Matt Daneman

Several broadcast, cable and media companies are opposing new FCC rules on the handling of confidential information and subsequent American Cable Association (ACA), Dish Network and Incompas opposition (see 1510260030) to a petition for reconsideration of those rules. That opposition ignores many of the arguments justifying reconsideration and often just parrots the reasoning in the order itself, said CBS, Disney, MPAA, Scripps Networks Interactive, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox, Univision Communications, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Viacom in a filing in docket 15-149 posted Monday. The FCC's September order "suffers from significant substantive and procedural errors," and opposition to reconsideration -- like the order itself -- is mistaken when it thinks the Communications Act and Trade Secrets Act allows the agency to make confidential business information broadly available either under a protective order or through the Freedom of Information Act, said Comcast and NBCUniversal in a separate filing posted Monday. The FCC didn't comment.

What Globalstar says was a clear demonstration there are no interference issues between its proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) and either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is coming under increasing fire from critics. The satellite company still hasn't satisfactorily answered how adjacent broadband radio service (BRS) and educational broadband service (EBS) will be safeguarded from TLPS interference, the Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) said in a filing in docket 13-213 posted Monday. And in a separate filing posted Friday in the docket, Microsoft said the Globalstar demonstration "overstates the results to the point of being misleading." Globalstar, meanwhile, is trying to rebut point by point some TLPS testing critics.

Cablevision and Game Show Network agree that GSN's retiering complaint against the cable operator boils down to issues of direct evidence and channels being similarly situated, plus the business judgment behind the retiering. That was where agreement ended in more than two hours of oral argument Friday before FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel. His decision in docket 12-122 is expected in early 2016.

Arris' planned buy of Pace faced more opposition than anticipated but still is expected to get regulatory approval without major conditions, said industry watchers and Arris' CEO. That it faces any regulatory pushback is somewhat surprising given the numerous other set-top box market players, said ABI Research analyst Sam Rosen. He pointed to Cisco, Samsung, increasing participation by LG in the area and "a whole host of vendors" in Europe that could decide to enter the U.S. market.

Charter Communications still hopes to close on its acquisitions of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable this year, but "realistically" the deal will wrap up in Q1, CEO Tom Rutledge said Thursday as it and TWC separately announced Q3 results. Charter is making available any information the FCC and Justice Department need as they review the transaction, he said, saying the company hasn't had any discussions with the FCC about potential conditions. Charter also has received approvals needed from most states and raised "nearly all" the financing needed for the acquisition, Rutledge said.

Iridium now expects the first launches of its Next satellite constellation in April, with the constellation to be fully operational by end of 2017, CEO Matt Desch said Thursday, announcing Q3 results. The company previously said it expected the first Next launch to come in December (see 1510230011). The new launch timeframe is due to "an updated delivery schedule" from Thales Alenia Space, Desch said.

Comcast plans to take part in the broadcast TV incentive auction through NBCUniversal and plans to activate the Verizon mobile virtual network operator "to trial some things and test some things," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Tuesday during the company's Q3 earnings call. "We're in a [wireless] test-and-learn mode and I think it's a natural part of the evolution of our company and participation in the mobile space beyond Wi-Fi," Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit said in response to a question about the company's wireless strategy. Q3 revenue was up 11.2 percent year over year to $18.7 billion, due to factors including a growing high-speed Internet subscriber base and the performance of Hollywood blockbusters like Jurassic World. Roberts said deployment of X1 set-top boxes is at 40,000 per day, with 25 percent of its video subscribers now X1 customers, which is lowering churn and leading to higher revenue per subscriber. While multichannel video programming distributors saw their biggest customer losses ever in Q2, Comcast said it hasn't been a major contributor to that. It reported 69,000 video customers lost in Q2, and 48,000 for Q3. Those 48,000 make for Comcast's best third quarter in nine years, and cable "is now unmistakably taking shares from satellite and TelCo TV is fading fast," Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson Research emailed investors Tuesday. While broadband has driven some of that, Moffett said, so too has "cable's two-way architecture and Comcast's ... user interface and VOD libraries. Cable's improvement in basic video looks sustainable." Though Comcast is buying a majority of Universal Studios Japan, large acquisitions in the U.S. are "unlikely ... under the current administration," wrote analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak of Pivotal Research Group.

The documents the FCC is poring over in its review of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable give snapshots of everything from interconnection policies to plans of a number of ISPs and cable companies. The released versions of the filings in docket 14-159 -- in response to Media Bureau document requests (see 1510130063) -- are in most cases heavily redacted. However, they illuminate some video and broadband strategic directions and policies.

The FCC proceeding on whether a particular type of over-the-top service should be considered a multichannel video programming distributor seems at a standstill, said an agency official and lawyers who have recently spoken with agency officials. The initiative spearheaded by Chairman Tom Wheeler is opposed by a majority of the other commissioners, as far as all stakeholders we interviewed are aware. Because there are many stakeholders with concerns about the NPRM, many of those interviewed represent interested clients.

Since Tennis Channel hasn't shown what new evidence it has or explained why it didn't present that evidence previously, the programmer's efforts to reopen its discrimination complaint against Comcast should be denied, the FCC said in a brief filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Tennis Channel's original 2010 carriage complaint initially was held up by the FCC, but then vacated by the D.C. Circuit. After Tennis Channel re-petitioned the FCC, the agency in January issued an order denying both the original complaint and the re-petition (see 1501280059), and Tennis Channel in response petitioned for to vacate that order and remand the case. "Although the FCC claims that the Comcast decision left it no other choice, nothing in that opinion permits, let alone requires, the FCC to turn a blind eye to swaths of record evidence bearing directly on what have now become the dispositive factual issues in this case," Tennis Channel said in its own brief filed Sept. 21. The D.C. Circuit reversed the agency "because the evidence the agency relied upon was insufficient to support its decision. The Court did not -- and, under basic principles of administrative law, could not -- make definitive findings on factual issues the FCC never considered." However, in its brief, the FCC said it "faithfully adhered" to the appellate court's decision when it made its January decision, and "nothing in the Court's decision suggests that the Court anticipated or intended for the FCC to conduct further proceedings on remand." Meanwhile, the agency said, Tennis Channel "already received a full and fair opportunity to prosecute its program-carriage complaint, and it has not shown that the FCC in any way misled it or prevented it from submitting any relevant evidence. The interest in bringing this proceeding to a close outweighs any interest in giving Tennis Channel a second opportunity to litigate its complaint." No oral argument was scheduled in the petition, according to court paperwork.