Cable operators won't easily get out of the bundle business, and it won't be until they drop the penalty for canceling video service -- where the price for remaining services in subscribers' bundles go up -- that it's clear they're serious about it, CCG President Doug Dawson blogged Friday. He said the service bundle is likely eventually doomed because profit margins for video are nothing or even negative, due to both programming costs and operational expenses such as service calls to deal with customer complaints about such issues as picture quality.

If Verizon markets YouTube TV at a “meaningful bundled discount,” it could “accelerate subscriber growth” for the streaming video service, which ended 2018 with about 1 million subscribers and raised monthly fees from $35 to $45 to $50 within the past 12 months, BTIG's Richard Greenfield wrote investors Friday. Verizon said Tuesday it's bringing YouTube TV to customers across platforms this year. Greenfield cited Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg saying the provider wants to focus on the network, platform and integration but not invest in a TV platform or content. He touted Verizon’s distribution, network and brand for being able to attract partnerships like Google’s with YouTube TV. “Time will tell how serious Verizon is about marketing YouTube TV,” said Greenfield, but if it does push hard, pay attention, because its marketing muscle could “make a huge dent” in a 5 million subscriber threshold required for Google to impact the overall broadcast-cable ecosystem. He imagined YouTube TV having enough future clout to win rights to something as high-profile as NFL Sunday Ticket, which AT&T/DirecTV owns through 2022. YouTube TV’s recent price hike “gave us pause,” said the analyst, who believes there’s more to Google’s strategy than being “just another distributor of the bloated legacy bundle.” He believes Google finds a way to scale the service to where it can have leverage. YouTube TV provides “one area of consumer data Google is missing today,” said Greenfield. It also gives Google a route to the access TV ad spending, which Greenfield pegged at $70 billion in the U.S.; the ability to mingle YouTube content with linear TV content; and an opportunity to "replace Nielsen’s antiquated measurement standard.”

The FCC needs to make clear states and localities can't charge duplicative fees and taxes beyond the franchise fees for use of public rights-of-way, because they jack up the cost of broadband internet access, various civil rights and minority interest groups said in a docket 05-311 posting Friday. It said the fees levied by some local franchise authorities atop franchise fees are regressive, hurting lower-income households disproportionately. Signatories of the letter included the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, Hispanic Federation, NAACP, Latino Coalition and U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Virgin Media will be the first of Liberty Global’s European operations to integrate the Amazon Prime Video app into a set-top box. Customers will be able to access 4K content from the V6 set-top box beginning in summer, it said.

Charter Communications met with aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai as part of its continuing lobbying for its petition for a declaration of effective competition in Massachusetts and Hawaii due to DirecTV Now's presence (see 1902210028), per a docket 18-283 ex parte posting Tuesday. It said interested parties have had five months to comment.

Verizon and Google are bringing YouTube TV to Verizon customers nationwide this year, said the companies Tuesday. Verizon Wireless, Fios and 5G Home customers will be able to subscribe to YouTube TV through Verizon on “whatever platform they choose.” Pricing and availability will be announced later this year, a Verizon spokesperson emailed. The companies have another promotion that's currently running: Free YouTube TV for three months to customers who order 5G Home, available in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Houston and Indianapolis. Under that plan, after the first three months, YouTube TV goes up to $49 per month, said the Verizon website. YouTube TV offers live TV that can be watched on a phone, tablet, TV and computer. The over-the-top video service offers on-demand programs and its more than 70 networks include broadcasters ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC and cable networks HGTV, Food Network, TNT, TBS, CNN, ESPN and FX, it said. A YouTube TV membership includes six accounts per household and personal DVR with no storage space limits. In January, Verizon Wireless announced (see 1901160010) it was offering free Apple Music to subscribers of its top two monthly plans.

Cable installation companies Cable Line and McLaughlin Communications never showed what authority the court has to extend antitrust liability to cover a purchaser with market power in a vaguely defined market opting to reduce its supplier base, and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' role "is not to imagine that extension for them," a three-judge panel ruled Friday. In the decision affirming a lower court's dismissal of an antitrust and discrimination complaint against Comcast, the 3rd Circuit also said the appellants didn't present arguments and authority to support their claims Comcast chose a rival cable installation company because it's black owned. Judges Thomas Ambro, Felipe Restrepo and Morton Greenberg filed the docket 18-2316 opinion, which Ambro penned. Appellants' outside counsel told us Monday there are no further appeals to be had since it's a non-precedential decision, and said both installation companies have gone out of business due to Comcast's consolidating its supplier base.

State fees on cable operators for access to public rights of way (ROW), atop the 5 percent franchise fee already imposed by local franchising authorities, means less money available for broadband deployment, NCTA said in an FCC docket 05-311 posting Monday. It said the Cable Act allows the franchise fee to be charged only for ROW access. It's also a violation of the act when franchising authorities or other government entities levy what they call "taxes" atop the cap because those are "essentially a duplicate franchise fee" just labeled a tax, it said.

Both Alliance for Community Media and cable interests lobbied the FCC in recent days on an in-kind contributions Further NPRM about cable operator payments to localities. Meeting with Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, ACM President Mike Wassenaar discussed how the FNPRM would affect public, educational and government access operations nationwide and why members of Congress expressed concern about the proposed rules, per a docket 05-311 posting Friday. NCTA, Comcast, Charter and Cox said the agency needs to make clear that franchising authorities may only accrue PEG capital funds in with specific, agreed-to construction projects, meeting with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and with the Office of the General Counsel. The cablers also said if the FCC decides in a later proceeding to consider how to value and offset PEG channel capacity against the franchise fee, it should consider the value of standard-definition vs. HD capacity and linear vs. on-demand capacity, and IP or online distribution is a means for cable operators and PEG operators to agree to fulfill the Cable Act’s PEG objectives in more efficient and cheaper way. They said if the FCC doesn't establish a value for PEG channel capacity to offset against the franchise fee, it should at least provide guidance about what's “adequate” public access channel capacity.

While generally backing the NAB-NCTA proposal for carriage election notifications (see 1812100051), America's Communications Association in a meeting with FCC Media Bureau staffers laid out suggested modifications to cut the burdens for small cable operators, according to a docket 17-317 posting Friday. It called "baffling" NAB criticisms that the idea of letting cable operators email notices to broadcasters, which they currently need to send via certified mail, are johnny-come-lately. It said a Further NPRM on both the NAB-NCTA proposal and its proposal might be warranted. It said NAB is "absurd" to resist the idea of making broadcasters send certified mail election notices in some instances in the 2020 election cycle, giving cable operators more time to comply with new obligations, given that it would affect very few notices. And ACA said if the FCC retains its requirement broadcasters send election notifications to direct broadcast satellite via certified mail, it should let cable operators choose to get served the same way. NAB didn't comment.