions by parties including MFR, the Communications Workers of America and Zoom Telephonics. In its filing in response to Altice/Cablevision joint reply comments, MFR repeated its previous arguments (see 1512090034) that Cablevision post-acquisition could face "substantial risks" from the debt load that Altice would assign it and from Altice's "well documented verifiable pattern of anti-competitive and other ultimately customer-hostile business practices." In a statement, Altice said it anticipates "a fair and open regulatory process with the relevant authorities in connection with our proposed Cablevision transaction, and as in all of our other territories we expect to deliver significant benefits to consumers and their communities."

General Communication is dropping AMC Networks and Univision and adding One World Sports, Discovery Family and Outside Television in 2016, the Alaska cable operator said Monday. General Communication said AMC and Univision will no longer be carried "because of substantial price increases," with AMC seeking close to a 200 percent increase in carriage fees for its channels. In a statement Tuesday, AMC said, "We have extraordinarily high regard for the NCTC [the National Cable Television Cooperative] and for its members. We have long supported smaller cable operators, and the particular challenges and considerations that they face in the service of their markets. We will continue to endeavor to do everything we can to make them successful.” General Communication said AMC's The Walking Dead series still will be available via the Vudu app on the cable operator's TiVo service, and it's offering its TiVo customers a $50 Visa gift card to "encourage existing customers to explore ... new content available through apps such as Vudu and Netflix." The American Cable Association and the National Cable Television Cooperative earlier this month charged AMC with being a bad actor in programming negotiations with small and mid-sized cable operators (see 1512160035).In a statement, Univision Communications (UCI) said it "is committed to reaching a fair agreement with all of our distributors. Despite us making every effort over the last several months to reach a deal with General Communication, we were surprised and disappointed to learn of their plans to no longer offer the Univision Network to their customers in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, Alaska. UCI's mission is to entertain, empower and inform our community, which is why we continue to invest in the technology and content to better serve our loyal audiences. Univision's news, entertainment and sports programming are a lifeline for our viewers and we will continue to work diligently to reach a mutually beneficial agreement."

Zoom Telephonics again said Altice's plans to buy Cablevision should be designated for hearing, denied or predicated on conditions. While Altice-owned Suddenlink complies with Section 629 of the Communications Act, which deals with navigation devices, Altice's "unwillingness to affirm that it will not convert Suddenlink's modem policies to those now employed by Cablevision" highlights the question of whether the Cablevision deal would be in the public interest, Zoom said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-257. The Zoom filing was a reply to Altice/Cablevision replies (see 1512230046) to comments on the proposed $17.7 billion deal. In its filing Tuesday, the cable modem maker said Altice and Cablevision in their joint reply didn't refute any of Zoom's allegations in its Dec. 7 petition. Altice in its response also never addressed the question of whether the FCC has authority to unbundle its modem leases from Internet service, and made no argument "that there are any public interest benefits to allow it to continue or expand Cablevision's policies against separately offering cable modems," Zoom said.

The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision overturning a jury verdict against Cox Communications for its set-top box policies has gone to the Supreme Court for a decision whether to hear the appeal. The Supreme Court said it distributed briefs Tuesday in the Cox case for the Jan. 8 conference. U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron of Oklahoma City in November overruled a $6.31 million jury verdict against Cox and said the class-action complainants failed to offer evidence to show that tying a Cox Premium Cable subscription to renting of a Cox set-top box meant sizable losses of sales by third-party set-top box distributors (see 1511130005).

The deadline for responses to comments in the FCC's NPRM on possible changes to the "totality of circumstances" test for good-faith retransmission consent negotiations was delayed two weeks to Jan. 14. In an order posted Tuesday, the FCC's Media Bureau said such extensions aren't routine, but one is warranted in docket 15-216 "given the importance of the issues in this proceeding, and in light of the intervening holidays." Numerous broadcaster groups had sought an extension to March 2, citing "overlapping deadlines" with the broadcast incentive auction (see 1510230039). Comments were due in the proceeding Dec. 1, with some multichannel video programming distributors proposing changes beyond the list of practices the agency said it's considering as potential violations of good-faith negotiating, while broadcasters said the retrans market doesn't require fixing (see 1512020029).

Charter Communication's attitude toward the Sling TV over-the-top service of Dish Network shows the cable company cares more about protecting its video subscriber numbers than providing a better broadband offering, Dish said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-149. "Charter's laser-like focus on Sling TV shows that it views Sling TV as a serious competitive threat rather than a benign interest," Dish said. In a highly redacted filing, Dish said Charter internal filings on Dish's procurement of Disney and Scripps Networks OTT rights point to the cable company's attempt to undermine Sling TV "by many means, including anticompetitive methods," and that Charter buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable "will dramatically increase its ability to do so." In a statement Wednesday, Charter said, "There is no more friendly broadband provider to OVDs, including Sling, than Charter. Charter’s slowest speed is 60 Mbps, we have no data caps, no usage based billing, no contracts and no modem fees.”