Charter/TWC/BHN Critics Continue To Lobby for Conditions

Incompas said in a meeting with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's chief of staff, David Grossman, it discussed its suggested condition of requiring New Charter join a video programming purchasing cooperative and that its interconnection policy be extended to seven years (see 1601280047). In a separate ex parte filing Monday, Nvidia recapped a meeting with Owen Kendler, who's overseeing the Charter review team, at which it again said any Charter approval should come with conditions that would stop it from preventing third-party devices such as Nvidia's Shield TV from having access to the authentication credentials needed to work with various TV Everywhere apps (see 1601220017). Charter and TWC denied they're blocking (see 1602120046). And the California Emerging Technology Fund, in a filing Monday, repeated its case that Charter's proposed low-income broadband offering should have lower qualification limits (see 1601290025). It also said any New Charter approval should require a $285 million donation by the company for broadband adoption areas in Southern California. Charter didn't comment. And in a filing in the docket Monday, the Stop Mega Cable coalition recapped a meeting of representatives from Common Cause, Consumers Union, Dish, ITTA, NTCA, Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and Writers Guild of America, West with Grossman. At the meeting, the coalition said, it went over its oft-made arguments on how Charter/TWC/BHN could hurt the broadband, streaming video and programming markets and ultimately consumers (see 1602090019). The FCC's unofficial 180-day shot clock for reviewing the deals hit 180 days Thursday (see 1603240017).