Time Warner Cable's answer and affirmative defenses to a second amended complaint by Cableview Communications of Jacksonville, Florida, should be thrown out because TWC makes new modifications and factual allegations and asserts new defenses and a new counterclaim, all of which goes beyond the limited scope of the amendments in the new complaint, Cableview said in a motion Thursday in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville. Cableview sued TWC in 2013 (No. 1:13-cv-306-J-34JRK), claiming TWC interfered in FTS USA's 2012 purchase of Cableview. In the motion, Cableview said the court in January granted its motion for leave to amend specifically to clarify which proper TWC entity should be named as defendant. But TWC's answer and affirmative defenses filed in February "fly in the face of the Court's directives" as it should have sought court leave before making material modifications that "effectively provide Time Warner a fresh start to this litigation," Cableview said. The changes, according to Cableview, include TWC's inserting the words "and other obligations" to the list of Cableview breaches under a past agreement, replacing one affirmative defense from a list with another and adding a new affirmative defense. TWC didn't comment Friday.

Comcast's X1 interactive program guide is based on Rovi-developed technology that the cable operator once licensed but now refuses to do, the IPG company said in a patent infringement complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas. It alleged that Comcast's license for access to Rovi's patent portfolio expired Thursday. Rovi's lawsuit asks for an injunction stopping Comcast from selling any IPG product using one of the six patents in question -- which cover various aspects of IPG technology and functionality -- as well as unspecified damages. In a statement, Comcast said it "disagree[s] with Rovi’s accusations and intend[s] to defend the cases vigorously. Beyond that, we can’t comment on pending litigation." Also named as defendants were set-top makers Arris-Pace, Humax and Technicolor, with Rovi Guides alleging they all have limited licenses to Rovi's patents but those licenses don't allow those companies to make set-top boxes that work with Comcast's Xfinity service. The other defendants didn't comment.

The Parents Television Council is throwing its weight behind Charter Communications' buy of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. PTC -- which had opposed Comcast's failed attempt at buying TWC -- last fall called for conditions on the New Charter deals (see 1511030024). Since then, PTC said in an FCC filing Friday in docket 15-149, it has spoken with executives at different independent, family-friendly cable programmers and also read comments in the docket about Charter "which affirm [it] has been a good partner to family friendly programmers such as Hallmark, INSP, Ovation, RFD, UP and ASPiRE." Charter's demonstrated support of carriage of such programming, and the presumption New Charter executives will continue that policy, indicates "a combined Charter/TWC/Bright House entity would better serve the public interest than the status quo of existing, independent corporate entities," PTC said.

Given that TVEyes is used by -- among others -- media critics who comment on and criticize Fox programming, the service's functions merit copyright law protection, a group of media critics said in an amici curiae brief filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. The brief was in support of TVEyes' appeal of a U.S. District Court decision that said the company's archiving function is fair use, but emailing, downloading and date/time searches aren't, and a subsequent injunction (see 1603180007). Fox News Network, which sued TVEyes in 2013, has a June 15 deadline for its brief in the appeal. In their brief, City University of New York professor and liberal blogger Eric Alterman, Brave New Films, and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting said TVEyes' functionality constitutes transformative fair use of content, and that its use of recorded news coverage doesn't have a substantial adverse effect on any markets for Fox. They also said the TVEyes downloading and sharing features "are essential to full, accurate criticism and reporting." A conclusion that obtaining the clips from Fox is an adequate substitute for TVEyes would permit Fox and other broadcasters to effectively silence or blunt many of their critics," they said. "This Court should decline Fox’s offer to guard the media criticism henhouse." Fox didn't comment. TVEyes also has netted amici curiae brief support from such parties as the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Google, Microsoft, Public Knowledge, numerous intellectual property law professors and library associations (see 1603250016).

Claims about his Aspire cable channel by Entertainment Studios and the National Association of African American Owned Media (NAAAOM) are "derogatory and inflammatory," said Earvin "Magic" Johnson -- describing himself as majority owner and CEO -- in a statement to us Wednesday. Entertainment Studios and NAAAOM petitioned the FCC to investigate Comcast's compliance with merger conditions on diverse programming stemming from its buy of NBCUniversal, claiming its addition of channels like Aspire to its lineup don't fulfill its requirement to add independently owned and operated programmers in which African-Americans have a majority or sizable ownership interest (see 1603280030). “We, my executive board and Aspire staff, are grateful for Comcast and their outstanding [External Joint Diversity Advisory] committee that has made a way for African American owners to do business in television," Johnson said in the emailed statement. "They have provided opportunities for ASPiRE to showcase positive images and authentic portrayals of African Americans and urban culture. I am proud of my network and will continue to use my platform and influence to advance the community.” NAAAOM and Entertainment Studios didn't comment.

Video consumers ages 13-24 start watching video from the moment they wake up -- with 65 percent of those surveyed saying they watch before school or work, and 67 percent say they watch falling asleep, Defy Media said in its Youth Video Diet report released Tuesday. Their top source of content was YouTube, with 85 percent of those surveyed watching, followed by Netflix at 66 percent and multichannel video programming distributors at 62 percent. Youths average 12.1 hours a week of free digital video, with many watching an additional 8.8 hours of subscription digital video, Defy said. When financially independent youths were asked about why they don't have pay TV, 40 percent cited cheaper options available and another 24 percent said affordability, while 24 percent said they weren't interested in the content or shows. Among those surveyed, 52 percent said they use ad blocking software on their video devices. Between 87 and 89 percent said they were "always or sometimes OK" with five-second intro screens showing brand sponsors or five-second end screens advertising a product, product placements or a digital celebrity announcing a brand sponsor or demonstrating a product in a video. Smaller majorities of those surveyed were less supportive of 30-second or one-minute pre-roll ads. The data came from 14-day video journals of 54 youths ages 13-24, subsequent interviews with 27 of those youths, and an online survey of 1,300 people ages 13-24.

Starz will rebrand its Encore linear channels and on-demand services as Starz Encore, with new logos for the channels, Starz said in a news release Tuesday. Along with the rebranding, Starz content such as its original series will be available to Encore subscribers, it said.

Suddenlink Communications ended 2015 with its basic video customer numbers down 4 percent due to its replacing Viacom in its channel lineup in 2014, while residential high-speed Internet grew by 6.4 percent and its residential telephone customer base grew by 5.3 percent, it said in a news release on its FY 2015 results Tuesday. During Q4, the company started its Operation GigaSpeed, which will see it upgrade its residential Internet service to top speeds of 150 Mbps in most markets and up to 1 Gbps in 28 markets, it said. During the year, Suddenlink spent $84.2 million on nonrecurring expenses as part of Altice's plans to buy the cable company, which the FCC approved in December (see 1512180035). Altice acquired 70 percent of Suddenlink later that month.

Getting its program listings on interactive program guides is a constant viewer request, and the FCC seemingly has the power to require the listing of community channels -- especially because there's no technical reason its programming isn't listed, said Oregon public, educational and government programmer Capital Community TV (CCTV) in a filing Tuesday in docket 16-41. CCTV said it operates an HD server for its three channels, but it's still waiting for HD cable TV channels and that lack "is another roadblock." In a separate filing Monday in docket 16-41, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) said the FCC as part of its inquiry into the issues facing diverse and independent programming (see 1602180044) should "preserve rural programming," and singled out RFD-TV for its rural- and agriculture-centric programming. "If rural Americans lose access to RFD-TV, then they lose virtually the only source of television news programming that focuses on rural and agricultural policy issues," AFBF said.

Any leveling of the playing field between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) needs to look beyond retransmission consent negotiation rules revision and "address holistically the constellation of rules that have led to today's grossly uneven playing field" that tilts in favor of major MVPDs, Sinclair Senior Vice President-Strategy and Policy Rebecca Hanson told FCC officials including Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake. MVPDs have pushed for the FCC to give them regulatory negotiating advantages as part of the agency's examination of the good-faith negotiation rules, but Sinclair said major MVPDs' claim that they need government intervention against far smaller broadcasters "cannot be justified under any fair policy rationale," according to an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 15-216 recapping the meeting. MVPDs also have complained about broadcaster negotiation terms, but most such negotiations are successful without any blackouts, "proving that such negotiating terms do not result in 'negotiations breaking down,' which is what Congress asked the FCC to review," Sinclair said. Sinclair repeated its argument (see 1603160042) that nonmonetary deal terms offered by broadcasters in negotiations help keep the cash portions of such deals lower: "Thus if MVPDs are concerned about rising retransmission costs, they should not be asking the FCC to ban any non-monetary deal terms from negotiations." In a separate ex parte filing in the docket Tuesday, Networks for Competition and Choice Coalition (NCCC) members said new and small MVPDs are particularly vulnerable to permanent loss of subscribers if they can't reach retrans consent agreements with broadcasters, and broadcasters use such leverage to force noncompetitive terms and unjustified rate increases. "The Commission must not ignore the fact that the retransmission consent marketplace is not working for smaller and new entrant MVPDs," NCCC said, saying the FCC must require negotiating parties in retrans talks to provide data substantiating or verifying claims, which would let small and new MVPDs better evaluate the prices being discussed. "Shining a light on the process could help ease the price discrimination between large, incumbent MVPDs, who are able to secure volume discounts and smaller providers who do not possess the leverage to negotiate favorable terms," NCCC said. The FCC also should limit or restrict nondisclosure agreements so retrans consent terms can be more freely shared with courts, regulatory agencies, legislators and membership associations and organizations, it said. NCCC said forced bundling should be considered a per se violation of good-faith negotiating, or alternately institute a rebuttable presumption that bundling is bad faith behavior in retrans talks. And it said the FCC should require negotiating parties to make their proposals at least six months before the end of an existing contract, and consider it a per se violation for negotiators to insist on contract expiration dates that are within 30 days of marquee events or other special programming or to withhold retrans consent around or during a major marquee event. FCC Media Bureau staff and representatives of Incompas, ITTA, NTCA, the Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge also attended the NCCC meeting.