Comcast will give customers a $100 prepaid card through Aug. 4 when they bring in an eligible, unlocked Android phone, activate a new line and port their number to Xfinity Mobile, it said in a "BYOD" (bring-your-own-device) promotion. The offer applies initially to Samsung Galaxy S9, S9 Plus, S8, S8 Plus, Note 9 and Note 8 devices. The operator expects to be able to activate more Android devices on its mobile network later this year.

Over-the-top and pay-TV providers will lose $9.1 billion this year to piracy and account sharing, growing to $12.5 billion in 2024, blogged Parks Associates Tuesday. Currently, 27 percent of U.S. broadband households engage in some form of piracy or account sharing, it said. “Piracy is a complex issue that cannot be addressed with a single solution or by targeting a single use case,” said analyst Brett Sappington, noting that most video pirates subscribe to at least one OTT service. “They are not simply thieves looking to steal content but are video enthusiasts who engage with many different services,” Sappington said, suggesting OTT services could better reach those consumers through ad-based content, “which also aligns with these users’ general belief that ‘movies/music should be given away for free.’” Consumers who report viewing an OTT video service for free but without ads are 22 percent more likely than average broadband households to subscribe to OTT services, three times as likely to use ad-supported services, and twice as likely to use transactional online video services, said Parks. Growth in connected device ownership has shifted the focus of pirates toward the online video ecosystem; 20 percent of households are using a piracy app, website or jailbroken device, it said. “Growing subscriber numbers and an increased number of services signal a very healthy OTT market, but more services and aggressively promoted content could incite more piracy over time,” Sappington said, saying eventually consumers will hit an upper limit to spending. “When that happens, they will resort to pirate tactics to get the content that they want, particularly for sports and other content where trials are not available.” The demographic groups most often subscribing to OTT services -- men under 35 and households with low annual incomes -- pirate content at a disproportionate rate, he said.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that interconnected IP-based voice is an information service exempt from state regulation has national implications, and Charter Communications' opposition to a petition for writ of certiorari (see 1907050030) doesn't point to a better vehicle for bringing the issues to the Supreme Court. That according to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in a docket 18-1386 reply brief Monday. It called 'balderdash" the assertion it was raising issues in its cert petition that hadn't been raised before the 8th Circuit. Charter outside counsel didn't comment.

The American Council of the Blind backs the NBCUniversal limited waiver of video description requirements for its USA Network and other top-five nonbroadcast networks (see 1906140054). ACB opposes creation of a safe harbor for all other non-broadcasters, it said in a docket 11-43 posting Friday.

Disney executives said there's no need for the FCC to expand its MVPD definition, in discussions about ABC's increased distribution via over-the-top video providers with the four regulator commissioners and FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry, per a docket 14-261 ex parte posting Friday. It previously opposed OTT operations being considered an MVPD (see 1507140011).

Sinclair reached a multiyear agreement with Charter for continued carriage of the Fox regional sports networks it’s expected to acquire from Disney buying much of 21st Century Fox (see 1905030059), Sinclair said Thursday. The deal also includes carriage for Sinclair’s stations, the Tennis Channel and soon-to-launch Marquee Sports Network, Sinclair said. Preliminary Q2 media revenue for Sinclair is $721 million, in line with Sinclair’s projections of $716 to $725 million, it said. Q2 results will be released Aug. 7.

Arris plans retail availability this month of what it’s calling the industry’s “first true tri-band Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems,” it said Tuesday. Two systems will be available, both built “around the newest Wi-Fi 6 standard featuring the latest wireless and modulation technologies,” said the cable gear-maker that's part of CommScope. Wi-Fi 6 “enables multi-Gigabit speeds across a growing range of connected devices to accelerate everything that consumers do online today,” it said. It also “unlocks a new set of future services and experiences,” including 8K video, augmented reality and advanced smart cloud services. Backers of Wi-Fi 6 claim it can be globally harmonized and deployed rapidly (see 1906270052).

The cable leased access Further NPRM, asking about First Amendment issues for the FCC's leased access rules (see 1906060029), seems to point to an order coming that will eliminate those rules due to widespread availability of online platforms for video programming distribution, video carriage lawyer Paul Feldman of Fletcher Heald blogged Monday. Most of the leased access rules revisions the commissioners approved in June in the order accompanying the FNPRM take effect July 22, Feldman said.

Altice USA's i24 News international news channel is increasing its U.S. coverage in part through the cable company's acquisition of news company Cheddar (see 1906060064), it said Monday.

The Supreme Court need not review a VoIP classification decision by the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals deciding interconnected IP-based voice is an information service exempt from state regulation, Charter Communications said in a Wednesday brief in case 18-1386. “That decision does not conflict with the decisions of any other court,” is “consistent with the views of the FCC,” doesn’t “implicate any issue of national importance,” and is “a straightforward application of the plain terms of the 1996 Act,” the company said. The operator disagreed the decision conflicts with the Vermont Supreme Court's 2013 opinion that some but not all state regulation of information services is pre-empted, as argued by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in its petition for writ of certiorari (see 1905010191). The decision doesn't frustrate universal service programs, the MVPD responded to NARUC's June 3 amicus brief. “As the FCC has held and the Tenth Circuit has recognized, designation as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier turns on whether the provider offers any service on a common carrier basis," Charter said. "Provisioning interconnected VoIP services (irrespective of how they are classified) generally still involves wholesale telecommunications services upstream from the consumer-facing offering, such as those relating to network access and interconnection, meaning that VoIP providers or their affiliates can be common carriers for reasons other than their consumer-facing voice services.” The Voice on the Net Coalition, supporting Charter, expects a cert decision by the first week of October, Executive Director Glenn Richards told us Friday.