U.S. sides with Comcast vs. competitors

1) Obama's US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli filed papers with the Supreme Court yesterday arguing that Aereo, the mini-antenna-based company that allows non-cable-TV subscribers to pick up cable TV networks on the cheap (my colleague Bob Fernandez wrote about it here and here), "is violating copyright law" and should stop competing, The Wrap reports here.

"Like its competitors, [Aereo] must obtain licenses to perform the copyrighted content on which its business relies," the solicitor argues. Aereo is due at the court on April 22 to defend its service, in the face of mixed lower-court rulings. Comcast's NBC Universal and rival networks ABC, CBS and PCS " have claimed that Aereo is engaged in copyright violation," Wrap notes.

2) Separately, re the U.S. House of Represetnatives Energy and Commerce committee: "Some broadcasters unhappy with a cable-friendly [Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act revision] being worked on by House Republicans - including potential provisions to get rid of must-buy [local-station carriage rules], break up some coordinated [programming retransmission payment] negotiations, and scrap the FCC ban on integrated set-top [boxes] - were starting to refer to it as the House Energy & Comcast Committee," claims Multichannel News here.