The FCC will conduct an open and transparent review process for the proposed AT&T/DirecTV transaction, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in letters to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. Wheeler responded to a letter from Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah. "Your views will be taken into consideration, and your letter will be made part of the record," he said in separate letters to the lawmakers. Klobuchar and Lee led a hearing on the deal in June.

The National Association of African-American Owned Media, representing an anonymous African-American-owned programmer, sued AT&T and DirecTV for $10 billion alleging racial discrimination in program carriage and contracting decisions. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. “In cahoots with the FCC and non-media civil rights advocacy groups, the major white-owned video programming distributors have concocted ways to perpetuate the exclusion of truly 100 percent African-American-owned networks,” the complaint said. AT&T/DirecTV has declined to pay to carry the programmer’s channels, but has entered into carriage agreements with “other, similarly situated white-owned channels,” the complaint said. The programmer at the heart of the lawsuit has offered seven channels to AT&T/DirecTV, including a 24-hour news channel, but was offered carriage only for large fees, the complaint said. “Although Defendants’ African American subscribers pay very substantial subscriber fees, and constitute a significant advertising target for Defendants, Defendants pay nothing to 100 percent African-American-owned media for channel carriage and nearly nothing for advertising,” the complaint said. The complaint also attacks the FCC and some civil rights groups for contributing to the exclusion of African-American-owned media companies. “AT&T is paying off non-media, so-called African-American civil rights groups … in order to ‘buy’ their endorsement for its acquisition of DirecTV,” the complaint said. “Diversity is a top priority for AT&T,” the telco said in a released statement. DirecTV didn't comment. An AT&T spokesman said the company spent $15.5 billion “with diverse suppliers” in 2013, and most U-Verse customers have access to several African-American-oriented networks and Justice Central, a 100 percent African-American-owned television network. AT&T has agreed to buy DirecTV.

Southern Cloud, an over-the-top platform provider, will use Level 3's content delivery network services. The CDN will distribute paid content via Southern Cloud's International TV platform, Cloudio TV, over multiple devices such as set-top boxes, Connected Smart TVs and Blu-ray players, Level 3 said Wednesday in a news release. This will allow Southern Cloud to migrate satellite subscribers to an IP-based delivery model, Level 3 said. New capabilities will allow broadcasters "to improve their overall cost structure, which can translate into lower entry points for end-users," it said.

The FCC will form a new Disability Advisory Committee to "provide a vehicle for consumers and other stakeholders to provide feedback and recommendations to the Commission on a wide array of disability issues,” the FCC said in a news release Tuesday. The committee will hold its first meeting in Q1 2015, “coinciding with a year-long celebration of both the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the 5th anniversary of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA),” the FCC said. The issues the new body will consider include access to emergency information, device accessibility, and the IP and other network transitions, the release said. The committee is expected to recommend policies to the FCC and keep it apprised of “current and evolving communications issues for persons with disabilities,” the release said. Nominations for two-year terms on the committee will be accepted until Jan. 12 and information about such nominations is here. “Organizations are encouraged to nominate CEOs, CTOs and other qualified persons,” the FCC said.

Pandora released a beta version of a new mobile interface for its customers, said a company news release Tuesday. The interface, which will roll out to all Pandora users over the next several months, is available for 3 percent of Pandora’s iPhone and Android smartphone users.

AOL acquired Vidible, a cross-screen video platform for the exchange of digital media, said a joint news release Tuesday. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Vidible has 300,000 videos that garner 800 million plays per month, it said. AOL has 1 million premium videos in its library.

Aruba Networks, Broadcom Corp. and other technology vendors formed an alliance to meet industry demand for higher ethernet speeds. The companies making up the Multi-Rate Gigabit Ethernet Base-T Alliance, put their support behind efforts at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to bring 2.5G and 5G ethernet speeds to enterprise access points and other systems relying on unshielded twisted-pair cabling, MGBASE-T said Monday in a news release. The specification adopted by the alliance "leverages many of the fundamental technologies in Ethernet standards as defined in the IEEE 802.3 10GBASE-T, enabling faster time to market with minimal research and development efforts for ecosystem vendors," it said.

Cox Media stations were removed from the Verizon FiOS TV lineup in the Boston and Providence areas Thursday due to failed retransmission consent fee negotiations between Cox and Verizon, Verizon said Friday on its website: “We are hopeful that Cox will reconsider these drastic tactics, reduce its demands for millions more in fees, and work with Verizon to reach an agreement that is reasonable and in its own viewers’ best interest.” Verizon FiOS “has refused to reach a fair, market-based deal to carry FOX 25,” Fox Boston said on its website. The station, WFXT Boston, is continuing to negotiate with Verizon FiOS, “but Verizon has refused to agree to reasonable terms for valuable programming we provide,” it said. Cox’s behavior “illustrates how broken retransmission consent is,” the American Television Alliance said. The blackout is the 75th by broadcasters this year, it said in a news release.

Gray Television and Fields Cable settled their dispute over carriage of WYMT-TV Hazard, Kentucky, and WKYT-TV Lexington, Kentucky, Gray said in a letter to the commission posted in docket 12-221 Monday. The FCC should in turn dismiss Gray’s 2012 complaint against the cable provider, the letter said.

Additional procedural requirements related to new closed-captioning quality rules would “do nothing to enhance quality captioning for consumers,” said content companies in a meeting with staff from the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Media bureau Wednesday, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 05-231 Monday. Companies represented at the meeting included Disney, 21st Century Fox and Viacom. The FCC should “refrain from shifting liability” from providers to programmers in enforcing captioning issues, the companies said.