The public interest harms if Comcast buys Time Warner Cable “far outweigh” the benefits, said representatives from several public interest groups in meetings with FCC commissioners and their staffs last week, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1BpTF2D) in docket 14-57. Representatives from Consumers Union, Free Press, The Open Technology Institute at New America Foundation and Public Knowledge held a series of meetings with Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, along with their staff and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s Chief of Staff Adonis Hoffman, the filing said. A Comcast/TWC would be in “a prime position to extract tolls before allowing content providers to reach its massive subscriber base,” said the public interest groups. Comcast “greatly overstates” the amount of broadband competition it faces “by defining the product market improperly,” they said. “DSL and wireless broadband offerings do not serve as substitutes for advanced broadband services such as cable and fiber-based broadband.” Comcast’s claim that it will control 35.5 percent of the broadband market post-deal “is sorely misplaced,” because it counts broadband subscribers at speeds as low as 3 Mbps, the groups said. “That number fails to meet the Commission’s current definition of broadband; and the Commission itself in multiple proceedings has suggested that such speeds are woefully outdated and insufficient to meet consumers’ current and future broadband needs."

NCTA again said if the FCC opens a proceeding to consider requiring that cable operators post public inspection files online, it should examine how to tailor requirements to cable operators’ obligations. Seeking to minimize undue burdens on cable operators is important “in light of comments that describe problems television stations have experienced with the existing online database,” it said in reply comments in docket 14-127 (http://bit.ly/1qedwza). “Real world experience with the impact of the increased volume of television station activity on the commission’s database during the fall 2014 political advertising season” before considering expanding the rules, it said. The Campaign Legal Center continued to urge the FCC to propose and adopt a rule expanding the online public file regime to cable and satellite TV operators, and to radio stations (http://bit.ly/1pMx8Ey). Small commercial radio stations shouldn’t be exempt, it said. CLC supports allowing waivers in certain, narrow circumstances where a station can show that it isn’t physically capable of uploading the documents to the system, “or the station’s situation is such that online filing truly imposes a heavy burden,” it said.

The current system for resolving customer complaints on closed captioning is “unfair, inefficient, and ineffective” because it requires video programming distributors to get contractual commitments from programmers to comply with FCC rules, said the American Cable Association in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 05-231 (http://bit.ly/1ufHnYo). Programmers “have little incentive to comply with their obligations with respect to smaller [multichannel video programming distributors] as these smaller providers are less likely to seek legal recourse in the event of a closed captioning problem due to the costs involved in doing so,” said ACA. Instead, the FCC should hold programmers liable for closed captioning errors when the programmer is the source of the problem, ACA said. The FCC reached a similar conclusion in the IP closed captioning order, ACA said. There, the commission recognized that “video programmers and owners should bear responsibility and liability for compliance with the quality standards while video programming distributors would continue to be responsible for passing through the captioning intact,” ACA said.

The FCC should rely on Telecom Act Section 706 authority in creating rules governing net neutrality, said Comcast officials in a meeting Thursday with staff from commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O'Rielly’s offices, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-57 (http://bit.ly/1nGEYQG). “Comcast agrees with the Commission’s tentative conclusion to limit its rules to the provision of broadband internet access services to end users.” Comcast also lauded the benefits of a “light touch regulatory approach” and pointed out that its plan to buy Time Warner Cable would extend its “open Internet commitment” to “millions of additional broadband customers."

Charter Communications and Comcast representatives met with officials from the FCC’s Comcast/Time Warner Cable task force last week to discuss the commission’s information requests, said Charter (http://bit.ly/WmqrSm) and Comcast (http://bit.ly/1wbNxbn) in ex parte filings posted Friday in docket 14-57. Comcast officials said “the NBCUniversal transaction conditions are generally applicable other than those that have expired” or apply only to NBCU properties. Comcast officials also asked for “information concerning the standards and process” the FCC would use for “any exceptions made to the ex parte rules for this proceeding,” it said. In Charter’s meetings, the company and FCC staff discussed Charter’s internal databases and how data is tracked in them, said that firm.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on TiVo’s request for a waiver of the agency’s home networking digital interface requirement for cable operators that use the company’s set-top boxes, said a public notice issued Friday (http://bit.ly/1rfY1lG). TiVo filed a petition for the waiver, in docket 97-80, saying its set-tops already meet the intent of the home networking requirement “by allowing consumers to send video content throughout their homes” and had that ability before there was an industry standard for such technology, the PN said. TiVo also asked the FCC to clarify that the requirement hadn’t been stripped away by the EchoStar decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Comments on TiVo’s request are due in docket 14-146 Oct. 6 and replies, Oct. 20, the PN said.

Comcast officials met with members of the FCC Media Bureau and the agency task force overseeing its proposed buy of Time Warner Cable Friday, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday to docket 14-57 (http://bit.ly/1lD27ro). It said Comcast “sought clarification and guidance” on the FCC’s recent information requests on the deal (CD Aug 26 p1) and “requested modification of certain questions” to allow for a timely response.

The California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) asked the California Public Utilities Commission to grant the group party status in its ongoing review of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal. CETF said in a filing posted Wednesday that it has expertise in programs meant to close the state’s “digital divide” and can provide information on the public benefit of Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, which has come under scrutiny during merger reviews elsewhere (http://bit.ly/1AbwAy5).

Reclassifying the Internet as a common carrier would be “a disaster,” said NCTA in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/YcfLrk). The association has begun a print and digital ad campaign (including in Communications Daily) “to show how laws that were originally written for telephone lines in 1934 are totally ill equipped to handle modern broadband networks in 2014,” said NCTA. The ads direct readers to NCTA’s Title II page (http://bit.ly/1uneg4o), headlined “Net Disaster, not Net Neutrality.” Title II would turn the Internet into “a slogging, permission-based government utility,” NCTA said. “Title II reclassification would allow for the very things Title II advocates are most afraid of."

The company that will be spun off from Comcast if its purchase of Time Warner Cable and divestiture deal with Charter Communications are successful will be called GreatLand Connections, Charter and Comcast said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/YbGRic). The spinoff has been referred to as SpinCo or Midwest Cable in FCC filings on the deal. “The name GreatLand Connections pays homage to the rich history and striking geographies of the diverse communities in which the company will operate,” said the prospective company’s CEO, Michael Willner. GreatLand Connections will be an independent, publicly traded company made up of former Comcast systems with about 2.5 million customers in the Midwest and southeast U.S., the release said: “At its inception, it is expected to be the fifth largest cable company in the United States."