Viamedia antitrust claims against Comcast fail to show a direct causal connection between the conduct being challenged and its alleged injury, and Viamedia hasn't suffered any antitrust injury, Comcast said in a reply (in Pacer) posted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Comcast said Viamedia lacks standing to make tying and exclusive dealing antitrust claims on behalf of nonparties like WideOpenWest (WOW) and RCN, and Viamedia's amended complaint didn't make any allegation of injury to competition. In a statement Thursday, Viamedia said that "while there are the predictable denials, we are pleased with the number of admissions in the answer and look forward to proceeding with discovery and then on to trial.” It's suing Comcast over allegedly using its control of interconnects in certain spot cable advertising representation markets to elbow out ad services competition from Viamedia and using its interconnects control to lure away former Viamedia cable company clients such as WOW and RCN. The court in February dismissed (in Pacer) five of Viamedia's claims.
TiVo will provide voice search capability for Sky Q, the companies said in a Wednesday announcement. Sky users will be able to search for content by voice on linear TV and VOD, they said. The solution is built into TiVo’s knowledge graph engine that’s capable of understanding trends and conversations, said TiVo. The knowledge base, updated continuously via data ingestion and news crawlers, is produced and curated by content editors, predictive search results and behavioral indicators from social networks, TiVo said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau granted Wide Open West’s transfer of control to Cayman Islands-based private equity firm Crestview, the bureau said in a public notice Wednesday. The Crestview/WOW application had been put on hold at the request of Team Telecom, but last week, thecompanies filed a letter of agreement with conditions that would allow the deal to proceed, the PN said. Under the agreement, WOW and Crestview will have to comply with law enforcement requests to search their records or for wiretap or trace orders. “The Bureau finds, upon consideration of the record, that grant of the Application, subject to compliance with the Agreement, will serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” the PN said.
Altice is buying online video marketplace Teads, it said in a news release Tuesday. Altice said the deal is part of its advertising strategy, letting it offer clients various advertising services on multiscreen platforms. It said the deal values Teads at up to $308 million, with the purchase price subject to Teads hitting certain revenue targets this year. It also said the deal is expected to close in mid-2017, and Teads senior management will remain with the company (see the personals section of this issue of the publication). Altice closed on Suddenlink in 2015 and took over Cablevision last year.
Epix channels will be available via CenturyLink's Prism TV platform, under a carriage agreement between the two, the programmer announced Monday. The deal -- involving Epix (East and West), Epix 2 and Epix Hits -- also includes TV Everywhere rights, Epix said.
Sony is seeking a ban on imports of Arris digital cable and satellite set-top boxes and gateway products, it said in a Section 337 complaint March 10 at the International Trade Commission. Arris and its subsidiary Pace allegedly import and sell digital cable and satellite set-tops and gateway products that infringe Sony patents. Named in the complaint are Arris and Pace digital cable set-tops supplied to Comcast for Comcast’s Xfinity service, plus Arris and Pace digital satellite set-tops supplied to AT&T's DirecTV for DirecTV’s Genie brand. Arris media gateway products and telephony gateway products also are included. Sony asked the ITC to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of infringing products by Arris and Pace. The ITC seeks comment by March 27, it said in Friday's Federal Register. The agency recently began an investigation of Arris set-tops allegedly infringing Kudelski patents and imported for use with Xfinity's X1 service (see 1703070039). Arris again declined to comment Friday.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will speak at the American Cable Association's annual policy summit, which runs March 28-30. Pai is scheduled to talk on the 30th, ACA said Friday. The lineup on the 29th includes Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., and House Republican Conference chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., it said.
U.S. broadband homes that don’t subscribe to a legacy pay-TV service jumped to 22 percent last year, from 18 percent in 2015 and 9 percent in 2011, said a TDG Research report Wednesday. The number of “cord nils” broadband households reporting zero use of TV services from cable, satellite or telco-TV providers has grown from just under 8 million in 2011 to 22 million by year-end 2016, said the report. Director-Research Michael Greeson observed the correlation of legacy pay-TV subscriptions declining as broadband video expands and said the extent of the disruption “has been largely overlooked.” Most multichannel video programming distributors are being forced to rely on skinny TV services to save their dual-service relationships, Greeson said. Comcast is an exception, having invested early in IP-enabled set-top boxes and features, he said. “Unfortunately for other US MVPDs, the stickiness of the Internet/TV bundle appears to be in decline, even before Broadband Pay-TV services gain serious footing."
Consumer demand for cable-offered wireless service remains a question mark, but "content bundling creativity is the glue that might stick," Raymond James analyst Frank Louthan wrote investors regarding Comcast. His email Wednesday said Comcast has customer relationships, retail presence and marketing to help it deploy a wireless service, something other MVNOs typically lacked. The analyst said the key test for Comcast will be lowering its churn and creating "a stickier customer base," as AT&T is chasing the same goal and that company will likely be first "to see how well this concept works." Raymond James said Comcast's small and midsized business strategy is increasingly to focus on areas outside its footprint, partnering with other cable companies, and on national franchises with multitudes of end-user locations.
The arbitration clause in Time Warner Cable's customer agreement is "fatally overbroad and unconscionable" under California law, said subscriber Michael Song -- suing TWC parent Charter Communications -- in opposition (in Pacer) to Charter's motion to compel arbitration posted Monday in U.S. District Court in San Diego. Song said the arbitrability reference in the customer agreement doesn't clearly and unambiguously give arbitrators the right to determine claims for injunctive orders and consigning such an injunctive order to arbitration would be contrary to the Federal Arbitration Act. Song alleges Charter is deceptively advertising cable TV at lower-than-actual prices, then concealing broadcast TV and sports surcharges in its ads, contracts and bills. Counsel for the cable operator didn't comment Tuesday.