Multichannel News

The battle for sports superiority in the Los Angeles area continues as Time Warner Cable piled on additional feeds of the Pac-12 Network to customers in the area.

Time Warner Cable added five additional Pac-12 feeds several days prior to the first scheduled college-football contest on the network.

The five additional channels are part of the original deal the cable operator made for the main feed of the Pac-12 channel in conference states: California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. Pac-12 charges carriage fees of about 80 cents per subscriber per month in conference states, according to several published reports. The remaining feeds are available for “pennies,” sources familiar with the matter said.

Cable ad outsourcer Viamedia says the merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable would give the combined company too much control over the spot cable marketplace, and wants the Federal Communications Commission to impose conditions to make sure that doesn't happen.

In comments on the deal, which were due Aug 25, Viamedia says Comcast/TWC would control "approximately $4.5 billion of the $5.4 billion national Spot Cable Advertising market.”

Charter Communications said it’s unleashing faster broadband speeds and a heavier high-definition television channel lineup in its Southern California systems following all-digital upgrades that are coupled with the introduction of the multiple service operator’s new “Spectrum” branding.

Charter is bidding adieu to its analog spectrum and using that reclaimed capacity toward the boosting of the downstream speeds of its flagship broadband service from 30 Mbps to 60 Mbps, the broadening of its HDTV lineup to more than 200 channels, and enhancing its voice service with features such as unlimited nationwide calling. Charter Spectrum also touts a video-on-demand menu of more than 10,000 “choices.”

[Commentary] A New York Times editorial backs reclassifying Internet service as a telecommunications service because it “would allow regulators to prohibit phone and cable companies like Verizon and Comcast from engaging in unjust or unreasonable content.”

According to the Times, the Federal Communications Commission “wrongly classified broadband as an information service” rather than as a traditional common carrier service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

This may leave the impression that President Barack Obama already has reached the same conclusion, which does not seem to be the case at all. The considerable ongoing analyses by the Obama Administration’s expert advisers and others still represents the sounder approach to policymaking in this complex area.

[Brotman teaches at Harvard Law School]

Add Jacksonville (FL) to the list of markets where AT&T has committed to deploy its fiber-based 1 Gbps-capable “GigaPower” network.

As has been the case with most of AT&T’s GigaPower market announcements, specific locations of availability and pricing of GigaPower for Jacksonville will be announced at a later date.

The introduction of GigaPower will represent speedier competition for Comcast, Jacksonville’s incumbent cable operator. There, Comcast is already equipped to fight fiber with fiber, as Jacksonville is one of a group of select markets that offer Extreme 505, a fiber-based residential broadband service that delivers up to 505 Mbps downstream and 100 Mbps in the upstream.

Some critics of the proposed AT&T-DirecTV merger have asked the Federal Communications Commission for more time to comment on -- or attempt to block -- the deal, but the companies say no way because the FCC has an obligation to review the deal "as expeditiously as possible," and that nothing offered up by Public Knowledge and the Community Broadband Networks Initiative warrants any delay.

Public Knowledge sought the extension, citing four related proceedings – including the review of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger -- with comments due in August and September PK also said the extension was unlikely to delay the proceeding "significantly."

Hispanic television has taken great strides to bolster its news and public affairs offerings.

There’s good reason: Spanish-language news remains an in-demand product for Hispanic television viewers, with local and national newscasts among the most-viewed shows -- regardless of language -- in many top Hispanic designated market areas.

Following its launch of ‘GigaPower’ in Austin in late 2013, AT&T has begun to offer services on its fiber-based, 1-Gig-capable network to parts of Dallas and Fort Worth, where the telecommunications company competes with Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Grande Communications.

The telco added that it has also begun to offer speeds up to 100 Mbps via its U-verse platform in portions of Dallas and Fort Worth and several surrounding cities, including Allen, Arlington, Euless, Fairview, Granbury, Irving, McKinney, North Richland Hills, Weatherford and Willow Park. Customers in those areas will be able to upgrade to 1-Gig by the end of 2014, AT&T said.

Network neutrality advocates are continuing to try and leverage recent open Internet comments by President Barack Obama in their efforts to get the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify Internet access under Title II.

Former FCC Chairman Michael Copps, now an advisor to Common Cause, and Free Press President Craig Arron have written the White House seeking a meeting with the President on the issue. In the letter, Copps and Aaron praised the comments, while expressing their concern about the FCC's proposal to use Sec. 706 broadband deployment authority to justify new Open Internet rules, rather than Title II.

Fox and CBS affiliates warn that the Federal Communications Commission could be in danger of balkanizing sports programming and driving it to "increasingly expensive pay cable networks.”

With FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler signaling the FCC is likely to vote by early fall to eliminate the sports blackout rule, broadcasters are working overtime in August to try and stem that tide.

In a letter to Chairman Tom wheeler dated Aug 12, the Fox and CBS TV affiliates said eliminating the rule would hurt fans, viewers, localism, and competition. CBS Affiliate Board Chairman Michael Fiorile and Fox Affiliate Board chairman Jeff Rosser echoed NFL arguments that eliminating the rule would "likely be the first step toward the total elimination of high quality sports -- like NFL football games -- off free TV and behind the cable paywall."

They also said eliminating the rule would also result in high prices for pay TV sports fans, and the migration of more big ticket sporting events to pay, which would impact the minority, elderly and low-income populations who are disproportionately over-the-air only TV viewers.