Comcast Xfinity customers with the X1 remote can vote verbally for contestants on The Voice, in an interactive experience starting Monday, said Comcast and NBC.

Wireless and wireline providers should be treated equally and without any favoritism in any infrastructure proceedings, Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge said in meeting last week with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, recounted a docket 17-258 filing posted Monday. Rutledge cited the importance of reasonably sized geographic licenses for the 3.5 GHz band, indicating too-large licenses could preclude new entrants like Charter from investing. The company said he pushed for the FCC to quickly make 5.9 GHz band spectrum available for unlicensed use.

Discovery Communications shareholders approved the company's buy of Scripps Networks Interactive, the buyer said in an SEC filing Friday. The $14.6 billion deal was announced in July (see 1707310062).

Any DOJ condition of sale of some Time Warner channels in AT&T buying TW would be "unprecedented" for a vertical merger, wrote Free State Foundation President Randolph May and Fellow Theodore Bolema in an opinion piece in The Hill Friday. "It will have a challenge in court explaining why this case deviates from antitrust enforcement precedent in which, at most, behavioral conditions were sufficient." BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield said it's "nearly impossible" to imagine Comcast getting regulatory OK for significant content or distribution acquisitions under this administration, and if DOJ sues to block AT&T/TW or forces a divestiture of Turner or DirecTV, "it is not far-fetched" to think an attempted government breakup of Comcast/NBCUniversal could come. He pooh-poohed Comcast/NBCUniversal buying Fox but envisioned a Comcast split if vertical integration is a legal issue, with the result being two public companies: Comcast and Sky holdings on one side, NBCU and Fox on the other. Event Driven reported DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim (see 1711160056) said he's “absolutely” confident in his team if AT&T/TW is litigated and the agency will decide how to proceed "in due course." AT&T hired a lawyer to help in that potential effort (see the personals section of this issue of this publication.)

Time's over-the-top Sports Illustrated TV streaming network debuts Thursday on Amazon Channels, it said Wednesday. It said the network will debut with 130 hours of on-demand programming and follows People TV. Subscription is $4.99 monthly for Amazon Prime's U.S. members.

Charter Communications and Viacom will partner on co-production of original content and on advanced advertising, under a multiyear extension of their distribution agreement, they said Wednesday. They said some Viacom networks, including BET, MTV and CMT, will move to Charter's Spectrum Select tier, with others remaining on Spectrum Silver or Spectrum Gold tiers. They said co-produced original content will premiere on Charter's platform in the U.S., with Viacom distributing it internationally and in additional domestic markets after Charter's premiere period. They also said the companies would partner on the use of anonymized viewership data and on tackling unauthorized password sharing.

The largest pay-TV providers lost about 405,000 net video subscribers in Q3, up from the 205,000 lost in the year-ago period, Leichtman Research Group said Wednesday. LRG said the top six cable companies lost about 290,000, up from 90,000. Direct broadcast satellite operators lost about 475,000, compared with a gain of 5,000, their deepest losses in a quarter, it said. The largest telcos lost about 180,000, compared with a loss of 370,000. Over-the-top services Sling TV and DirecTV Now added about 535,000, up from 200,000 net adds, the researcher reported.

Xfinity TV customers can access their cable service via the Xfinity TV Partner app on Sony Android TVs next year, Comcast and Sony announced Tuesday. Xfinity TV customers will be able to watch, via app, live and on-demand programming, including local broadcasts and public, educational and government channels, plus cloud DVR recordings, they said. Comcast launched the Xfinity TV Partner Program, based on open-standard HTML5 technology, last year to expand the field of retail devices Xfinity TV customers can use to access programming.

Streaming service Philo launched a sports-less content package at $16 monthly, it said Tuesday. It said the package has more than 35 channels including A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, BBC America, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, ID, IFC, MTV and Travel Channel. It said the service includes an unlimited 30-day DVR and on-demand library. It supports web browsers, Roku devices, an iOS app and Android via Chrome, with other platforms to come. Some question demand for such a product (see 1709140021).

Netflix is integrated into Cox Communications' Contour TV guide system, the company said Monday. It said subscribers also can search Netflix using Contour's voice remote. The cloud-based Contour interface is based on Comcast's X1 platform, it said. Comcast integrated Netflix into its X1 last year (see 1611040055).