COMCAST TESTING PAY-PER-PACKAGE, NOT QUITE A-LA-CARTE

Charleston, South Carolina has become the second location in the US to get Comcast's MyTV Choice. Rather than buying all the channels, or paying á la carte for just the ones you watch, you pick a platform and then bolt on a package of channels, grouped by theme -- you get "Entertainment & Lifestyle," "Movies," "Kids" or "News & Info." These smaller, cheaper bundles are in response to being forced to carry channels owned by the same group, if you're paying for MTV, you're also paying for TV Land, for example.

The Get Started platform costs $25, Get Started Plus $45 and each additional package is $10.

RUMOR: SPRINT IN TALKS TO ACQUIRE CLEARWIRE

Bloomberg is reporting Clearwire is currently in talks to sell its business to Sprint, and perhaps secure the funding it so desperately needs for a network build out. According to several insider sources, the third place wireless carrier's considering a joint investment (amongst other options) with Comcast, Cablevision and Cox, that would give the cablers a bundled high-speed, wireless broadband competitive advantage, and Sprint an LTE boost in its battle against AT&T and Verizon's rival 4G networks.

None of the players in this rumored takeover have yet to comment on the purported transaction, although the business gossip has had quite an uplifting effect on Clearwire's shares.

COMCAST ANNOUNCES $10 INTERNET ACCESS FOR LOW INCOME FAMILIES

Cable and Internet provider Comcast is launching a new initiative aimed at bridging the digital divide, offering discounted web access and home computers to families that meet income requirements. The plan, called Internet Essentials, will be available wherever Comcast offers Internet services, which it currently does in 39 states. When the Comcast-NBC/Universal merger was approved, regulators also required the company to help low-income households get online.

The requirements the household must meet are:

• Is located where Comcast offers Internet service;
• Has at least one child eligible to receive a free school lunch under the NSLP;
• Has not subscribed to Comcast Internet service within the last 90 days;
• Does not have an overdue Comcast bill or unreturned equipment.

AMAZON SIGNS STREAMING DEAL WITH NBCUNIVERSAL

Amazon announced on Thursday that it has inked an agreement with NBCUniversal to provide its subscription customers with access to 1,000 Universal Pictures movies. The deal is in addition to the online retailer’s recent agreement with CBS to offer shows such as Star Trek and Cheers to its customers. The new content includes films such as Being John Malkovich, Jetsons, Flipper, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Billy Elliott. Amazon is largely expected to release at least one tablet in the coming months, which will provide its customers with near instant access to its Amazon Unbox, Amazon Mp3, Kindle, Cloud Music and Cloud Drive services. Comcast owns 51% of NBCUniversal while General Electric owns the remaining 49%. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

MAJOR ISPs AGREE ON COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ACTIONS

AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon have reached an agreement with music and movie publishers that will help enforce copyright infringement while giving the ISPs a chance to level with their customers. According to Ars Technica, copyright owners will continue to scour the dark corners of the net looking for anyone downloading and illegally sharing their content. If an IP is found to be downloading or sharing illegal content — likely via P2P networks — the music and movie companies will alert the ISP directly. ISP’s will then send a note to the offending customer, without passing off private information unless there is a court order to do so.

Users may get up to four alerts from the ISP, but after that the ISP can choose to start implementing “temporary reductions of Internet speeds, redirection to a landing page until the subscriber contacts the ISP to discuss the matter or reviews and responds to some educational information about copyright, or other measures that the ISP may deem necessary to help resolve the matter.” If a user believes he or she has been targeted without merit, an appeals process can be started for a $35 fee but, as Ars Technica notes, it’s unclear who will be the judge in that process. The six (yes, SIX!) step process is listed below.

First Alert: In response to a notice from a copyright owner, an ISP will send an online alert to a subscriber, such as an email, notifying the subscriber that his/her account may have been misused for content theft, that content theft is illegal and a violation of published policies, and that consequences could result from any such conduct. This first alert will also direct the subscriber to educational resources which will (i) help him/her to check the security of his/her computer and any Wifi network, (ii) provide explanatory steps which will help to avoid content theft in the future and (iii) provide information about the abundant sources of lawful music, film and TV content.

Second Alert: If the alleged activity persists despite the receipt of the first alert, the subscriber may get a second similar alert that will underscore the educational messages, or the ISP may in its discretion proceed to the next alert.

Third Alert: If the subscribers account again appears to have been used for content theft, he/she will receive another alert, much like the initial alerts. However, this alert will provide a conspicuous mechanism (a click-through pop-up notice, landing page, or similar mechanism) asking the subscriber to acknowledge receipt of this alert. This is designed to ensure that the subscriber is aware of the third copyright alert and reminds the subscriber that content theft conducted through their account could lead to consequences under the law and published policies.

Fourth Alert: If the subscribers account again appears to have been used for content theft, the subscriber will receive yet another alert that again requires the subscriber to acknowledge receipt.

Fifth Alert: If the subscribers account again appears to have been used for content theft, the ISP will send yet another alert. At this time, the ISP may take one of several steps, specified in its published policies, reasonably calculated to stop future content theft. These steps, referred to as Mitigation Measures, may include, for example: temporary reductions of Internet speeds, redirection to a landing page until the subscriber contacts the ISP to discuss the matter or reviews and responds to some educational information about copyright, or other measures that the ISP may deem necessary to help resolve the matter. ISPs are not obligated to impose any Mitigation Measure which would disable or be reasonably likely to disable the subscribers voice telephone service (including the ability to call 911), e-mail account, or any security or health service (such as home security or medical monitoring). The use of the mitigation measure is waivable by the ISP at this point.

Sixth Alert: Whether or not the ISP has previously waived the Mitigation Measure, if the subscribers account again appears to have been used for content theft, the ISP will send another alert and will implement a Mitigation Measure as described above. As described above, it’s likely that very few subscribers who after having received multiple alerts, will persist (or allow others to persist) in the content theft.

HULU STRIKES CONTENT DEAL WITH FOX AND DISNEY, NBC IN TALKS

Now that Hulu's owners have apparently decided the best thing to do is sell it to someone else, long arrangements for content are needed to bring the highest price. Bloomberg is reporting that after cutting a deal with Fox a few days ago Hulu has now tentatively reached a deal with another of its owners, Disney. While both arrangements could keep the TV shows flowing, they also reportedly include provisions to increase the number of ads shown on the service. That would also put it in position to reach a similar agreement with Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, because of the media giant's FCC promise to reach similar agreements as its competitors for online content.

HULU CONFIRMS IT IS FOR SALE

Hulu has hired bankers Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners to sell the online video site. Hulu is jointly owned by News Corp's Fox, Disney's ABC and Comcast's NBC (although NBC has no voting power or a seat on the board). Hulu has stated it is on track to generate over $500 million in revenue this year, making it a quite attractive property.

Earlier this week it was rumored Yahoo was interested in Hulu and had tendered an initial offer. No news on if that offer was considered, but the board has not met to discuss any offers, so it is doubtful Yahoo's offer was sufficient.

Last year, Hulu and Morgan Stanley floated the notion of an IPO, which went nowhere because the company couldn’t secure long-term exclusive content licenses from its owners.

NEW COMCAST XFINITY SET-TOP BOXES INTEGRATE FACEBOOK AND INTEL PROCESSORS

If you’re a Comcast customer, your TV viewing experience will soon get very interactive. Just yesterday, Comcast announced a partnership with Skype to bring HD video calling to your television sets, and today the company unveiled a new Xfinity set-top box powered by Intel that will integrate Facebook to bring social features and app support to its content service.

Comcast is using Intel’s chip for its new Xfinity set-top box, which will be manufactured by Pace. Intel has been pushing its chips into the home-entertainment markets with Google TV products already employing them. However, sales for Google TV have not met targets, and so this new partnership with Comcast is a good opportunity for Intel to expand into the digital home space.

As for the Facebook integration, it goes beyond just being able to access Facebook from an app launcher. Xfinity will allow subscribers to suggest programming to friends and also receive recommendations. Other apps will also be delivered through Xfinity, such as real-time traffic and weather, although which ones have not yet been confirmed.

However, it has not been confirmed yet when and where the new set-top boxes will be deployed and whether there will be an additional cost for current subscribers.

HURT LOCKER STUDIO TO SUE OVER 24,500 BIT TORRENT USERS

The production studio behind the movie Hurt Locker, Voltage Pictures, is attempting to go after a record 24,583 illegal BitTorrent users. The studio has already filed lawsuits against 5,000 BitTorrent users who illegally downloaded Hurt Locker and, in an effort to make up losses due to piracy, it’s now going after more with the help of law firm Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver. According to TorrentFreak, the lion’s share of subscribers — provided on a list to the U.S. District Court of Columbia — are Comcast customers (10,532). 5,239 are Verizon subscribers, 2,699 are Charter customers, and 1,750 are Time Warner users. The lawsuits will likely be tried over the next several years, however, as Verizon and Charter only offer up 100 and 150 customer IP-addresses per month. TorrentFreak suggested that Voltage Pictures would prefer to reach cash settlements with customers as opposed to taking each case to court individually.

RUMOR: CENTURYLINK TO BUY SPRINT IF AT&T/T-MOBILE MERGER APPROVED

In a Congressional appearance last week, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse explained just why his company objects to the proposed $39 billion AT&T and T-Mobile merger. Aside from his previously expressed grievances — that the merger would create a wireless duopoly and stifle competition — Hesse also noted another possible paradigm: the deal could lead to Sprint being bought or acquired as well. “The most likely buyer is CenturyLink, the biggest company in telecommunications without a wireless unit,” writes Bloomberg, quoting industry analysts.

Other potential Sprint buyers on the publication’s post-merger hit-list include Comcast Communications — a company that might be interested in bundling home internet, phone and cable services with wireless offerings. Most analysts agree that a Sprint purchase would come at least two full-quarters after the AT&T and T-Mobile deal has been finalized, although the idea of the Now Network being procured is still very speculative. Representatives from Sprint, CenturyLink, and Comcast all declined to comment on the report.

PIRATE BAY BEING BLOCKED BY COMCAST AND OTHER ISP'S?

Reports have begun sprouting up all over the Internet claiming that Comcast, and a handful of other ISPs, are blocking access to torrent treasure trove, The Pirate Bay.

Users have reported attempts to navigate to thepiratebay.org result in a timeout error, even switching DNS servers to make sure it wasn’t a name-server record error causing the behavior. After firing up a VPN client and initiating a session, connectivity to the site was immediately restored. Comcast now has more impetus to bar connections to the torrent index — its merger with NBC Universal means that the ISP owns content that is potentially being shared illegally — but the blocking of sites that do not further a corporation’s interests is a very slippery slope.

Comcast has issued the following statement: “We’re not blocking PirateBay [The Pirate Bay] and reports online indicate users from several ISPs around the world are affected.

FCC ASKED TO INVESTIGATE DATA CAPS NOW THAT 56% OF AMERICANS HAVE THEM

Two prominent Washington DC tech policy groups have asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Internet data caps in the US—with a special focus on AT&T.

New America Foundation and Public Knowledge say in a letter (PDF) that data caps aren't necessarily a problem, but that they do “carry the omnipresent temptation to act in anticompetitive monopolistic ways.”

Unlike competitors whose caps appear to be at least nominally linked to congestions during peak-use periods, AT&T seeks to convert caps into a profit center by charging additional fees to customers who exceed the cap. In addition to concerns raised by broadband caps generally, such a practice produces a perverse incentive for AT&T to avoid raising its caps even as its own capacity expands.

Comcast comes in for the same criticism. Its 250GB per month caps were introduced several years ago, and they have not increased since despite years of network upgrades that have dramatically boosted total capacity.

The fact that AT&T has just slapped a much smaller 150GB per month cap on its basic DSL subscribers seems strange to these groups, since the new cap is substantially lower than caps introduced years ago (and Comcast has been making plenty of cash since adopting the higher caps, so any economic arguments here are suspect).

The lower cap for DSL customers is especially worrying because one of the traditional selling points of DSL networks is that their dedicated circuit design helps to mitigate the impacts of heavy users on the rest of the network. Together, these caps suggest either that AT&T's current network compares poorly to that of a major competitor circa 2008 or that there are non-network-management motivations behind their creation.

Noting that moves to artificially limit Internet use would move against the FCC's own policy of encouraging broadband deployment and use, the two groups asked the agency to investigate data caps in the US. Specifically, they want to know if any ISP-offered services are excluded from the cap, how often the cap is enforced, how customers are warned about usage levels, and whether enforcement is related to network congestion.

In a less-than-intensely-competitive market providing a key piece of modern infrastructure, these are all excellent questions to ask. One might ask them much more sharply in places like Canada, where operators insist that their 2GB or 15GB or caps are absolutely necessary to make a profit.

NETFLIX NUMBER ONE SERVICE FOR DOWNLOADABLE AND STREAMING VIDEO

According to the latest findings of the NPD Group, Netflix is the number one player in the digital streaming and downloadable video market. In fact, more than six out of ten (61%) digital movies watched in the United States are done so via Netflix.

Comcast in second place only has 8% of the market with iTunes, DirecTV and Time Warner all tied for third place at 4%.

According to the NPD Group’s survey, consumers know that services like iTunes have more current releases, But the convenience of Netflix ranked highest in terms of “overall shopping experience” and “value for price paid.”

Overall, digital video accounts for a quarter of all home video-watching volume, but DVDs and Blu-Rays aren’t out of the picture yet.

“Overwhelmingly digital movie buyers do not believe physical discs are out of fashion,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. “But their digital transactions were motivated by the immediate access and ease of acquisition provided by streaming and downloading digital video files.”

FCC APPROVES COMCAST/NBC MERGER

Today the FCC voted to allow the merger between Comcast and NBC/Universal. The 4-1 vote allows Comcast to buy a controlling 51% of NBC/Universal from GE for $13.8 billion in cash and assets. The deal still requires DOJ approval, but that is expected later today.

The FCC is requiring Comcast to make NBC programming available to competitors including rival cable companies, satellite operators and new Internet video services that could pose a threat to Comcast's core cable business. Regulators want to ensure that emerging online video platforms being developed by companies such as Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. can get the movies and shows they need to grow — and potentially offer a cheaper alternative to monthly cable subscriptions.

Taking over NBC will transform the company into a media powerhouse. NBC Universal owns the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks; 26 local TV stations; popular cable channels including CNBC, Bravo and Oxygen; the Universal Pictures movie studio and theme parks; and a roughly 30 percent stake in Hulu.com, which distributes NBC and other broadcast programming online.

TIME WARNER, DISNEY AND NEWS CORP CHIME IN ON COMCAST/NBC MERGER

As Comcast, NBC and the FCC attempt to work out stipulations over Comcast's proposed 51 percent buyout of NBC Universal, a smattering of major media companies are paying close attention to the play-by-play. Naturally, the precedents that are set from this deal will affect future agreements of this caliber, and lobbyists for both Disney and News Corp. (as well as Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes) aren't standing over on the sidelines any longer. All three outfits have reportedly been "voicing their concerns this week with the FCC, worried that such conditions could undermine their own efforts to profit from the nascent online video industry."

We're told that the media mega-corps are worried that the rules -- if hammered down -- could interfere with ongoing negotiations with online video providers, and in turn, give them less leverage to monetize and control their content on the world wide web. In other words, if NBC Universal is forced to provide content fluidly to all ISPs (and not just Comcast), what's to say other content makers and internet providers wouldn't also be forced into similar deals, regardless of whether or not they're involved in takeover negotiations? Needless to say, we're nowhere near the end of this journey, and while the nuts and bolts are pretty dry to think about, the outcomes could have a serious impact on our future viewing habits.

COMCAST NBC UNIVERSAL MERGER TO GET APPROVAL IN JANUARY

The Federal Communications Commission has told the press that it will circulate a draft decision approving the union of Comcast and NBC Universal. The Wall Street Journal reports that the order will require the merged entity to make Comcast/NBCU video fare available to competitors at reasonable rates, and will also attach open Internet rules to the marriage—Comcast will agree to not prioritize its own network traffic over competitors like Netflix.

That second provision would presumably supplement the across-the-board net neutrality rules that the FCC released on Tuesday, for which Comcast offered cautious support. "While we look forward to reviewing the final order, the rules as described generally appear intended to strike a workable balance between the needs of the marketplace for certainty and everyone's desire that Internet openness be preserved," Comcast Vice President David Cohen declared in response to the announcement.

Comcast has been pushing for FCC and Department of Justice blessing of the proposed marriage for almost a year. Under the terms of the merger, Comcast would own 51 percent of the new media company while NBC's current proprietor General Electric would control the rest.

High and dry

The idea of attaching some net neutrality-related conditions to the merger has been at play for about six months, but the latest news drew an immediate response from the media reform group Free Press.

"Comcast's takeover of NBC would have a harmful impact on competition and consumers, particularly in the emerging online video market," Free Press's policy counsel Corie Wright warned. "The conditions reportedly proposed by the FCC chairman recognize this danger, but we have serious concerns that they will go far enough to protect the public from this unprecedented media behemoth.

"If this merger is approved, it will profoundly transform our media system. Comcast-NBC will control one in five television viewing hours, and it will have a stake in 125 cable channels, film studios, websites and other properties. Consumers are the ones who will be paying the price through higher bills and fewer choices, and they deserve a full and thorough review of the impact of this merger. We don't need another massive giveaway to big media that leaves consumers high and dry."

Other parties have proposed additional conditions for the union, among them a requirement that Comcast open its broadband network to smaller ISPs at wholesale rates, or baseball-style arbitration with smaller competing pay TV providers if private negotiations over content sharing fail.

In baseball-style talks, two parties submit their competing offers to a third-party mediator, who then picks one of the proposals.

Comcast VP Cohen seems happy with the latest news. "After nearly a year," he wrote on his blog, "with one of the longest public comment periods in transaction review history, the filing of thousands of substantive comments, and the production of over 500,000 pages of documents by Comcast, we look forward to an expeditious vote in January by the full Commission approving the transaction." [Ars Technica]

COMCAST GOES DOWN ON THE MIDWEST

The past few weeks have not been kind to Comcast. First they get in a net neutrality PR battle with Level 3, then their servers go down in the Northeast, now Comcast is experiencing outages in the Midwest.

Like the outage in the Northeast last week, this problem has been traced to DNS issues. If you can read this try using public domain DNS servers, like Google's (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4).

IS COMCAST EXTORTING SERVICE PROVIDERS WHO DELIVER VIDEO?

Level 3, who recently signed a deal to become the primary provider for streaming Netflix content, was pressured by Comcast to pay a "recurring fee" "to transmit Internet online movies and other content to Comcast's customers who request such content." After a few days of negotiating, Level 3 paid the fee, ensuring uninterrupted service for Netflix subscribers.

Thomas Stortz, Level 3's chief legal officer, said this in a statement earlier today:

Level 3 believes Comcast's current position violates the spirit and letter of the FCC's proposed Internet Policy principles and other regulations and statutes, as well as Comcast's previous public statements about favoring an open Internet. While the network neutrality debate in Washington has focused on what actions a broadband access provider might take to filter, prioritize or manage content requested by its subscribers, Comcast's decision goes well beyond this. With this action, Comcast is preventing competing content from ever being delivered to Comcast's subscribers at all, unless Comcast's unilaterally-determined toll is paid - even though Comcast's subscribers requested the content. With this action, Comcast demonstrates the risk of a ‘closed' Internet, where a retail broadband Internet access provider decides whether and how their subscribers interact with content.

Comcast claims that their "toll" has nothing to do with Netflix or video traffic in general but rather with the amount of traffic Level 3 is pushing off onto Comcast's intertubes. In a statement tonight the company said:

We are happy to maintain a balanced, no-cost traffic exchange with Level 3. However, when one provider exploits this type of relationship by pushing the burden of massive traffic growth onto the other provider and its customers, we believe this is not fair.

Indeed, recent reports suggest that Netflix is responsible for a fairly absurd amount of bandwidth, and as Wired points out, the contracts that dictate who is responsible for carrying what traffic are largely left undisclosed to the public. Comcast's statements (unsurprisingly) shift the debate from one of net neutrality to the esoteric and largely uninteresting business of service providers negotiations.

Regardless, Level 3 says they'll be taking the matter to government regulators soon—hopefully there will be sufficient outrage at some point in the process to get Comcast to back down. [Gizmodo]

COMCAST HAVING ISSUES ACROSS EASTERN SEABOARD

Twitter's abuzz with angry Comcast customers tonight, as internet service is down in Boston and parts of the eastern United States, a situation the company's since confirmed at its official Twitter account. Comcast's calling it an unexpected outage and says that "engineers are finalizing the correction" as we speak, though it's admittedly been a couple of hours since that tweet. Meanwhile, Twitter at large seems to have figured out it's a Comcast DNS issue, and have had some luck switching to alternate servers like Google's at 8.8.4.4. and 8.8.8.8. Let us know if those work in comments after the break... assuming you manage to find this post in the first place given the present state of your connection. [Engadget]

CLEARWIRE TO OFFER PAY-AS-YOU-GO

In a SEC filing WiMax provider Clearwire states they will be offering a pay-as-you-go service.  The companies filing states it "plans to serve a new pay-as-you-go customer segment".  No other details were offered so it is unclear what Clearwire has planned.  Some analysts have speculated this new offering is in response to MetroPCS's impending entry into the prepaid 4G market.  

Clearwire's network is also resold thru Best Buy, Comcast, Sprint and Time Warner.  There is no word on how this move by Clearwire will affect the services offered by these resellers. [Fierce Wireless]