U.K. Secretary of State-Digital, Culture, Media Matt Hancock said Monday his office is leaning toward not intervening in Comcast's proposed buy of Sky. He said the proposed deal doesn't raise public interest concerns enough to justify intervention. He said interested parties have until May 24 to submit written responses and a final decision on possible intervention will follow "shortly." Comcast in April made a formal bid for Sky, while Fox had a pending bid (see 1804250026), and Sky subsequently said it favored the Comcast offer (see 1804260008).

Facebook’s plan to group journalism with political advocacy content will blur the lines between reporting and propaganda, News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern wrote company CEO Mark Zuckerberg Friday. It threatens “to undermine journalism’s ability to play its critical role in society as the fourth estate,” Chavern said. Facebook didn’t comment.

Google's YouTube is relaunching its subscription streaming service, YouTube Red, as YouTube Premium, it blogged Wednesday. It said Premium, at $11.99 a month, will include more original series and movies, as well as advertising-free content. YouTube said it's putting out an ad-free version of its YouTube Music streaming service that includes downloads. YouTube Music will be available as part of a Premium subscription, or by itself at $9.99 a month.

That Charter Communications bills in advance, with cable subscribers thus knowing the particulars of claims, doesn't preclude those bills from constituting false claims for payment, said El Centro, California, in an opposition (in Pacer) Wednesday in docket 18-cv-00785-AJB-PCL in U.S. District Court in San Diego. It responded to Charter's motion (in Pacer) seeking dismissal of El Centro claims the cable operator is violating the California False Claims Act in removing Northwest Broadcasting affiliates without then reimbursing the city, a customer (see 1804260003). Charter's motion to dismiss last month said El Centro, in accepting its services, agreed to the terms of service with full knowledge two channels were blacked out, and the city's remedy was to terminate service or follow the dispute procedures in the terms. The MVPD is suing El Centro for alleged interference in the carriage dispute with Northwest (see 1805110057).

Amazon has “quietly built a stronghold in the burgeoning direct-to-consumer market," said Michael Greeson, president, The Diffusion Group, in a Wednesday report saying Amazon Prime Channels account for more than half of all direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscriptions, including HBO, Showtime and Starz. More than half of HBO DTC subscribers used Amazon Prime Channels to buy their service, said TDG, and seven in 10 DTC Showtime or Starz subscribers went through Prime channels vs. three in 10 who used the networks’ website or app. Greeson cited reports that Apple plans to launch a new feature in its TV app that, instead of pushing interested viewers to buy and download apps from its App Store, will sell DTC apps directly to consumers, mimicking Amazon’s approach. Apple users would be able to subscribe to third-party streaming services within the TV app included on Apple TVs, iPhones and iPads, he said. In Amazon’s model, the company gets a slice of subscription revenue from DTC sales and owns the consumer relationship, while the broadcast partner shoulders the costs of hosting, streaming and customer support. “If Apple can repeat this formula,” Greeson said, “it could be successful,” as TV network DTC subscriptions are forecast to grow fourfold in the next five years. If Apple adopted a DTC model, it could have an advantage over Amazon Channels, which imposes a $119-a-year membership on Prime members before they can make a la carte purchases, he said. Apple didn't respond.

FCC video description rules covering nonbroadcast networks should be changed to give more flexibility to those programmers to comply with the quarterly benchmark without resorting to waivers, NCTA and NBCUniversal representatives told Media Bureau staffers, said a docket 11-43 filing posted Wednesday. NCTA and NBCU said the agency is too restrictive on how it counts repeat airings of programming toward meeting the benchmark and urged a safe harbor that would let nonbroadcast networks achieve compliance in cases where they provide significant amounts of video-described programming overall. NCTA petitioned for partial reconsideration of a video description expansion order (see 1710040031).

Panasonic Automotive and Google are working together to create “auto-grade intent infotainment capabilities,” they announced Tuesday, highlighting integration of Panasonic's Skip Generation (Skip Gen) in-vehicle infotainment platform into the Android P operating system. The platform, introduced at CES 2016 and since integrated into four versions of the Android OS, was demoed last week at Google I/O in a Panasonic reference infotainment system, they said.

Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both D-Mass., and Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said Monday Charter and Hearst should resolve the carriage dispute that will eliminate WCVB-TV Boston service for Charter subscribers in 16 communities in the Berkshires next month. Charter subscribers in the Berkshires previously lost access in 2017 to WWLP Springfield, Massachusetts. "Without these stations, Berkshire residents lose access to Massachusetts-specific information that matters to them, including Boston sports and news from their state capital, which is not reported on by an Albany station in New York," the lawmakers said in a letter to Charter CEO Thomas Rutledge and Hearst President Jordan Wertlieb. The companies didn't comment.

CBS and a committee of its board filed a lawsuit and motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent controlling stockholder National Amusements from “interfering with a special meeting of the Board of Directors” that would redistribute CBS stock to dilute National Amusement’s voting interest, the broadcaster said in a release Monday. Shari Redstone controls National Amusements. The dividend “would dilute National Amusements, Inc.’s voting interest from approximately 79% to 17%,” the release said. The court documents were filed in Delaware Court of Chancery. The special committee was formed in response to the proposed combination of National Amusements-owned Viacom and CBS, and voted Sunday that the proposed deal isn’t in CBS’s interests, the motion said. “The Special Committee believes that the Company and its public stockholders face a serious threat of imminent, irreparable harm in Ms. Redstone’s potential response to the Special Committee’s unanimous decision.” Such a significant change in ownership of a company that controls numerous broadcast licenses is likely to require FCC approval, broadcast attorneys told us. The suit makes it less likely that CBS will buy Viacom, Citibank analyst Jason Bazinet emailed investors. It appears "CBS management and part of the board has effectively decided either to take control away from the Redstones and chart their own course or to in effect be removed,” Barclays' Kannan Venkateshwar emailed. “If the restraining order is allowed by the court, the CBS board is likely to vote on the new shares on Thursday, but the shares won’t be issued till a decision is laid out on the lawsuit itself," Venkateshwar said. “For both CBS and Viacom, this lawsuit is likely to result in a period of uncertainty and a lack of closure one way or the other for some time,” the analyst said. “The lawsuit may take about six months to resolve itself.”

Disney's first amended copyright complaint against Redbox for selling codes that allow streaming Disney movies (see 1804100002) shows Disney doesn't respect the different contractual requirements of operating in the physical and digital worlds, Redbox said in a docket 17-cv-08655-DDP-AGR motion to dismiss (in Pacer) filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Redbox said consumers aren't originating a new transaction online when they redeem on a Disney website a digital code previously bought in a disc Combo Pack. It said 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals precedent is that in a brick-and-mortar transaction, it takes more than just fine print intended to limit resale to create a binding limitation on alienation. And it said the amended Disney complaint is an attempt to back out of completed brick-and-mortal sales by employing website license terms barring redemption of codes by consumers who didn't assent to the terms at purchase. Redbox said Disney's infringement claim against Redbox customers, based on unenforceable contract terms, fails, so its contributory infringement claim against Redbox should be dismissed. Disney outside counsel didn't comment Friday.