The comments period on their merger having closed a month ago, Altice and Suddenlink asked the FCC Wireline Bureau where their $9.1 billion deal stands. According to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-135, Cequel General Counsel Craig Rosenthal and Altice Head of Business Development and M&A Burkhard Koep were among company officials who met with Wireline Bureau top staff to talk about "the status and timing of the regulatory approval process" and the review standards applicable to Altice's takeover of Cequel -- Cequel doing business as Suddenlink. The public comment period ended July 24, with replies on comments due Aug. 10. The docket saw sparse opposition to the proposed deal (see 1507240027). The FCC declined to comment Monday.

TV cord cutting is widely talked about but rarely done worldwide, said survey data from Rovi released Friday. Globally, 3 percent of pay-TV customers have cut the cord, though 57 percent of those surveyed had given "a lot" or "some" thought to doing so, Rovi said. Cord cutting is more prevalent in the U.S., where 7 percent of respondents had done so, compared with roughly 2 percent in China, France, Germany and India, the company said. Searching for content looks to be one of viewers' chief sources of dissatisfaction, Rovi survey data said, since close to 73 percent of respondents said they're “extremely” or “somewhat” frustrated when they can’t locate enjoyable content, and those surveyed average 19 minutes a day looking for something to watch. Of those surveyed, 67 percent said they would be likely to extend their contract, upgrade their service, or sign up with a provider if it offered better search or recommendations, while 51 percent said their content provider should focus on better customer experience with an easier and more effective means of searching for content. In China and India, 90 percent of respondents said they would opt for a provider offering more effective searches or recommendations. Rovi said survey respondents also desire natural language voice-based searches -- 54 percent said they would “definitely” or “probably” spend an additional $1.99 a month for access to a voice command search feature. The survey data came from an online survey of 4,000 pay-TV and over-the-top subscribers in seven countries, with 1,000 interviews in the U.S., and 500 interviews each in the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan and India, Rovi said. The company announced the survey results at the IBC Show in Amsterdam. It also unveiled new offerings, such as its own natural language search interface, Rovi Conversation Services; its Fan TV software that bundles live TV, VOD and streaming services; and additional capabilities of its metadata product, Rovi Metadata.

Comcast and Liberty Global will use Metrological-developed open-source browser enhancements for set-top boxes, Metrological said in a Thursday news release. The Metrological enhancements will be part of the Reference Design Kit (RDK) software stack used by pay TV. The browser software will allow better rendering of HTML5 apps and next-generation user interfaces across set-tops, Metrological said. Liberty Global plans to use the Metrological software for its RDK-based Horizon TV platform, while Comcast plans to test the set-top box browser software on its RDK-based X1 platform, Metrological said.

Comcast Wholesale is getting into live streaming offerings as it unveiled its Live Linear Streaming service Thursday at the IBC show in Amsterdam. The service includes such offerings as seamless content ingest, comprehensive encoding and packaging, the Platform’s mpx video management system, playback, and delivery through a number content delivery networks, including Comcast's, the company said.

Cablevision is adding a cable network, WGN America, to its basic cable lineup for its Connecticut, New Jersey and New York customers in January as part of a multiyear agreement with Tribune Media, the companies said Thursday. Financial terms weren't disclosed. The deal includes retransmission consent arrangements that Cablevision Optimum TV customers will continue to receive Tribune TV stations WPIX New York; in Connecticut WTIC-TV Hartford and WCCT-TV Waterbury; and WPHL-TV Philadelphia. It also renews Cablevision's use of TV listings and movie data from Tribune's Gracenote, and sees Cablevision taking over Tribune's 2.8 percent interest in Newsday Holdings, making it a wholly owned Cablevision subsidiary.

AT&T hired Ericsson to help upgrade its premium TV offering across its satellite and wireline network, said Ericsson in a news release Thursday. The technology changes will involve AT&T's U-verse and DirecTV platforms, Ericsson said. Enrique Rodriguez, AT&T Entertainment and Internet Services chief technical officer, said the aim is "an unparalleled bundled video entertainment, mobile and broadband experience."

CableLabs thinks the most important result of the FCC Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee report (see 1509010068) is that “there is no collective recommendation for any new FCC technology mandate,” said Chief Technology Officer Ralph Brown in a blog post Thursday. Brown said the report found some common ground among DSTAC members, but its main value to consumers was its illustration of the extent of multichannel video programming distributor support for retail set-top devices. “There are almost twice as many retail devices on average per household, that are capable of receiving MVPD content, than there are MVPD provided set-tops!” Brown said. “Consumers can take comfort knowing that a wide variety of their retail devices can receive MVPD services.”

Netflix will launch in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan early next year, after starting service in Japan earlier this month, it said Tuesday. The video service said it plans to finish a global rollout by the end of 2016.

The FCC cable effective competition order took effect Wednesday, the date of an announcement in the Federal Register. The agency in June ruled that the cable market is effectively competitive (see 1506020060). It faces a legal challenge from NAB, NATOA and Minnesota's Northern Dakota County Cable Communications Commission before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1508280033).

Given what it sees as the booming and competitive over-the-top market, the case for expanding the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) umbrella to cover some forms of OTT services is questionable, Amazon said in an FCC ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-261. "The rules proposed by the commission would inhibit innovation by imposing on over the top services regulatory burdens created long ago that are neither relevant to nor tailored to address this new vibrant industry, without any of the competitive benefits [including the attendant statutory copyright licensing] that were envisioned when the rules were originally drafted decades ago." The filing recapped meetings between such Amazon executives as General Counsel David Zapolsky and Public Policy Director Brian Huseman with Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Ajit Pai. Amazon said it warned in those meetings of unintended consequences from an expanded definition of MVPD, such as its Twitch.tv live streaming videogaming service being subsequently considered an MVPD. The resulting regulatory burdens would "distort a new and alternative video segment that is growing and flourishing without any government intervention," Amazon said. In a separate ex parte filing in docket 14-261 posted Tuesday, NATOA said cable operators offering online video services to ISP customers should be subject to the same franchise fees and public interest obligations they would otherwise be for any IP cable service. In the filing reporting on a phone conversation between NATOA General Counsel Stephen Traylor and Media Bureau Deputy Chief Michelle Carey, NATOA said a line also should be drawn between delivery of online video services over what it called "the 'public' Internet rather than via the providers' own transmission path."