The NBA and Univision Deportes made a deal that will give viewers Spanish-language NBA content across Univision Deportes’ multimedia platforms, said a news release from Univision Monday. Univision Deportes Network will play NBA Action in Spanish starting Thursday, the release said. UniMás network will also show Zona NBA, a new season-long, one-hour weekly show produced by Univision Deportes delivering basketball content in Spanish as well, the release said. The show will debut during the upcoming NBA Playoffs and run through the end of the NBA Finals. The partnership was formed because Hispanics make up 18 percent of the NBA’s fan base, the release said.

The FCC should allow ACA Senior Vice President Ross Lieberman access to highly confidential information in the Comcast/TWC and AT&T/DirecTV deals, ACA said in an ex parte filing. Though access to video programming confidential information (VPCI) about the deals is the subject of a pending U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision, other parties in the merger have been allowed access to other confidential documents, ACA said. Lieberman was one of several attorneys objected to by the group of content companies challenging the FCC’s right to release VPCI, but the FCC eventually granted them access to the lesser forms of confidential information on the grounds that the objections against them had specifically referenced VPCI. Lieberman and Ellen Stutzman, in-house counsel of the Writers Guild of America, West, were the only attorneys who remain barred from accessing any CI in the proceedings. Though the confidentiality orders in the proceeding mandate access by outside counsel, in-house lawyers for Comptel have been granted access, ACA said. ”Mr. Lieberman’s limited participation puts ACA and its members at a significant and unfair disadvantage, and as a matter of fairness, the Commission must promptly rectify this matter,” ACA said.

Comcast has retreated from its earlier defenses of its proposed buy of Time Warner Cable, Dish Network said in a partially redacted ex parte filing Monday. Comcast previously portrayed online video distributors as a benefit to its content and ISP businesses, but now “applicants acknowledge OVDs are a threat,” Dish said. Comcast also shifted its stance on whether the merger will lead to a rate increase and whether it ever considered an out-of-footprint over-the-top offering, Dish said. Comcast also “sidestepped” Dish arguments about the cable company’s “evasion” of previous merger conditions, Dish said. “The point is not that Comcast will overtly violate the law, but that Comcast can and will exploit any lack of clarity, complexity in the facts, and the likely frequent inability of either the Commission or possible victims to detect the relevant conduct,” Dish said. "This is just another example of Dish repackaging its old arguments and misrepresenting the facts," a Comcast spokeswoman told us. "We’ve already responded to their claims, and will do so again in due time.”

Comment dates have been set in the FCC's proceeding on whether it should adopt a “rebuttable presumption” that cable operators are subject to effective competition, the commission said in a public notice Friday. That rebuttable presumption would mean that cable companies would no longer need to prove that there is effective competition in a given market. The rule change is based on provisions in the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization intended to help small cable operators, but would apply to all cable companies. Comments are due April 9, and replies April 20, the PN said.

Protecting its market power from erosion by online video is Comcast’s incentive to hold back content and throttle online video distributors (OVDs), said Netflix in an ex parte filing posted online in docket 14-57 Thursday. Though Comcast has argued it wouldn’t have incentive to foreclose OVDs, Netflix disagreed. Comcast’s theory that foreclosing OVDs isn’t desirable because it wouldn’t provide the cable giant with new market power relies on the assumption that Comcast doesn’t fear losing market power to OVDs, Netflix said. “OVD substitution of traditional Comcast services is both real and recognized by Comcast itself as potentially undermining its position in the market,” Netflix said. Comcast’s internal documents, released as part of the merger review, also show concern about the market threat of OVD, Netflix said in a heavily redacted section of the filing. Comcast didn't comment.

The FCC should waive a requirement that cable systems pass through emergency info on a secondary audio programming (SAP) stream for small cable systems that provide analog service, the American Cable Association said in a waiver petition filed Wednesday. The requirement has a May 26 compliance deadline, but cable systems using analog systems can’t pass through SAP to their subscribers, ACA said. Applying the new rules to systems incapable of full compliance “will harm these operators and their subscribers” when alternative means of compliance or additional time could “achieve full industry participation at a later date,” ACA said.

Charter stockholders approved the issuance of shares in connection with Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable, Charter said in a news release Tuesday. The issued shares of common stock are connected with Charter’s acquisition of 33 percent of GreatLand Connections, which will be spun off from Comcast under the TWC deal.

Cablevision and HBO reached an agreement that will give the cable operator's Optimum Online customers access to the channel's stand-alone streaming service, HBO Now, via the Internet, said a news release from Cablevision. It said the deal makes Optimum the first cable provider to partner with HBO on the service, which is expected to launch in April (see 1503090035).

The FCC is seeking comment on whether it should adopt a “rebuttable presumption” that cable operators are subject to effective competition, it said in an NPRM Monday. “Such an approach would reflect the fact that today, based on application of the effective competition test in the current market, the Commission grants nearly all requests for a finding of effective competition,” the NPRM said. The proposal is also intended to implement one of the provisions of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization, the NPRM said. The FCC wants to know if the change would “reduce regulatory burdens on all cable operators -- large and small -- and on their competitors, while more efficiently allocating the Commission’s resources and amending outdated regulations,” the NPRM said. Comments are due 20 days after publication in the Federal Register, replies 30 days.

Scripps Networks is set to acquire a 52.7 percent interest in Poland’s TVN for about $617 million, the acquirer said in a news release Monday. The U.S. programmer will also assume about $887 million in debt in the deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals under Polish law, it said. TVN had a 22 percent share of Polish viewing in 2014, Scripps Networks said.