Discovery Communications is buying the rest of European sports network Eurosport from minority owner TG1 Group, Discovery said in a Wednesday news release. Discovery bought a stake in Eurosport in 2012 and expanded that to 51 percent ownership in 2014 (see 1401220045). Discovery will spend roughly $536 million to buy out the rest of Eurosport. At the same time, TG1 will buy back Discovery's 20 percent of TV Breizh, Histoire and Ushuaia TV. Both deals are expected to close early in Q4

The FCC -- through the pending AT&T/DirecTV deal or its ongoing programming access proceeding -- has a chance to "do the right thing" by tackling the rising costs of programming, American Cable Association President Matt Polka said Wednesday in a statement in response to comments before the House Communications Subcommittee by analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson. The subcommittee hearing involved broadband, and Moffett said both broadband and the cable-TV industry face huge and growing video programming price pressures. ACA has talked about rising video costs for years "but the FCC has been MIA," Polka said, pointing to the lack of any proposed conditions in AT&T/DirecTV that would prevent video costs from rising as a result. "By failing to act, [the FCC] has tipped the scales in favor of program owners and ignored the harms to video and broadband consumers and providers," Polka said. The FCC declined to comment.

Sling TV launched its first nationwide advertising campaign across TV, digital and social platforms, the company said in a Monday news release. Its #TakeBackTV campaign is aimed at cord cutters, the company said.

SES launched the first of its kind “live and linear” Ultra HD trial with U.S. cable operator Armstrong aimed at speeding Ultra HD delivery to cable homes, the companies said Monday in a joint announcement. Armstrong is testing SES' camera-to-screen Ultra HD ecosystem at its headquarters in Butler, Pennsylvania, they said. SES' Ultra HD offering, unveiled at this year’s NAB Show, “combines broadcast and IP technologies in a fully managed, scalable service,” they said. “The solution leverages satellite's inherent broadcast advantages and the multicasting capabilities of DOCSIS 3.0, the advanced transmission standard in use by Armstrong and other leading cable systems today.” The outcome of the trials with Armstrong “will support progress toward our objective of accelerating the roll-out of linear-live Ultra HD,” SES said.

Regulation of technology and the Internet -- even regulation invited by some tech companies -- is chipping away at the nation's "historic commitment to innovation without permission," NCTA CEO Michael Powell said in a column posted Monday on CNET. Regulators "do not relish the sidelines" and jump into emerging markets based more often on hypotheticals than actual problems with the market, Powell wrote in his piece, "On the importance of 'regulatory humility.'" The problem is that policies built on predictions and hypothetical scenarios result in "a host of unintended consequences that disrupt markets," Powell said. "Ill-founded regulation is not harmless. Laws are easier to enact than to remove and usually remain long after the past due date. Regulatory agencies simply are not able to adapt quickly to continuing change." The past 20 years has brought "a fast-paced technological age largely free of government control and direction," Powell said. "The next 20 years holds even more promise but only if regulatory humility remains the highest virtue."

Expect post-transaction Charter Communications' broadband offerings to be even better for customers and online video, the cable company said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in FCC docket 15-149. It recapped a meeting between Charter executives including Catherine Bohigian, executive vice president-government affairs, and numerous FCC representatives, including General Counsel Jonathan Sallet. Charter reiterated the public benefits arguments it has made to the agency -- that allowing Charter to buy Bright House Communications and Time Warner Cable would bring such benefits as all-digital systems in the BHN and TWC service areas within 30 months of closing, expanded open Internet policies and expanded investment in its broadband business.

The streaming video market could see a big competitive boost from a preliminary federal court decision Thursday in a lawsuit against online streaming service FilmOn X, Public Knowledge said. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge George Wu in Los Angeles was that FilmOn X could be entitled to a compulsory license under Section 111 of the Copyright Act as it operates somewhat akin to a cable system. "Similar services should not be subject to totally different rules depending on whether they are offered over coaxial cable, fiber, satellite transmissions or online," said John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge senior staff attorney, in a statement. One of the plaintiffs, Fox, said that the Wu decision doesn't allow FilmOn X to resume streaming its broadcast signal because it remains under a preliminary injunction. In a statement Friday, plaintiff CBS said the court announcement "does not resolve anything, as it is only a tentative ruling. It is also wrong, as other courts and the US Copyright Office -- which administers Section 111 -- has rejected that position." The ruling also only concerns copyright law, and does not address the separate issue of retransmission consent that multichannel video programming distributors must obtain from programmers, CBS said. Parties in the case have until July 23 to submit a joint proposed judgment, after which the court will enter a final judgment and certify the case for appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

HBO's online streaming service, HBO Now, is now viewable on Android and Amazon devices, the company said in a Thursday news release. HBO also plans to have the $14.99-a-month streaming service accessible via Chromecast and on Android TV and Amazon Fire TV, it said.

Netflix backs Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, the online video distributor said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday at the FCC in docket 15-149. Charter's settlement-free interconnection policy and plans to extend that two BHN and TWC "is a welcome and significant departure from the efforts of some ISPs to collect access tolls on the Internet," the online video distributor said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 15-149. As long as free peering is a condition of the BHN and TWC acquisitions, Netflix said, it would support it. Charter has had a settlement-less interconnection policy for years, and plans to keep one at least through 2018, the cable company said in a separate filing Wednesday. Charter submitted its recently updated interconnection policy, which indicates that applicants providing content to Charter customers can tie into its IP network, and those interconnections will be done "at no charge to either party for traffic exchange," Charter said.

Comcast is testing a streaming videogame service in partnership with Electronic Arts, the cable company said Tuesday. Its Xfinity Games offering doesn't use a console or game controllers but is controlled by users' smartphones or tablets, with the games streaming over Comcast Xfinity subscribers' X1 boxes, Comcast said. Xfinity Games follows Comcast's unveiling of its video streaming service, Stream, earlier this week (see 1507130008).