An 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court's tossing out an MVPD lawsuit against Iowa City, Iowa, and what the cable operator saw as a competitor, ImOn Communications. In the docket 16-3696 decision Wednesday, the St. Louis-based court said Mediacom was conflating "proposes" and "intends" and that ImOn had never gone as far as proposing to provide cable service to Iowa City. Mediacom -- which has a franchise agreement with Iowa City -- sued the city and ImOn over whether the potential cable provider could build a cable system without having a cable franchise. The court also rejected Mediacom arguments Iowa City gave ImOn a de facto cable franchise that didn't comply with state and federal franchise requirements when it let ImOn build a fiber optic network and to provide voice and internet services. Ruling for the defendant appellees were Judges William Benton, Raymond Gruender and John Tunheim, with Benton writing the decision. Mediacom outside counsel didn't comment Thursday.

Cable operators filing FCC Form 1240 can raise the non-external portion of their rates by 2.33 percent for Q4 to account for inflation, an FCC Media Bureau public notice said Tuesday.

Twenty-First Century Fox proposals to the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for a comprehensive "ringfencing" of Sky News and a sale of Sky News to Disney should end any of CMA's plurality concerns and guarantee Sky News' long-term future and editorial independence, Sky said Tuesday. It said a Disney/Sky News would happen only after Fox's completed buy of Sky, regardless of whether Disney's proposed buy of Fox takes place. Under the Fox proposals Tuesday (see here and here) to CMA, Disney would guarantee that at least for 10 years, Sky News would operate in a wholly owned subsidiary, Newco, with Newco's board being entirely independent officers. Fox is pledging that proposed Sky News editorial guidelines would say the head of Sky News would retain complete operational and editorial control. With the revised remedies, Fox likely still expects regulatory approval by the end of June, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors. The CMA in January issued a preliminary finding that a Fox buy of Sky may not be in the public interest for media plurality (see 1801230010).

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision throwing out antitrust claims against San Juan Cable, doing business as OneLink (see 1803020004), contradicts other circuit courts and distorts antitrust petitioning immunity doctrine, antitrust scholars told the Supreme Court in a docket 17-1215 amicus brief filed Monday. The brief was filed on behalf of petitioner Puerto Rico Telephone Co., which argued OneLink's regulatory petitions aimed at blocking cable-TV competition from PRTC. The antitrust academics said the Supreme Court should review the appeal to resolve the circuit split. They said the 1st Circuit's rationale would let a monopolist sidestep antitrust scrutiny of a pattern of petitioning activity as long as each petition meets a minimal threshold of objective merit, thus letting the monopolist abuse the administrative and adjudicative process. Signing the brief were professors Michael Carrier of Rutgers Law School, Peter Carstensen of University of Wisconsin Law School, Nicholas Economides of New York University's Stern School of Business, Einer Elhauge of Harvard Law School, Eleanor Fox of NYU School of Law, Robert Lande of University of Baltimore School of Law, Abbott Lipsky of George Mason University's Scalia Law School, Roger Noll of Stanford University, Sasha Volokh of Emory Law School and others. OneLink outside counsel didn't comment Tuesday. The company in a filing last week said it didn't intend to respond to PRTC's petition for writ of certiorari unless requested by the court.

Many cord-cutting homes likely already are consuming at least half of their 1 TB bandwidth cap with normal TV watching, and even a modest amount of Ultra HD streaming may push them over it, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Sunday. He said Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu don't give subscribers robust enough control of when they receive HD content that would let them control their bandwidth use. He said one simple option is to use a Roku, since users can go to a Roku's settings and set the video quality at either HD or below.

Comcast's recent stock slide increases the odds the company will back off on its interest in either Fox or Sky, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors Wednesday. It said investor bearishness on Comcast stock after its bid for Sky reflects a variety of issues, including fears that cash from the cable business would be increasingly diverted to other lines of business, and that the Sky bid reflects a Comcast desire to diversify away from its core cable business that has few growth prospects. It said a key issue is whether Comcast sees Fox as optional or vital for its interest in becoming a global media operator. It said it's increasingly doubtful Comcast pursues Fox even if the U.S. v. AT&T and Time Warner outcome is favorable toward a vertical deal. Comcast didn't comment.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) thumped Charter Communications for allegedly missing broadband expansion deadlines (see 1803190046). “Approval of the Charter Communications acquisition was conditioned on timely performance,” Cuomo said in a Friday statement to New York Public Service Commission Chairman John Rhodes. “Such a breach cannot be tolerated as it places New Yorkers at a competitive disadvantage.” Charter referred us to its earlier statement that it's fully complying with New York requirements and will fight its case.

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to multiple over-the-top video services and consumers expect to access high quality content on any platform at any location, Parks said Wednesday. The average U.S. broadband household has more than seven video access devices, including TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones, said the research firm.

Comcast's subscriber agreement arbitration provision contradicts itself on whether a court or arbitrator decides if a dispute is within the scope of the arbitration provision, and that lack of clarity means a lower court was right to determine a telemarketing complaint fell outside the provision's scope, appellee Richard Wuest said in a docket 17-17093 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals answering brief (in Pacer) Monday. Comcast is appealing a lower court's denial of its motion to compel individual arbitration after Wuest sued under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (see 1801170008). Wuest in the answering brief also said the lower court was right to decide the arbitration provision didn't cover Comcast's nonconsensual recording of a call Wuest made months after his Comcast subscription ended. Comcast didn't comment Wednesday.

The future of TV content won’t follow a linear path as consumers adopt combinations of services, said a Tuesday NPD blog post. Analyst John Buffone identified four personas. The cable customer wants a large channel bundle, has low tolerance for quality of service issues and wants traditional user interfaces, remotes and familiar channel numbers. The morphing cable customer wants streaming media, too, and 45 percent use Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Hulu, driving integration of apps into set-top boxes like Comcast's X1. As streaming TV buffering and latency issues diminish, this consumer will become a core target for virtual MVPD subscriber acquisition. Tech-savvy consumers get a skinny TV bundle through a service such as Sling TV and attach a media player for a few desired channels. Forty-four percent of these virtual MVPD subscribers are 35-54 years old and typically tune into family networks. The direct-to-consumer (DTC) trend adopted by many millennials -- paying for just those channels they watch -- has extended beyond HBO to NBC, CBS, Disney and others. Amazon Channels gave support to this model. The smallest, “most intriguing” future TV customer, checks out a wide range of video options: Snapchat shorts, Facebook originals, “and will identify if a strategy such as Viacom’s mobile partnerships has legs,” Buffone said.