Netflix backs Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, the online video distributor said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday at the FCC in docket 15-149. Charter's settlement-free interconnection policy and plans to extend that two BHN and TWC "is a welcome and significant departure from the efforts of some ISPs to collect access tolls on the Internet," the online video distributor said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 15-149. As long as free peering is a condition of the BHN and TWC acquisitions, Netflix said, it would support it. Charter has had a settlement-less interconnection policy for years, and plans to keep one at least through 2018, the cable company said in a separate filing Wednesday. Charter submitted its recently updated interconnection policy, which indicates that applicants providing content to Charter customers can tie into its IP network, and those interconnections will be done "at no charge to either party for traffic exchange," Charter said.

Comcast is testing a streaming videogame service in partnership with Electronic Arts, the cable company said Tuesday. Its Xfinity Games offering doesn't use a console or game controllers but is controlled by users' smartphones or tablets, with the games streaming over Comcast Xfinity subscribers' X1 boxes, Comcast said. Xfinity Games follows Comcast's unveiling of its video streaming service, Stream, earlier this week (see 1507130008).

Correction: The video competition report on which the FCC seeks comment is the 17th annual report (see 1507020044).

Any reinterpretation of multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) to encompass some parts of the over-the-top video world shouldn't come with the FCC directly playing a role in licensing of programming rights for online video distribution, and shouldn't apply to programmers distributing content through applications or services they come up with in house, a group of media companies said in a filing posted Monday in docket 14-261. "New rules seeking to promote innovation and competition in video distribution should not apply to content providers who simply want to continue developing new ways in which consumers can access and enjoy their content," CBS said. Regarding whether the FCC should play a regulatory role in the market for programing rights for online distribution, CBS said that step "would be a troubling and unnecessary influence into private licensing negotiations" and better handled by through existing copyright law than FCC regulation. The ex parte filing followed a meeting last week among executives from CBS, Disney, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and Viacom and representatives from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's office. Verizon, in a separate ex parte filing on 14-261 posted Monday, said that while it broadly supports including OTT providers of multiple streams of prescheduled, linear video programming in the MVPD definition, those OTT providers shouldn't face "ill-fitted legacy cable regulations, such as franchising, must-carry and technology mandates," as such rules "would discourage the provision of new online video services, undermining the Commission’s goal in this proceeding of generating additional competitive options for consumers." OTT video providers should be subject to such 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act requirements as closed captioning and video description, and the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act's loudness mitigation obligations, Verizon said. The Verizon meeting participants included Leora Hochstein, executive director-federal regulatory affairs, and staff from the Media Bureau and the Office of Strategic Planning.

The FCC needs data on the regional sports networks (RSNs) operated by Charter Communications, Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable if it's going to weigh how Charter's proposed takeover of the other two will affect those networks and their pricing, the American Cable Association said in a submission posted Tuesday in docket 15-149. While the market boundaries of stations and nationally distributed cable programming are easily definable, "the precise market boundaries of RSNs are generally known only to their owners," ACA said. So to figure out how the Charter acquisitions will affect competition and consumers, the FCC should start by requesting such data as what regionally distributed sports programming networks are distributed in what census blocks, what professional sports are available on those networks and the geographic footprint of that programming's distribution, ACA said.

Charter Communications expects to see $800 million in cost savings from its planned acquisitions of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, Charter said in a filing posted Monday in FCC docket 15-149. The public version of the letter, in response to a request from FCC staff, is highly redacted and gives no details about what specific cost savings Charter expects. Those savings are anticipated to come from programming costs and from "less overhead and management structure than the three companies require separately," as well as from reductions in administrative labor costs and in duplicative facilities, Charter said. It reiterated that the three companies have almost no overlapping customer base. Among their commercial customers, fewer than 1,000 customers are in census blocks where at least two of the three companies operate commercial broadband service -- meaning 0.09 percent of their roughly 1.1 million commercial broadband customers, Charter said. The company previously argued before the FCC that the residential broadband overlap among the three is also miniscule (see 1507060040). Meanwhile, the Charter/BHN/TWC deal could mean a blow to the cable modem industry, modem manufacturer Zoom Telephonics said in separate comments posted Tuesday. While Comcast and TWC customers who use their own cable modems save $8 to $10 on their monthly bills, Charter has no such discount, and "bringing that policy to Time Warner Cable could severely hurt U.S. retailing of cable modems, Zoom Telephonics, Time Warner Cable customers and customer choice," Zoom said. Charter also continues to require that cable modems it certifies first be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, though that Wi-Fi Alliance approval "is time consuming and expensive" and something other multisystem operators do not require, Zoom said.

Comcast is launching a $15-a-month streaming service, Stream, starting later this summer, Matt Strauss, general manager-Comcast Cable video services, said in a company blog post Sunday. Through Stream, Comcast's Xfinity Internet customers will be able to watch live streaming video from close to a dozen networks, as well as numerous on-demand movies and TV shows, on their mobile devices, Strauss said. Stream -- which will be accessed through Comcast's Xfinity TV app -- also will have a cloud-based DVR service for recording and viewing. The Stream rollout will start in Boston late this summer and expand to the Chicago and Seattle markets next, with Comcast expecting it to be available across its coverage area by early 2016, Strauss said.

Comcast held a grand opening for its Studio Xfinity store in Chicago Friday. The new 9,000-square-foot space in Chicago’s Clybourn Corridor “brings together the best TV and Internet technology” and will be a testbed for “enhanced ways to serve customers,” said the company. The interactive space will allow customers to experience Comcast Internet, video, voice and home security and automation offerings, said Comcast. The “transformational retail environment” is part of a larger nationwide Comcast effort “to redefine the customer experience," said John Crowley, senior vice president-Comcast’s Greater Chicago Region. When customers enter the studio, store staff will greet and guide them throughout their visit, then provide support after they leave for any follow-up questions, said Crowley. Customers will be able to try out products and services at “demonstration towers,” while merchandise walls will show compatible third-party products including the Sonos Soundbar and Netgear routers “that complement the Xfinity lineup,” the company said. The store will hold informational events and activities, including workshops, product demos, sports-related events and game nights with coffee, tea and “refreshments,” said Comcast.

The FCC Media Bureau set an Aug. 10 deadline for comments in its next round of possible rule changes under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, it said in a public notice released Friday in docket 12-107. The agency is seeking input on means of making emergency information audibly accessible to the blind or visually impaired, such as prioritizing audio emergency information on a secondary audio stream, continuing to require school closing information to be included on that secondary audio stream, and requiring multichannel video programming distributors to ensure subscribers have access to a user-friendly mechanism for accessing audible emergency information on that secondary audio stream. The FCC already has rules requiring that MVPDs use a secondary audio stream to bring audible emergency information to consumers accessing linear programming on mobile devices and that manufacturers make such secondary audio streams easily accessible. Replies have a Sept. 8 submission deadline.

The Justice Department "believes that bigger is badder," which could spell big regulatory hurdles for Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield said Friday in a blog. Pointing to comments by Nancy Rose, Antitrust Division deputy assistant attorney general for economic analysis, at a June American Bar Association event, Greenfield said it was "very difficult to see how the government can approve the creation of a company nearly the size of Comcast ... particularly as it is far from clear what concessions would alleviate the government’s underlying concerns without true competition materializing." The Justice Department apparently isn't looking at end users as it analyzes the video and broadband markets, and thus the agency rejects the idea that cable consolidation does not affect competition since cable operators are in different geographic markets with no overlapping customers, Greenfield wrote. Instead, the Justice Department seemingly sees the content distribution markets as national, and sees the growing size and scale of multichannel video programming distributors and Internet service providers creating difficulty for new broadband overbuilders to buy affordable programming, which in turn slows their buildouts, he said. Greenfield has said before that he believes the Charter/BHN/TWC deals face steep hurdles for regulatory approval (see 1506170033).