Discovery Communications and Suddenlink renewed a long-term distribution agreement to deliver Discovery’s 13 U.S. networks to Suddenlink TV customers. Suddenlink customers will have continued access to the networks and VOD content, including OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, TLC and Investigation Discovery, Discovery said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1vHGd6x). The companies expect Suddenlink customers to have authenticated access to Discovery content inside and outside the home in the near future, Discovery said.

Any potential FCC action on the definition of what constitutes a multichannel video programming distributor would involve “a number of complex issues for the Commission to consider,” said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen in a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel last week, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-57 Friday (http://bit.ly/ZreoVV). The Media Bureau recently reopened a proceeding on the issue to ex parte filings, and Chairman Tom Wheeler said the matter was something the FCC may be considering (CD Oct 1 p8). Defining online video providers “as MVPDs would confer obligations as well as benefits on these entities,” Cohen said.

Comcast’s incentive and ability to “foreclose competing Latino content providers” from being competitive will increase if its proposed deal to buy Time Warner Cable is approved, Entravision CEO Walter Ulloa and other Entravision executives told Philip Verveer, aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-57 Friday (http://bit.ly/ZreoVV). Comcast is affiliated with Entravision’s competitor Telemundo, and the FCC should condition any approval of Comcast/TWC with “structural remedies” to “ensure that Comcast doesn’t produce content that competes with its unaffiliated programmers and does not become a dominant” multichannel video program distributor to the Latino market, it said.

Cox Communications said it will begin offering its “G1GABLAST” gigabit Internet service to its residential customers later this year. Cox will first offer the G1GABLAST service to customers in portions of the Phoenix metropolitan area, followed by offerings in Las Vegas and Omaha. The company said it plans to deploy the service nationwide by the end of 2016. “Cox will deliver the choice of gigabit speeds to all of our customers nationwide,” said President Pat Esser in a Monday news release. G1GABLAST will cost $69.99 per month for customers in Phoenix as part of a service bundle. Cox said it’s also doubling speeds for its High Speed Internet Preferred and High Speed Internet Premier services (http://bit.ly/Za4GGO).

There’s no national broadband market, said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen in a meeting Tuesday with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and aide Clint Odom, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-57 Friday (http://bit.ly/ZBYXdY). Any assessment of whether Comcast’s proposed buy of Time Warner Cable hurts competition in broadband should examine the market at the local level, the filing said. Comcast and TWC serve distinct geographic areas, Cohen said. Critics arguing that Comcast would control too much of the broadband market after the deal are unfairly not including DSL and wireless broadband or using too high a speed threshold for defining broadband, Cohen said. “DSL and wireless do meet some consumers’ broadband needs for some uses, even if these technologies are not yet perfect substitutes for all consumers.” At a 10 Mbps broadband threshold, Comcast would control 40 percent of fixed connections after the transaction, while at a 25 Mbps threshold, that number increases by less than 1 percent, Cohen said.

The FCC created a new inbox for comments on Comcast’s planned buy of Time Warner Cable and the associated transfers of systems to Charter Communications, the commission said in a public notice Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1vBdly2). The inbox address is ComcastTWCMerger@fcc.gov, the PN said. Documents submitted to the inbox become part of the official record of the proceeding -- docketed as 14-57 -- and will be posted in the commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System, the PN said. The commission will also host a “Comma Separated Values (CSV) file for bulk upload of comments,” the PN said. There was a delay recently in posting comments to the docket on a document confidentiality issue related to the deals (CD Oct 2 p10).

Comcast X1 customers in San Francisco can access their TV lineup on any connected screen in their home, Comcast said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1BzYu7J). Bay Area X1 customers will also be able to download programs recorded on their DVR to watch on connected devices or stream from the Internet, it said. The live in-home streaming and X1 DVR are also available in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., it said. “Comcast expects that most of its X1 customers will have access to these features by the end of the year,” said the release. To deliver the new features to Xfinity customers, Comcast launched an Xfinity TV app for iOS and Android tablets and smartphones, and a dedicated portal for watching on a computer, it said.

Cablevision filed a defamation lawsuit against Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1109, senior union official Chris Shelton and former Cablevision employee Jerome Thompson in New York state Supreme Court, said the operator in a news release. “The CWA union is knowingly disseminating false and defamatory statements in an attempt to negatively impact Cablevision’s business and damage the reputation of the company and its employees,” Cablevision said Wednesday. “It is clear that the CWA will stop at nothing to advance its selfish interests and we are asking the Court to put an immediate halt to their unlawful and malicious activities.” CWA and the other defendants have “made a series of false and malicious statements” concerning Cablevision’s termination of Thompson “in an effort to damage Cablevision’s reputation,” the release said. Thompson was fired for “years-long history of deliberate disregard for Company policies” but CWA says the firing was racially motivated, Cablevision said. “The CWA and other defendants have used social media, online petitions, leaflets and letters to public officials to knowingly spread this false information.” Cablevision is asking the court to enjoin CWA and the defendants from disseminating “false and damaging statements,” the release said. CWA Local 1109 didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Using forbearance to ease the burdens of Communications Act Title II regulation of broadband Internet would likely become a “regulatory morass,” NCTA said in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1vkLiBC). The FCC would have to “create an entirely new regulatory regime for broadband Internet access from whole cloth,” NCTA said. Nearly all forbearance petitions are opposed, and often opposed “vigorously,” NCTA said. Forbearance petition deadlines are typically extended, and decisions on them are often made by the FCC on the last week or last day, NCTA said. The agency could also provide different relief for different types of entities or for entities in different locations, adding to the complexity, the association said. “The idea that it will be easy for the Commission to decide whether to forbear with respect to dozens of Title II provisions for hundreds of companies defies all logic and experience,” NCTA said. Many of the parties supporting forebearance have filed comments “suggesting that there are almost no provisions of Title II for which they would support forbearance,” NCTA said. “Given the entirely speculative benefits this exercise is likely to produce, the Commission should decline to start down this road at all.” NASUCA sought Title II rules, in a filing posted in the net neutrality NPRM docket Thursday. (See separate report above in this issue.)

A patent for the automated transmission of time-sensitive product information was granted for the e-commerce platform for TV shopping channel HSN2, said HSN in a Tuesday night news release (http://bit.ly/Y3slYW). It said No. 8,768,781 is the sixth e-commerce patent HSN has received.