Comcast Business Services is buying managed services provider Nitel, with the aim of using Nitel's services to expand its presence in connectivity, global secure networking and advanced technology, Comcast said Wednesday. It didn't disclose financial terms.

Charter Communications should launch its "video store" in the first half of 2025, CEO Chris Winfrey said Tuesday at UBS' Media and Communications Conference. Subscribers will be able to manage their video services, including direct-to-consumer streaming services they access via Charter, at the video store. He didn't provide an estimate of Q4 residential broadband results but said Charter will likely see more than 100,000 disconnects due to the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), as well as larger-than-expected impacts from the fall's hurricanes. The hurricanes will likely cost Charter 30,000 subscribers, though most will return. Winfrey said cable internet service providers have done a subpar job of telling subscribers that "cellphone internet" fixed wireless is lower quality and costs more. He said Charter is retaining most of its 5+ million ACP subscribers, with fewer than 10% leaving. But those subscribers are more likely to bounce between having connectivity and being unconnected, he said.

Comcast will likely see Q4 residential broadband subscriber losses in excess of 100,000, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said Monday at UBS' Media and Communications Conference. Residential broadband competition "remains ... intense," especially competition for more price-conscious subscribers, Watson told attendees. Churn among mid-tier and higher-end subscribers on packages of 500 Mbps and faster remains near record lows. The two fall hurricanes will end up costing Comcast around 10,000 broadband subscriber losses in Q4. The company's 2025 priorities are growing its connectivity businesses of broadband, mobile and business services, Watson said. He was dismissive of fiber competition, saying while there's short-term competitive pain, market shares level out after the market matures. Comcast believes the $181 billion mobile marketplace is a major growth opportunity, especially when mobile is bundled with broadband, Watson said. Moreover, the company is expanding business services via dedicated Ethernet over its hybrid fiber-coaxial network. Dedicated business service will see an additional 3.5 million business passings in 2025. Asked about Comcast's interest in having a licensed spectrum network for its mobile business, Watson said the company has "really liked our position for a very long time" relying on Verizon's mobile virtual network operator agreement. Comcast continues testing its citizens broadband radio service spectrum to offload some mobile traffic, he added.

Comcast's spun-off cable networks clearly will consider deals, though whether they're bought or buy other networks remains to be seen, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett noted Tuesday. The spinoff makes deals far more likely since, as a publicly traded company, it will have a market-derived valuation and be easier for the sides to reach mutually agreeable terms, he said. Taxation issues mean no deal happens before 2026, at the earliest, he added. Its large cable portfolio "make[s]" Warner Bros. Discovery "the most natural dancing partner" for a deal.

NCTA's argument that the FCC needn't clarify its "all-in" video pricing order on franchise fees (see 2411190065) shows why clarification is necessary, local governments and allies said in a docket 23-203 filing posted Monday. The filers said that while NCTA recognizes what the law says about franchise fees, the FCC incorrectly said otherwise in a footnote in the all-in order. Signing the filing were the Texas Coalition of Cities for Utility Issues, Boston, Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, Fairfax County, Virginia, and NATOA.

Noting the lack of action on its 2019 applications for review (see 1905150057 and 1908020007), beIN Sports is urging that the FCC address the issue before the commission's January meeting. In a docket 13-384 filing posted Tuesday, it said carriage issues raised against Comcast that resulted in the applications for review still need addressing. The sports channel said the applications for review should be treated as reconsideration petitions, allowing the Media Bureau to make decisions about them.

Altice USA's Optimum fiber network now reaches 500,000 residential customers, it said Thursday, adding that its network passes more than 2.9 million homes in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It said its recent fiber network expansion and investment includes more than $40 million in Long Island this year.

Comcast's spinning off its cable networks and digital assets is a clear signal the company is "exiting the cable business," Rich Greenfield of LightShed Partners said Wednesday on CNBC. The spinoff, announced Wednesday, will include USA Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Syfy, E! and Golf Channel, along with digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and Sports Engine. Comcast said the publicly traded spinoff "will have significant scale" and its assets will be anchored by news, sports and entertainment content reaching close to 70 million U.S. households. Comcast said it expected the spinoff to take a year to complete. Comcast Chairman-CEO Brian Roberts said the spinoff "will be ideally positioned for success and highly attractive to investors, content creators, distributors and potential partners.” Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said NBCUniversal, with its NBC broadcast and streaming properties, including Peacock, as well as Bravo, Telemundo and its theme parks and film and TV studios, "will be on a new growth trajectory, fueled by our world-class content, technology, IP, properties and talent -- all working in concert with each other as an integrated media company.” Comcast said Mark Lazarus, NBCUniversal Media Group chairman, will be CEO of the spinoff, with Anand Kini, NBCU CFO, as its CFO-COO. “As a stand-alone company with these outstanding assets, we will be better positioned to serve our audiences and drive shareholder returns in this incredibly dynamic media environment across news, sports and entertainment,” Lazarus said. Greenfield said that while cable programming will be a long-tail business, the deal signals Comcast no longer sees it as a growth enterprise. He said there may be investor skepticism the spun-off networks can stand on their own and the spinoff will likely seek other cable networks it can add to build scale.

Clarifying the FCC's "all-in" video pricing order to spell what does or doesn't count as a franchise fee isn't necessary, as the order itself is clear, NCTA said in a docket 23-203 filing posted Tuesday. If the FCC wants clarity, it should ensure that its statement in the order about public, educational and governmental access support fees remains in line with agency precedent on the item, NCTA said. Any clarification could reaffirm that all charges and payments for PEG facilities are excluded from the all-in pricing rule "whether they are characterized as franchise fees or not," it said. NCTA was responding to a local franchise authorities petition seeking the clarification (see 2411140004).

GCI plans to end cable service by the summer. In an email to subscribers this week, it said the plans come as customers increasingly move to over-the-top streaming options. "We are proud of our decades-long history of providing cable TV service to Alaskans, but we believe the right path forward is to support customer choice on video by focusing our resources on providing the best internet and mobile data experience in Alaska." In the email, it pointed subscribers to such OTT options as YouTube TV, Hulu and Xumo.