Monty Tayloe

Netflix and Cogent deliberately sent Internet traffic down channels that couldn’t handle the load, to try to secure free interconnection, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen alleged Wednesday on a conference call. It was held to publicize Comcast’s reply comments (http://bit.ly/Y8xgIm) filed Tuesday at the FCC in docket 14-57 in response to petitions to deny its proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable.

Sinclair’s petition for review of the FCC incentive auction order (CED Sept 19 p7) raises a broader scope of issues than the NAB challenge (CED Aug 19 p2), and the company hasn’t decided if it will push for an expedited hearing of the case as did NAB and the FCC, Mark Aitken, Sinclair vice president-advanced technology, told us Friday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order Friday consolidating the two petitions and vacating the expedited briefing schedule requested by NAB and FCC.

Draft rulemaking notices on several parts of the incentive auction will be circulated to FCC commissioners this week and as early as Tuesday, said agency and industry officials in interviews Friday and Monday, after a low-power TV (LPTV) official said he had heard the items were coming.

The FCC wants expedited treatment of the NAB’s petition for review of the commission’s incentive auction order (CED Aug 19 p2), the agency told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday. It “would be in the public interest” to resolve NAB’s petition “as promptly as possible,” said the commission. The NAB filed an emergency motion Wednesday seeking a quick resolution.

Critics of Comcast’s deal to buy Time Warner Cable are making “discredited arguments” that “don’t have any merit” said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen in a blog post responding (http://bit.ly/1p9Ffk7) to comments filed in docket 14-57 Monday (http://bit.ly/1wthpno). The deadline was 11:59 p.m. for comments on the transaction.

NAB filed a court challenge on the use of auction software TVStudy in the FCC incentive auction order. “Broadcasters are effectively left with an auction that benefits everyone else while harming only them,” said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan in a blog post (http://bit.ly/VA7RWM).

A federal judge’s finding that FilmOn and CEO Alki David are in contempt of court may not bode well for competing service Aereo’s attempt to be treated as a cable system and obtain a compulsory copyright license (CED July 11 p2), several broadcast attorneys told us in interviews Friday. Judge Naomi Buchwald of U.S District Court in Manhattan fined FilmOn $90,000 for violating a federal injunction by streaming copyrighted broadcast content for nine days after the Supreme Court’s ABC v. Aereo decision.

Comcast and TiVo reached a voluntary agreement under which the operator will abide by CableCARD rules vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and work with TiVo to develop a two-way non-CableCARD security solution to replace CableCARD, the companies told the FCC (http://bit.ly/1wuQG4I). TiVo will use the solution developed by Comcast in its set-top boxes. CEA, which has aligned with TiVo against cable interests in past efforts to protect CableCARD rules, said it was “supportive” of the companies’ efforts to find a successor to CableCARDs. Last year, the D.C. Circuit vacated some encryption rules in EchoStar v. FCC but not the entire CableCARD regime, leading TiVo to petition the FCC to confirm the rules still applied.

Aereo’s request that a federal court issue it a compulsory copyright license under 1976 Copyright Act Section 111 isn’t a clear path to survival for the streaming TV service, industry and public interest attorneys told us Thursday.

The Supreme Court’s decision on Aereo (CED June 26 p1) may have a bigger effect on new technology than majority opinion author Justice Stephen Breyer intended, especially for tech related to TV, said representatives from several trade associations in interviews.