Courts

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Wednesday declined to review the FCC decision that Time Warner Cable, Cox, Comcast and Bright House Networks did not discriminate against WealthTV in favor of their own, co-owned channel, Mojo HD.

Aereo -- the Internet TV startup that major broadcasters accuse of illegally retransmitting their content -- announced Monday that it has decided to make its service available to 19 million people living in the New York City metropolitan region.

The company also kicked off its first advertising campaign, which shuns TV ads in favor of outdoor advertising including billboards and phone-kiosk posters. Aereo markets itself as an alternative to cable, satellite or telco TV, with the tagline "No Cable Required."

Interactive TV vendor OpenTV, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Kudelski Group, filed a patent-infringement lawsuit Wednesday against Netflix, alleging that Netflix infringes seven U.S. patents owned by OpenTV that cover Internet video delivery.

Netflix declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Fox confirms that a California District Court has denied its request that the court block Dish Network's commercial-skipping Hopper DVR service, but says the court also concluded the AutoHop function is copyright infringement. Dish says the decision says something very different.

WASHINGTON — Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski said in July that the agency is on track to issue an order on its media ownership notice of proposed rulemaking by the end of the year and, according to FCC sources, he is expected to circulate an item for a vote at the Nov 30 meeting.

The chairman's office had no comment.

The FCC had been reviewing its media-ownership rules due to a congressional obligation to do so every four years, as well as an order from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.