The U.S. will have more than 103 million pay-TV households by the end of 2014, Parks Associates said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1euMLgd). Parks Associates announced the research Thursday at CES in Las Vegas, the post said. “Remote access to DVR content was the most popular among pay-TV households without that service.” Parks found that 31 percent of pay-TV subscribers want remote DVR access, while 27 percent are interested in TV Everywhere and 26 percent want personalized recommendations, it said. Few providers aside from Dish Network offer remote access to DVR content due to licensing requirements, “and there are tremendous opportunities for companies with the right market strategies,” it said. Parks Associates will address pay-TV services and other topics at its Connections: The Premier Connected Home Conference May 13-15, in San Francisco, it said.

The FCC should update program access rules so they apply to the National Cable Television Cooperative buying group, said the American Cable Association in an ex parte filing Monday (http://bit.ly/JG8kB4). Though “nearly all” multichannel video programming distributors buy content through the NCTC, “flaws” in the way the FCC implemented the program access rules prohibit them from applying to the buying group, ACA said. The commission should “promptly update the relevant rules so that program access protections account for and extend to the longstanding business model of the NCTC given that the group has found near universal acceptance among both programmers and MVPDs,” said ACA.

Time Warner Cable said it completed its $600 million buyout of DukeNet Communications (http://bit.ly/1lKR3CP). The deal, announced in October, adds more than 8,700 route miles in seven southeastern states to Time Warner Cable’s fiber network (CD Oct 8 p12). That additional capacity “will enable us to extend our fiber reach and help [customers] connect to our network from more business locations,” said Phil Meeks, Time Warner Cable’s chief operating officer-business services, in a news release.

The Telecommunications Industry Association backs a deal among multichannel video programming distributors, those supplying them with consumer electronics and advocates of energy efficiency to further cut the power used by dormant set-top boxes. TIA also backs the Department of Energy decision disclosed late last month, along with the MVPD/CE/advocate deal (CD Dec 24 p1), to kill a rulemaking on set-top energy efficiency standards, said the association Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1aBOYDV). The information and communication technology industry “is committed to continually innovating and improving the energy efficiency of our products,” said President Grant Seiffert of TIA, which has members including Apple, Intel, Microsoft and Panasonic of North America (http://bit.ly/1aaOPe2). The voluntary agreement that was expanded with the latest deal “will result in greater energy efficiency gains for consumers than could be achieved through federal guidelines,” he said. “It will also provide manufacturers with the flexibility to continue to innovate and develop the consumer products of the future."

The FCC Media Bureau should extend the June deadline for interactive HD set-top boxes to include Internet Protocol outputs, and issue a clarification on whether the rule remains in effect in the wake of the EchoStar decision, said TiVo in a waiver petition last week (http://bit.ly/1kmwKQP). The June date was based on an industry standard that was to be released by the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) in 2013, TiVo said. But “DLNA has not published the standard referred to and TiVo is not aware that any progress update has been provided to the Bureau,” said TiVo. Without the standard “TiVo and others will not be able to make compliant and interoperable products,” said the filing. The interoperability requirement may also be a victim of the EchoStar decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which wiped away several FCC rules involving set-top boxes (CD Nov 19 p6), TiVo said. The bureau raised the possibility that the rule may have been vacated by EchoStar in Charter’s CableCARD waiver (CD April 22 p3) without resolving the matter, TiVo said. Though TiVo believes the requirement is still in effect, the Media Bureau should “clarify whether this regulation remains binding on the cable industry and suppliers such as TiVo,” said the petition. A DLNA spokeswoman didn’t respond directly to TiVo’s comments but pointed to a DLNA release (http://bit.ly/1aaRynP) describing demonstrations for “CVP-2” industry product design guidelines that “enable users to seamlessly and easily share subscription pay TV content on multiple screens in their homes.” The CVP-2 guidelines are currently available to DLNA members and are expected to be available to nonmembers in Q2, the spokeswoman said.

Charter Communications raised Internet speeds for business customers, and its residential Internet customers will also see speed increases when the company releases new Charter Spectrum products later this year, Charter said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/198wSOO). Charter business customers receiving the “Essentials30” had their speed doubled to 60 Mbps and “Pro50” customers are increased by 60 percent to 80 Mbps, both at no extra cost, the cable operator said. “These speeds will be available to new customers, and will take place automatically for existing customers in the packages being impacted.” Residential speed increases will include a doubling of Charter’s “flagship service” speeds from 30 Mbps to 60 Mbps, also at no extra cost, the company said. The Charter Spectrum products that will bring the residential increase will launch as Charter’s markets are upgraded to digital, said Charter. Along with faster Internet, the upgrade will allow customers to receive more HD channels and increased access to VOD, Charter said.

Suddenlink completed its buy of several cable systems in Texas from Northland Communications, Suddenlink said in a news release Thursday. The cable systems operate in the Texas communities of Gun Barrel City, Flint and New Caney, and have more than 12,000 residential customers and nearly 300 commercial customers. Suddenlink owns nearby systems in Texas communities Terrell, Tyler and Kingwood, and “there is an opportunity to interconnect the Northland systems with nearby Suddenlink systems,” the release said. Suddenlink said it “expects to retain substantially all local employees and plans to communicate specific plans for the acquired systems to customers and community leaders in the months ahead."