The National Labor Relations Board likely won't address whether a union was bound to a no-strike agreement at the time of its 2014 work stoppage, so putting legal proceedings on that on hold is delayed justice, Time Warner Cable said in a brief (in Pacer) filed Monday in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief was in opposition to an NLRB motion (in Pacer) filed last week to stay briefings and further proceedings on the appeal until the agency issues a final decision on a related unfair labor practice complaint before it. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local Union No. 3 is appealing a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn's ruling upholding of an arbitrator's award of damages to TWC after the work stoppage, and the company is cross-appealing the portion of the Brooklyn court's judgment that denied confirmation of part of a 2015 final arbitration award ordering the union to refrain from further violations of the no-strike prohibition. The NLRB, in its motion, said such a stay wouldn't impede TWC's ability to collect the money damages of the judgment if it's affirmed, and "the clarifying effects of a Board determination" would help the union and cable operator better evaluate their litigation positions and aid the court in assessing the merits of both sides' appeals. A stay "would also avoid needlessly preempting the Board’s deliberative process in the pending unfair labor practice case," NLRB said. TWC said "whatever the Board may (or may not say) about that issue at some unknown time in the future is of no 'significant value' to this Court, and the NLRB’s speculative and legally baseless assertions to the contrary provide no legitimate basis for this Court to stay its proceedings." If the NLRB rules on whether the union and TWC had a no-strike agreement, it will be based on precedents and legal standards different from those material to the appeal, the company said. It's now part of Charter Communications.
Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson's sexual harassment complaint should be heard in a Manhattan federal court because alleged harasser Roger Ailes doesn't live in New Jersey, where the lawsuit was filed, and none of the alleged acts occurred in New Jersey, Fox News head Ailes said in a motion (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey. He asked the court to transfer the case to the Manhattan federal court or for an order staying the case pending disposition of a petition filed there Friday (in Pacer) to compel arbitration. Ailes said in court paperwork he withdrew his motion to compel arbitration filed in the New Jersey court (see 1607110014). Carlson, in a filing (in Pacer) in Newark Friday in opposition to the motion to compel arbitration, said the arbitration clause in her Fox News contract identified the parties involved only as her and the network, not any particular executives. "It would be grossly inequitable, asymmetrical and contrary to settled law ... to read the contract as Ailes urges this Court by requiring Carlson to secretly arbitrate against Ailes, a non-signatory, while permitting Ailes to publicly sue employees in open court," she said.
The pay-TV backed set-top proposal doesn’t address the security concerns pay-TV carriers have said they're worried about, Amazon officials said in meetings Wednesday with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Chairman Tom Wheeler, Chief Technologist Scott Jordan, and aides to Rosenworcel, Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, according to an ex parte filing. Hardware-based digital rights management is the “gold standard” for security and isn’t addressed in the pay-TV proposal, Amazon said. That’s in contrast with the FCC set-top NPRM, the company said. If the FCC goes with the pay-TV app proposal, it should require carriers to “adhere to the standard practices and business terms of app distribution,” provide their full channel lineup and on-demand library to customers using third-party boxes, and require pay-TV companies to provide access to guide and search metadata, it said in docket 16-42.
CBS Studios' new Star Trek series will be beamed up to Netflix subscribers under an international licensing agreement the companies announced in a news release Monday. Each episode will be available on Netflix within 24 hours of its U.S. premiere, the companies said. Netflix also will have the entire library of the various Trek series by the end of the year, they said. The new Star Trek series will debut on CBS in January, with the premiere episode and all subsequent episodes being available in the U.S. exclusively on the CBS All Access subscription VOD service.
Residents of public housing and those receiving Department of Housing and Urban Development assistance who live in Comcast's service territory are now eligible to take part in its Internet Essentials low-income broadband program, the cable company and HUD said in a news release Friday. According to the two, the Internet Essentials expansion -- including a Comcast pilot effort in public housing earlier this year -- encompasses an estimated 2 million residences and covers close to 40 percent of all HUD-assisted housing in the nation. Between its launch in 2011 and December 2015, Internet Essentials has signed up more than 600,000 low-income families, the two said. The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council applauded the expansion. In a statement, President Kim Keenan said, “As we aim to close the digital divide, this is the kind of bold action that it will take to connect every American home without regard to socio-economic status.” The National Digital Inclusion Alliance similarly lauded the move and urged other ISPs to follow suit. NDIA said "the real test will be in how this program is implemented, how the barriers are handled and whether subscribers have access to local digital literacy training and technology support they need to take advantage of the offer." Numerous housing authorities offer digital literacy training and technology support for public housing residents, but Housing Choice voucher users live in privately owned housing, NDIA said: "How will they get the outreach, training and support that everyone including Comcast acknowledges to be critical for the program's effectiveness?"
Regulation is a concern to cable ISPs, but the business has an advantage in broadband and cord cutting may not accelerate much, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors in a 35-page note Wednesday. The analyst firm expects what it called the traditional pay-TV base to contract about 1.2 percent annually. On the "new bugaboo in the otherwise rosy Cable Story" -- regulation -- Moffett said many questions remain, as the FCC net neutrality order deemed broadband a Communications Act Title II service. "Despite the FCC's promises that Title II is not inherently price regulatory, the path to price regulation is straightforward enough from here," the firm wrote. "But we're getting way ahead of ourselves. There are a staggering number of questions that would have to be answered before one can jump to an end game of price regulation." The firm has for a decade or so called broadband regulation "inevitable," and "we still think regulation is the big concern, and we still think that if you look out far enough, regulation is inevitable," wrote the analyst. "But regulatory risk cannot be called a permanent rally killer" in cable stock prices, he said.
An FCC proposal to require cable companies to separately state a charge for cable modems is “unnecessary, legally flawed, and would be contrary to consumer interest," said Charter Communications in a meeting with staff from the Media Bureau, Office of Strategic Planning and Policy and Office of General Counsel July 7. Charter “supplies and maintains modems at no additional charge in conjunction with its high-speed broadband service offering,” the cable company said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-42. “The Commission’s proposed regulation of cable modems is unsupported by the record and exceeds the Commission’s authority.” Proposals by commenters in the proceeding to establish a case-by-case complaint process should be rejected, since they would lead to regulating prices through adjudication rather than rulemaking, the company said. Requiring providers to separately state a non-zero modem price would be “non-transparent and could actively harm consumers by creating a new fee that the vast majority of subscribers would need to pay,” said the cable ISP.
Comcast's attempt to have the second amended complaint of racially motivated carriage discrimination brought by Entertainment Studios Networks (ESN) and the National Association of African American Owned Media (NAAAOM) tossed is tentatively set for a hearing Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the cable operator said in a filing (in Pacer) Monday. The filing came with Comcast's memorandum in support of its motion to dismiss. The complaint -- which alleges racial discrimination by Comcast in its decision not to carry ESN channels (see 1606100017) -- "is a scam" and "extortion by litigation," Comcast said in its memorandum. Despite this being the third complaint, Comcast said, "they still have nothing but conclusory assertions of race discrimination and conspiracy theories [and the complaint] utterly fails to plead facts" that would rule out the argument Comcast decided not to carry ESN content for business reasons. ESN/NAAAOM also have petitioned the FCC for an investigation of the operator (see 1603280030), and are pursuing similar litigation against Charter Communications and the agency (see 1606170001). ESN/NAAAOM "more than adequately" made a valid claim under Section 1981, covering discrimination in contracts, plaintiffs' counsel Skip Miller of Miller Barondess told us Tuesday. "All the name calling in the world isn't the issue. We more than satisfied the law."
Lions Gate Entertainment's bid to have a federal court reconsider its March order (in Pacer) dismissing its copyright and trademark infringement claim against Ameritrade and Havas Worldwide has been taken under submission, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson said in a filing Monday (in Pacer). In its motion for reconsideration, Lions Gate said the court dismissed its trademark claims not on any copyright pre-emption but because the TV and film production company never specifically alleged or showed facts that the defendants had used Lionsgate's "Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner" trademark as a trademark for their own services. But that order is based on old law, before the Federal Trademark Dilution Act (FTDA) changes in 2006, which now holds that a plaintiff doesn't need to prove a defendant used an identical or nearly identical trademark, Lions Gate said. It also said it did plead facts showing the defendants used "Nobody Puts Your Old 401k in a Corner" as a trademark for their own services. Ameritrade and Havas, in opposition (in Pacer) to reconsideration, called Lions Gate's move "a blatantly improper request for a second bite at the apple" since it presented no change in law or facts, and that any court misstatement of the similarity required under FTDA is immaterial since it wasn't the basis of the court's dismissal.
Viacom "has fallen too far too fast" to be successfully turned around, at least in the next 12 months, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said in a note to investors Monday as the bank downgraded the cable programmer's Class B shares to "underperform" from "market perform." Previewing Q2 earnings, Ryvicker said CBS and Time Warner Cable are the "most stable/least risky." For Viacom, Wells Fargo said the problems include negotiating subscription VOD contracts (see 1606170013) and Comcast putting Viacom's Spike channel on a lower tier. That Viacom B is trading above CBS, Comcast and 21st Century Fox A shares "just doesn't make sense to us," Ryvicker wrote. Viacom B closed Monday at $44.36, down 1.9 percent. Viacom didn't comment.