Fox Sports’ Go live streaming platform launched on Apple TV Friday bringing Multiview Display for up to four streams of Fox Sports live content along with a 60-frame-per-second streaming rate, said the network in a Friday announcement. Owners of fourth-generation Apple TVs in the U.S., who receive Fox Sports TV networks as part of a pay-TV subscription, can access Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Fox Sports Regional Networks, Fox College Sports, Fox Deportes and Fox Soccer Plus through the Fox Sports Go app on Apple TV, it said. More than 95 million U.S. users have access to Fox Sports GO through participating pay-TV providers, said Fox.

Windstream wants to broaden its Kinetic TV fiber-based video offering footprint to more than 50,000 homes in North Carolina. The company said in a news release Thursday it submitted a formal bid to the North Carolina secretary of state for a cable TV franchise covering 13 communities primarily in and around the Charlotte area. The telco said North Carolina would become the fourth Kinetic market since the service's 2015 launch in Nebraska (see 1410030050), joining Kentucky and Texas. In its application, Windstream said it expects to start service Oct. 3.

"Cord stackers," who subscribe to a traditional multichannel video programming distributor as well as to a streaming video service, have highest overall satisfaction of streaming video consumers, according to J.D. Power's 2016 Streaming Video Satisfaction Study, the company said in a news release Thursday. The company's first such study of satisfaction among customers who used a subscription VOD service or pay-per-view streaming within the past six months found that most streaming video customers still buy an MVPD service atop a streaming video service. J.D. Power said 60 percent of streaming customers are cord stackers, 23 percent are cord shavers, 13 percent are cord cutters and 4 percent are cord nevers. The survey said cord-cutter satisfaction is lowest. Netflix was ranked highest among streaming video brands, J.D. Power said, followed by Hulu, Vudu, Apple iTunes and Amazon Video. J.D. Power said the study was based on responses from 3,928 customers received in June and July.

Since its 2011 launch, Comcast's Internet Essentials program has connected 750,000 families, or 3 million low-income Americans, the company said in a news release Wednesday. Residents of public housing and those receiving Department of Housing and Urban Development assistance who live in Comcast's service territory recently became eligible for the IE program (see 1607150018).

TV Everywhere is increasingly the norm as a majority of TV watchers have viewed content on devices other than TV sets, NCTA said in a blog post Wednesday. Pointing to NCTA-commissioned poll results, it said 61 percent of respondents reported using a computer, tablet or smartphone to watch TV at least once monthly, and 46 percent said they have watched TV via an app. Thirty-four percent said they watched Netflix on a mobile device in the past year, more than any other app on a mobile device. When asked about live programming, 54 percent said news is most important to watch live, with sports following at 24 percent. NCTA also said most Americans "have access to ample broadband for streaming" video content as evidenced by 85 percent of those surveyed saying their wired internet service is adequate for streaming, downloading and other online services. NCTA said the poll, conducted earlier this month by Morning Consult, was of 2,001 registered voters.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court decision that The Golf Channel (TGC) needn't pay back $5.9 million it received in advertising fees from what turned out to be a financial fraud. In an opinion Monday, the 5th Circuit said that based on the Texas Supreme Court's read of what "value" means under the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, it's upholding a 2013 decision by a federal judge in Dallas to toss out a lawsuit brought by Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver of Stanford International Bank -- a decision the 5th Circuit initially overturned in 2015 and then reversed as it sought clarification from the Texas Supreme court (see 1507010036). In that clarification issued earlier this year, the court said the law's broad definitions mean the programmer provided value to Stafford at the time of the transaction, supporting TGC's good-faith affirmative defense (see 1604040045). Janvey sued the channel in 2011, trying to claw back the money spent by Stanford, a title sponsor of a PGA Tour event and the focal point of what the 5th Circuit called an "undisputed ... multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme."

The latest claims that Comcast racially discriminates in the content it carries are "the same insufficient allegations" Entertainment Studios Networks and the National Association of African American Owned Media (ESN/NAAAOM) made in their original and amended complaint, Comcast said in support of its motion to dismiss the second amended complaint. In the reply memorandum (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Comcast said ESN/NAAAOM's second amended complaint (SAC) "rehash[es] argument and contentions this Court has already considered and rejected." The memorandum itself gives an alternate explanation for Comcast's not carrying ESN programming: lack of consumer demand, coupled with Comcast's bandwidth restraints. "When the SAC is stripped away of speculation and supposition, there are no facts that show race played any role ... in the carriage decision," Comcast said. ESN/NAAAOM are pursuing similar litigation against Charter Communications, with that company earlier this month opposing the filing of an amended complaint (see 1608120028). "The complaint is more than adequately pleaded and should go forward," plaintiffs' counsel Skip Miller of Miller Barondess told us Wednesday.

Comcast's $3.8 billion takeover of DreamWorks Animation is complete, with DreamWorks now part of Comcast's Universal Filmed Entertainment Group that also includes Universal Pictures, Fandango and NBCUniversal Brand Development, Comcast said in a news release Tuesday. NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke has said the deal moves forward NBCU's TV animation plans and will help create consumer products and theme park properties (see 1606130022).

Disney's cloud-based digital movie service platform Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA) now includes Verizon's Fios, making it the first multichannel video programming distributor there, Disney said in a news release Tuesday. Disney said its deal with Verizon lets Fios customers watch their Disney digital movies via DMA and buy content directly from Fios and supported DMA platforms. DMA accounts already can connect to such online retailers as iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, Microsoft Movies & TV and Vudu, Disney said.

Implementation costs for new set-top box rules could keep smaller cable providers from continuing to offer video, said seven-employee multichannel video programming distributor Dumont Telephone in an ex parte filing in docket 16-42. “Our margins are slim and continue to erode,” Dumont said. “We urge you not to apply new rules to smaller MVPDs.”