Comcast will add Chamberlain’s MyQ control software and Netgear’s Arlo camera to its Xfinity Home smart home offerings, it said Tuesday. Comcast customers will be able to monitor and control their garage doors from “virtually anywhere” with their Xfinity Home app later this month, Comcast said. App control for Arlo will be available early next year, it said. “While there are more connected devices available than ever, consumers continue to struggle with the best way to make them work together,” Dan Herscovici, Xfinity Home general manager, said. The addition of MyQ and Arlo is part of a strategy to “aggregate the best home automation and security features” and bring them into a “common, easy-to-use and seamless experience,” he said.

Government involvement in the set-top box market "is backward looking and puts undue faith in industrial planning over naturally occurring innovation," NCTA CEO Michael Powell said in a counterpoint editorial Monday in USA Today. Powell's piece was in response to an editorial in USA Today backing FCC intervention in the set-top box market. "Nothing prevents any company from making and selling a cable box," Powell wrote. "Buying a cable box is just not that compelling for most consumers." Meanwhile, Powell said, the set-top is becoming somewhat superfluous as pay-TV companies make services available through apps. "Just last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared, 'The future of TV is apps.' And several cable providers offer Netflix on the same box with cable content," Powell said.

Low-income citizens' access to broadband is becoming an issue in the FC's review of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. In a filing posted Monday in docket 15-149, Charter said Alex Hoehn-Saric, senior vice president-government affairs, met with one of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's staffers to talk about ways post-merger Charter "could fulfill its commitment to provide affordable, fast broadband through its proposed low-income program." Various operational and technical issues -- such as eligibility, enrollment and speed offerings -- also were discussed, Charter said.

Arris' TG1682 residential voice gateway is now part of Comcast's XB3 home Wi-Fi service, Arris said Monday. The companies began jointly working on new broadband modems last year, it said. XB3's aim includes gigabit wireless speeds, IP video technology and integration of home automation and security, Arris said. Its TG1682 combines 24DS channel bonding, two analog voice lines, a 4-port gigabit router and a dual band 802.11ac wireless access point into the device, said the vendor.

The comments period on their merger having closed a month ago, Altice and Suddenlink asked the FCC Wireline Bureau where their $9.1 billion deal stands. According to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-135, Cequel General Counsel Craig Rosenthal and Altice Head of Business Development and M&A Burkhard Koep were among company officials who met with Wireline Bureau top staff to talk about "the status and timing of the regulatory approval process" and the review standards applicable to Altice's takeover of Cequel -- Cequel doing business as Suddenlink. The public comment period ended July 24, with replies on comments due Aug. 10. The docket saw sparse opposition to the proposed deal (see 1507240027). The FCC declined to comment Monday.

TV cord cutting is widely talked about but rarely done worldwide, said survey data from Rovi released Friday. Globally, 3 percent of pay-TV customers have cut the cord, though 57 percent of those surveyed had given "a lot" or "some" thought to doing so, Rovi said. Cord cutting is more prevalent in the U.S., where 7 percent of respondents had done so, compared with roughly 2 percent in China, France, Germany and India, the company said. Searching for content looks to be one of viewers' chief sources of dissatisfaction, Rovi survey data said, since close to 73 percent of respondents said they're “extremely” or “somewhat” frustrated when they can’t locate enjoyable content, and those surveyed average 19 minutes a day looking for something to watch. Of those surveyed, 67 percent said they would be likely to extend their contract, upgrade their service, or sign up with a provider if it offered better search or recommendations, while 51 percent said their content provider should focus on better customer experience with an easier and more effective means of searching for content. In China and India, 90 percent of respondents said they would opt for a provider offering more effective searches or recommendations. Rovi said survey respondents also desire natural language voice-based searches -- 54 percent said they would “definitely” or “probably” spend an additional $1.99 a month for access to a voice command search feature. The survey data came from an online survey of 4,000 pay-TV and over-the-top subscribers in seven countries, with 1,000 interviews in the U.S., and 500 interviews each in the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan and India, Rovi said. The company announced the survey results at the IBC Show in Amsterdam. It also unveiled new offerings, such as its own natural language search interface, Rovi Conversation Services; its Fan TV software that bundles live TV, VOD and streaming services; and additional capabilities of its metadata product, Rovi Metadata.

Comcast and Liberty Global will use Metrological-developed open-source browser enhancements for set-top boxes, Metrological said in a Thursday news release. The Metrological enhancements will be part of the Reference Design Kit (RDK) software stack used by pay TV. The browser software will allow better rendering of HTML5 apps and next-generation user interfaces across set-tops, Metrological said. Liberty Global plans to use the Metrological software for its RDK-based Horizon TV platform, while Comcast plans to test the set-top box browser software on its RDK-based X1 platform, Metrological said.

Comcast Wholesale is getting into live streaming offerings as it unveiled its Live Linear Streaming service Thursday at the IBC show in Amsterdam. The service includes such offerings as seamless content ingest, comprehensive encoding and packaging, the Platform’s mpx video management system, playback, and delivery through a number content delivery networks, including Comcast's, the company said.

Cablevision is adding a cable network, WGN America, to its basic cable lineup for its Connecticut, New Jersey and New York customers in January as part of a multiyear agreement with Tribune Media, the companies said Thursday. Financial terms weren't disclosed. The deal includes retransmission consent arrangements that Cablevision Optimum TV customers will continue to receive Tribune TV stations WPIX New York; in Connecticut WTIC-TV Hartford and WCCT-TV Waterbury; and WPHL-TV Philadelphia. It also renews Cablevision's use of TV listings and movie data from Tribune's Gracenote, and sees Cablevision taking over Tribune's 2.8 percent interest in Newsday Holdings, making it a wholly owned Cablevision subsidiary.

AT&T hired Ericsson to help upgrade its premium TV offering across its satellite and wireline network, said Ericsson in a news release Thursday. The technology changes will involve AT&T's U-verse and DirecTV platforms, Ericsson said. Enrique Rodriguez, AT&T Entertainment and Internet Services chief technical officer, said the aim is "an unparalleled bundled video entertainment, mobile and broadband experience."