A Time Warner Cable bid to have an attorney prohibited from being both trial counsel for Cableview Communications of Jacksonville, Florida, and from testifying as a rebuttal witness was rejected. In an order (in Pacer) Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Klindt of Jacksonville denied without prejudice TWC's motion disqualifying Jack Webb. Cableview sued TWC in 2013 (3:13-cv-00306-MMH-JRK), claiming it interfered in FTS USA's 2012 buy of Cableview, and in its motion TWC said Webb participated in the Cableview/TWC negotiations that resulted in a $65,000 settlement agreement being paid to TWC from the Cableview sale but that Florida Bar rule 4.3-7 bars a lawyer from being trial witness and trial counsel in the same action. Klindt in his order said TWC hasn't established Webb is likely to be a necessary witness, which is required to implicate 4.3-7, since neither party intends to call him: "Although an occasion may arise to render his testimony important at trial, right now it is only a vague possibility." If the issue of the potential hardship Web's testimony might pose to either party comes up at trial, Klindt said, the assessment of that hardship might take into account the testimony's importance, its inconsistency with other testimony and how foreseeable it is to either party. TWC didn't comment Monday.
Entertainment Studios Networks and the National Association of African American Owned Media took a third run at Comcast, filing a second amended complaint (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleging racial discrimination by the cable company in its decision not to carry ESN channels. The initial complaint, filed in 2015, was dismissed later that year, and an amended complaint dismissed in May by U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter of Los Angeles, who in his order (in Pacer) said ESN/NAAAOM hadn't sufficiently pled facts to make a plausible claim. Hatter said the case was dismissed with leave for one last amendment, and if the second amended complaint has pleading deficiencies, the case would be dismissed with prejudice. The second amended complaint by ESN/NAAAOM covers largely the same ground as its previous complaints -- that Comcast stands out among its major multichannel video programming distributor rivals by not carrying ESN content and that its claims of lack of bandwidth are shown to not hold water when it adds white-owned networks. As in the previous Comcast complaints, ESN/NAAAOM sought $20 billion in damages. In a joint stipulation (in Pacer) Wednesday, ESN/NAAAOM and Comcast said they agreed on a briefing schedule for Comcast's planned motion to dismiss the second amended complaint, with Comcast having until July 11 to move to dismiss, the plaintiffs having an Aug. 8 deadline to respond, Comcast having an Aug. 22 deadline to reply in support of its motion and a hearing on the motion scheduled for Sept. 12. ESN/NAAAOM are pursuing similar litigation against Charter Communications and the FCC (see 1601280063) and petitioned the agency for an investigation of Comcast (see 1603280030). In a statement, Comcast said, “We believe NAAAOM’s and ESN’s third attempt to manufacture a lawsuit against Comcast has no more merit and will fare no better than their previous complaints in this case, and we will vigorously defend ourselves against their inaccurate and unsupported allegations. 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.”
The Supreme Court reaffirmed in last month's Spokeo v. Robins decision that violating a federal statute can provide the basis for standing, with the violation needing only to result in "particularized" and "concrete" harm -- exactly the type of harm plaintiff Alex Braitberg suffered at the hands of Charter Communications, his counsel responded Wednesday in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Spokeo also made clear that some statutory violations constitute Article III injury, Braitberg said. The filing was in response to a previous Charter citation arguing Spokeo confirmed Braitberg lacked Article III standing since his allegation that Charter violated a Cable Act requirement that cable operators destroy personally identifiable information when it's no longer needed for the reason it was collected is divorced from any concrete harm. Braitberg -- a former Charter subscriber who sued in 2013 after finding out such data as his Social Security and credit card numbers were still on record with the company -- is appealing a decision by a U.S. District judge in St. Louis to throw out his initial lawsuit on the basis for lack of Article III standing.
Centralite, a supplier of connected home devices for branded products from cable companies and retailers, is now selling direct under its own label, it said Thursday in a news release. The company said it was responding to “overwhelming consumer demand” for connected products not offered on other home automation platforms. Centralite’s portfolio has more than 30 devices that it produces for brands including Comcast, Lowe's and Time Warner Cable, and with the branded line it’s enabling partners and customers to access offerings “central to the complete connected experience,” it said.
The FCC's set-top proposal should exempt small cable operators, said a letter from the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy that was praised by the American Cable Association. “Our office has concerns that the FCC’s proposed rules will be disproportionately and significantly burdensome for small multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs),” the letter said. “The Office of Advocacy represents an important voice for small business stakeholders who are worried about the disproportionate economic impacts on smaller operators,” ACA said in a release. “Given the impact of the proposed rules on small MVPDs, and the fact that the FCC can achieve its regulatory goals without their compliance, we believe the FCC should exempt small MVPDs when it finalizes its new rules,” the letter said.
Al-Jazeera's claim its sports doping documentary never actually accused athlete Ryan Howard of taking performance enhancing drugs fails to make clear why a viewer wouldn't reasonably see it conveying the cable network's endorsement that such an accusation is true, Howard said in a motion (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. The Philadelphia Phillies first baseman sued the now-defunct Al-Jazeera America network, plus Al-Jazeera Media Network and Al-Jazeera International for defamation, with Al-Jazeera and defendant Deborah Davies, a reporter, filing a motion to dismiss, while another reporter defendant, Liam Collins, separately filed a dismissal motion. In his opposition Tuesday to the twin motions to dismiss, Howard said the fact Al-Jazeera and the reporters knew that the source of the doping allegations in "The Dark Side" had recanted them before the documentary aired, their failure to corroborate or investigate those allegations and their "motive and even need to generate a sensational story" all go to show they acted with knowledge of probable falsity or reckless disregard for the truth, and the motions to dismiss should be denied. Al-Jazeera didn't comment.
The FCC Media Bureau reversed itself on whether Adams, Massachusetts, is subject to effective cable competition. In an order Thursday, the bureau upheld Time Warner Cable's petition for reconsideration of a 2015 order saying the town wasn't subject to effective competition. The bureau cited TWC's reconsideration petition argument that the bureau had miscalculated the subscriber count in the town, and that the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable had agreed not to fight the petition in a settlement it reached with TWC.
Dish Network is expanding the international programming available on it and its Sling TV service through a long-term renewal agreement with Asia TV USA, part of India's Zee group, Dish said in a news release Thursday. Dish said the renewal will keep the 10 Zee-branded channels it already offers and add 27 more Zee channels. Dish said it and Sling also will be the exclusive U.S. providers of Zee's on-demand library of films and video titles, with Sling eventually becoming the exclusive over-the-top U.S. provider for Zee's South Asian channels except for one as Zee moves viewers from its direct-to-consumer services to Sling TV or authenticated access.
Commercial-free streaming services like Amazon and Netflix may need to incorporate advertising as content and production costs rise but subscribers already are paying at or close to what they feel the services are worth, market researcher GfK said in a news release Wednesday. Hulu already is ad supported. According to GfK, $10-$11 is the maximum most subscribers would pay monthly for Amazon Prime or Netflix, and cost was the most important attribute in choosing a streaming service. The firm said cost was cited by 75 percent of people surveyed, followed by availability of specific programs -- cited by 69 percent -- and availability of new movies, at 68 percent. Having original/exclusive content ranked ninth, cited by 47 percent of users of major streaming services, GfK said, saying the proportion of Amazon Prime and Netflix users citing original content as a reason for using the services is growing. David Tice, GfK senior vice president-Media and Entertainment team, said Hulu and other ad-supported services offer premium "ad-free" options, and Amazon Prime and Netflix "may need to introduce ‘ad-inclusive’ subscriptions to hold the line on monthly subscription costs for their price-sensitive customer segments.” Amazon and Netflix representatives didn't comment.
Worldwide set-top box shipments grew 4.8 percent last year to reach 353 million units, said IHS, but revenue fell 5.4 percent to $22.2 billion due to lower demand for higher cost pay-TV set-top boxes in North America, said an IHS report Tuesday. Apple TV, ranked ninth globally in revenue among set-tops in 2014, jumped to third in 2015 due to industry consolidation and continued strong growth in consumer retail video streaming players, said the report. More than 10 million Apple TVs shipped last year, behind Arris (which acquired Pace), Technicolor (which acquired Cisco's set-top business), Skyworth and ZTE, said IHS. Apple TV’s success results from “translating consumption habits from across Apple’s wider device ecosystem onto the TV screen,” said analyst Daniel Simmons, saying Steve Jobs once called the Apple TV business a “hobby.” Apple TV’s rise in the set-top category reflects the trend that pay-TV-specific boxes “are becoming less important for consumers to access premium content” because Netflix, HBO Go and others offer top-tier content through over-the-top boxes, said Simmons. “As retail STBs have grown in the market, traditional pay-TV set-top vendors have been forced to re-position themselves, with significant consolidation at the top of the market, diversification toward software and services in the middle, and low-end vendors moving toward broader volume.” Global growth of set-top shipments was driven by IPTV in China, where telecom companies are pushing IPTV services to fund investments in fiber-to-the home for high-speed internet access, said IHS. Global set-top Q4 revenue grew by 3.4 percent over the year-ago quarter to $5.7 billion, partly driven by Apple, Amazon and Roku device refreshes, said IHS.