Design and construction is underway to expand Altice's fiber-to-the-home network footprint so it reaches 1 million homes by the end of 2018, the company said in a news release Monday. It said work is underway covering several hundred thousand homes in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. The operator said that, beyond its FTTH network, it has expanded its 1 GB broadband service to more than 60 percent of its Suddenlink footprint and launched gigabit service in seven cities.

Murray Energy's defamation litigation against HBO, Time Warner and show host John Oliver is being remanded to the Circuit Court of Marshall County, West Virginia, where it originally was filed in June. In an order (in Pacer) Thursday granting Murray's motion to remand, U.S. District Judge John Bailey of Wheeling said Murray Energy corporations that are plaintiffs may have been defamed by statements Oliver made about CEO Bob Murray, given the close connection between the companies and Murray. Given that possible defamation, the companies were properly joined in the lawsuit and that joinder destroys the diversity jurisdiction that would have let the federal court handle the case, the judge said. Bailey also denied as moot Murray motions for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order (see 1708020039). HBO said the remand "was not at all related to the merits of the case and as we’ve said all along we not believe anything in the show violated Mr. Murray or Murray Energy’s rights.” Murray Energy didn't comment Friday.

No report of supposed Charter Communications mergers and acquisitions -- the latest being Altice/Charter -- is credible, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote Thursday, saying a variety of other proposed telco and media deals like Comcast/Verizon, Verizon/Dish Network, Comcast/Charter and Amazon/Dish are equally absurd. They don't "pass even the most cursory analytical tests," except for Sprint/T-Mobile -- which still is somewhat unlikely, he said: None of the proposed Charter buyers -- Verizon, SoftBank, Altice -- has the financial ability, and Comcast/Charter "would be a regulatory monstrosity" that likely wouldn't get DOJ approval -- ditto Comcast/Verizon. Verizon/Dish speculation ignores that Verizon is more interested in network densification than spectrum for adding capacity, the analyst said, and AT&T/Dish would leave AT&T overseeing a TV operation losing subscribers rapidly.

Cox Communications said its buy of Blueprint RF will complement its existing hospitality segment business of providing telco, in-room entertainment and managed Wi-Fi services to hotels, convention centers and arenas. In a news release Wednesday, Cox said it finalized its purchase of Blueprint RF, which designs, installs and supports wireline and wireless networks for hotel owners and operators.

Comcast comedy streaming service Seeso is shutting down later this year, it said in a Facebook post Wednesday. It said some of the original content moved to over-the-top service VRV.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, seeking leave to file an amicus brief in Murray Energy's defamation lawsuit against HBO, Time Warner and show host John Oliver (see 1708020039), didn't cite any legal authority that might permit it to be amicus curiae, Murray said in an objection (in Pacer) posted Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Wheeling, West Virginia. The ACLU didn't disclose "its indisputable and disqualifying bias," the coal company said. Murray said the ACLU has economic motivations, with Oliver on Last Week Tonight encouraging donations to left-leaning organizations that resulted in a surge in ACLU donations. Group Legal Director Jamie Lynn Crofts in a statement said that given the litigious history of Murray's CEO, "it seems only appropriate that Bob Murray's response to our brief is censorship. I look forward to justifying the ACLU's interest in this case by continuing to point out the unconstitutionality of Mr. Murray's original argument." Crofts said opposition was surprising since most such motions go unopposed and the ACLU has a long history of supporting free speech rights as amicus. Murray Energy didn't comment.

U.S. broadband penetration (at 82 percent) passed pay-TV penetration (81 percent) in Q2, Pivotal Research's Jeff Wlodarczak wrote investors Tuesday. While the rate of growth among new data subscribers dropped year over year in the quarter, to 140,000 adds, cable took all the share of those net new subscribers despite aggressive AT&T promotional activity, the analyst said. Cable's ramping up of its speeds to 1 GB and faster, so telcos aren't likely to see positive net fixed data subscriber growth, he said, saying cable has "plenty of room" for taking some of the roughly 22 million DSL-based telco data subscribers. Pay-TV lost an estimated 1 million subs in Q2, with that to accelerate in Q3, Wlodarczak said. Q2 was the fourth straight quarter of accelerating year-over-year declines, and pay-TV penetration likely will be down to near 80 percent, he said.

Christian programmer The Word Network's (TWN) carriage complaint against Comcast (see 1706090031) isn't about affiliation-based discrimination but involves Comcast's editorial discretion and business judgment, the operator said in a reply posted Monday in FCC docket 17-166. It said its increasing distribution of similarly situated network Impact while decreasing TWN distribution was unrelated to affiliation since both are unaffiliated. It said conditions of Comcast/NBCUniversal approval on which TWN based part of its complaint still require that any affiliation-centric complaints establish a prima facie case of discrimination. Comcast said the conditions don't relieve the complainant of having to show differential treatment of an affiliated network that's similarly situated. Comcast also denied it ever demanded exclusive digital rights as a condition of carriage, and that such rights don't constitute a financial interest under program carriage rules. TWN didn't comment Tuesday.

The FCC needs to allow unauthorized use of the 5.9 GHz band, to support gigabit Wi-Fi, and to keep the designation of 64-71 GHz for unlicensed use while considering other high-frequency unlicensed spectrum designations, NCTA blogged Tuesday. Pointing to licensed and unlicensed spectrum needs to meet mobile broadband demands, NCTA said the agency "is on the right path" with its grant of the first 600 MHz wireless licenses and that it's likely to soon consider "modest changes" to 3.5 GHz rules.

Comcast and FX Networks will jointly launch the FX+ commercial-free subscription VOD service starting Sept. 5, they announced Monday. FX+ will be available for $5.99 per month as an add-on for Xfinity TV subscribers who upgrade their FX subscriptions. Along with offering current series commercial free, all seasons of FX's library will be available, with shows to be rolled out over a period of time with the complete FX+ roster available in 2018, they said.