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.
The $1 billion copyright infringement jury verdict against Cox Communications was $500 million below the permissible statutory damages set by Congress, and the jury recognized the "massive scope" of the infringement and the need to deter future piracy-enabling conduct by the cable ISP. That's according to music label plaintiffs in a memorandum (in Pacer, docket 18-cv-00950) in opposition to Cox's motion for remittitur or a new trial (see 2002030066) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The labels said Cox’s criticisms on the jury instructions and evidentiary rulings are without merit. Cox outside counsel didn't comment.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' reversal of a lower court's dismissal of antitrust claims against Comcast (see 1808210001) was "a good day ... for competition in our industry," Viamedia said Wednesday. It said with the advertising sales complaint remanded for discovery and trial, it will ask a jury for both damages and "remedies that will restore Interconnects as the inclusive marketplaces they were intended to be.” Appellate Judges David Hamilton and William Bauer, in an opinion (docket 18-2852) this week written by Hamilton, said Viamedia had shown sufficient evidence to support claims that should be presented to a jury. Judge Michael Brennan concurred on Viamedia's being entitled to reversal and remand on its refusal-to-deal claim but dissented on reversal of summary judgment on a tying claim, saying there wasn't evidence of an illegal tie. Comcast didn't comment Wednesday
The $1 billion copyright infringement jury verdict against Cox Communications is "grossly excessive" given statutory damages elsewhere, and whatever profit Cox got from infringement is divorced from the supposed multibillion-dollar profit on which plaintiffs urged the jury to base its award. So said Cox's memorandum of law in support of its motion for remittitur or a new trial (see 2002030066) in docket 18-cv-00950 and in Pacer. It was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Counsel for the music label plaintiffs didn't comment.
Cable and local government interests remain far apart on required advance notices of potential blackouts during carriage talks and on required service or rate change updates for local franchise authorities (LFA) (see 2002070003), in docket 19-347 replies this week. NCTA and America's Communications Association said local governments wrongly suggest cable operators should notify subscribers about the possibility of programming blackouts during contract negotiations. ACA said a flood of such notices could make subscribers less likely to pay attention to notices of actual lost carriage. NCTA said if the agency keeps the LFA notification requirement -- which it and ACA called an anachronism from when LFAs regulated cable rates -- it should be limited to basic service tier rate increases. Local interests including the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Los Angeles, Boston and Portland, Oregon, said the FCC lacks legal authority to ax the 30-day notice requirement. They questioned whether ending notification will mean more carriage spats because of no pre-blackout incentive to negotiate. The municipalities asked the agency to end its 90-day LFA written request for notice distributions rule.
Cable ISP Wow is trialing a promotion of streaming MVPDs fuboTV, Sling and YouTube TV with a free in-home set up and Amazon Fire TV Stick as an alternative to cable TV service, it said Tuesday. The trial is in the Charleston, South Carolina, area.
The FCC should conclude that its leased access rules are “unconstitutional,” said NCTA, Comcast and Charter in a meeting Wednesday with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and Media Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 07-42. “While we recognized that the agency cannot itself invalidate the leased access statute, we urged the Commission to also take steps to reduce the First Amendment burdens imposed by the current rules,” the filing said. The FCC should eliminate the existing rate formula and allow leased access rates to be determined through negotiations, the filing said. Alternatively, the FCC should allow rates to be calculated using “a tier-specific implicit fee calculation,” the filing said.
Windstream is offering YouTube TV, it said Monday. Windstream’s Kinetic ISP users can connect to YouTube TV via a smart TV or streaming media device, it said, for “the best place to enjoy streaming video.”
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities asked U.S. District Court in Trenton to reconsider turning an Altice motion to reconsider into a motion for a preliminary injunction. In a motion (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-21371) Wednesday, the BPU said the conversion was procedurally deficient and it wasn't allowed to brief on the merits of a preliminary injunction. The court last month issued an injunction to last until the end of Altice's litigation against the state for seeking to force the cable company to use prorated billing (see 2001290055). The cabler didn't comment Thursday.
Altice is buying New Jersey cable ISP Service Electric Cable for $150 million in cash, expanding its footprint there, it said Wednesday. It said the deal is expected to close by Q3.