A federal judge signed off on proposed settlement terms on class-action claims of Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) violations by cable installation company FTS USA and parent UniTek Global. In an order (in Pacer) Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Payne of Richmond dismissed the case in accordance with the settlement agreement and awarded attorney's fees and costs of $461,701 to be paid from the settlement fund, less than the $500,000 the plaintiff's counsel had sought. The sides agreed last fall to a settlement for FTS and UniTek to pay up to $1.3 million to settle allegations of improper use of consumer reports in employee hiring (see 1609150019).
The FCC has been clear in saying a Section 616 programming discrimination complaint that's filed within a year of a programmer letting a multichannel programming distributor know it intends to file that complaint and within a year of that discrimination is timely, Game Show Network said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 12-122. The filing was in opposition to Cablevision's push for a review of the 2012 Media Bureau hearing designation order on GSN's carriage complaint (see 1612230049). GSN also said the bureau 2008 hearing designation order on the NFL Network's complaint against Comcast, and the full FCC in its 2012 Tennis Channel order, found those complaints timely under similar circumstances, and Cablevision now gives no reason for the FCC to reverse longstanding precedent. The programmer said Cablevision's pointing to a pending rulemaking about clarifying the time limits in Communications Act Section 616 cases only confirms that GSN's complaint was timely, since the proposal would have the language that better hews to the way the rule has been repeatedly interpreted. Cablevision didn't comment.
The FCC Office of General Counsel OK'd Game Show Network's request (see 1701090033) for extra time to file its opposition to a Cablevision ask for a stay of GSN's petition that would force the cable operator to comply with the FCC administrative law judge's initial decision in a carriage discrimination complaint. In an order Tuesday on docket 12-122, OGC said the FCC doesn't regularly give out time extensions, but the three extra days -- with the deadline now being Friday -- will let the parties respond better to related pleadings.
The transition to an on-demand video marketplace is probably seven or so years in and has seven or so to go, meaning there's substantial life left in the traditional video bundle, Credit Suisse analyst Omar Sheikh wrote investors Tuesday. He predicted Wall Street's bearish stance that traditional media companies are structurally challenged will face several headwinds this year, including growth of virtual multichannel video programming distributors slowing the pace of video bundle subscriber declines and disrupting the competition challenge for subscription VOD, the continual robustness of the TV advertising market and the scrapping of net neutrality rules. Virtual MVPDs are "critical to the long term health of the traditional video ecosystem" by serving as a competitive response to SVOD services like Netflix, he said. The forthcoming Hulu live-streaming service likely will outperform virtual MVPDs like Sling and DirecTV Now through its library content and cloud DVR, he said. He said the pending AT&T purchase of Time Warner and 21st Century Fox's pending acquisition of Sky will, if approved, lead peers to focus increasingly on the potential upsides of scale and of vertical integration. Disney and CBS, which don't have that scale and/or vertical integration, could be motivated to look into transactions, he said.
The Game Show Network wants three extra days to file its opposition to Cablevision's seeking a stay of GSN's petition that would force Cablevision to comply with the FCC administrative law judge's initial decision in a carriage discrimination complaint (see 1701050019). In a motion for a time extension filed Friday in docket 12-122, GSN said neither Cablevision nor the Enforcement Bureau objects, and the extra time -- a Friday deadline for filing instead of Tuesday -- will let it align its responses to multiple pleadings, all of which involve interrelated issues in the networks' discrimination claim against the cable operator.
Hearst is buying a majority of Litton Entertainment, which specializes in educational/informational programming and Saturday morning content for broadcasters. In a news release Friday, Hearst said the deal is expected to close by Feb. 1.
With its original amicus brief on the docket since April, a renewed application for leave to file the brief in a Star Trek fan film copyright lawsuit hardly counts as a sneak attack, the Language Creation Society (LCS) said Tuesday in a reply (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. It responded to an opposition (in Pacer) last week from Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios that argued the LCS filing saying the Klingon language can't be copyrighted and thus can't be used as evidence of copyright violation on the part of the makers of an online fan film (see 1612300016) is untimely and improper. The LCS reply throughout uses some Klingon words and phrases with footnoted English translations.
Roku General Manager Chas Smith said streaming hours on the Roku platform increased 60 percent year on year. Roku is constantly upgrading the platform, said Smith, and will add two channels in the next few weeks: a Comcast Xfinity app and DirecTV Now. He spoke Wednesday at CES in Las Vegas.
Live streams of CBS and sister channels CBS Sports and POP will become part of Hulu's lineup for a multichannel live-streaming service it plans to launch in the coming months, the company said in a news release Wednesday. Hulu said much of the networks' programming will also be available on demand through its deal with CBS. Hulu said other broadcast options on its live TV service will be ABC and Fox. CBS is likely in talks with other streaming services like Sling and DirecTV Now about similar deals, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors Wednesday, saying the Hulu deal probably won't cannibalize CBS' All Access streaming service since it retains in-season stacking rights and offers originals such as Star Trek.
Cable One's financial growth "is about to hit a wall" as its strategy of focusing on price increases could run afoul of its relatively price sensitive customer base, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors Wednesday as the firm downgraded the cable ISP to "sell." "Those price increases do not appear sustainable, and in the near term they are not repeatable," Moffett said. He said the company's de-emphasizing its video offerings, including its dropping of Viacom content (see 1501140012), has hurt its attractiveness as a takeover target because Cable One has "foregone a tremendous amount of potential synergy for an acquirer." Cable One didn't comment.