Disney's cloud-based digital movie service platform Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA) now includes Verizon's Fios, making it the first multichannel video programming distributor there, Disney said in a news release Tuesday. Disney said its deal with Verizon lets Fios customers watch their Disney digital movies via DMA and buy content directly from Fios and supported DMA platforms. DMA accounts already can connect to such online retailers as iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, Microsoft Movies & TV and Vudu, Disney said.
Comcast's $3.8 billion takeover of DreamWorks Animation is complete, with DreamWorks now part of Comcast's Universal Filmed Entertainment Group that also includes Universal Pictures, Fandango and NBCUniversal Brand Development, Comcast said in a news release Tuesday. NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke has said the deal moves forward NBCU's TV animation plans and will help create consumer products and theme park properties (see 1606130022).
A complaint alleging Comcast violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act with repeated debt collection calls is heading to alternative dispute resolution (ADR). U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte of Los Angeles on Friday referred (in Pacer) Malik Brown v. Comcast to ADR and set an Aug. 11, deadline for completion of the ADR proceeding. That followed Birotte's denial (in Pacer) earlier this month of Comcast's motion to compel individual arbitration and stay proceedings. Brown, who never was a Comcast customer, sued the company in February, with the cable operator subsequently arguing Brown was a customer by benefit of living at the home of a subscriber who had given Brown's number as the contact number on the account. Birotte, in denying Comcast's motion, rejected the company's arguments that Brown's residing there created a pre-existing relationship under the law that bound him to the terms of the operator's residential services agreement and that the use of Brown's phone number on the account created agency authority, also binding him.
Implementation costs for new set-top box rules could keep smaller cable providers from continuing to offer video, said seven-employee multichannel video programming distributor Dumont Telephone in an ex parte filing in docket 16-42. “Our margins are slim and continue to erode,” Dumont said. “We urge you not to apply new rules to smaller MVPDs.”
Critics of the pay-TV-backed HTML5 set-top proposal prefer set-top plans that violate copyright, said NCTA in an FCC ex parte filing Friday. Programmer content must be protected by multichannel video programming distributor apps, NCTA said. “Because the HTML5 apps solution is based on actual technology directions and the most recent global open standards, the largest MVPDs are able to offer a commitment to bring it to market within two years.” The HTML5 apps solution is “practical and achievable” and protects copyright, NCTA said.
Charter Communications will have ex-Judge Barbara Jones as its independent compliance officer to “review and evaluate” the operator's compliance with conditions imposed by the FCC as part of the company's purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, said a public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest. Jones was on the bench for 16 years in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and is a partner in the law firm Bracewell. She's a former prosecutor who worked against organized crime in Manhattan, and a former law professor, the PN said. The FCC Office of the General Counsel approved Jones' selection, the notice said.
DOJ received just one public comment on its settlement with Charter Communications resolving the company's buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, and concluded its final judgment remains “an effective and appropriate remedy,” Justice said in a response to the comment filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday. The lone public comment during the 60-day comment period came from North Carolina Charter customer Amy Bloomfield, who argued DOJ should block the deal because “Time Warner [Cable] is a decent company; Charter is not.” That's outside the scope of the antitrust concerns raised in the settlement and doesn't provide a reason to reject DOJ's final judgment, the document said.
Viacom largely fulfilled its advertising agreement with MGA Entertainment on showing MGA's Lalaloopsy TV series, based on MGA's Lalaloopsy doll line, U.S. District Judge Manuel Real of Los Angeles said in an order entered Friday granting Viacom's final motion for summary judgment on the basis of breach of contract. He called MGA's argument -- that Viacom a handful of times didn't broadcast each episode three separate times in a number of countries and thus it was excused from paying the balance of its obligations -- "nonsensical." That "Viacom achieved approximately 96 percent compliance at a minimum establishes substantial performance," Real said. The judge in July also found in Viacom's favor on other summary judgment claims in the dispute. In the most-recent order, Real set an Aug. 22 deadline for the parties to file additional briefs as to the amount owed by MGA. MGA didn't comment Friday.
As part of "an established pattern ... of strong-arm tactics" to coerce channel carriage, the motion by Entertainment Studios Networks (ESN) and the National Association for African American Owned Media (NAAAOM) for leave to file an amended complaint against Charter Communications should be denied, Charter said in its opposition (in Pacer) filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. In its request (in Pacer) filed in July to file an amended version of its $10 billion discrimination complaint that also targeted the FCC (see 1601280063), ESN/NAAAOM said they planned to cite "powerful additional evidence of racial animus by top executives," including Charter Senior Vice President-Programming Allan Singer's allegedly making racist comments in March to protesters outside Charter's Connecticut headquarters and CEO Tom Rutledge's allegedly calling ESN CEO Byron Allen "boy" while at the Cable Hall of Fame dinner in May. In its opposition, Charter said ESN/NAAAOM "have decided to up the ante in a bid to perpetuate this scam of a lawsuit" by adding "demonstrably false and incendiary allegations" aimed at embarrassing and harassing Charter executives. The motion should be denied on bad-faith grounds, Charter said, pointing to previous ESN/NAAAOM lawsuits against other multichannel video programming distributors as evidence of "a transparent scheme to pressure distributors with sensational lawsuits." Charter also said the motion should be denied because the proposed amendments don't address that the First Amendment forecloses the ESN/NAAAOM claims since MVPDs' carriage decisions are protected. ESN/NAAAOM also are pursuing litigation and related FCC complaint against Comcast (see 1606100017).
Any rulemaking proceeding to come out of the FCC look into independent programming should include confidentiality assurances to indie programmers so they can take part, said NewsMax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy in a letter to the commissioners posted Thursday in docket 16-41. Indie programmers already face hurdles in getting carriage, with fear of multichannel video programming distributors seeking retribution when those indies share their concerns with regulators and lawmakers "among the most omnipresent," NewsMax said. Any NPRM proceeding should exempt indie programmer presentations from the "permit but disclose" ex parte rules, it said.