The Maine House voted 131-6 to require cable companies to pro-rate canceling customers’ final bills. They sent LD-2031 to the Senate. Altice is suing a New Jersey regulator over a similar policy that it claims violates the Cable Act (see 2003100066). Maine is defending against cable lawsuits involving recent state laws on ISP privacy, a la carte cable TV, and public, educational and governmental channels (see 2002180050, 1910160005 and 1910090060). NCTA, Comcast and Charter Communications didn’t comment.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen of Portland rejected NCTA's ask for declaratory and injunctive relief in its lawsuit challenging Maine public, educational and government access channel carriage provisions and requirement cable operators extend service to areas that meet a certain population density (see 1909160027). In her order (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-420) Wednesday, Torresen said the line extension requirement might carry unreasonable cost burdens, but NCTA hasn't shown it will be unconstitutional in every application or that it "lacks a plainly legitimate sweep." Cable operators challenging the provision case by case makes more sense, she said. The jurist said the PEG provisions are consumer protection and not specifically pre-empted by federal law. NCTA said it's disappointed with the ruling and believes "Maine’s burdensome network build-out and PEG requirements conflict with federal law and should be preempted, and that the PEG mandates independently violate cable operators’ First Amendment rights. We are reviewing the ruling and considering next steps.”
A federal judge denied reconsideration to New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities of a temporary injunction in a cable case. Altice sued BPU at the U.S. District Court in New Jersey for trying to require the company to pro-rate bills, saying that violates the Cable Act (see 2003020038). In a Tuesday opinion, Judge Brian Martinotti disagreed the court shouldn’t have treated Altice’s motion for reconsideration as a motion for preliminary injunction. “This Court looks to a motion’s substance, not its form,” he wrote. Martinotti disagreed the board had no chance to brief on the preliminary injunction, saying it did when first responding to Altice’s complaint, when the court gave defendants an opportunity to argue in writing after the company filed its motion, and in oral argument. The judge rejected the agency’s argument it had no chance to present evidence on the amount of any monetary bond or need for other conditions to be imposed on Altice following grant of a preliminary injunction. Both sides didn't comment.
Industry groups challenging Maine’s ISP privacy law agreed to dismiss three Public Utilities Commission members as defendants in case 1:20-cv-00055 at the U.S. District Court of Maine, leaving only Attorney General Aaron Frey (D), said a Friday notice (in Pacer). ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom sued Maine last month (see 2002180050).
The FCC got no pushback to proposed implementation of Section 1003 of the Television Viewer Protection Act of 2019 (TVPA) by amendment of its rules to let small MVPDs designate a buying group to negotiate on their behalf and the proposed definitions of large station groups and qualified buying groups in docket 20-31 comments. Beyond its proposals, NTCA said the agency “must do more” in the form of retransmission consent rules reforms such as bans on forced tying and tiering. ACA Connects agreed with the proposed rules changes. NAB called the proposed rules changes “appropriate to effectuate the TVPA.” The legislation passed in December (see 1912190068).
The Media Bureau order granting NCTA's petition for clarifying a previous order denying a stay of FCC cable local franchise authority rules (see 2002110046) is appearing in Thursday's Federal Register, making the interpretive rule effective. It's "applicable beginning February 11."
The vote count on an FCC NPRM on cable operator public inspection files on attributable interests in video programming was 5-0, with Democratic commissioners concurring (see 2003030018).
Top pay-TV providers lost 4.9 million net video subscribers in 2019 vs. 1.6 million in the prior year, more net losses than in any previous year, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. Satellite companies continued to lead the consumer exodus, shedding 3.7 million vs. 2.4 million the previous year; DirecTV lost 3.2 million, said the research firm. Top cable providers cumulatively lost 3.3% of video subscribers vs. 1.9% the prior year. Telcos’ losses widened to 7.4% of video subscribers vs. a loss of 2.6%. Comcast lost 732,000 TV subscribers, followed by Charter Communications at 462,000. AT&T accounted for 84% of 2019 pay-TV net losses vs. 48% the prior year. Subscription growth slowed among vMVPDs, too: Hulu Plus Live TV, Sling TV and AT&T TV Now added about 1 million subscribers in 2019 vs. 1.9 million. The increase in pay-TV net losses was due to consumers’ expanding choices for video options and decisions by AT&T and others to focus on “long-term profitability in acquiring and retaining subscribers,” said principal Bruce Leichtman.
The FCC NPRM approved Friday on possibly dumping or modifying the requirement cable operators keep records in online public inspection files about attributable interests in video programming was released Monday. It's essentially unchanged from the draft NPRM on what questions are asked, according to our side-by-side comparison. It was OK'd 5-0 with the Democratic commissioners concurring.
Presidential candidates spent 47% of advertising dollars on cable TV systems this year, compared with 26% in 2016, ViaMedia said Monday. It said total spending in the presidential candidate subcategory rose 146%. ViaMedia said spending by Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg in particular caused presidential ads to overshadow what had been the dominant spending category of issues advertising done largely by political action committees: The campaign did 31% of all 2020 cable political commercials' spending.