Comcast and Ticketmaster launched an integration Tuesday, enabling Xfinity X1 customers to find performers' tour dates and request concert tickets from their TV through Ticketmaster’s open ticketing platform. The companies announced the launch with singer Kelly Clarkson’s 28-city Meaning of Life tour, to begin Jan. 24 in Oakland. Xfinity customers can speak the name of the tour into the X1 voice remote to call up a presale window on the TV screen. Customers are taken to a dedicated Clarkson destination, powered by Ticketmaster’s platform, with a promotional tile enabling them to review performances and dates at nearby venues. They can initiate the online ticket-buying process and opt to receive a text message with a unique code to complete the purchase online. Dan Armstrong, Ticketmaster general manager-distributed commerce, called it “groundbreaking” and said the company will expand functionality to more live events soon. At the Clarkson destination, viewers can stream her music on TV via Pandora and watch her music videos, appearances on The Voice, and clips from previous tours.
DOJ's Antitrust Division finished its response to the Protect Democracy Project's Freedom of Information Act request for any White House communications about AT&T's Time Warner buy (see 1803060004) and is working with the group to provide information about material withheld from production, said a docket 17-cv-2409 joint status report (in Pacer) filed Friday with U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The report said DOJ's Office of Information Policy finished processing all results located in its initial searches but recently learned that a technical issue may have affected an initial search of email records and it now needs to re-run its email search. It will need at least three months to complete the remedial search and process records retrieved from the search.
Saying AT&T's DirecTV Now virtual MVPD service operates like cable TV, Charter Communications wants 32 Massachusetts franchise areas and Kauai, Hawaii, to be declared effectively competitive, said an FCC docket 12-1 petition Monday. Charter said DirecTV Now satisfies the LEC test by offering comparable video programming service in areas substantially overlapping with Charter's franchise area. Charter said the Massachusetts and Hawaii markets remain subject to regulation even after the 2015 effective competition order because of revised certifications filed by those states after the order. NAB, NATOA and the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities didn't comment.
Beyond just limiting the ability of local franchise authorities to add fees and other requirements that deter broadband deployment, the FCC should consider whether the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act bars licensing fees on cable modem services over public rights of way, Citizens Against Government Waste said in a docket 05-311 posting Thursday. In backing the LFA Further NPRM on September's agenda (see 1809050056), CAGW said restricting LFAs' ability to put franchise and fee requirements on non-cable services offered by franchise cable operators will stop those localities "from gaming the system and holding up future broadband deployment."
With the FCC denying the Competitive Enterprise Institute petition for reconsideration of conditions on Charter Communications' buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (see 1809100048), CEI's petition for writ of mandamus on the recon petition is dismissed as moot, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered (in Pacer) Thursday in docket 17-1261.
TiVo added German, Italian and Portuguese language support to a module within its content discovery platform, the company said Wednesday. The platform provides natural-language understanding technology, relevant results and a personalized entertainment experience.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute plans to appeal FCC denial of its petition for reconsideration regarding conditions put on Charter Communications' buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. In a letter (in Pacer, docket 17-1261) Wednesday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, CEI agreed with the FCC that the agency's recon petition denial (see 1809100048) moots the writ of mandamus it had filed to force the agency to act on that petition. That agreement "is not a waiver of these standing arguments that will be addressed in a successive appeal," the group said.
Monday's scheduled oral argument regarding the Competitive Enterprise Institute's writ of mandamus seeking FCC action on a petition of reconsideration was postponed, said an order (in Pacer, docket 17-1261) Tuesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FCC requested postponement after the agency on Monday issued an order denying CEI's recon petition regarding conditions on Charter Communications' buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (see 1809100048).
U.S. District Judge Anita Brody of Philadelphia preliminarily approved a settlement and certified the class in litigation alleging Comcast tied rental of its set-top boxes to subscribing to premium cable packages, breaking the Sherman Act and state laws, said a docket 09-md-02034-AB opinion (in Pacer) Wednesday. Comcast would pay $15.5 million.
Consumer "loyalty" often “trumps content” or price as the determining factor in over-the-top subscriber churn or retention, David Browne, Comcast Technology Solutions senior director-product management, told a Parks Associates webinar Thursday. “There really is no silver bullet for countering churn,” said Browne. “If you consider churn part of the natural ebb and flow of your business, you come to the conclusion that some consumers, you will never win back. It doesn’t matter how many dollars you throw at that win-back campaign.” There’s the “inverse conclusion” some customers “will come back anyway” when an OTT service streams content they are interested in, he said. “If you’re a stackable service” that specializes in “short-form” content that’s “topical,” there's a much different “churn profile” than more “general” OTT entertainment services, he said.