Viacom will spend $345 million in cash to buy Televisión Federal, one of Argentina's most popular networks and content producers, it said in a news release Tuesday. Viacom will receive the Telefe network, eight channels in the nation's interior, the Telefe Internacional pay-TV channel, 12 production studios, a library of more than 33,000 hours of content and the Mil Telefe and Telefe Noticias apps, as well as a stake in the UPlay multichannel network that Telefe co-founded.
Google improved its Fiber TV app to allow for watching current streaming episodes of TV programming and recording programming to a DVR, it said in a blog post Tuesday. Google said the app update also now brings personalized recommendations for live TV viewing and for recorded content on the DVR. The app will be updated for Google TV subscribers "in the coming weeks," the company said.
Free Press is "disappointed" that the FCC's set-top box plan wasn't approved at commissioners' September meeting, Policy Director Matt Wood said in a call with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Nov. 9, according to an ex parte filing. Free Press would like details of what the current draft proposal contains and how it addresses concerns about the plan's previous iteration. The FCC-proposed set-top plan would threaten the livelihood of members of the Directors Guild of America, DGA representatives told an aide to Rosenworcel in another meeting Thursday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-42. The DGA also sent Rosenworcel a letter praising her for expressing concern about the effects of the set-top plan on content creators. The FCC plan doesn't protect DGA members' creative works, the guild said.
Charter Communications Monday unveiled its low-income broadband service, Spectrum Internet Assist. The company in a news release said the service offers 30/4 Mbps speeds for $14.99 a month. Spectrum Internet Assist is available throughout Charter's legacy footprint now and will be rolled out market by market in legacy Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks territory by mid-2017. The service is available for families with students in the National School Lunch Program or people 65 and older who receive Supplemental Security Income program benefits. Low-income broadband provision was a condition of the FCC approving Charter's buys of TWC and BHN (see 1605060059).
Fox News Network and TVEyes are at loggerheads over the significance of their fight of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision last month in TCA Television v. McCollum. In a letter (in Pacer) Thursday to the 2nd Circuit, TVEyes said that TCA -- contrary to Fox's assertions -- didn't say that a fair use claim diminishes if it doesn't involve commentary or criticism, but rather that various uses, including criticism, comment, news reporting and research, are appropriate for finding fair use. Fox's letter (in Pacer) argued that TCA held that to be transformative a new work has to use copyrighted work for a purpose or with a difference from that for which it was created. Fox is appealing a U.S. District Court decision that TVEyes' archiving function is fair use, but emailing, downloading and date/time searches aren't, and TVEyes is appealing a subsequent injunction (see 1603180007). The 2nd Circuit decision (in Pacer) on TCA ruled that the verbatim use of a portion of the comedy routine "Who's on First?" in Broadway's Hand to God wasn't fair use but affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a copyright infringement complaint brought by heirs of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
A judge's rejection of Charter Communications' bid to have a lawsuit alleging racially based discrimination in its program carriage decisions tossed out (see 1610260069) mischaracterizes the cable ISP's argument and doesn't reflect the arguments it actually put forth, Charter said in a motion (in Pacer) for reconsideration filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Charter said the denial by Judge George Wu of Los Angeles acknowledged its argument about First Amendment protections for its programming but that it mistakenly suggests the company didn't argue that its contracting decisions also were protected by the First Amendment. The company also filed a motion (in Pacer) to stay proceedings pending its interlocutory appeal on the court's order on Charter's motion to dismiss the complaint brought by Entertainment Studios Networks and the National Association of African American Owned Media. Containing no new facts or law, the motion for reconsideration "is utterly without merit; and is derogation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Rules of the Central District of California," plaintiffs' counsel Skip Miller of Miller Barondess emailed us Monday.
Eight Starz channels will be on AT&T's DirecTV Now streaming service when it launches later this month, the network said in a news release Thursday. More of its channels, including its VOD catalog of Starz series, will be added later. The DirecTV Now terms came as part of multiyear agreement between Starz and AT&T/DirecTV, it said.
Adobe will pay roughly $540 million to acquire video advertising firm TubeMogul, it announced Thursday. Adobe said that with video consumption exploding and video advertising growing rapidly, TubeMogul with its own Marketing Cloud digital video platform will create "the first end-to-end independent advertising and data management solution that spans TV and digital formats." The buyer said the takeover is expected to close by the end of February. It said TubeMogul CEO Brett Wilson will continue to head up the TubeMogul team as part of Adobe’s Digital Marketing business.
Charter Communications' upgrade to its voice service includes access to Nomorobo, the company's call-blocking app, the cable ISP said in a blog post Wednesday. Nomorobo incorporates the Do Not Call Registry and other known, unwanted phone numbers to block calls from telemarketers and robocallers after one ring, it said. Nomorobo lets customers continue to get calls from automated call lists they opt into, it said. Nomorobo is available now across the legacy Charter and Time Warner Cable footprints and should be available in legacy Bright House Networks territory next year, it said. The FCC has been focusing on unwanted calls (see 1610260053).
A huge fear of independent programmers is that launching a complaint against a multichannel video programming distributor will result in multichannel video programming distributor retaliation, which is why FCC rules to block such indie programmer retaliation are needed, Game Show Network CEO David Goldhill told an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, according to a GSN ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-41. GSN said it suggested the FCC bring back its standstill rule, through which the FCC could temporarily freeze the price, terms and other conditions of an existing contract up for renewal; clarify the burden of proof questions in the program complaint process; set up stricter time limits on the process; cut the length of discovery and give the Media Bureau more power to resolve questions of fact. The programmer also suggested combining the docket with other open program carriage dockets -- 07-42 and 11-131 -- "to put parties on notice that the Commission might adopt procedural changes to help ameliorate the retaliation process."