Wave's carriage and streaming complaint against NBCUniversal and three Comcast regional sports networks (see 1712190041) is procedurally flawed, time barred and without merit, the networks said in a docket 17-361 opposition posted Tuesday. They said Wave is essentially making an untimely program access complaint, and gives no authority as to why the FCC should waive the one-year limitation to allow a formal program access complaint. They said Wave indicated it will invoke arbitration for the RSNs under the Comcast/NBCU consent decree order, which is incompatible with the company simultaneously seeking the FCC involvement. The networks said Wave complaints are about to become moot given the pending takeover by TPG Capital (see 1705220058), since NBCU and TPG's RCN Telecom Services recently signed a multiyear carriage agreement, meaning Wave systems within days or weeks will carry the RSNs under the terms RCN negotiated. Wave outside counsel didn't comment.

Since Starz content couldn't get it carriage on Altice USA, the programmer now is trying to manipulate the regulatory process to that end, the MVPD said in an FCC docket 18-9 opposition posted Tuesday. It responded to Starz's petition last week for emergency injunctive relief (see 1801190042). Altice said Starz isn't being carried not because of a rules violation, but because Starz "sought a price that makes no economic sense," and the petition came nearly three weeks after the Jan. 1 blackout's start shows it's not an emergency. It said rules require cable operators give 30-day notice to subscribers of a programming change if that change is within control of the MVPD, but Starz didn't know a blackout was coming unit Dec. 31. The cable operator said Starz hasn't shown the alleged violation of the service change notice rule caused irreparable harm, since any harm to the content provider by subscribers not having 30 days notice to plan ahead to keep receiving Starz was offset by Altice's steps to inform subscribers on how they could get Starz via other means. The programmer didn't comment.

The expiration Saturday of the FCC's conditions on Comcast's buy of NBCUniversal was criticized by the American Cable Association and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. ACA in a statement Monday said the FCC "should examine and then address" harms Comcast/NBCU might cause by strengthening program access rules, such as deciding whether an arbitration remedy and standstill condition should be codified. It said the agency should amend program access rules so the National Cable Television Cooperative qualifies as a buying group. Clyburn's Friday tweet said with the DOJ opposing AT&T's proposed buy of Time Warner on the same grounds that prompted the FCC to put conditions on Comcast/NBCU, "has anything really changed?" Comcast didn't comment on the tweet or ACA's comments, but in a statement said it "met or exceeded all of the commitments and obligations," and none of its six annual compliance reports was challenged by the FCC, members of Congress or third parties. It said all markets in which it operates "are more robust and more competitive now than they were” before the deal. Comcast said it doesn't anticipate any operational changes due to the conditions' expiration. It disputed conditions in AT&T/TW are analogous to Comcast/NBCU, since it doesn't have a national distribution network like AT&T's DirecTV or its wireless network, and it doesn't operate cable or broadband services in the nation's two biggest markets, New York City and Los Angeles. Experts said it's unlikely regulators would extend the Comcast/NBCU conditions or that DOJ would revisit the issue (see 1712210018).

Pointing to consumer harms and its own financial losses, Starz pressed the FCC Media Bureau for expedited action on a petition for injunctive relief stemming from its Altice USA complaint (see 1801160058), it said in a docket 18-9 filing posted Friday recapping a meeting with bureau Chief Michelle Carey. Altice on Friday said the Starz claims are meritless. The injunctive relief petition asks that, pending final determination of its complaint against Altice, the FCC order Altice to reinstate Starz carriage on the same terms as before the Jan. 1 blackout, to provide its Cablevision subscribers with 30-day notice of any decision to discontinue Starz channels, and to give subscriber service that meets FCC rules.

Comcast likely will seek summary judgment soon in a complaint charging it with falsely advertising what it charges cable subscribers through its added broadcast and regional sports TV fees, the MVPD said Thursday in a docket 16-5969 filing (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. In the filing, Comcast opposed a motion by the plaintiffs seeking to merge their suit with another one and to file a fifth amended complaint. With the suit, originally a class-action complaint now down to two individual damages claims for $300, the plaintiffs "are now dissatisfied with how they framed this case and want a do-over," Comcast said. Counsel for the plaintiffs didn't comment Friday.

The FCC still hasn't received an assignment or transfer application for AT&T's proposed buy of Time Warner, and assumes it won't since there are reportedly no license transfers that would trigger an agency review, Chairman Ajit Pai wrote Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., in a letter dated Jan. 3 and posted Friday. The letter was in response to a Maloney letter received Oct. 23 raising concerns about diverse programming.

By year's end, selling sports by the season directly to consumers will be common, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Wednesday. Live premium sports viewing online is small, but growing quickly, with virtual MVPDs sure to fuel the trend, he said. The NFL rating declines seen by CBS and NBC might be attributable to more people watching online, he said. It doesn't appear that, at least in the short term, finding a particular game will be any easier online than via traditional TV, since sports league rights aren't only often divided across different services but also among screens, he said.

Roku announced a way for marketers to measure advertising campaign reach and effectiveness on linear and over-the-top content as TV audiences “rapidly shift” viewing to streaming. It's a time of “significant linear viewership decline,” the company said Wednesday. Traditional pay-TV providers -- cable, satellite and phone companies -- lost 1.7 million subscribers in 2016, it said, citing MoffettNathanson, “and the pace is accelerating with more than 2.6 million cutting the cord through September 2017.”

Boxers Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather and HBO undertook "a classic case" of fraudulently inducing consumers to buy the 2015 pay per view of their match by withholding information about Pacquiao's health, class-action appellants said in a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals brief (in Pacer) Tuesday appealing U.S District Judge Gary Klausner's August dismissal of their lawsuits. The lower court erred in ignoring plaintiffs' claims the fraudulent omissions concerned business strategy as well as athletic strategy, the appellants said in the docket 17-56366 filing. Showtime and Pacquiao outside counsel Daniel Petrocelli of O'Melveny in a statement Wednesday said fight fans "paid to see Manny Pacquiao box Floyd Mayweather -- and that’s exactly what they got. Plaintiffs have no claim and we look forward to responding to the appeal and explaining why the Federal Judge’s thorough decision is correct.”

Some 12 percent of U.S. broadband households use a livestreaming platform like Facebook Live or Periscope, Parks Associates reported Wednesday based on Q3 data. Nearly a fifth of consumers ages 18-24 engage in livestreaming activity, but livestreaming of TV shows and sports skews older, which Parks said indicates more older viewers “might be using these solutions to access illegal streams of content.” Though some leagues are livestreaming content legitimately, “much of the produced content on these live-streaming platforms remains unsanctioned,” Brett Sappington said. More than a third of households that livestream TV shows or sports said programming was available, but they opted for livestreaming “because they did not want to pay for access,” said the analyst. Another quarter chose livestreaming because programming prices are too high.