The FCC freed from local video rate regulation four cable operators in about 30 municipalities in six states. The Media Bureau granted unopposed effective competition requests from Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable in areas including Santa Barbara, California, for Cox, and Galax, Virginia, for Comcast. The six effective competition petitions each have “sufficient and reliable evidence to establish that both elements of the competing provider test” for effective comp are met, said a bureau order released Monday (http://bit.ly/TmI2t0). The bureau recently said it changed how it approves such unopposed requests, granting them in batches a few times a year instead of doing so one at a time (CD March 27 p21).

Basic cable service prices increased 6.5 percent for the 12 months ended Jan. 1, 2013, the FCC annual cable programming and equipment survey found. The report was released Friday. Expanded basic cable prices increased by 5.1 percent, and equipment prices for basic and expanded basic services grew by 4.4 percent and 4.2 percent respectively, the report said (http://bit.ly/1mBmOld). Prices were 19.4 percent lower in communities with rival operators and 12.5 percent lower for incumbent operators in communities with at least two cable operators as compared with the average basic price that cable system operators charged in communities that don’t have effective competition, it said. For expanded basic cable, prices were less than 1 percent lower for rival operators, and 4.1 percent higher for incumbent operators in communities with at least two cable operators, it said. For expanded basic service, rivals and incumbents had a lower price per channel at 5.4 percent and 13.5 percent respectively, the report said. “Most equipment prices increased on an annual basis.” As of Jan. 1, 2013, the average equipment price was $7.55 with basic service, $7.70 with expanded basic service and $8.40 “with the next most popular service package,” it said. The bureau directed cable operators to respond to a price survey questionnaire no later than June 30 for the next report. The survey includes questions about an operator’s monthly charge for basic service and expanded service as of Jan. 1, 2013, and Jan. 1, 2014, it said (http://bit.ly/1hRJLeR).

The FCC should reinstate the CableCARD rules vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers and General Counsel Matthew Zinn told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his staff in a meeting Thursday, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1nKkzM4). Comcast has been “particularly cooperative” in making CableCARD work for TiVo, Rogers told Wheeler. TiVo has not yet stated a position on Comcast’s plan to buy Time Warner Cable, Rogers told Wheeler, the filing said. A successor solution to CableCARD needs to be developed, but CableCARD should remain in place in the meantime, said the filing posted Tuesday to docket 97-80.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association doesn’t want Congress to include a provision killing the set-top box integration ban in the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act legislation, as it has in the current HR-4572 version of the legislation that cleared the House Commerce Committee in a unanimous voice vote last week (CD May 9 p11). CCIA launched ConsumerTVChoice.net Monday to campaign on the issue and encourage people to write to Congress opposing the provision. TiVo, a CCIA member, has long opposed such provisions. The website “is to help consumers understand that ability to choose is at risk in Congress right now so they can make their views known before it’s too late,” wrote CCIA Policy Counsel Ali Sternburg in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1nAKZlP). The website said the STELA provision “would gut your ability to choose a retail alternative to your cable supplied” set-top box. NCTA has repeatedly backed the provision. STELA expires at the end of the year unless Congress reauthorizes it, and stakeholders have lobbied on including various changes in the must-pass vehicle in recent months.

Rural Media Group’s RFD-TV will face challenges as a rural independent programmer in gaining and maintaining carriage on Comcast’s cable systems if Comcast buys Time Warner Cable, it said. As a result of Comcast’s expansion and consolidation, RFD-TV in Omaha, Nebraska, will be blocked from more than one-third of the total TV universe, RMG said in an ex parte filing posted Monday to FCC docket 11-131 (http://bit.ly/1loNu7v). The network’s programming aimed at people ages 50 and over will be denied the opportunity to compete with Comcast’s Retirement Living TV, it said. RFD-TV, with programming focused mainly on agribusiness, will be prevented from presenting “a different perspective against urban based news organizations,” it said. The filing recounts meetings with Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly, staff from the offices of Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, and other FCC staff.

American Community Television is concerned about the effect of Comcast’s divestiture agreement with Charter Communications on the public, educational and governmental (PEG) access channel community, it said. The deal is “ill advised and deserves intense Congressional and FCC scrutiny,” said ACT President John Rocco in a news release Thursday. He cited Charter’s decision to move PEG channels in Missouri and Wisconsin to the 900s of the channel lineup. “In Los Angeles County, California, Charter refuses to deliver the county PEG channels unless the cities in the county pay a transmission fee,” said Rocco. Comcast and Charter announced the deal last month (CD April 29 p4), as part of Comcast buying Time Warner Cable. (See separate report above in this issue.)

Liberty Global’s Virgin Media TiVo-based DVR service edged up slightly to 2.1 million subscribers in Q1 due to new subscription options designed to underscore quad-play packages, Liberty executives said Wednesday on an earnings call. The TiVo service in the U.K., which came as part of Liberty Global’s $24 billion acquisition of Virgin Media in 2013, accounted for 2.1 million of the cable operator’s 3.8 million video subscribers, and was up from 2 million in the previous quarter and 1.8 million in Q3, company executives said. Virgin, which imposed a 6.7 percent increase in subscription fees effective Feb. 1, launched a quad-play Big Kahuna package this month to existing customers that combines the 240-channel TiVo service with a broadband service with 152 Mbps download speeds and mobile that includes 250 MB of data and unlimited texts. Big Kahuna carries a $76.35 monthly fee with the mobile option available for an extra $8.50, company executives said. The Big Bang package carries a $50.89 monthly fee in pairing TiVo and 100 Mbps download broadband service and the mobile option, they said. Virgin’s new programming options, which are being promoted in ads featuring Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, have so far given “early indications that they are pretty attractive” with existing Virgin subscribers, Virgin Media CEO Thomas Mockridge said. Virgin’s quad play has 16 percent penetration with subscribers, analysts have said. The new packages will be available to new Virgin customers late this month, Mockridge said. Virgin is moving to “integrate and make mobile part of the cable business,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said. Virgin ended Q1 with about 3 million mobile subscribers, including 1.9 million postpaid and 1.1 million prepaid customers. Meanwhile, Horizon TV, Liberty’s answer to TV Everywhere in allowing subscribers to share content across devices with a common interface and recommendation engine, will launch the Reference Design Kit (RDK) with UPC Polska’s cable service in Poland later this year, Fries said. Liberty jointly developed RDK with Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which will replace NDS’s middleware in the Samsung-made Horizon TV set-top/DVR. In building out its cable networks, Liberty also will consider investing in programming content, but largely through partnerships, not acquisitions, Fries said. The European Commission also completed the first phase of reviewing Liberty’s proposed $13.9 billion acquisition of the Netherlands-based cable operator Ziggo, which will be combined with Liberty’s NPC Netherlands, Fries said. The sale is expected to close in the second half, he said.

The American Cable Association opposed Viacom’s cutting off access to its online content for Cable One subscribers after failed carriage negotiations. “Viacom’s actions are a flagrant attack on Internet openness and a textbook replay of the vengeful action CBS took against Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks broadband customers during their well-documented retransmission consent dispute,” ACA said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/SxrdLr). ACA referred to the CBS and TWC dispute last year (CD Aug 6 p2). Access to Viacom’s online content also was blocked for customers of Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico, ACA said. Viacom’s action is affecting access “to a subset of broadband customers, also known as ‘cord cutters,’ who are not video customers of these companies,” ACA said. Viacom is “violating Internet openness in a way that should be seen as a call to action to policymakers on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Communications Commission,” ACA said. “Cable One and Liberty Cablevision have chosen to no longer carry Viacom programming and, as a result, it is no longer available to their customers in any form,” Viacom said in a statement. Cable One and Liberty Cablevision had no comment.

Transactions connected to Comcast’s effort to buy Time Warner Cable will drive substantial public interest benefits, Comcast said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in FCC docket 14-57 (http://bit.ly/1neV2gb). Comcast’s interest in TWC and the divestiture agreement with Charter Communications, announced last week (CD April 29 p4), will provide additional advanced services for consumers and much-needed competition in the business services market, it said. The number of video or broadband competitors in each market will remain unchanged after the transactions, it said. A Comcast attorney also cited the company’s “well-established track record of meeting its commitments and delivering on promised public interest benefits” in transactions like that firm buying NBCUniversal, said the filing on meetings with commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel.

Independent programmers dealing with the new companies created by Comcast’s deals with Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications will need to have easily accessible information on who should be contacted about carriage, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in a meeting at last week’s NCTA Cable Show, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1iVOrQa). Clyburn asked about carriage and opportunities for minority entrepreneurs to invest in cable, said the filing. The additional scale created by the deals will drive “substantial public service benefits,” Roberts said. During the meeting, Roberts also reviewed the corporate structure of SpinCo, the company created by Comcast with Charter that will have 2.5 million subscribers once the TWC deal is complete, the filing said. Roberts had a similar meeting and discussion with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel at the Cable Show, the filing said.