Over-the-top companies gathered Tuesday for the latest quarterly meeting of the Streaming Video Alliance, an invitation-only event hosted by Charter Communications at its Charter Technology and Engineering Center in Denver. Formed in 2014, SVA said its aims include definition of a streaming open architecture and establishment of best practices. Beamr, CableLabs, Cedexis, Conviva, Irdeto, NeuLion, Nominum, Sky and Time Warner Cable are all new members to the alliance, SVA said.

The end of being forced to rent a set-top cable or satellite box could be at hand, Comptel said Monday as the FCC Media Bureau said it sought comments on the Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee report submitted that day. "The FCC comment period marks the beginning of an effort to bring creative competition to the video device marketplace," Comptel CEO Chip Pickering said in a statement. "In an age where television consumers are cutting the cord and breaking the bundle, unlocking the box is an important step in the evolution of video and competition. The movement to free customers from the shackles of cable set-top boxes will open the door to consumer freedom and more competition." The deadline for comments in docket 15-64 is Oct. 8, with replies due Nov. 9, the Media Bureau said. The DSTAC report contains a pair of technical proposals on security for content flowing into set-top boxes, and two accompanying proposals on other aspects of the proposed systems such as navigation (see 1508280035). The CableCARD technology that was to be an alternative to renting a set-top box "has been beset by technical and logistical problems" like not being compatible with VOD and a lack of uniformity in CableCARDs, said Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer, a DSTAC member, in a blog post Monday. While DSTAC was too split to make a single recommendation, both of "these approaches are inspired by technologies that have been used elsewhere," Bergmayer said. "The relevant question at this point isn't which of these proposals will work technically, but which of them will achieve the desired outcome: a market for devices that can access pay TV content," he wrote, saying that under the cable industry-backed proposal "third-party devices won’t be able to be significantly better than the cable-provider ones."

Set-top boxes should be an off-the-shelf item available from any manufacturer and compatible with cable lines or satellite dishes "as long as they meet basic technical standards," The New York Times said in an editorial Monday. The editorial referenced the possibility of new set-top box rules following the FCC Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee's submitting its final report Friday (see 1508280035). "The virtual monopoly that cable companies have over set-top boxes is reminiscent of the way AT&T used to require customers to rent phones from the company and prohibited them from using other devices," the Times said. "Consumers might be more inclined to pay for cable if the industry stopped trying to nickel-and-dime them." Pointing to the booming use of mobile apps that reduce reliance on set-top boxes, and such emerging technologies that will further the trend like whole-home connectivity and TVs being manufactured to access pay TV content without set-top boxes, an NCTA spokesman said Monday the cable industry disagrees "that there's a need for new federal regulations of the video device marketplace."

Hulu and Epix signed a multiyear subscriber VOD agreement that will bring new-release motion pictures from Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount to Hulu starting Oct. 1, the over-the-top service said Sunday in a post on a company blog. Epix is a joint venture of Lionsgate, MGM and Viacom and its Paramount Pictures unit. The Hulu deal was a blow to rival Netflix. In a blog post Sunday, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said the company "decided not to renew our agreement in the U.S. with Epix ... which means that some high profile movies including Hunger Games: Catching Fire, World War Z and Transformers: Age of Extinction, will expire at the end of September in the US. If you want to see them on Netflix US, now is the time."

A bandwidth-based standard -- such as a 1 GB outage of 30 minutes or more -- would be well suited for reporting outages of IP-based transmission networks, Comcast officials told FCC Public Safety Bureau representatives, said a filing in docket 04-35 posted Monday. The filing was an elaboration on a July filing by Comcast in which it argued that DS3 isn't the proper metric for determining a major transport facility outage.

The FCC Media Bureau approved allowing Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative to operate an open video system. The Minnesota operation filed an application for certification Aug. 20 and it attracted no comments, the Media Bureau said in an order released Friday.

Cablevision and Verizon agreed to an extension until Oct. 1 of a temporary restraining order in the companies' legal fight over an advertising campaign. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Brown in Central Islip, New York, granted an order requested by Verizon earlier this month, blocking any ads asserting Verizon is telling lies in its ads (see 1508120027). Cablevision sued Verizon in federal court in January over Verizon ads saying it offered "the fastest WiFi available." Both companies are to appear back before Brown Oct. 1 for a hearing, said a notice filed Monday in the case.

Comcast is accepting proposals for the two largely Hispanic-American-owned, English-language networks it plans to launch in some markets in January 2017, the company said in a Wednesday news release. The two will be among 10 independently owned and operated networks Comcast is launching as part of its public service commitments in its 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal, it said. The cable company said it would look at such criteria in the proposals as whether the network is fully financed, already launched and has existing multichannel video programming distribution; whether the management group is well established and has relevant experience; and its price. The network proposals are open for any major genre, such as children's programming, movies, news and sports, Comcast said. The deadline for proposals is Oct. 9. The 10 networks to launch by 2019 will include four that will have majority African-American ownership, two with substantial Hispanic-American ownership, two operated by Hispanic-American programmers, and two other independents, Comcast said. The company already has launched five independent networks, it said: Aspire, BabyFirst Americas, BBC World News, El Rey and Revolt.

The only major difference between online video distributors and multichannel video programming distributors is in the quality or quantity of programming they offer, with OVDs still lagging behind MVPDs, New England Sports Network (NESN) said in an FCC filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-261 on the agency's proceeding on how to define OVDs under the MVPD umbrella. Largely repeating comments it filed last week for the 17th video competition report (see 1508210033), NESN repeated its argument that OVDs are "a full-fledged substitute of broadcast, cable and satellite technology, and consumer access online video both via TV sets and via devices like tables and phones that substitute for TV sets." NESN had no specific policy positions, but said it submitted its arguments about substitutability because that mindset "must be the foundation of any sensible policy in this area."

Cablevision's Optimum Online customers will have entree to CBS All Access and Showtime Internet services, making it the first multichannel video programming distributor to provide the online CBS offerings, the companies said Tuesday, saying they signed a new, multiyear carriage agreement. The deal covers retransmission consent for CBS-owned stations and continuing carriage of CBS Sports Network, Showtime and Smithsonian Channel. Cablevision and CBS gave no details on pricing or timing for the Optimum Online offerings.