A content fee dispute between Viacom and buying group National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) could lead to a blackout of Viacom/MTV Networks channels starting March 31 that would affect 5.2 million subscribers on nearly 800 small and independent cable providers, NCTC said in a news release Tuesday. Viacom initially asked for “a rate hike of more than 40 times the rate of inflation,” and has “refused to grant an extension to the cable operators in the existing contract” if an agreement is reached by March 31, NCTC said. “Customers may lose access to all of Viacom’s channels, including Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central and VH-1 the day the current agreement expires,” said NCTC President Rich Fickle. The buying group has members throughout the U.S., and a Viacom blackout would be the first for NCTC, said the co-op. Viacom didn’t comment.

Low customer satisfaction scores for both Comcast and Time Warner Cable are a reason to prevent the two companies from merging, said Consumers Union, the policy division of Consumer Reports, in a release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1gyGF3r). “A merger combining these two huge companies would give Comcast even greater control over the cable and broadband Internet markets, leading to higher prices, fewer choices, and worse customer service for consumers,” said Consumers Union Policy Counsel Delara Derakhshani in the release. Comcast ranked 15th among 17 TV providers in Consumer Reports National Research Center’s survey of TV and Internet services consumers, and TWC ranked 16th. Comcast earned “particularly low marks from consumers for value for the money and customer support” while TWC had “particularly low ratings for value, reliability, and phone/online customer support,” the release said. “The FCC and Department of Justice should stand with consumers and oppose this merger,” said Derakhshani.

Captioning online clips “remains a time-consuming and costly process” that the FCC doesn’t have the authority to require, said NCTA representatives in a meeting with staff from the Media Bureau and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1dKXv9t). Cable companies have “made significant strides” in voluntarily captioning some online clips, and are exploring different ways to accomplish the task through technology, NCTA said.

Discovery Communications partnered with China’s WASU Digital TV Media Group for a new pay-TV channel. Discovery will be a channel and content consultant to WASU for the channel, Qui So, Discovery said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1iHmBLw). The deal will bring Discovery’s content to China’s viewers, it said. The channel features nonfiction entertainment and includes networks like TLC and Animal Planet, Discovery said.

Comcast’s first transparency report says the cable company received 24,698 requests for information as part of criminal cases in 2013. Those requests broke down into 19,377 requests through subpoenas, 3,893 court orders, 253 warrants for content and 1,080 not for content. It received 961 emergency requests. The two-page report (http://bit.ly/1hJc0ga) includes a chart on national security requests showing National Security Letter and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders and requests, all in the range of 0 to 999. “By law, we are required to respond to valid government requests,” Comcast Chief Privacy Officer Gerard Lewis wrote in a blog post accompanying the report’s release (http://bit.ly/1gXFxBh). “Protecting our customers’ privacy is among our highest priorities and is required by the Cable Act, one of the strictest federal privacy laws. So with every request, whether it is from a local police department or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we make sure it complies with applicable legal standards before we respond with any information.” Lewis said FISA request disclosures are subject to a six-month delay, so the report shows “the number of requests from January 1 through June 30, 2013 only.”

U.S. multichannel video programming distributors had their first full-year decline in subscriptions in 2013, said SNL Kagan in a press release Wednesday. “While seasonally driven quarterly declines have become routine for industry watchers, the annual dip illustrates longer-term downward pressure even as economic conditions gradually improve,” it said. Pay-TV service providers shed 251,000 subscriptions in 2013, dropping to around 100 million combined subs, SNL Kagan said. MVPDs added 40,000 video subscriptions in Q4, but that wasn’t enough to offset “the broader downward momentum,” the release said. The decline was primarily fueled by cable losses, it said: Cable operators lost “nearly 2 million video subscriptions for the full year and 388,000 in the fourth quarter to finish 2013 with fewer than 54.4 million basic subs.” Satellite growth slowed in Q4 but Dish and DirecTV gained subscribers for the year, it said. DBS gained 101,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, and “despite the loss of 162,000 subscribers in second quarter 2013,” the satellite industry ended the year with 34.3 million subscribers, it said. Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse reached 10.7 million subscribers in Q4, adding 286,000 subscribers, the release said. CenturyLink’s PrismTV gained 9,000 subscribers for a total of 175,000 for the year, and Consolidated Communications Holdings’ digital TV service “added 1,000 customers to end the year with 110,000,” it said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision against the FCC and Tennis Channel’s program carriage case against Comcast “is as final as a federal court ruling can be” and “forecloses further litigation of the case,” said Comcast in an opposition filing to Tennis Channel’s petition for further proceedings (CD March 12 p24). Though the case was denied both an en banc rehearing in appeals court and a berth on the Supreme Court docket, Tennis Channel wants the FCC to set up a new briefing cycle for the matter based on narrow issues the D.C. Circuit said were lacking from the original case. Tennis Channel and the FCC didn’t present evidence to the D.C. Circuit to show that programming Tennis Channel on a broader tier would have benefited Comcast, the D.C. Circuit said. The new proceedings would focus on that evidence and provide a basis for the FCC to reaffirm its original decision in Tennis Channel’s favor, Tennis Channel has said. “The petition is a transparent attempt to defy the D.C. Circuit’s mandate by reaffirming the very ruling that the court already found devoid of evidentiary support,” Comcast said. The FCC can’t reopen the proceedings because it has to follow the court’s decision, Comcast said. “The court’s mandate is not a suggestion,” Comcast said. Allowing Tennis Channel to reopen the case “would be palpably inequitable,” Comcast said. “The commission lacks authority to conduct further proceedings focused on an issue the D.C. Circuit has already, definitively decided."

Reports that several state attorneys general will examine Comcast’s plan to buy Time Warner Cable alongside the Department of Justice don’t affect the likelihood of the deal being approved, said Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant in an email to investors Wednesday. “States rarely diverge from DOJ,” Gallant said, though state officials may pressure Justice to impose tougher conditions. “The chances of state pressure being effective probably rise if New York is part of the mix,” Gallant said. “NY is considered to have a particularly effective antitrust division and could make some noise.” The FCC is a “higher hurdle” for Comcast/Time Warner Cable “because the merger does not appear to present any traditional antitrust concerns,” Gallant said. “The key regulatory review is the FCC’s public interest evaluation, which examines competitive effects but also includes diversity and localism.” Risks to the deal could come from extensive political opposition or “unexpectedly problematic” transaction conditions imposed by the FCC, Gallant said. Before joining the FCC, Chairman Tom Wheeler “said merger conditions can be a good way to advance important policies,” Gallant said. “For now, the most important thing to watch will be the congressional reaction to the merger, and then the filings made at the FCC by opponents of the deal.” Comcast is expected to get municipal and state approval for franchise transfers as part of the approximately $45 billion deal (CD Feb 24 p16).

Time Warner Cable is using Arris to schedule customer appointments within a one-hour period of time, said the cable operator in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1nBxZgk). It said the operator deployed the consumer electronics company’s WorkAssure Dynamic Routing and Whole House Check products to almost 18,000 technicians last year.

Horizon Cable TV in California said it’s interested in receiving funding from the Connect America Fund to be able to extend broadband service to unserved and underserved areas of western Marin County, Calif. Since Horizon hasn’t received any subsidies, its subscriber base determines how much Internet backbone can be purchased and offered back to customers, it said in a letter to the FCC in docket 10-90 (http://bit.ly/NoeDdR). “Our customers do not receive the full benefit of our HFC [hybrid fiber coaxial] DOCSIS 3.0 platform because of the high cost of the middle mile.” Horizon proposes to use a radio frequency over glass fiber to the home platform to reach the unserved and underserved areas, it said. This new platform will be an extension of the existing network, “providing advanced video, voice and data services,” it said. Horizon also requested temporary regulatory relief like streamlined environmental regulations and assistance with obtaining eligible telecom carrier certification “to insure rapid deployment of broadband services at a minimum cost to taxpayers,” it said.