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.

Viacom agreed to use Rentrak’s Advanced Demographics measurement service to measure its TV ratings and VOD usage, the vendor said Friday. The company said it draws its measurement information from more than 31 million TVs in 210 local markets. Viacom will be able to use Rentrak’s technology to “precisely target consumer audiences” and to support its “advanced data approach, including the recently announced Viacom Vantage, a data-driven advertising product that gives advertisers the flexibility to define and reach custom audiences,” Rentrak said. It "strengthens our insights arsenal and our ability to unlock new levels of targeting,” said Viacom Executive Vice President-Strategic Insights and Research Colleen Fahey Rush in a Rentrak news release.

The Game Show Network can’t show that Cablevision’s decision to place the network on a sports and entertainment tier had an adverse effect on its subscribership, advertising revenue or ability to compete, said the operator in a partially redacted motion for summary judgment posted in the companies’ administrative law carriage case Thursday. “In opposition, GSN will undoubtedly assert that it would have done even better if it had not been retiered by Cablevision.” Even "if true, that is irrelevant for the purposes of this motion,” Cablevision said. If the case goes to trial, the network won’t be able to prove that Cablevision’s tiering decision involved “discriminatory intent,” Cablevision said. The administrative law judge should enter a summary decision dismissing GSN’s carriage complaint “rather than using the Commission’s limited resources to conduct a trial” that GSN can’t win, Cablevision said in docket 12-122. The programmer didn’t comment.

The INSP network will be available to Cox Communications customers May 20 in San Diego and Santa Barbara, said the programmer in a news release Thursday. INSP is a family-oriented channel that received an award from The Parents Television Council, it said.

A cable operator sought rate deregulation in three Pennsylvania communities with a total of about 20,000 households as of the 2013 census. Atlantic Broadband's petition to the Media Bureau for determination of effective competition, posted Thursday in FCC docket 12-1, cited rival pay-TV services being offered in Altoona, Martinsburg and Roaring Spring by DirecTV and Dish Network. Earlier this week, NATOA and public, educational and government channel advocates said they're concerned about FCC plans to possibly change the effective competition process (see 1504290067).

A cable equipment maker and a Web content caching provider are working together on IP video delivery. Arris said Wednesday it will integrate Akamai's Aura Licensed Content Delivery Network and Aura Object Store into its IP video products such as network DVRs and media servers. It gives "operators a variety of choices for streamlining, managing, and scaling digital content delivery," they said in a news release. "It will also support operators as they adopt multiscreen and mobile delivery platforms." Cable operators and others are increasing the amount of video they deliver in IP (see report in the Dec. 24, 2013, issue).

A three-year extension of an exemption for small cable systems from requirements to carry HD broadcast signals would protect those cable systems and consumers, said the American Cable Association, NCTA, WTA and small cable operator TDS in reply comments posted online in docket 98-120 Tuesday. The extension would “ensure that small systems utilizing the exemption today are able to time their investments in the transition of their systems to carry digital signals on a schedule that makes economic sense,” ACA said. If the exemption is not extended from its current end date this year -- June 12 -- until “at least June 2018,” consumers could experience “service disruptions and discontinuations resulting in reduced competition,” WTA said. NAB disagrees, and argued in its own reply comments that extending the exemption is not consistent with the goal of transitioning consumers to digital. The FCC doesn’t have the authority to extend the exemption, NAB said. “Notwithstanding NAB’s objections, the fact that this authority is broad and flexible enough to encompass the Commission’s adoption, and extension, of the HD Carriage Exemption is not open to serious debate,” TDS said. If the extension is granted, the FCC should limit the systems eligible to benefit from it, NAB said. “Under no circumstances” should it be granted to cable systems affiliated with larger companies, NAB said. Though 2,000- or 2,500-subscriber cable systems “might be larger than the ‘average’ small system, such systems still lack the economies of scale and subscriber base necessary to reasonably support the additional investment that would be required to comply absent the exemption,” WTA said.

The FCC docket for the Comcast/Time Warner Cable transaction is closed, said the chiefs of the International, Media, Wireless and Wireline bureaus in an order Wednesday. Comcast, TWC, Charter Communications and the spinoff that the deal would have created withdrew their applications Friday (see 1504270038), the order said. The docket’s termination means all parties that filed for access to confidential information have two weeks to “destroy or return to the Submitting Party all Stamped Confidential Documents and Stamped Highly Confidential Documents,” the order said.

Cablevision and Hulu signed an agreement to offer Hulu’s subscription streaming service to Cablevision’s Optimum customers, they said in a news release. “Cablevision is the first cable or satellite provider to agree to distribute Hulu’s comprehensive catalog of on-demand content,” it said. “There is a new generation of consumers who access video through the Internet, and whatever their preference, Cablevision will facilitate a great content experience,” said Cablevision Chief Operating Officer Kristin Dolan.

The owner of the Weather Channel formed a multi-technology division, as that and other independent programmers are said to be facing a tougher time getting pay-TV carriage (see 1504090051). The new Weather Channel Television Group includes programming, distribution, broadcast operations, video technology, and addressable TV advertising platforms, said The Weather Co. in a Tuesday news release. It said the Weather Channel is expanding into "new forms of citizen news gathering such as Periscope and Burst" and using new distribution services including Dish Network's Sling TV and a la carte services. The new division will be led by Dish veteran Dave Shull (see 1504280026).