It's “hard to imagine” Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable getting regulatory approval in the current political climate, said BTIG in an email to investors Wednesday. Also that day, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler revealed some details of the draft net neutrality order set for a vote later this month (see 1502040055). Cable ISPs told us they worry about the effects a Title II Communications Act net neutrality regime will have on their broadband businesses (see 1502040054). “A populist groundswell in favor of net neutrality” has brought “a whole new level of scrutiny” to the deal that makes it unlikely regulators will consider it in a favorable light, BTIG said. “The odds are now in favor of the government formally opposing/blocking the Comcast Time Warner Cable transaction -- we put approval odds now at 30 percent, at best,” BTIG said. Predictions that the deal would be approved were partly based on widespread belief that regulators would look at competition in the broadband market at the local level, where the two cable companies don’t compete, the stock analysis firm said. The current political climate makes it more likely that the deal will be looked at in terms of competition on the national level, BTIG said. Comcast’s own filings say that in “63 percent of their footprint post-Time Warner Cable, they were the only consumer choice for 25 Mbps broadband (we suspect even higher now),” BTIG said. “How can the government approve Comcast and Time Warner Cable?” Comcast declined to comment.

The FCC should extend an exemption for some small cable systems from rules requiring carriage of must-carry TV stations in digital HD, the American Cable Association said in a petition filed Friday. The extension is important for small cable companies that don’t have the capacity or resources to upgrade their systems to handle carrying the must-carry stations in HD, said ACA President Matthew Polka in a news release. The current exemption is to expire in June, but ACA wants the commission to extend it for three more years. The exemption, which applies only to cable systems with less than 553 MHz of channel capacity or that have no more than 2,500 subscribers and aren’t tied to a larger multichannel video programming distributor, has been extended twice before. “The harms that would result from requiring these very small cable systems to carry must-carry HD broadcast signals in HD remain as significant today as they were in 2008 and 2012,” ACA said.

The FCC should extend ESPN’s exclusion from the list of non-broadcast networks that are subject to video description rules, ESPN and parent Disney said in a request posted in docket 11-43 Thursday. The video description rules apply to the top five national non-broadcast networks as ranked by Nielsen, and ESPN is No. 2 behind USA, said a public notice released by the Media Bureau earlier this month (see 1501070038). ESPN was exempt from the video description requirement previously and should be again because it doesn’t show 50 hours of prime time programming that isn’t live or near-live and thus is ineligible for the requirement, ESPN and Disney said.

Verizon added 24 Viacom channels to its FiOS Mobile App, including Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Spike, it said in a news release Wednesday. Customers can now watch 88 live channels on the app, it said.

The full FCC denied Tennis Channel’s program carriage complaint against Comcast, echoing a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision that reached the same conclusion in 2013, after the commission previously found in favor of the independent programmer. After the D.C. Circuit decision, Tennis Channel filed a petition for further proceedings with the FCC, arguing that the court ruling had created new evidentiary tests to show discrimination, and that the channel should be allowed to present evidence to satisfy those requirements in its pursuit of its program carriage complaint. That petition and the initial program carriage complaint were denied in a commission order Wednesday. “The court neither invited nor directed the Commission to address on remand the evidentiary shortcomings identified in its decision,” the FCC said. The evidentiary standards for discrimination weren't altered by the court’s decision, the commission said. “The interest in bringing the proceeding to a close outweighs any interest in allowing Tennis Channel a second opportunity to prosecute its program carriage complaint.”

Cablevision is launching an all Wi-Fi phone service with unlimited data, talk and text, the company said in a news release Monday. Called Freewheel, it’s the “first all-WiFi service to be introduced by a cable provider,” the operator said. Freewheel will use a Motorola Moto G smartphone that will work “exclusively” over Wi-Fi, and customers will have “automatic access” to Cablevision’s 1.1 million hot spot Wi-Fi network, it said. The service will be available starting in February, and cost $29.95 a month. The Moto G phone will cost Freewheel customers $99.95, and Cablevision Optimum Online customers will be able to get the Freewheel service for $9.95 monthly. Limited to Wi-Fi, the Freewheel service is unlikely to generate much revenue for Cablevision, said MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett in an email to investors. “The best Cablevision might hope for is to monetize the company’s WiFi footprint, even if only to a small degree, by lowering churn,” Moffett said. “Cablevision’s real game is almost certainly to use the new Freewheel service as a beta test for what will eventually be a WiFi-first, rather than WiFi-only, service.”

The Q3 2014 inflation adjustment factor for cable operators using FCC Form 1240 is 1.42 percent, the Media Bureau said in a public notice Monday. The adjustment factor is “a measure of the annualized change in prices” occurring from July 1 to Sept. 30, the PN said. Cable operators can use the factor to adjust the non-external cost portion of their rates for inflation, the Media Bureau said. The adjustments are based on changes in the Department of Commerce’s Gross National Product Price Index, the notice said.

The FCC should secure public interest benefits and improvements to the Comcast Internet Essentials program if it approves Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable, the California Emerging Technology Fund told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler aides Gigi Sohn, Maria Kirby and Phil Verveer in a meeting Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 14-57. CETF “does not support or oppose" the deal, but said the FCC should secure an improved sign-up process and fewer eligibility restrictions for Internet Essentials in the transaction. CETF also wants specific performance goals for the program, an independent advisory committee and a requirement for Comcast to offer a stand-alone Internet program. “Comcast should capitalize a fund to be administered by an independent third party to fund outreach and actual sign-ups of eligible low income subscribers by community-based organizations (CBO’s) to the target population,” CETF said. It said CBOs have had difficulty working with Comcast.

The Game Show Network has the right to depose AMC Network CEO Josh Sapan for its carriage complaint proceeding against Cablevision, said an order from FCC Chief Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel posted in docket 12-122 Wednesday. AMC was a division of Cablevision when it shifted GSN to its sports tier, the move that lies at the center of GSN’s complaint. GSN needs to depose Sapan to gather evidence on Cablevision’s programming practices, so it can pursue its charge that it was discriminated against by the cable provider, the order said. Though Cablevision argued that Sapan had no new info to contribute to the case, Sippel said blocking his discovery would risk leaving the case with an incomplete record.

The FCC fined Viacom and ESPN $1.4 million total for using emergency alert system (EAS) warning tones for a nonemergency, said a forfeiture order Tuesday that was approved by commissioners. Viacom was fined $1.12 million and ESPN $280,000. In 2013, Viacom and ESPN used EAS warning tones to promote the movie Olympus Has Fallen, violating the Communications Act, the commission said. The commission rejected ESPN's and Viacom's requests to reduce their fines. The fines must be paid in 30 days, the order said. "The enforcement action and fine were unwarranted" and Viacom is "considering our next steps," said a company spokesman. ESPN had no immediate comment.