U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered final judgment in a civil antitrust proceeding against Charter Communications over its purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, in a final judgment released Tuesday. DOJ requested the final judgment last week (see 1609060046), and told the court the parties have all complied with the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act. DOJ's antitrust proceeding was filed alongside a proposed settlement limiting Charter's use of most-favored-nation provisions and preventing it from retaliating against programmers for licensing content to online video services.

The FCC should allow market forces to ensure navigation device competition, not a government-supervised industry committee, Amazon officials said in a call with aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-42. “There is no need for app licensing terms to be determined by an industry group subject to Commission oversight. The process to create such a license and oversight body will delay competition and delay customers from receiving the [multichannel video programming distributor] services they already pay for on the device of their choice." Instead, the FCC should require large MVPDs to provide a “consumption-only application to widely distributed systems within one year of the final Order, under the common, transparent, and well-understood practices of appstores,” Amazon said. “If the Commission is concerned that existing app store processes may not work in the MVPD app context, then it could create a complaint process through which an aggrieved party could file a complaint about unfair terms and conditions.” The FCC “should resist action that would weaken the rights that consumers enjoy today or restrict the ability of third parties to develop new features that help consumers gain access to lawful content,” said Consumer Video Choice Coalition representatives including the Computer and Communications Industry Association, Incompas CEO Chip Pickering, Arent Fox Senior Policy Adviser Byron Dorgan and Public Knowledge CEO Gene Kimmelman in a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday. “Assertions made in recent ex parte letters from content companies raise serious questions regarding antitrust and how oversight by the Commission is essential to preventing anticompetitive practices.” A set-top box order is on circulation for a likely vote at commissioners' next meeting (see 1609080085).

Cable ISP WideOpenWest completed its acquisition of NuLink in suburban Atlanta, said a WOW news release Monday. The deal adds 34,000 homes and businesses to WOW's footprint, it said. The company previously said the NuLink acquisition would cost $53 million.

TiVo, bought by Rovi last week and now under the TiVo name, said Monday it will unveil the Bolt+ DVR, a $499, six-tuner video recorder with 3 TB storage, at CEDIA Expo in Dallas this week. The 4K TiVo Bolt+ -- a streamer with cable box, DVR and Plex client in one box -- eliminates challenges dealers encounter in multiroom video installations, including the need for a video matrix switcher, said TiVo. The deal was worth about $1 billion (see 1609080007).

Fox News Network's affiliation complaint against Charter Communications (see 1607200065) is a grab at "tens of millions of dollars of subscription fees to which it is not entitled as a matter of contract, industry practice, or common sense," Charter said in a motion to dismiss two counts of the lawsuit. Charter's motion filed Friday in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan closely followed arguments it made earlier this month in asking the same court to reject a similar complaint brought by Univision (see 1609060069). In its Fox motion, Charter said it paid Fox all the required fees -- though at lower, Time Warner Cable rates, since Charter's May acquisition of TWC. Fox's argument is New Charter should pay the higher, legacy Charter rates, leading to higher aggregate fees than TWC and Charter paid individually in their respective agreements before the May takeover, Charter said: "Put differently, [Fox] maintains that the deal that should set the terms for the combined New Charter is the higher-rate deal that applied to a smaller operator, with fewer customers, rather than a lower-rate deal that applied to a bigger operator, with more customers. This is nonsensical and contrary to the fundamental economic logic of the cable industry." The motion focuses on Fox's dismissal of breach of implied covenant, unjust enrichment and fraud claims. Charter said it wasn't addressing other Fox claims: that its agreement with Charter applies to all New Charter cable systems, and that New Charter breached or will breach the Charter agreement by applying the TWC terms. Charter said full development of the record will disprove those assertions. Fox counsel didn't comment Monday.

Sky Angel is taking its legal battle with Discovery Communications to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a notice (in Pacer) of appeal Monday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, Sky Angel said it's appealing the court's Aug. 15 decision in favor of Discovery and denying Sky Angel's motions in limine, plus a 2015 order denying Sky Angel's motion for summary judgment and a 2014 order overruling Sky Angel's objections to a magistrate's order on discovery. "In limine" is a legal term meaning at the threshold or at the beginning. Sky Angel -- then an over-the-top multichannel video programming distributor that now distributes via Dish Network -- sued Discovery in 2013, alleging improper termination of an affiliation agreement (see 1303070045). Sky Angel also filed a still-open program access complaint against Discovery in 2010 (see 1207160065).

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in its decision last month that an arbitrator should decide whether a Cox Communications arbitration provision was unenforceable (see 1608290021), was inconsistent with multiple of its own prior rulings in other arbitration-related cases, said a pair of appellants in a petition (in Pacer) for hearing en banc posted Friday. "En banc reconsideration is necessary to secure and maintain uniformity of this Court’s decisions," appellants Andrew Alwert and Stanley Feldman said, pointing to the court's 2002 Dumais v. American Golf ruling saying an arbitration agreement letting one party alter the arbitration agreement’s existence or scope without limits is illusory. Since Cox had that unilateral right, they said, the 10th Circuit erred by suggesting state law exclusively governs this issue and an arbitrator rather than the court should adjudicate the issue. The 10th Circuit decision also runs contrary to the Federal Arbitration Act, Supreme Court precedent interpreting the act "and a broad consensus among other courts of appeal," they said. The act and precedent require the court to determine threshold issues of arbitrability, including whether the agreement to arbitrate is valid, said Alwert and Feldman, who had brought class-action complaints against Cox on set-top box policies. In a statement Monday, Cox said it believes there's no need for a full panel review since the original decision was unanimous.

TiVo has a new user interface with heavier emphasis on programming recommendations including presentation of a choice of shows based on such factors as time of day, past viewing choices and the device being used, the company said in a news release Friday. The UI has customizable shortcuts for functions on the main menu to give users quicker access to content, and was designed to accommodate multiple content sources such as linear, on demand and streaming apps, it said. Last week, Rovi completed its buy of TiVo and took the acquired company's name (see 1609080007).

The joint NewTek/Wowza Media Systems media encoding and live-streaming video delivery platform MDS will be available starting in Q4, the companies said in a news release Friday. MDS integrates Wowza streaming software and NewTek live production technology, and allows processing of up to four channels of video, they said.

Sizable numbers of TV watchers are "show dumping," giving up on series because of the difficulty or cost of accessing them, TiVo said. Pointing to a sponsored survey of pay-TV and over-the-top subscribers in the U.S., Asia and Europe, a news release Friday said 37 percent show dumped -- most often premium pay-TV programming, shows available only through paid OTT and/or unavailable on OTT services that aggregate content. Those surveyed average four hours daily streaming or watching video content and 19 minutes searching, with the U.S average being more than 5.5 hours a day, TiVo said. It said 11 percent of those surveyed indicated they were extremely likely to downgrade their pay-TV service, with another 8 percent indicating high likelihood of canceling their pay-TV service in the next six months. TiVo said cord shaving is more predominant in the U.S, where 21 percent of those surveyed said they're extremely likely to downgrade their pay-TV service and 13 percent said they're strongly considering cutting the cord. Fifty-eight percent have more than one subscription streaming video service and 45 percent have more than one streaming media device at home. Of those who subscribe to streaming services, TiVo said, 81 percent in the U.S. report having Netflix, and 50 percent of U.S. respondents subscribe to Amazon Prime. More than 47 percent of all respondents want better programming search functionality, with 40 percent saying they turn off the TV or device when they can't find something to watch. Among millennials, 53 percent say they often expect recommendations on what else to watch, versus 14 percent of boomers and 36 percent of Gen Xers. The results were from an online survey of 5,500 pay-TV and OTT subscribers across seven countries, with 2,500 of them done in the U.S.