Pointing to growing subscriber demand "for diverse and targeted African-American programming," Charter Communications said it acted to increase subscriber access in some markets to African-American-themed and -owned programming. A blog post Tuesday said those steps include extending its agreement with Aspire Network; expanding the distribution of Aspire, Revolt and Up across its footprint; signing a carriage agreement with The Impact Network that would distribute it in a number of markets; expanding Bounce TV distribution to Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City and Raleigh, North Carolina; and signing a carriage agreement with Black TV News Channel that will have that network, when operational, available in multiple markets. A lawsuit by African-American-owned Entertainment Studios Network against Charter over allegations the cable distributor isn't carrying ESN programming due to racially based discrimination is in abeyance while the operator pursues an interlocutory appeal before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of a lower court's October denial (see 1610260069) of Charter's bid for summary judgment. Charter argued the carriage decision was for business reasons.

Cableview Communications of Jacksonville is appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a summary judgment granted Time Warner Cable in January in Cableview's complaint against TWC, the company said in a notice (in Pacer) of appeal Friday in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville. Cableview sued TWC in 2013, claiming TWC interfered in FTS USA's 2012 purchase of Cableview assets, including TWC service agreements (see 1604010052). In his summary judgment order, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Klindt said Cableview never suggested while working out an asset purchase agreement with TWC that the agreement was in any way invalid. Charter Communications now owns TWC.

Any look into changing the rules for earth station licensing in the 3700-4200 MHz band, such as has been proposed by the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (see 1610180035), "should proceed with caution," NCTA said in an FCC filing Monday in RM-11778. NCTA said its members rely on the C-band for TV programming transmission and reception, and programmers use it for delivery of programming from remote locations to network operations centers. It said the FCC should "carefully consider the needs" of C-band satellite operators and earth station licensees before adopting any rules changes.

Nineteen percent of U.S. broadband homes have canceled an over-the-top service in the past 12 months, indicating sizable subscriber experimentation and OTT providers' use of no-contract, cancel-anytime models to entice subscribers, Parks Associates reported Wednesday. It said churn rates have been lowest among the three dominant providers -- Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. The researcher said OTT-subscribing households have upped their spending on such services from an average of $3.71 a month in 2012 to $7.95 a month in 2016. It said spending on physical media purchases and rentals went from averaging $15 a month to $8 a month, and spending on digital transactional video went from averaging $2.42 a month to $1.42 a month.

Kudelski and affiliates OpenTV, Nagra and Nagravision filed a complaint Jan. 26 at the International Trade Commission, seeking a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into patent infringement by set-top boxes and remote controls imported for use with Comcast cable services. Kudelski said Arris is making set-top boxes and Universal Electronics is making voice-enabled remote controls that infringe its patents. After import, the set-tops and remote controls are used with Comcast’s Xfinity X1 service, the complaint said. Kudelski seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning the import, sale and lease of infringing devices by Comcast, Arris and Universal Electronics. The ITC is seeking comments by Feb. 9, it said in Wednesday's Federal Register. Comcast disagrees with "Kudelski’s allegations and we will vigorously defend the cases," emailed a spokeswoman for the cable company.

Home shopping network Evine Live will buy back 4.4 million shares from Comcast's NBCUniversal Media for $4.9 million in a private transaction, Evine said in a news release Tuesday. That's about 6.9 percent of its shares outstanding, Evine said, adding it will use cash on hand.

Comcast put out a beta version of its Xfinity TV app for Roku that lets subscribers watch live and on-demand programming and access their cloud DVR recordings via the devices, it said in a blog post Tuesday. Comcast said the app is available on recent Roku TV models and Roku players, and the company plans to expand support for other Roku players through the beta testing.

Calling itself merely "an onramp to the Internet" that doesn't store material or control subscribers' content, Cox Communications in a reply brief (in Pacer) filed Friday in 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said BMG is arguing "a novel regime" where conduit ISPs are liable for not immediately terminating identified subscribers after receiving millions of automated infringement allegations. Saying it was entitled to judgment, or at least a new trial, the ISP said BMG hasn't shown any proof that it had actual knowledge of or willful blindness to specific infringing acts, the standard set in the Supreme Court's Sony v. Universal City Studios decision. The cable firm -- appealing a U.S. District Court ruling in BMG Rights Management's torrent piracy lawsuit against the cable company (see 1608190030) -- said BMG's interpretations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act would require Cox to monitor what data accused subscribers are sharing and adjudicate if they committed copyright infringement -- information that automated copyright notices from Rightscorp didn't convey. The cable company also said the lower court's failure to offer any Sony instructions about the noninfringing uses of Cox's Internet service warrant a reversal and that the Supreme Court's MGM v. Grokster decision precludes contributory liability. Counsel for BMG didn't comment Monday.

Tel Aviv-based 24-hour news network i24 News will launch a U.S. channel starting Feb. 13 on Altice USA, the cable distributor said in a news release Friday. I24 was founded in 2013 by Patrick Drahi, Altice NV controlling shareholder. Altice USA said i24 will be available on Altice's Optimum TV and Suddenlink TV systems.

Fox News Network is right that its affiliation fight with Charter Communications is a contract dispute, which is why any FNN noncontractual claims should be dismissed as duplicative, Charter said in a memorandum of law Thursday in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan backing its motion to have six of FNN's claims against it dropped (see 1609120005). Charter said FNN's declaratory judgment, implied covenant and indemnification claims seek the same legal determinations and relief as its breach of contract claim. It also said FNN hasn't made a valid claim for fraud or estoppel, and its unjust enrichment claim fails because there's no such claim legally when a contract governs parties' relationships. FNN is suing Charter -- as, separately, is Univision -- over Charter claims the contractual terms the programmers had with Time Warner Cable supersede any contractual fees and terms Charter had with them, now that Charter has purchased TWC (see 1607200065). FNN didn't comment Friday.