The operators of the interconnected PubFilm websites -- subject of a lawsuit brought in March by a variety of programmers (see 1703140033) -- defaulted by not appearing or responding to the complaint, U.S. District Clerk for the Southern District of New York Ruby Krajick certified in a docket 17-cv-875 filing (in Pacer) Friday. The plaintiffs alleged the PubFilm sites were pirated movie and TV streaming sites, and last week requested an entry of default, saying the defendants were served by email in February.
Charter Communications can't claim First Amendment protection for not doing business with Entertainment Studios Networks (ESN) in the programmer's Civil Rights Act complaint against the MVPD, Public Knowledge said in a docket 17-55723 amicus brief filed Sunday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It also said the First Amendment for the most part doesn't provide protection against laws of general applicability, and cable communications -- by being commercial -- are subject to a lesser degree of protection. PK said Charter's First Amendment argument is part of a trend by corporate litigants to use that claim for deregulatory purposes "rather than for protecting genuine free expression." Charter didn't comment Tuesday. It's appealing a U.S. District Court 2016 rejection of Charter's bid to have an ESN/National Association of African American Owned Media (NAAAOM) discrimination lawsuit tossed out (see 1710260006). Separately before the 9th Circuit is an ESN/NAAAOM appeal of a lower court's 2016 dismissal of similar racial discrimination claims against Comcast (see 1704170017).
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia advised the DOJ, AT&T and Time Warner to "keep the chatter in the press to an absolute minimum" regarding Justice's lawsuit seeking to block AT&T's buy of TW. Saying he wouldn't impose a gag order, Leon said during a status hearing the case "will be tried in the court." At Thursday's hearing, Leon approved the proposed case management and scheduling orders (here and here, in Pacer) after making some tweaks and questioning counsel for both sides about timelines and the likelihood of needing to depose hostile witnesses or to hold Daubert hearings for admitting scientific expert testimony.
Wave's carriage and streaming complaint against NBCUniversal and three Comcast regional sports networks (see 1712190041) is mystifying, NBCU said Tuesday. It said Wave's sale to RCN (see 1705220058) is expected to close within a month, and NBCU is offering an extension until then, while separately offering marketplace terms to RCN for continued carriage. It said it "has engaged with them fairly, on the same terms as other distributors. [Wave's] purported claim is without merit.”
Comcast's NBCUniversal and three regional sports networks over-the-top offerings undermined Wave's ability to meet existing programming agreement terms, the smaller company said in an FCC unfair competition complaint to have been posted Tuesday. The petition for declaratory ruling said Comcast would settle for only "a Draconian remedy" that made competition against Comcast's MVPD services on the West Coast impossible. It said Comcast -- by increasingly making RSN content available via OTT -- resulted in cord cutting that made it difficult for the cable ISP to continue to meet contractually set penetration levels. It said NBCU and the RSNs in response demanded the RSNs be moved to Wave's Lifeline tier but that would have led to "an avalanche" of other services with tagalong rights also relocating to Lifeline, making it uncompetitive. It said NBCU in July demanded and received $2.7 million, mostly in damages, for the RSNs not being repositioned to Lifeline from the Expanded Basic Tier. It said ongoing talks with NBCU made it clear NBCU didn't actually want the RSN services repositioned but wanted the ongoing breach allegation "to sustain its Machiavellian plot" to block Wave from accessing the commercial arbitration remedy that was part of the Comcast/NBCU consent decree.
Comcast's NBCUniversal received NFL streaming rights for Sunday Night Football that extend to mobile phones starting with the 2018 season, NBCU said Monday. It said the deal allows NBCU to extend the authenticated streaming rights to its cable, satellite, telco and virtual MVPD partners.
Channel Master's business keeps growing, mostly due to cord cutting, Joe Bingochea, executive vice president-product development, told us, with cord-cutting homes rising. Contrary to TiVo reports showing a slight dip in the cord-cutting trend in Q3 (see 1712130008), “we haven’t seen anything to suggest it has slowed down in the last quarter, as far as our business is concerned,” he said. Among the company's customers, all watching TV over the air, by antenna, "there’s not one consistent pattern of streaming services that they’re supplementing their OTA with," he said. Bingochea sees long-term viability in the OTA business. “I think there’s still some life left in OTA,” even though the major broadcast networks are becoming available in over-the-top formats, he said.
AT&T, Time Warner and DOJ agreed that no dispositive motions, such as a motion to dismiss, will be filed in the DOJ lawsuit seeking to block AT&T's buy of Time Warner, according to a docket 17-cv-2511 proposed case management order filed Friday with U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It said the parties engaged in good-faith settlement negotiations and couldn't get an agreement, and neither side believes the case would benefit from an alternative dispute resolution. They said AT&T and TW agreed not to consummate or complete the deal until six days after a court judgment is entered in their favor. In a separate proposed scheduling order, the sides said they expect the trial to start March 19 and last 15 days.
The cable electronic notifications NPRM -- expanding the number of customer notifications cable operators can provide via email and opening the door to broadcasters submitting carriage election decisions by routes other than certified mail -- was released Friday. It was approved at Thursday's FCC members' meeting (see 1712140054).
Virtual reality company Dreamscape Immersive and Nickelodeon will jointly create content using the network's brands as part of Nickelodeon's participation in a Series B financing round that raised $30 million, Dreamscape said Wednesday. It said AMC Entertainment's investment in the financing round will lead to the theater chain opening and operating up to six Dreamscape VR centers in North America and the U.K.