Maine's a la carte cable programming law would play havoc with existing business relationships between programmers and distributors and ultimately mean viewers have less, not more, access to content, said amicus briefs filed Thursday with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (docket 20-1104) by the MPA, WarnerMedia and Washington Legal Foundation (WLF). Maine is appealing a lower court's grant of a preliminary injunction blocking the law (see 2004300011). The state law is "a radical and surprising mandate" that's incompatible with the structure of existing licensed programming relationships between content owners and distributors and MPA members' exclusive rights under copyright law, MPA said (in Pacer). Most content wouldn't be economically viable if it were offered a la carte, and cable operators would have to stop offering all content for which they lack an a la carte license, reducing the amount of content available. WarnerMedia said (in Pacer) that the state law also is a First Amendment violation by requiring cable operators "to snip particular content out of the coherent whole in which a programmer has placed it." The WLF said (in Pacer) the lower court diverged from a plain reading of the Cable Act, which clearly says the federal government preempts state regulation of how cable TV is provided. The Maine Attorney General's Office didn't comment Friday.

Comcast investors rejected shareholder proposals on preparing an annual lobbying activity report and doing an independent investigation and report on sexual harassment risks, the company said Wednesday. All company proposals, including board elections and the advisory vote on executive compensation, were adopted, it said.

Congress never intended the Cable Act to preempt states from stopping cable distributors from "bilking" residents, defendant Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) said Tuesday in a motion to dismiss Charter's lawsuit challenging the state requiring prorated refunds when customers end service partway through a billing cycle (see 2005210004). "To call this 'rate regulation' barely passes the straightface test," the state filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor (in Pacer, docket 20-cv-00168). Compliance wouldn't cause operators irreparable harm, the state said in opposition to Charter seeking preliminary injunction. The cabler's outside counsel didn't comment Wednesday.

The Supreme Court denied a Comcast petition for writ of certiorari challenging a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a lower court on arbitration of consumers' complaints against the MVPD for advertised pricing of its cable TV packages (see 2004270007), SCOTUS said in docket 19-1066 this week. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday its 2019 decision takes effect immediately (in Pacer, docket 18-15288). The mandate was stayed pending the cert petition (see 2001220020).

Comcast, Charter and Altice's combined 3.8 million mobile lines may not seem significant, but the apparent leveling off of some major wireless carriers points to the three cable companies eating into big carriers' market growth, blogged CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson Monday. Their ability to bundle mobile service with other services like broadband will likely lead to accelerating customer acquisition, he said.

Charter, Comcast and ViacomCBS will jointly and equally own the Blockgraph anonymized advertising data platform, they said Friday. Blockgraph started in 2017 and has been part of Comcast's ad technology unit, FreeWheel, but with the goal of it being a collaborative industry solution and alternative to third-party data, they said. Jason Manningham, general manager of Blockgraph under FreeWheel, will be Blockgraph CEO.

Having large cable operators continue to compile and upload attributable programming interest information to make future program access complaints easier is reasonable due to how difficult it can be to independently obtain such details, ACA Connects said in docket 20-35 Wednesday. It said the compliance burden is minimal. ACA responded to criticisms from NCTA, which didn't comment.

Viewers of Rachel Maddow's MSNBC program know it offers news but also liberal host Maddow's thoughts on that news, so a reasonable viewer wouldn't conclude her calling Herring Networks' One America News Network "really literally ... paid Russian propaganda" is an assertion of objective fact. That's according to U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant of San Diego in an order Friday (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-01713). The judge granted a motion by defendants Maddow, Comcast, NBCUniversal and MSNBC to strike Herring's defamation suit under California's Anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation law. Herring emailed us Tuesday a Friday statement that Maddow's description of his network "is demonstrably false" and it plans to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The FCC 5-0 stood by Media Bureau decisions to add Franklin, Hart and Stephens counties in Georgia to the local markets of Atlanta's WSB-TV, WGCL-TV, WXIA-TV and WAGA-TV on Dish Network and DirecTV, in an order Wednesday. Commissioners dismissed applications for review by the licensees of WYFF and WHNS Greenville, South Carolina, WSPA-TV Spartanburg, South Carolina, and WLOS Asheville, North Carolina. The regulators said the outlets failed to prove they were aggrieved.

Cable distributor interests and independent programmers are on opposite sides on the FCC's proposed amendments to program carriage dispute rules, in docket 20-70 comments posted Tuesday. An NPRM and Further NPRM were adopted in March (see 2003310066). The proposed program carriage and good faith negotiation complaint procedural rules changes would give more certainty to parties and a more consistent framework to adjudications, NCTA said. Clarifying statute of limitations language for program access, open video system and good faith negotiation complaints will encourage timely dispute resolution, it said. Having administrative law judge decisions in MVPD cases follow the same guidelines as other ALJ cases, such as when they take effect and automatic stays, will give due weight to the First Amendment implications of the decisions, it said. Also backing the FCC was Comcast (see here). AMC Networks said it's still important indie programmers get fair and nondiscriminatory carriage opportunities compared with competitors that may be affiliated with MVPDs. The programmer said the statute of limitations language should include a provision allowing complaints to be filed within a year of the content provider learning a distributor exercised a contractual right in a discriminatory manner. It said ALJ decision rules should include a six-month timeline for FCC review of those decisions once it's been appealed. And it urged a prohibition on retaliation against program carriage complainants. Ride TV, Newsmax, HDNet, KSE Outdoor Sportsman Group and WeatherNation TV said the current program carriage framework is woeful protection when dealing with MVPDs with all the leverage, and the FNPRM would curtail that protection further. Instead, promulgate good faith rules for MVPDs and programmers that prevent use of most-favored nation clauses, they asked. The statute of instantiations language in the FNPRM ignores that pay TV providers generally don't decline or refuse carriage proposals but never answer until indies acquiesce to one-sided terms, they said. Program carriage rules "have ... lost almost all of their deterrent effect," with an MVPD's claimed business justification becoming a major obstacle at the prima facie stage, said beIN Sports. It said the FCC needs to codify an anti-retaliation provision, good faith negotiation obligations and the automatic production of certain documents upon making a prima facie case, and clarify that the defendant holds the burden of proof and production after the complainant makes a prima facie case. It opposed adopting the ALJ proposal, saying immediate enforcement of a favorable ALJ decision is needed to avoid economic and reputational harm of not being carried.