Charter Communications enlisted former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt to push the agency to start the comment cycle on its proposed purchases of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. In an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-149, Charter said Hundt talked Wednesday with agency General Counsel Jonathan Sallet about a "prompt resolution of the protective order" and to urge starting the comment cycle. Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday said the shot clock won't start until commissioners vote on a protective order on handling video programming confidential information (see 1508060055).

NCTA, seeking an administrator for a newer power efficiency pact for Internet gear (see 1506250038), said an audit found savings from a previous accord to cut the amount of electricity set-top boxes use. The so-called voluntary agreement (VA) among pay-TV providers, makers of consumer electronics and energy efficiency advocates saved $500 million-plus in energy, preventing 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, said the association Thursday, citing a report released that day by an independent auditor. The VA saved consumers $336 million in 2014, a year when 90 percent of set-tops bought by pay-TV providers met the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star v3.0 efficiency levels, said NCTA in a Wednesday blog post. But progress toward the next tier of performance could be "challenging," because set-tops bought in January 2017 likely will have more functionality than products reported for last year, said the report dated July 31, the second annual one under the VA. It said Tier 2 requirements must be met by 90 percent of set-tops bought by participants starting Dec. 31, 2016. The pay-TV industry, "undergoing massive changes" including shifting to IP-based video that may cut set-top energy use, opens "up a realm of possibilities," wrote Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a participant in the set-top VA, on the NRDC's blog. "We are hoping that the industry includes power-scaling technology in their next-generation devices so these devices only work as hard as the task at hand." Meanwhile, the steering committee for June's VA on Web gear issued a request for proposals for an independent administrator for that accord, which doesn't include energy efficiency advocates but does include pay-TV and CE companies. RFPs for that small network equipment initiative are due Sept. 16, said NCTA. The administrator "will annually assess each company’s compliance, produce an annual report, and handle many other transparency and verification functions," said the association.

American Cable Association's Ross Lieberman needs access to confidential deal information, and the FCC should clarify who qualifies as "outside counsel" to make that happen, ACA said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-149. ACA said clarification should come before the agency issues a protective order in Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, as the phrase "outside counsel" -- when used in other protective orders in recent reviews of multichannel video programming distributor transactions -- has been "incongruent with the common usage of the term in the legal and corporate world," ACA said. Meanwhile, parties in different deals before the FCC over the past four years have objected three separate times to Lieberman's status as outside counsel, meaning ACA "has had to expend its limited time and resources responding." Adding an addendum stipulating an in-house attorney employed by a noncommercial trade association representing commercial parties qualifies as "outside counsel" would leave the door open to objecting to Lieberman's access -- or access of other similar attorneys -- on other grounds, ACA said. Lieberman is ACA senior vice president-government affairs. The FCC has had on circulation a draft protective order on Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1508040060)

Turner Broadcasting is accelerating its VOD offerings, for the first time offering multiple upcoming episodes of a series online. The programmer said Thursday it would make multiple episodes of the drama Public Morals available through set-top video on demand, the Watch TNT mobile app and online at www.tntdrama.com/watchtnt one day after the Aug. 25 series premiere. Episodes of some truTV and TNT series also will be available on demand starting this week, Turner said.

Fiber to the Premises networks are the best route for a rural broadband build-out under Connect America Fund Phase II, the American Cable Association said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 10-90. While the agency has been supporting LECs in bringing broadband to such underserved, high-cost areas, FTTP networks "have much lower operating costs, enable providers to offer virtually any service, and provide a relatively easy path for upgrades -- all of which present the possibility of diminishing, if not eliminating, the need for subsidies beyond the initial term," ACA said. With the benefits of FTTP networks evident in urban areas, "rural consumers and areas in which they live and work should not be left behind," ACA said. But FTTP networks are more expensive to install than upgrading fiber/copper DSL networks, meaning FTTP is at a disadvantage in CAF competitive bidding unless the process "gives weight to the value of a cost-effective and fiscally responsible FTTP network build," ACA said. The association said the agency should give FTTP bids priority in cases where it "is clearly superior to bids for lower speed broadband." It said that means bidders offering to build FTTP networks to 90 percent of the locations in the eligible unserved areas in the bid, bidding no more than the reserve price for those areas, and committing that they will seek no further CAF financial support after 10 years. The commission also should establish a cost-per-location limit above which fiber would be deemed too expensive and not support FTTP in those areas, ACA said.

Windstream's Kinetic TV service went live in April in Lincoln, Nebraska, using Arris-made NVG343 residential gateways and VIP Series IP set-tops, said the telco in a Tuesday news release. Kinetic, announced last year (see 1410030050), began service April 15 and provides HD video streaming and whole-home DVR service.

The First Amendment trumps any reinterpretation of multichannel video programming distributor that includes online video distributors (OVDs), NCTA said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in FCC docket 14-261. It summarized a meeting between NCTA officials and Commissioner Ajit Pai's office, at which NCTA repeated points made in previous comments and replies as the FCC looks at expanding what is considered an MVPD to a particular type of OVD. That expansion would be inconsistent with the language and legislative history of the term, "all of which make clear that the term applies only to facilities-based entities that provide subscribers not only video programming but also the transmission path on which such programming is delivered," NCTA said. OVDs don't need such program access rules under MVPD regulation, because competition "is already flourishing" among MVPDs and OVDs, and regulation that would enforce terms and conditions that don't come from negotiations "is not pro-competitive," NCTA said. Such a new interpretation of MVPDs also would put "serious administrative burdens" on the FCC and on businesses, because figuring out enforcement issues and "determining how program access obligations of cable operators apply to OVDs will be a complex regulatory task, involving arbitrary line-drawing, which runs directly contrary to the express statutory policy of allowing the Internet to continue to grow and develop," said the association. An interpretation of MVPD that extends program access rules to OVDs "would raise serious Constitutional issues" under the First Amendment, NCTA said. When cable operators offer online video to ISP customers, they shouldn't be treated as cable operators but the same as other OVDs, NCTA said.

Arguments by big programmers against changing the FCC's interpretation of what a multichannel video programming distributor is and against changing content distribution rights "provide no concern for what options should be included in the new definition of MVPDs that would address consumer concerns regarding skyrocketing pay TV costs ... only that they want to continue with the status quo," BiggyTV said in a filing posted Friday in docket 14-261. The MVPD status quo "does not promote innovation or competition," BiggyTV said, and new MVPD definitions should cover online video distribution efforts by existing MVPDs "so that the playing field for new entries is leveled." MVPDs all should have the same access to in-home devices for distribution of their own over-the-top services over rivals' hardware, and no MVPD should have exclusivity because of a technology platform or relation to "transmission based" MVPDs, it said. BiggyTV also called for content creators to be able to negotiate separate license fees and not be forced to sign exclusively with an OTT MVPD and argued against bundling, and it backed the American Cable Association calls that various retransmission consent negotiating tactics like blackouts of marquee events be considered bad faith. Separate ex parte filings by an overlapping array of programmers made up of CBS, Scripps Networks Interactive, Time Warner, Viacom and Walt Disney had almost identical wording as they argued against FCC involvement in buying of programming rights for online distribution, and such "'cut and paste' lobbying should embolden the FCC to make the pro-consumer changes within the new definition of MVPDs," BiggyTV said. The proposed MVPD interpretation before the FCC now "in no way represents 'new' law or regulation" but simply would reconcile FCC policy with Congress' intent that "a service which distributes live, linear video programming in a way that is functionally equivalent to cable television and satellite distribution systems similarly qualifies as an MVPD," Sky Angel said in a filing posted Thursday in the docket. Pointing to MVPD program access rules, Sky Angel said "consumers deserve the pro-competitive protections that Congress put in place ... so that small and start-up entrants, such as Sky Angel, or established companies intending to move into new offerings, may have access to the regulatory tools in place and intended to support new live linear video distribution services."

Comcast's seeming renewed interest in wireless communications might signal its next strategic step, said BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk in a blog post Friday. That Comcast is reportedly in talks with Verizon to renegotiate its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) contract that it has never used is "a surprising new development," as well as an indication Comcast's 2011 sale of AWS spectrum to Verizon was at too-low prices, Piecyk said. While cable companies have touted Wi-Fi First as their response as the wireless industry becomes a growing competitive threat, "an attractive MVNO deal would be critical to execute that strategy," he said. However, because Comcast is trying to renegotiate points to its Verizon deal, even if Comcast activates the existing agreement this year, "we suspect it will talk it down as merely a limited trial," Piecyk said. Given the slim profit margins on MVNOs, Comcast might be better served by a wireless acquisition, and the company reportedly is in some sort of talks with Sprint and almost surely with T-Mobile as well, he said.

Viacom bought a 50 percent interest in Prism TV, which operates several entertainment channels in India, it said Friday. The purchase price was roughly $153 million, Viacom said. The other half of Prism TV will continue to be owned by Network18 Group, Viacom's partner in Viacom18, an Indian entertainment network joint venture. Programmers have been aggressively acquiring properties internationally (see 1506160006).