The Klingon language is in the public domain and can't be protected under copyright law and thus can't be used as evidence of copyright violation by makers of a so-called Star Trek fan film, the Language Creation Society (LCS) said Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in an application (in Pacer) for leave to file an amicus brief. LCS -- a nonprofit that promotes constructed languages such as Esperanto and Klingon -- said its brief isn't in support of any party but narrowly supports the defendants' opposition to Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios' motion for summary judgment (see 1611250021) for the limited issue of a Paramount/CBS claim of Klingon language copyright. LCS also said its previous motion to file an amicus brief in the suit was dismissed without prejudice, but it's renewing its request since the issue "is ripe for summary judgment." No court has ever ruled on the issue of copyrighting a language, and the Klingon issue in the "fan film" suit hasn't received sufficient briefing, LCS said. In a separate pretrial conference order (in Pacer) filed Thursday by Paramount/CBS and defendant Axanar Productions, they said the trial is expected to start Jan. 31 and last 10 days.

Thirteen Cox Media Group (CMG) local stations might go dark on AT&T's DirecTV and U-Verse as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday due to lack of progress in retransmission consent negotiations, Cox said in a news release Thursday. Cox said the stations would be WSB-TV Atlanta; WFXT Boston; WSOC-TV Charlotte; WAXN-TV Kannapolis, North Carolina; WHIO-TV Dayton; WFOX-TV Jacksonville; WHBQ-TV Memphis; WFTV-TV and WRDQ, both of Orlando; WPXI Pittsburgh; KIRO-TV Seattle; KOKI-TV and KMYT-TV, both of Tulsa. “We are disappointed that CMG and AT&T appear to be reaching an impasse that could lead to a disruption in service for AT&T U-Verse and DIRECTV subscribers," Cox Vice President-Television Jane Williams said. "We have negotiated many of these agreements with cable and satellite operators throughout the United States and have rarely had disputes of this kind. In just the past few weeks, we have reached agreement with some of the largest video distributors in the country. We certainly hope for the same result in our negotiations with AT&T/DIRECTV.” AT&T in a statement said it "want[s] to get our DIRECTV and U-verse customers’ usual local broadcast stations back into their lineups and share[s] their frustration. Cox Broadcasting is preventing its local signals from reaching our customers’ homes in ten cities unless Cox receives a significant increase in fees just to allow those same families to watch shows available for free over-the-air and that the broadcast networks typically make available for free online and through new digital apps. Cox has suspended its stations from other TV providers’ customers before, so we appreciate our DIRECTV and U-verse customers’ patience as we work to resolve this matter quickly and reasonably.”

The FCC Media Bureau's 2012 hearing designation order sending a Game Show Network (GSN) carriage complaint to an administrative law judge (see 1205100047) erred when it said the complaint fell within the statute of limitations, Cablevision said in an application Friday for review of the order. The GSN complaint about Cablevision retiering the channel came nearly a decade after the two signed a carriage agreement that gave Cablevision the right to retier GSN, the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) said. Deciding the complaint was timely since it came within a year of Cablevision's alleged discrimination runs contrary to FCC rules and policy and to judicial authority, Cablevision said. It said the one-year clock for filing carriage complaints is triggered by an MVPD and network signing a contract that a party alleges violates rules, an MVPD offering to carry a network under terms that a party alleges violates rules, or a party notifying an MVPD it intends to file an FCC complaint. Cablevision also said U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards' concurring opinion in the 2013 Cablevision decision on Tennis Channel retiering rejected the reasoning the Media Bureau followed in its GSN decision. But GSN told us "the standard cable industry interpretation of the rule has never been adopted by the FCC, and while [Edwards] criticized the FCC interpretation, he was not able to obtain a second vote for his view." GSN also said Cablevision's application for review "raises the question always raised in one of these [Communications Act Section] 616 cases -- the meaning of the statute of limitations applicable to them. That is the only issue raised in the application for review, and it can only be raised that way because the Media Bureau decided it (against Cablevision) when it designated the case for hearing and instructed the ALJ not to deal with it."

The cable industry heads into 2017 with the wind strongly at its back due to incoming Republican control of the FCC and Washington, including in the form of potential broadband pricing power, bigger merger opportunities, anticipated tax reforms and inasmuch as rising interest rates don't hurt less-leveraged companies like Comcast and Verizon, said Macquarie analyst Amy Yong in a note to investors Friday. With FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly expressing interest in overturning net neutrality, "cable's broadband monetization opportunity is wide open," Yong said. Charter is bound by its Time Warner Cable/Bright House Networks acquisition consent decree for years more, but Comcast's NBCUniversal consent decree expires in early 2018, she said, saying it tried usage-based pricing in some markets but it also raised its data caps to 1 TB. She also said AT&T's proposed Time Warner buy and the CenturyLink/Level 3 deal are more likely to be approved under "more palatable conditions," and horizontal mergers are more likely, raising the odds of a T-Mobile/Sprint deal. She said there's increased possibility for a cable/wireless merger, with Charter/Verizon a possibility.

The number of original scripted series on basic cable rose 63 percent between 2011 and 2016, hitting 181 this year, and on premium cable the number grew 9 percent, to 36, said an analysis released Wednesday by FX Networks Research. On broadcast, the number of original scripted series grew 25 percent, to 145, FX said. Among online services, the number grew from six in 2011 to 455 this year, it said.

Rights to most major domestic sports are locked up until early next decade, but digital distributors like Amazon and Google could enter the negotiations when they become available, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors Wednesday. But sports leagues still want TV's extensive reach and partners with content production abilities and skills for wide distribution, and thus "are unlikely to let their crown jewel packages go to new bidders," he said. But Amazon is seen as a likely bidder for sports rights next year, perhaps with the expiration of Twitter's NFL rights, Moffett said.

Disney|ABC Television Group will begin producing original episodic content for Shapchat starting with the first episode of Watch Party: The Bachelor debuting Jan. 3, Disney said in a news release Wednesday. The series will consist of 10 original episodes, each debuting on Tuesday morning after the Monday night episode of ABC's The Bachelor and will be on Snapchat for 24 hours, Disney said. The company said other shows will roll out on Snapchat in coming months. NBCUniversal and Turner (see 1608080036 and 1612090065) also announced Snapchat programming agreements in recent months.

Over-the-top apps for ABC's owned-and-operated stations are now available for Amazon Fire TV, making the stations the first network station group to launch market-specific OTT video apps, Disney/ABC said in a news release Wednesday. The apps are for WLS-TV Chicago; WABC-TV New York; KABC-TV Los Angeles; WPVI-TV Philadelphia; KGO-TV San Francisco; KTRK-TV Houston; WTVD Durham, North Carolina; and KFSN-TV Fresno, the media company said. The apps deliver local news, weather and community news, it said, saying its Freeform streaming app -- which allows watching of various network programs -- also is live.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should delay issuing a mandate until after filing of a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court and, if that petition is granted, final disposition, Broadband iTV said in motion (in Pacer) to stay issuance filed Tuesday. BBiTV said appellees Hawaiian Telecom, Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Time Warner Cable didn't consent. It said its petition "presents the ideal vessel for Supreme Court review" of the presumption of validity and clear and convincing evidence standard for patents. It also pointed to 2016 Supreme Court decisions that had dissenting opinions -- Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec and Amdocs v. Openet Telecom -- as evidence the court is likely to take up a case like BBiTV's since it presents issues "which can resolve and simplify the confusion currently surrounding patent eligibility." The appellate court in September upheld a U.S. District Court ruling against BBiTV (see 1609280016). TWC is now owned by Charter Communications. Counsel for the appellees didn't comment Wednesday.

The FCC Administrative Law Division granted the Game Show Network/Cablevision request (see 1612200063) to extend the deadlines for filings on last month's administrative law judge initial decision on GSN's carriage discrimination complaint against the operator. Under an order issued Wednesday, the deadline for opposition to GSN's petition to compel compliance and for exceptions to ALJ Richard Sippel's decision is now Jan. 3, and Jan. 13 for replies to the exceptions and the opposition.