Charter Communications received an extra two months to respond to a $10 billion complaint from Entertainment Studios Networks (ESN) and the National Association of African American Owned Media (NAAAOM) (see 1601280063), as U.S. District Judge George Wu of Los Angeles signed off Friday on a joint stipulation agreed to by the companies. The order now gives Charter until May 31, instead of March 31, to respond to the ESN/NAAAOM complaint alleging the cable company racially discriminates against African-American-owned media companies -- including ESN -- by withholding carriage. The suit also named the FCC as party to such violations.

Along with suing Comcast for racial discrimination in program carriage and contracting decisions, Entertainment Studios and the National Association of African American-Owned Media (NAAAOM) are petitioning the FCC to investigate the cable company's compliance with conditions on diverse programming stemming from its buy of NBCUniversal. In a filing Friday in docket 10-56, Entertainment Studios and NAAAOM said Comcast violated its voluntary commitment in the NBCUniversal takeover to add to its carriage four independently owned and operated programmers in which African-Americans have a majority or sizable ownership interest. Instead, they said, Comcast "has chosen to deal with organizations that are nothing more than front organizations." Two such channels Comcast subsequently added are Revolt, spearheaded by Sean "Diddy" Combs, and Aspire, launched by Earvin "Magic" Johnson. But Entertainment Studios and NAAAOM said GMC TV manages Aspire and Johnson seemingly spends almost no time at the network, while Comcast supposedly has an ownership stake in Revolt, thus making it not independent. Meanwhile, the complainants said, Entertainment Studios -- which is wholly owned and operated by an African-American -- was passed over and continues to be passed over even though Comcast still has two other channels to fill. In its petition, NAAAOM and Entertainment Studios ask the FCC to seek data on the ownership and management structures of Aspire and Revolt, on the numerous other proposals Comcast supposedly received from African-American-owned and -operated channels but passed on, and on Comcast's processes to find other channels to satisfy the condition terms. They also said if the data indicates Comcast isn't complying, the FCC should "take immediate corrective steps" and consider penalties such as fines or nonrenewal of licenses. In a statement Monday, Comcast said, “Since NAAAOM’s frivolous lawsuit has gone nowhere, it is now trying the same string of inflammatory, inaccurate, and unsupported allegations before the FCC. Just as a court has already once dismissed their case having found no plausible claim for relief, we believe this complaint is also completely without merit and will defend vigorously ourselves. Comcast is proud of our outstanding record supporting and fostering diverse programming, including programming from African American owned and controlled cable channels. We currently carry more than 100 networks geared toward diverse audiences, including multiple networks owned or controlled by minorities.” Neither Aspire nor Revolt commented. The Entertainment Studios/NAAAOM suit against Comcast and Time Warner Cable was dismissed in 2015 (see 1508100017) and subsequently amended and refiled. Entertainment Studios and NAAAOM also are suing Charter Communications Ref: 1603250028]) on allegations of racial discrimination in programming (see 1603250028).

As the FCC gets closer to a decision on Charter Communications' proposed buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, numerous interested parties continue to suggest conditions to the agency. In an ex parte filing Monday in docket 15-149, 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).

Charter Communications would get two extra months to respond to a $10 billion complaint from Entertainment Studios Networks (ESN) and the National Association of African American Owned Media (NAAAOM) (see 1601280063), said a joint stipulation filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Instead of March 31, Charter's deadline for response to the complaint would be May 31, according to the stipulation. The court filing also said it applied only to Charter; ESN and NAAAOM are also suing the FCC. The complaint alleges Charter racially discriminates against African-American-owned media companies -- including ESN -- by withholding carriage, and that the FCC is party to such violations. The agency didn't comment Friday.

The FCC asked an unfunded association of community groups, schools, government agencies and libraries in five states about its thoughts on Charter Communications' plans for broadband access for low-income households and how it came to its recommendations, said an ex parte filing Friday in docket 15-149. The Coalition for Broadband Equity said that, in a call with FCC staff that included Owen Kendler, who is overseeing the Charter transaction review team, the agency asked about coalition members' views on the broadband program eligibility criteria, costs and duration. The filing said the FCC also asked whether the coalition's recommendations for a $50 million annual commitment to marketing and customer support for the discount program, with an annual enrollment goal of a minimum 200,000 households, came from specific cost or budgeting data from similar community initiatives. The coalition said those figures are "not out of line" for community outreach and training program costs. The coalition said it also discussed its recommendations for how effective community-based programs need to operate, with "consistent, supportive personal interaction with potential new broadband adopters as well as with neighbors and organizations" that can help in the efforts. The coalition has pushed for broader eligibility requirements in New Charter's residential cable Internet access for low-income households program (see 1512100016). The FCC's 180-day unofficial shot clock for review of Charter's plans to buy Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks hit 180 days Thursday (see 1603240017).

TiVo shares closed 23 percent higher Thursday at $9.45 following a report in the The New York Times that the company was in “advanced negotiations” to be sold to Rovi. Shares in Rovi closed 1.3 percent lower Thursday at $19.81. After a deal closes, TiVo shareholders would own about 30 percent of the combined company, the report said. TiVo and Rovi representatives didn’t comment. In TiVo’s latest earnings call in early March (see 1603020001), interim CEO Naveen Chopra fielded questions about the company’s possible mergers and acquisitions strategies, but as a buyer, not as a seller. “Obviously, we can't comment on any specifics in terms of how we deploy our own resources, how we think about M&A opportunities,” Chopra told a questioner. “We continue to look at a lot of things, as we've shown in the past when we have seen opportunities that we think are strategic and consistent with the areas where we are looking to grow.” If such deal opportunities “make financial sense, we're willing to do them,” he said.

AT&T has gone through a "Kafka-esque metamorphosis" with its stance on retransmission consent reform, a hypocritical flip-flop from its traditional position favoring a light regulatory touch, NAB said in a filing Thursday in docket 15-216. In the filing, NAB contrasted AT&T's comments on issues like data roaming, intercarrier compensation and mobile spectrum holdings -- in which the company decried excessive regulation -- with its advocacy in proposed changes to good-faith negotiation rules (see 1603170056), where AT&T is pushing for a variety of rules on broadcaster actions. "One might wonder: is AT&T making a drastic philosophical shift across the board?" NAB said, saying the company "is not alone among its pay TV brethren in abandoning its traditional regulatory philosophy in the lone context of retransmission consent advocacy" and pointing to Verizon and New Charter. "However, AT&T's role reversal is particularly noteworthy" since the company has "unmoored itself from its longtime support of measured and smart regulation," NAB said. AT&T didn't comment.

Quebec’s largest cable provider Videotron launched what its supplier Alticast is calling Canada’s “first availability” of a 4K Ultra HD set-top “on a commercial basis throughout a cable system operator's entire service footprint.” Alticast is supplying the set-top box’s middleware and user-interface “enablement,” it said in a Wednesday announcement. The “tremendous promise” that Ultra HD “holds for our customers can only be realized by true commitment on the part of the entire industry," said Pierre Roy, Videotron vice president-engineering R&D. Rogers Cable, Canada’s largest cable provider, has claimed several 4K firsts, such as its beaming in January of the first-ever live NBA and NHL games in 4K to customers with a NextBox 4K set-top (see 1601140002). For Rogers, those broadcasts began "a big year of content for our customers who will be able to access over 500 hours of live sports, movies and shows in 4K, including all 81 Toronto Blue Jays home games on Sportsnet," spokesman Andrew Garas emailed us Wednesday. As for the implication in the Alticast-Videotron announcement that not all cable customers in the Rogers Canadian “service footprint” have access to the 4K NextBox set-top, Garas said: "Currently, Rogers 4K TV is available to our entire Ontario cable footprint."

The FTC signed off on Comcast's buy of Flixster, the agency said in an antitrust review early termination notice Monday. The FTC said the notice indicates it and the Justice Department have finished their reviews of the proposed transaction, which has Comcast's Fandango buying Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes from Time Warner and aren't taking any enforcement action.

Comcast basic-cable rates are no longer regulated by Princeton, Toms River nor a few dozen other New Jersey municipalities with a few hundred thousand households total as of the 2010 census, said FCC Media Bureau orders (here and here) in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The cable operator cited video competition from DirecTV, Dish Network and/or Verizon in each locale. Some of the communities and New Jersey Rate Counsel Division opposed the petitions for determination of effective competition. The bureau rejected the opposition. The FCC recently found effective competition for operators including Comcast in parts of various states (see 1602190036, 1602240037, 1602180042, 1601220003 and 1603170030).