Media coalition: Comcast merger to create power 'unknown' in U.S. history - The Hill's Hillicon Valley: Via .
A new group opposed to the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal says regulators need to consider whether the size of the proposed deal represents a threat to the public interest.
“It is important to recognize the sheer scope of the proposed acquisition,” the group wrote in a letter to Congress Thursday. “The merged entity will exert a degree of power unknown in our nation’s media history.”
Addressing House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Commerce Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), the Coalition for Competition in Media points to Comcast’s status as the country’s largest Internet service provider and cable company, and NBC’s ownership of “some of the most heavily-visited websites on the Internet," to make the argument that the merger could stifle competition in the media. read more... »
Comcast Customers Urged To Opt-Out of Settlement: Via Slashdot.
funchords writes "As a settlement to the class-action lawsuits over Comcast's blocking of users' Internet traffic, Comcast stands to pay 'up to' $16.00 to every subscriber who makes a claim at their settlement website and declares, under penalty of perjury, that their online activity was for a lawful purpose consistent with applicable copyright and other laws. Robb Topolski, the veteran networking engineer who kicked off the case when he discovered the blocking back in 2007, says that the proposed settlement doesn't make sense, especially after the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled this month that the US Federal Communications Commission didn't have the authority to enforce its Net neutrality principles on Comcast. 'You paid about $50 a month for the service, and the amount that Comcast stands to return is up to about 50c per month for each month that it blocked traffic,' he wrote. 'If that tiny amount of money is compensation, then there is no penalty to Comcast for interfering with its customers, read more... »
Comcast Disables VCR Scheduling In New Guide: Via Slashdot.
An anonymous reader writes "Comcast has quietly launched a new on-screen guide for its cable boxes. What they're not advertising is that they've removed the ability to schedule VCR-compatible channel flipping any time more than a few hours in advance for people who don't buy the $20/month DVR service. What this means is that VCR owners are now forced to pay for Comcast's $20/month DVR service or else start their recordings manually. For us techies there might be a way around this, but ordinary VCR enthusiasts and owners of other recorders are left in the dust. Anyone know a good antitrust lawyer?" Raise your hand if you regularly use a VCR these days, too.
Read Original Article (Via Slashdot.)
TiVo, AppleTV, Boxee, and the future of HD television delivery: Via Freedom to Tinker
I don't watch as much TV as I once did. Yet, I'm still paying Comcast every month, as they're the only provider who will sell me HD service compatible with my TiVo-HD. Sadly, Comcast is far from ideal. I'm regularly frustrated at their inability to debug their signal quality problems. (My ABC-HD and PBS-HD signals are right on the edge, in terms of signal quality, so any slight degradation makes those channels unwatchable through the MPEG block errors, which seems to happen on an irregular basis.) Comcast customer service wants me to sit around all day waiting for a tech to come out when the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with my house. When I've attempted to report the signal strength measurements I've taken and how they vary from channel to channel, I've found I might as well be speaking to a brick wall.
Yes, I know I could put an old-school antenna on the roof and feed it into my TiVo. That would do pretty good for the local channels, but then why am I paying Comcast at all? Answer: for the handful of shows that we watch from cable channels. More than one person has asked me why I don't just download these shows online and cut the cable. You can get Comedy Central programming from their web site. You can get all sorts of things from Hulu.com. All free and legal! read more... »
Comcast sued for not selling set-top boxes, CableCARDs: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica
Cheryl Corralejo is mad at hell at Comcast, and she isn't going to take it anymore. The object of her righteous crusade? Cable box rentals. Corralejo wants to own her box outright, and she has filed a class action complaint on behalf of all other Californians who desperately want to stop paying monthly fees just for a bit of decryption equipment.
The case, filed in federal court in California, began in late November and was recently unearthed by Multichannel News. Comcast has yet to respond.
The gist of the case, according to a copy of the complaint seen by Ars Technica, is rental fees. Corralejo argues that Comcast has a monopoly over video service in her area and that it uses that monopoly power to force her to use decryption equipment, which Corralejo cannot purchase outright. After only a few months, alleges the complaint, end users have already paid Comcast more than the box is worth. read more... »
FCC to look into firms' use of customer data - Via Privacy : Tech news from CNET :
Staff at the Federal Communications Commission are expected to recommend that it review rules on how phone and cable companies can use customer information as they try to take business from each other, an FCC official said Friday.
The FCC enforcement bureau will recommend that the commission reject a complaint by cable operators charging that Verizon Communications violated the agency's customer privacy rules by using customer information to prevent them from switching their phone service to cable, an agency official said on condition of anonymity.
Beyond that, the enforcement bureau is expected to recommend that the FCC address more broadly the issue of "customer retention activities" by both phone companies and cable operators to make sure the rules apply equally to both, the official said. read more... »
TiVo: Comcast Deal Behind Schedule: "TiVo: Comcast Deal Behind ScheduleThe cable operator will offer TiVo's HD and non-HD recording features.By SwanniWashington, D.C. (October 9, 2007) -- TiVo CEO Tom Rogers says Comcast's rollout of its recording services is a 'little behind' schedule.That's according to an article by Reuters.Comcast was expected to begin offering TiVo's HD and non-HD DVR service to New England markets in August. The two companies announced the marketing partnership more than two years ago.But Rogers said today that Comcast is still testing the TiVo software in employee homes. read more... »
Small Cable Ops: We Need More HDTV: Cable executives say they must compete against more high-def from satellite.
Washington, D.C. (July 31, 2007) -- Small and mid-sized cable operators are making High-Definition TV a priority despite limited system space.
That's according to an article in Multichannel News.
Several large cable operators, such as Comcast and Time Warner, have announced plans to expand their high-def lineups to stay competitive with satcasters DIRECTV and EchoStar. DIRECTV plans to offer 100 high-def channels by year's end. read more... »
Building the Cable Company of the Future - Comcast - Brian Roberts: "The choice was obvious. The economy's nadir in the summer of 2001, as dotcoms continued to implode, wasn't the time to go on some wild Internet ride. But when Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA), had AOL and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) "knocking down our door" to build a portal for Comcast's high-speed Internet users, his answer was no. Even though Comcast had just 948,000 broadband customers, he had at least an inkling that his nascent high-speed Internet business could eventually be valuable, and he didn't want to give it away. read more... »