HBO’s new stand-alone streaming service -- HBO Now -- will launch in April and be available via subscription exclusively to Apple customers, a news release from HBO parent Time Warner said Monday. When the service is launched, Apple customers can subscribe using the HBO Now app on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch or directly on Apple TV for $14.99/month. HBO will offer a 30-day introductory free trial period to new HBO Now customers who sign up through Apple in April. The service provides instant access to HBO programming over the Internet. HBO CEO Richard Plepler used Time Warner’s investor meeting in New York last fall to drop the news that the company will offer a "stand-alone HBO streaming service" in 2015 (see 1410150095).

Bright House Networks said it plans to begin offering 300 Mbps download/15 Mbps upload broadband speeds in its Florida service area beginning later this month. BHN’s service area includes the Tampa Bay metropolitan area and the Central Florida region. The 300/15 speed tier will allow the state's Bright House customers to “more easily access and use other applications that require high bandwidth,” the company said Friday. “We continually look for ways to provide the best available choices to our customers,” said Executive Vice President-Cable Operations Kevin Hyman in a news release. “Just a few months ago, we increased our maximum bandwidth offering to 150 Mbps.”

FCC staff contacted the Alliance for Community Media Feb. 23 and asked for suggested conditions that might “ameliorate” ACM's concerns with AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-90 Wednesday. Though ACM said its position remains that the FCC should deny the deal, it proposed conditions that would require AT&T to make public, educational and government (PEG) access channels available on its U-verse product the same way it does local broadcast channels. AT&T also should be required to carry PEG channels for at least five years after the deal is consummated, ACM said.

The 17 largest U.S. cable and phone providers added 3 million net broadband subscribers in 2014, Leichtman Research Group (LRG) said in a news release Thursday. Cable companies have 51.9 million broadband subscribers and phone companies have 35.4 million, it said. AT&T's U-verse and Verizon's FiOS broadband subscribers make up 53 percent of telco broadband subscribers, up from 37 percent at the end of 2012, LRG said. In 2014, the top cable companies added 2.65 million broadband subscribers and the top phone companies added about 345,000 subscribers, LRG said. In 2014, the top cable companies saw 2.3 million more net additions than phone companies did, compared with 1.7 million net adds in 2013, it said.

Time Warner Cable’s Go Green initiative reduced by 38 percent its carbon intensity over the past two years, said a TWC news release Thursday. That exceeded the 15 percent goal it set in 2012, it said. To reach that percentage, TWC increased energy efficiency and improved waste and vehicle management, promoting sustainability within its supply chain, and building employee green teams. TWC had a 15 percent increase from 2012 fuel efficiency within its fleet of 20,000 vehicles by buying more fuel-efficient vehicles, it said.

Five new channels were added to Verizon’s FiOS Mobile App -- FX, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo Wild and National Geographic Channel -- increasing the number of live, outside-the-home channels available on devices to 93, said Verizon in a news release Wednesday. It said TV consumption across devices grew 388 percent year over year, according to Adobe.

Time Warner Cable is bringing its TWC TV app to the Xbox One video game system, in an agreement with Microsoft, the cable operator said in a news release emailed Wednesday. TWC video subscribers who have an Xbox Live account can access 7,000 free and subscription on-demand titles, it said. Customers can download the TWC TV app at no additional cost from the Xbox Live Apps, it said. The app also is available on Xbox 360, it said. The app uses the OneGuide program guide and voice commands through Kinect, it said.

Comcast’s fourth annual report on its implementation of the conditions on its buy of control in NBCUniversal shows a “proud” track record, Executive Vice President David Cohen said in a blog post Tuesday. “Not a single multichannel video programming distributor or programmer has requested arbitration or filed a program carriage complaint" in the four years since the FCC approved the deal, Cohen said. Comcast reached content license agreements with Amazon, Crackle, Hulu and Netflix, he noted. Comcast “continued our fair dealings with online video distributors,” Cohen said. Comcast also has added more than 20 independent networks and “expanded the quality and quantity of diverse programming” on its on-demand and online offerings to more than 5,800 combined hours in 2014, Cohen said. That’s an increase of 94 percent over 2013, he said.

Cable One is increasing upload and download speeds on its Premier and Ultra plans starting in April “as a free upgrade" to new and existing Internet customers, the company said in a news release Tuesday. “Speed increases will be available across 99 percent of Cable ONE’s footprint by fall 2015.” Customers on Cable One’s Premiere 60 Mbps plan will be upgraded to 75 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload speeds, while those on the Ultra 70 Mbps plan will be upgraded to 100 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload, Cable One said. The speed increases are the results of “nearly" $80 million spent on infrastructure upgrades in 2014 and a planned $40 million in 2015, it said.

Charter Communications renamed its business services division Spectrum Business, Charter said in a news release Monday. Along with giving that part of the division a new name, Charter invested in improving its business broadband offerings, including doubling speeds, the release said. “Rebranding as Spectrum Business is a natural evolution for our company as we have elevated our focus on serving large customers with sophisticated communications needs,” said Executive Vice President Don Detampel.