A letter to the FCC from the leaders of the Senate's Antitrust Subcommittee about Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable was “mildly positive relative to expectations” and more favorable in tone than a similar letter sent from the subcommittee in 2010 during the Comcast/NBCUniversal transaction, Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant emailed investors. The letter, sent by subcommittee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked the FCC to focus on the effects of Comcast/TWC on over-the-top companies and the ability of independent programmers to enter the pay-TV market. A letter focusing on Comcast/TWC's national broadband reach would have been more concerning, Gallant said. Though that issue was raised tangentially by the senators' concern for OTT companies, the letter devotes little space to the matter, Gallant said. “Our view continues to be a slight edge to merger approval with conditions.” President Barack Obama's endorsement of Communications Act Title II regulation for ISPs may have exposed them to a higher risk of being overturned by a Republican-controlled Congress, Gallant said. That could make approving Comcast/TWC with net neutrality conditions “marginally more attractive to the FCC” and the Department of Justice, Gallant said.

Tablets are adding accessibility features, while e-readers "are becoming even more distinct" from tablets, said Amazon, Kobo and Sony representatives and their lawyer in lobbying the FCC to grant their request for a longer waiver of accessibility rules. E-readers have "become even more specialized for digital reading, featuring a long battery life and decreased size, weight, and complexity," said the Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers, which represents the three companies. "Tablets are increasing in functionality and continue to add accessibility features." In a recent one-week sample of more than 400,000 e-reader devices, 4.2 percent of users launched the product's browser, and no more than 2.5 percent used it for what might have been advanced communications services, said a filing recounting executives' lobbying of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's office and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staffers. "It would be arbitrary and capricious for an agency to conclude that an activity (ACS) is a primary or coprimary use of a device" based on such evidence, said the coalition in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday to docket 10-213. Two library groups recently opposed the accessibility waiver that CEA and the Internet Association backed (see 1411120048).

The FCC may not be able to forbear away all the collateral effects of Title II reclassification under the Communications Act of the Internet, said a group of cable executives in a meeting with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler last week, according to an NCTA ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Monday. The group included Cox Communications President Pat Esser, Midcontinent Communications President Pat McAdaragh, NCTA President Michael Powell and Suddenlink CEO Jerry Kent, the filing said. One aspect of Title II reclassification that may be beyond forbearance is the web of state and local taxes that apply to utilities and telecom services but hadn’t previously been applied to broadband, the filing said. The “impact of Title II reclassification would be to stifle investment and innovation, raise consumer prices, and hurt broadband adoption,” the filing said. Rules based on Section 706 of Telecom Act would be “consistent with industry practices that have provided consumers with an open Internet experience for the past two decades,” the filing said.

Graham Holdings will spin off its subsidiary Cable ONE, Graham Holdings said in a news release Thursday. Graham, the former owner of the Washington Post Company, was authorized by its board to proceed with the plan Thursday, and the deal is expected be completed in 2015. Cable ONE will be an independent, publicly traded company, the release said. “The separation will position Graham Holdings to pursue continued growth opportunities, while enabling Cable ONE to focus entirely on its video, Internet and voice services and to attract a more natural stockholder base,” said Graham Holdings Board Chairman Donald Graham. The proposed transaction will be structured as a tax-free spin-off of Cable ONE to the stockholders of Graham Holdings, and is contingent on regulatory approvals, the release said.

Viacom and Frontier Communications said Wednesday that they renewed their long-term carriage agreement, which includes multiplatform rights for 27 Viacom networks and premium network EPIX. Neither company disclosed additional details about the agreement.

Large and mid-sized cable operators and their associations are concerned about the Communications Act Title II broadband reclassification that President Barack Obama sought Monday (see 1411100035), they continued to say in written statements and blog posts. Forbearing from Title II regulations, as that approach would entail, "is Easier Said than Done," said the headline of an NCTA blog post Wednesday. It cited "the history of forbearance petitions." Executive Vice President David Cohen headlined his blog post Tuesday "Surprise!" which he said some would be that Comcast agrees with Obama's principles on net neutrality. "There is one important technical legal difference of opinion between the President and Comcast: we do not support reclassification of broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II," wrote Cohen. "Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act provides more than ample authority to impose those rules." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's January ruling against FCC net neutrality rules "made clear" that distinction, he said. Time Warner Cable "remains committed to an open Internet, but we disagree with the President’s statement that an open Internet can only be achieved by reclassifying broadband as a public utility," said CEO Rob Marcus in a Monday news release. Comcast has agreed to buy TWC, and some analysts and industry lawyers have speculated that the deal may be less likely to be completed if the FCC takes a Title II approach. Like Obama, Suddenlink backs an open Internet, said CEO Jerry Kent in an emailed statement. "Unfortunately, the President has proposed a 'solution' in search of a problem. There is no blocking of legal content by ISP’s and no paid prioritization with respect to broadband Internet access." Obama's "call for the FCC to impose heavy-handed government regulation under Title II on Internet service providers, like Mediacom, is politically motivated and ill-conceived," said CEO Rocco Commisso Wednesday. Smaller ISPs don't threaten the open Internet, and their subscribers "have long benefited from the government’s light touch in applying regulation to broadband," said American Cable Association CEO Matt Polka Monday. “Common carrier regulation of telephone service crafted in 1934 under President Franklin Roosevelt should not be applied to a thriving, bustling broadband Internet market in 2014 under President Barack Obama."

The FCC should seek comment on “the full range” of possible consequences before modifying the definition of multichannel video programming distributor to include over-the-top video, NCTA said in an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-83 Friday. The commission should consider whether foreign OTT services would qualify, and the definition of “for purchase," NCTA said. Changing the rule wouldn’t give OTT services access to content since they wouldn’t qualify for the compulsory copyright licenses that the Copyright Act specifies go to cable systems, NCTA said. “There is no statutory license for 'MVPDs' generally. This hole cannot be filled by the Commission.”

Comcast is “really sorry” about outages caused by “technical issues” during its upgrading of the X1 platform, the company said in a blog post Friday. Affected customers will receive credits within the next two weeks, Comcast said. The issue was caused by the software that updates the X1 platform, Comcast said. “Our engineers are now going back over this issue and taking extra steps to prevent it from happening again,” said the post. “The fix we’ve put in place should be automatic -- customers don’t need to do anything (such as rebooting or unplugging the box)."

Atlantic Broadband customers who receive any of the company’s TiVo bundles will get three months of free Netflix under a new deal between Atlantic and Netflix, the cable provider said in a news release Monday. “This promotion will be available to new, existing and returning Netflix customers who sign up with Atlantic Broadband through December 31.” Other free Netflix promotional periods will be offered by Atlantic in the future, as part of an ongoing partnership with Netflix, said the cable operator.

Lenovo completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google (see 1401310060) for $2.91 billion, including $660 million in cash, stock and a $1.5 billion three-year promissory note, the companies said Thursday. Lenovo will operate Motorola as a subsidiary that will stay headquartered in Chicago, it said. Google will continue to own most of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, but Motorola Mobility under Lenovo’s ownership will control more than 2,000 "patent assets" and a "large number of patent cross-license agreements," plus the Motorola Mobility brand and trademarks, they said.