Cable One will get a minority stake in Hargray Communications and Hargray will get Cable One's Alabama assets in a deal announced Tuesday. Hargray said the transaction is expected to close in the fall, pending regulatory OK.
Wall Street's recent bearishness toward cable companies may reflect concerns a Joe Biden presidency would mean Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband service, legislation on net neutrality or even overt price regulation, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors Tuesday. He said reclassification by a Democratic FCC would likely be shot down by the Supreme Court long before price regulation could happen. Regulatory attention on Big Tech, and away from cable, seems to point to a regulatory outlook for cable that's "less scary" than it has been for years, even under a Democratic administration, he said.
Cable companies' Wi-Fi-centric mobile virtual network operators continued to have success luring customers from mobile networks operators, with Comcast, Charter and Altice ending Q1 with 3.75 million such subscriptions, GlobalData said Monday. It said much wireless traffic that otherwise would have gone over cellular networks was carried on residential Wi-Fi due to the pandemic, saving those MVNOs cellular usage fees they would have had to pay their network partners. COVID-19 will likely hinder subscriber adds in Q2 for all mobile operators and MVNOs, it said.
The FCC proposal that C-band earth station technology upgrade costs be reviewed and approved after MVPD earth station operators opt for lump sum reimbursement will deter the operators from going that route and "eviscerate the myriad policy benefits of the lump sum mechanism," ACA Connects representatives told Wireless Bureau staffers, per a docket 18-122 posting Monday. Such a review process is unnecessary because the necessity and degree of technology upgrades for MVPDs transitioning earth stations into the upper portion of the C-band is highly predictable, it said. The group urged integrated receiver/decoder replacement costs stay within the lump sum reimbursement.
Few MVPDs, particularly small ones, can shoulder the big risk that comes with the FCC saying some C-band earth station relocation costs will be reviewed after those stations' operators opt for the lump sum, ACA Connects told aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Brendan Carr as recapped in a docket 18-122 posting Thursday. It repeated its call (see 2006300085) to seek comment on a new proposed lump sum amount and to rework Wireless Bureau proposals.
Sept. 30 is the deadline for MVPDs with six or more full-time workers to file Form 396-C equal employment opportunity program annual reports, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Wednesday.
Cable operators filing FCC Form 1240 can raise the non-external portion of their rates by 1.41% for Q1 to account for inflation, a Media Bureau public notice said Wednesday.
The YouTube TV vMVPD's monthly price is now $64.99, the $15 price hike due to increasing content costs, Google's YouTube blogged Tuesday. "It reflects the complete value of YouTube TV, from our breadth of content to the features that are changing how we watch live." It said it also introduced features including allowing users to jump to segments within news programs and to mark a show as "watched."
Charter received waiver removing 2,127 census blocks from the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction eligibility list. "Charter has deployed or will soon deploy service to these blocks under a settlement agreement with the State of New York" related to the cable operator's past takeover of Time Warner Cable, said a staff order in Monday's Daily Digest.
Children worldwide are increasingly growing up viewing TV programming online and on-demand, said S&P Global Friday. In about half of homes with children that were surveyed, parents let their kids choose what they watch, and 66% of parents report using some form of parental controls. Most parents canvassed impose rules to limit their children’s daily TV viewing. In the U.S., U.K. and Sweden, the portion of households with children viewing subscription VOD content is about equal to that of live TV, it said.