The New York Public Service Commission shouldn’t seek a voluntary agreement from Comcast to expand its rural service area as part of its review of the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal, said Stop the Cap Founder Phillip Dampier in a filing posted Monday. The filing repeats Stop the Cap’s opposition to Comcast/TWC. The public service benefit of asking Comcast to voluntarily expand its rural service area “must be weighed against the interests of millions of existing subscribers in New York who are likely to see further rate increases, usage-limited broadband service, and worse service from Comcast,” Dampier said in the filing. “Unless Comcast was compelled to wire the entire state, any proposal seeking a voluntary agreement to expand Comcast’s service area in New York is likely to be insufficient to solve the pervasive problem of rural broadband availability. It would also saddle millions of New Yorkers with a company unwelcomed by consumers, with no alternative choice.” The New York PSC’s review should also include a “careful analysis of exactly what Comcast is proposing to offer New York,” Dampier said, saying many of Comcast’s proposals are expensive. Attempts at behavioral remedies as part of merger reviews have “spectacularly failed to protect consumers from rapacious rate increases after the merger deals are approved,” Dampier said (http://bit.ly/1ujPJiO).
Charter Communications and ESPN have a distribution agreement for ESPN’s SEC Network, the companies said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1y6a8p8). The new channel, focused on showing live Southeastern Conference college sporting events and related content, will launch Aug. 14, and be available in all Charter markets, they said. Authenticated subscribers will also be able to watch games on SEC network’s digital outlets, which include WatchESPN and SECNetwork.com, they said. DirecTV recently agreed to carry the network (CD Aug 6 p16).
21st Century Fox withdrew its proposal to acquire Time Warner, it said. Time Warner “refused to engage with us to explore an offer which was highly compelling,” 21st Century Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/XBlgiC). 21st Century Fox offered Time Warner about $80 billion (CD July 17 p12). The reaction in the share price for 21st Century Fox since the proposal was offered “undervalues our stock and makes the transaction unattractive to Fox shareholders,” he said. The 21st Century Fox board authorized on Tuesday a $6 billion share repurchase program, he said.
The FCC should extend the deadline for comment on Mediacom’s petition for new rules for programmers and negotiation for content (CD July 25 p13), said the American Cable Association in a motion for extension of time posted online in RM-11728 Monday (http://bit.ly/1ufJpWP). The deadline is now Aug. 28, with replies due 15 days later. ACA wants those deadlines extended an extra month because the petition involves “key areas of reform,” including program carriage and program access rules, the motion said.
Samsung, the PGA and Turner Sports are teaming to offer
Comcast will include up to six months of free broadband for families new to Internet Essentials and forgive past-due bills for low-income families that apply for the service, said Executive Vice President David Cohen in a blog post Monday (http://bit.ly/1qUA60Y): “We're doing this because there is no more important back to school supply than Internet service at home.” The past-due bill amnesty applies to bills more than a year old for households that are otherwise eligible for IE, said the cable ISP. “If customers’ outstanding bills are less than a year old, however, then we would like them to settle that debt with us before they can be eligible to apply for the program,” Cohen said. “We are willing to work with families whose debt is reasonable enough that they could pay us back in installments.” The complimentary six months of broadband applies to families that receive approval for Internet Essentials between Aug. 4 and Sept. 20, Cohen said. “With the merger with Time Warner Cable, we see a tremendous opportunity to bring the benefits of Internet Essentials to millions of additional families in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Kansas City and Charlotte.” Comcast started Internet Essentials about when it got 2011 FCC approval for buying control of NBCUniversal.
Disney and the National Cable Television Cooperative reached a multiyear distribution agreement, they said in a news release Friday (http://es.pn/1pMFyMM). NCTC members will get access to Disney and ESPN channels on their TVs and digital devices, they said. The deal includes the Disney & ESPN Networks Group VOD offering WATCH, and new channels including Fusion, the SEC Network, Longhorn Network, and ESPN Goal Line, the release said. NCTC members will continue to have access to Disney and ESPN channels such as the Disney Channel, Disney Junior, ESPN, and ABC Family, it said.
Charter Communications successfully tested components of its downloadable security system in a prototype set-top box, the company said in a report to the FCC posted July 31 in docket 97-80 (http://bit.ly/1u7p2ej). Such status reports were one of the conditions of the waiver of the commission’s CableCARD rules granted to the operator last year. Charter is still in talks with a maker of consumer electronics to develop a set-top box using Charter’s system for retail sale, the report said. Charter said it has deployed 1.38 million set-tops with integrated security.
Over 588,000 CableCARDs have been deployed for use in retail devices by Cablevision, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable, NCTA said in a report filed in FCC docket 97-80 Thursday (http://bit.ly/1uLEYXV). Combined with the next four largest cable companies’ deployments, there are 620,000 CableCARDs deployed for retail devices, and over 48 million in operator supplied boxes, said the association. Cablevision has 37,570 CableCARDs deployed, Charter has 52,341, Comcast has 351,447, Cox has 53,655 and Time Warner Cable has 93,341, NCTA said.
The FCC won’t terminate Adams Cable Equipment’s CableCARD waiver for filing its status report four months late, said a Media Bureau order Thursday (http://bit.ly/1AEp0PJ). The bureau agreed with a petition filed by ACE (CD July 9 p19) that the delay in reporting “did not materially affect the public interest benefits that the Bureau found in the ACE Waiver Order,” said order. “We caution ACE to diligently meet its next reporting deadline.” The bureau also granted an ACE request that the deadline for the next status report be extended from December to January.