Comcast will launch an Ultra HD set-top later this year as it brings its Xfinity in UHD catalog to the X1 platform, the company said in a Wednesday news release. The Xi4 will deliver UHD content “directly to the television, enabling X1 customers to enjoy unlimited virtual 4K linear channels by creating personalized playlists from the Xfinity in UHD library,” Comcast said. It will follow that next year with the launch of a high-dynamic-range Xi5 set-top, Comcast said. Comcast representatives didn’t comment whether the Xi5 set-top will support an open HDR standard such as that being espoused by the UHD Alliance or a proprietary standard such as Dolby Vision. The Xi5 high-dynamic-range set-top will provide “increased color, contrast and brightness,” Comcast said. The deployment of Xfinity in UHD for the X1 platform will mean “our customers can easily and seamlessly enjoy some of the best 4K programming available today as part of their subscription with no additional equipment or costs,” Comcast Cable General Manager-Video Service Matt Strauss said. Comcast said it also plans to add hundreds of additional films and shows to its Xfinity in UHD catalog, including IMAX films and content from Starz, SyFy and USA. At the INTX cable show in Chicago, the operator demo'd other enhancements as it's trying to improve customer service (see 1505060012).

“The vast majority" of VoIP customers of Cablevision and Charter Communications don't buy batteries to back up the service when the power goes out, executives of the cable operators told FCC Public Safety Bureau officials, Charter said in an FCC filing. "Charter and Cablevision make significant efforts to educate their customers about the VoIP services they offer, including that such service will not work during a power outage without a backup battery." The filing was posted Tuesday in dockets including 14-174, which was related to an NPRM asking about "steps the Commission could take to safeguard continuity of communications throughout a power outage, including the possible adoption of new rules."

The FCC record backs the agency's proposal to presume cable operators face effective competition nationwide, with cable competitors' market share exceeding 15 percent penetration in every designated market area, NCTA said in an ex parte filing. "It is unsurprising that the Media Bureau has granted virtually every effective competition petition that a cable operator has filed in the last several years." Operators likely haven't sought deregulation in the remaining franchise areas where an effective competition order hasn't been granted "because they are deterred by the cost and other burdens of gathering information" to make such requests, the association said. "Opponents of reversing the presumption provided no evidence of consumer harm" in the 10,000-plus communities the bureau has found face effective competition, the group said of lobbying conversations its executives had with aides to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai. The filing was posted Tuesday in docket 15-53, where the next day a Hispanic Institute filing was posted saying the group opposes the proposed rule. "In communities where the Commission has determined effective competition does not exist, the current rules offer a backstop that helps ensure low rates for the basic tier of cable TV service," it said. The last time the group made an FCC filing itself and not with others, according to the agency's database, was in 2011 to say that it backed AT&T's buy of T-Mobile, a deal the companies later abandoned amid FCC and Department of Justice concerns. The Hispanic Institute is a member of TVFreedom.org, TVFreedom.org's website said. TVFreedom.org's members also include broadcasters and it's at odds with pay-TV interests over carriage issues. NAB is among those opposing the effective competition NPRM (see 1504170063). "Over the course of the last year, The Hispanic Institute had called for accessibility and affordability of the basic tier and video market reforms that account for the needs of Latino and Spanish-speaking television viewers," noted its new filing. “The effective competition rule as it stands is a critical consumer protection for low-income and minority communities," said Hispanic Institute President Gus West in a written statement responding to our questions Wednesday about the group's funding and involvement in the effective competition proceeding. "By changing the presumption, the FCC would give cable providers the ability to manipulate their programming tiers so that customers would be forced to pay for expensive cable programming before they can access local broadcast TV stations, curtailing consumers' access to lifeline information."

USA Network said its content will be available on Apple TV via USA Now, the network’s TV Everywhere streaming product.

Hulu reached a deal with five pay-TV providers to offer its subscription streaming service directly to their subscribers on set-top boxes, Hulu said in a news release Wednesday. The multichannel video programming distributors are Armstrong, Atlantic Broadband, Mediacom, Midcontinent Communications and WideOpenWest, it said: "Customers who subscribe to Hulu will be able to view Hulu's full library of content in addition to live and on-demand TV."

Netflix will be available to Mediacom customers on their TiVo set-top boxes, Mediacom said in a news release Tuesday. The deal includes a direct interconnection, with construction costs paid by Mediacom, said Group Vice President-Legal Affairs Tom Larsen. The connection is expected to be completed this summer, the release said. To use the Netflix app, Mediacom’s TiVo customers will need a Netflix subscription.

Charter Communications and CSG extended their contract five years, through 2019, the provider of billing and customer-support services to cable and other operators said in a news release Tuesday. The deal "provides the framework for Charter to consolidate additional customers that it may gain through acquisition activities onto CSG’s billing solution," it said. Charter is expected to consider again trying to buy Time Warner Cable now that Comcast abandoned its deal for TWC in the face of regulatory scrutiny (see 1504240066).

Cox Communications is offering gigabit-speed Internet service in parts of Omaha, Las Vegas and Orange County, California, after launching in the Phoenix area last fall, it said in a news release Tuesday. Cox looks to launch its G1gablast service in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Virginia this summer, while aiming to offer it in all of its markets by the end of 2016. Cox said it continues to upgrade its current most-popular Internet packages: Cox High Speed Internet Preferred and Cox High Speed Internet Premier, doubling their speeds in 2014 for almost 75 percent of its customers.

Arris and Charter Communications completed their $135 million acquisition of ActiveVideo, the companies said in a Friday news release. Arris now owns 65 percent of the joint venture company that Arris and Charter formed to set up the acquisition, they said. ActiveVideo is the developer of CloudTV, a cloud-based software platform enabling service providers, content creators and CE makers “to rapidly deploy new services by virtualizing consumer premises equipment functions in the cloud,” the companies said.

A hearing on whether Cablevision discriminated against the Game Show Network was delayed by a month, now to start July 7 at 10 a.m., said the FCC administrative law judge overseeing the case. GSN has said the cable operator discriminated against it by not carrying the channel as widely as its own affiliated programming, which the plaintiff contends is similar (see 1110140062). The program carriage complaint case earlier was scheduled to start June 1. After the first day, successive days of hearings will start at 9:30 a.m., said the new order by Chief FCC ALJ Richard Sippel posted Thursday in docket 12-122. Also last week, Cablevision asked Sippel to dismiss the case (see 1504300051).