The Game Show Network is asking the FCC to order Cablevision to immediately comply with last month's administrative law judge advisory ruling saying the network should be moved back from a premium tier to the multichannel video programming distributor's expanded basic tier (see 1611230046 and 1612080038). "Cablevision has made clear that it will not comply with the ALJ’s Order in a timely manner unless ordered to do so," GSN said in its petition Thursday in docket 12-122. Cablevision parent Altice USA didn't comment Friday. GSN said Section 76.10 of the rules is clear that ALJ decisions in carriage disputes are effective on release and stay in effect pending appeal, unlike ALJ decisions in other contexts, where they are subject to automatic stays on appeal. GSN said it continues to suffer harm being on the far-less-watched specialty tier and that "swift enforcement is ... appropriate" because under Section 616 of the Communications Act it can't get monetary damages for the past discrimination.

The home automation and alarm monitoring markets are seeing a jump in cloud-based solutions, Imperial Capital reported, saying the market worth $23 billion could grow to $61 billion by 2024. The analysts forecast 50 million homes will have such services or devices by 2024, up from 20 million now, with growth led by cable. Products like those from AT&T and Comcast had 5 percent market penetration (942,261 homes) at the end of 2015 and are projected to represent 19 percent penetration (6 million homes) by year-end 2020 and 27 percent (13 million homes) by year-end 2024.

The American Cable Association is applauding President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Linda McMahon as head of the Small Business Administration (see 1612070031). The former CEO of professional wrestling, over-the-top and pay-per-view company WWE "is on record as opposing government mandates that burden smaller companies and understands that government should not needlessly stand in the way of small businesses' efforts," ACA said in a statement Thursday.

Altice is considering selling a minority stake in its U.S. operations through an initial public offering of Altice USA, the company said in a news release Thursday. It gave no details. The Dutch telco bought Suddenlink last December (see 1512180035) and Cablevision earlier this year (see 1606210026).

Time Warner and its Turner Broadcasting Systems, CNN and Turner Services operations have shown a pattern of racial discrimination in employee evaluations, promotions and pay practices, allege a fired CNN administrative assistant and a current TBS employee in a lawsuit (in Pacer) filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. Former employee Celeslie Henley and Ernest Colbert, a TBS senior manager, are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Plaintiffs allege the evaluation system gives managers "undue authority" without any oversight or feedback, resulting in African-American employees typically receiving lower performance ratings than white counterparts, leading to smaller bonuses and raises and fewer promotions. The suit pointed to reports on internal human resources diversity trends indicating black CNN and Turner employees have dramatically different pay rates from those of similarly situated white employees. It alleged TW "has created an employment schematic" that sees African-American workers having to work three times as long as white ones to receive promotions and that they eventually hit a glass ceiling that keeps any black employee from being president of Turner Broadcasting or any Turner network. The suit lists numerous divisions at Turner and CNN and cites data it says indicate racial discrimination in pay or promotion practices. It said African-Americans make up roughly a third of mid-level managerial and staffing positions, but "they are extremely under-represented at higher pay grades and senior promotions." It alleged "glass walls" at the company, with the African-American workers who are in senior positions being concentrated "in less powerful and non-revenue generating areas" like international and sports. The suit seeks class-action status. TW didn't comment Thursday.

With its entire broadband footprint becoming 1 Gbps-capable by year's end, Mediacom said Wednesday in a news release that makes it the first major U.S. cable company fully transitioning to the DOCSIS 3.1 Gigasphere platform. Mediacom said it sped up its previously announced three-year, $1 billion plan for upgrading its broadband network earlier this year after Gigasphere modems became available. Mediacom said the new minimum entry-level broadband speed for residential customers will be 60 Mbps, with offerings of 100 Mbps and 200 Mbps available, and it will begin offering 500 Mbps and 1 Gbps products market by market in coming weeks.

Comcast doesn't see its broadband subscriber growth slowing in the near future, Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh said at a UBS investor conference Wednesday. Comcast has added a million-plus broadband subscribers annually the past 10 years, and expects to ultimately add about 1.3 million this year, roughly the same as 2015, Cavanagh said, saying it still has big potential markets such as the roughly 6 million DSL homes in its footprint. Asked about the likelihood of the Trump administration undoing FCC Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband, Cavanagh said opposition to that change was about "the overhang of where it could go" in new regulations. "Hopefully, that chilling effect is gone" with any Title II rollback, he said. Meanwhile, 5G is "plenty of opportunity" for Comcast but also potential threat if there are use cases that impinge on the company's offerings, he said. Cavanagh said penetration of Comcast's X1 video platform is about 45 percent of its footprint and that growth isn't expected to top out soon.

Pointy Vulcan ears and a bowl haircut aren't enough characteristics to define a distinctive character, and the Star Trek universe elements that Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios cite as evidence of copyright infringement by a fan film are for the most part unprotectable, said defendants Axanar Productions and Alec Peters in a filing (in Pacer) Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles supporting their motion for summary judgment. They also said their Axanar online fan film works qualify as fair use because the Copyright Act says copying "for purposes of 'comment' may be fair use without any limitation as to the type of comment or the target of the comment." They said the Prelude to Axanar short film is obviously intended as a mockumentary, saying it's "irrelevant" they didn't explicitly claim fair use as parody or satire before being sued. In a reply brief (in Pacer) Monday in support of their motion for partial summary judgment (see 1611250021), Paramount/CBS said the Copyright Act allows the plaintiffs exclusive rights to derivative works and the Axanar/Peters' read of the law "would destroy the longstanding rights of content owners." Paramount/CBS also said Axanar/Peters haven't demonstrated the application of the fair use defense and disputed that the works qualify as satire or parody: "By the Defendants' own admission, [they were] never meant to be anything other than a 'professional' and 'independent' Star Trek work." The plaintiffs also said there's no precedent for saying creation of a non-satirical sequel or prequel is transformative.

Netflix for 2017 will debut about 20 “unscripted shows” for the first time, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told a UBS investor conference. They will include “one of our more high-profile shows” in Ultimate Beastmaster, a global competition series that’s executive-produced by Sylvester Stallone and will feature athletes and announcers from six countries, he said Monday. When the show appears in Mexico, "it will be with Mexican announcers and Mexican contestants, and in the U.S. it will be purely American product,” Sarandos said. Netflix sees unscripted TV as “a very interesting business,” Sarandos said. “The content itself appears to be largely interchangeable, meaning that if you want to watch a show about hoarding, there’s three different shows about hoarding that you can watch, and people watch it with seemingly equal passion when you swap them out.” Sarandos doesn’t see his company stepping into live sports anytime soon, he said. To the extent the “liveness is the selling point” of live sports, Netflix is “not a great solution,” he said. Broadcasting and cable are “great for the live sports,” he said. Tuesday, Netflix announced a video preview feature to keep subscribers there while searching for content. The preview service shows content in real time to help subscribers “decide whether to hit play,” said Stephen Garcia, director-product innovation for TV, and Chris Jaffe, vice president-product innovation, in a blog post. A new interface that will roll out globally over the next few weeks will be available on Netflix-enabled devices, including “the majority of game consoles and Roku devices,” they said. A company spokeswoman emailed us that initial products to support view previews are the Sony PS3, PS4, Xbox One and S and Roku 2, 3 and 4 streaming media players. Smart TVs and the Xbox 360 will be updated in coming months. The phased global rollout was used to ensure smooth deployment, the spokeswoman said. Video previews aren’t teasers or conventional trailers, said the blog post, but are “specially designed video synopses” that help subscribers choose content by “quickly highlighting the story, characters and tone of a title.” Previews vary in length and can be as long as a “couple of minutes,” said the representative.

James Murdoch, 21st Century Fox CEO, sees the growth of virtual multichannel video programming distributors as possibly helping grow video consumption the way direct broadcast satellite, AT&T's U-verse and Verizon's Fios did, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors Monday. Murdoch also considers the direct-to-consumer over-the-top business particularly difficult, saying Fox intends to look instead at third-party MVPDs and advanced advertisements, with a lot of its growth focused on video consumption, Fox News and Fox Sports 1 and 2, Ryvicker said.