Multichannel News

Mediacom asked the Federal Communications Commission to adopt new rules that would prevent volume-based discounts in program carriage deals, insure access to content online, and require the disclosure of rates.

Mediacom said the relationship between programmers and distributors is broken, that the marketplace as it has evolved thanks to Washington is anti-competitive and anti-consumer, and that Washington needs to fix it. It even co-opts some network neutrality language usually used by content providers towards ISPs, saying one thing the FCC needs to do is prevent programmers from blocking or restricting access to online content.

Mediacom wants the FCC to unbundle deals dominated by "six "media giants" who control more than 125 cable nets, including must-have programming. Mediacom is seeking the following new rule regime:

• Give MVPDs an a la carte option for new channels or the most expensive.
• Give MVPDs an unbundling option, with information about other offers and bundles
• Prohibit the blocking or restricting of Internet access to programming as a negotiating tactic in agreements
• Only allow volume discounts if they can be justified through waivers.

Google is on track with its exploration to expand Google Fiber to as many as 34 cities as they complete “checklists” that could pave the way for future deployments, and the expectation is to announce the going-forward plan before the end of 2014, company SVP and CFO Patrick Pichette said.

The Sunlight Foundation, joined by the Campaign Legal Center and Common Cause, has filed complaints at the Federal Communications Commission against two TV stations it said failed to properly identify the sponsors of political ads.

The stations targeted are Allbritton's WJLA Washington, which Sinclair is in the process of purchasing, and KGW Portland. The groups emphasized that the complaint was against Allbritton, not Sinclair.

The complaint against WJLA alleges it aired two ads that failed to identify that they were sponsored by a former hedge fund manager, instead identifying the sole sponsor and funder as super PAC NextGen Climate Action Committee. They also alleged that KGW aired multiple political ads identified as sponsored by American Principles Fund, when that group received "nearly all its funding" from another hedge fund manager.

Officials for Carrboro have ratified an agreement that will clear the way for AT&T to rollout its fiber-based, 1-Gig capable U-verse With GigaPower to parts of the city.

The agreement stems from a North Carolina Next Generation Network (NCNGN) initiative comprised of six cities, four universities, and local businesses. AT&T has already received approval for GigaPower from Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Cary, Winston-Salem and Durham.

Rep James Lankford (R-OK) introduced and then withdrew an amendment to the Financial Services bill--which includes Federal Communications Commission appropriations -- that would have prevented the FCC from changing its indecency enforcement policy to pursue only egregious cases, as it has been informally doing since then-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski adopted the policy in 2012 as a way to work through a million-plus complaint backlog.

Sens Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) are introducing a bill, the E-Label Act--that would give equipment manufacturers the option of delivering Federal Communications Commission labeling information electronically -- on screen -- on devices like computer, TV's and phones.

"As devices become smaller, compliance with 6 physical label requirements can become more difficult and costly," says the bill, according to a copy. “CEA welcomes the E-LABEL Act," said Veronica O’Connell, VP of government and political affairs, for the Consumer Electronics Association. "The Federal Communications Commission’s existing physical labeling requirements are burdensome, costly and present logistical challenges for consumer electronics manufacturers. The E-LABEL Act would give device manufacturers the option to present on a wireless device’s display or screen the markings and identifiers normally required to be fixed to the device’s casing."

In something of an unusual bipartisan show of support, Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Michael O'Rielly voiced their joint approval.

Comcast confirmed that the company has completed the integration of its Xfinity On Demand service with certain retail-bought TiVo DVRs in all Comcast markets.

Completion of that integration has been expected. The integration enables TiVo devices purchased at retail by Comcast customers to access and stream the company's massive cideo-on-demand library, including its Streampix catalog.

Integration of Comcast’s VOD service is currently limited to TiVo Premiere hardware as well as its newer Roamio models. Those devices can also access Comcast’s live TV lineup, so long as they are paired with a CableCARD security module.

Broadcasters and cable operators are on the same page when it comes to providing captions for online video clips: Online clips should not be held to the same quality standard as full-length captions on TV programming, and the clip requirement for time-sensitive clips should not kick in before mid-to-late 2017.

That is according to arguments made to Federal Communications Commission staffers by National Association of Broadcasters and National Cable & Telecommunications Association execs as the FCC prepares to vote at its July 11 public meeting on extending closed captioning requirements to online clips.

Both associations were concerned with time-sensitive clips, like breaking news, and advanced clips, like online promos for shows that have not aired yet. NCTA said programmers need flexibility to experiment with new ways of providing captions for clips, including voice recognition technology. NAB says broadcasters are working on ways to automate the captioning process to speed it up.

[Commentary] About 200 Megahertz of spectrum exists for Wi-Fi transmissions, including the extra 100 MHz in the 5-Gigahertz band granted by the Federal Communications Commission in March. Right now, that spectral slice is carrying 50% to 60% of the Internet’s traffic. Mobile carriers, by contrast, maneuver their traffic over some 600 MHz of spectrum -- licensed spectrum, which means they paid for it. (Dearly.) Some 2% to 3% of the Internet’s traffic moves within that slice. The concern is that LTE traffic will deliberately dump into the unlicensed territories, offloading giant blobs of traffic that can’t see or hear what’s already there -- such as anything moving over Wi-Fi. Is this a real problem? Not yet. Could it be? Definitely.

Facebook has just bought video ad tech startup LiveRail, which connects marketers to publishers on web and mobile to target 7 billion video ads to visitors per month.

One source said Facebook paid between $400 million and $500 million for LiveRail; and another source now reported that LiveRail sold for $500 million.

Facebook also said it will invest in keeping LiveRail running and is evaluating how to intermingle their data, but it plans to use its data to aid LiveRail with its targeting and vice-versa.

The acquisition of the 170-person company could help Facebook own a bigger chunk of video advertising, the fasting growing Internet ad medium.