Comcast has added the sports-oriented digital platform DAZN to the cable company's broadband-based Xfinity Flex, with plans to bring the $20-a-month service to its Xfinity X1 platform in the fall. The agreement, DAZN's first with a leading US cable provider, is part of Comcast's strategy of integrating web-based content into its own services.

AMC's "Walking Dead" franchise has "decades and decades" of staying power if the concept is managed adroitly, Josh Sapan, the organization's CEO, said, noting that the original series has spawned two spin-offs and a potential theatrical film. Sapan also touted how AMC's ability to control its content has positioned the company to sell original shows to third-party distributors and steer them toward the company's own subscription-video-on-demand outlets.

Tiffany Craig and Greg Ramirez, respectively a reporter and photographer from KHOU in Texas, helped to rescue a mother and two children stranded in an SUV amid rising floodwaters due to Tropical Depression Imelda in Houston. Staff at KBMT in Beaumont, Texas, continued to update viewers on local flooding caused by Imelda, even as they were evacuated from the television station because of the very floods they were covering.

A growing number of Democratic lawmakers and presidential candidates are criticizing Facebook, Google and other big tech companies and calling for greater regulation -- and in some cases, dissolution -- of tech giants. Silicon Valley has historically been socially liberal, but much of big tech has retreated from its relationship with Democrats as left-wing lawmakers pressure tech giants to increase wages, protect users' data and pay more taxes.

Charter began providing the small and mid-sized business market with wireless service "within the past two weeks," company head Tom Rutledge said at an investors conference. The company reported signing up about 500,000 subscribers to its mobile virtual network operator plan since last July.

Cox Communications has undertaken a low-key effort to sell a streaming player to its broadband-only subscribers for $5 per month, a customer service representative confirmed. The cable company licensed the technology for its Contour Stream from Comcast and based it on that company's Xfinity Flex platform.

Over-the-top sources are catching up to live TV in terms of the amount of time North Americans spend viewing their content, TiVo notes in its second-quarter Video Trends Report, which surveyed 5,340 people in the US and Canada. Just over half of the respondents said they watched OTT-delivered shows for an hour or longer each day, compared to about 66% who watched that much over live TV.

BET launched BET+ on Thursday and the video-on-demand network's General Manager Devin Griffin said the $10 monthly service is uniquely positioned to compete against larger and less expensive rivals. "From every indication we get through our research, it gives us confidence that this price point is one that makes sense for our audience," Griffin told an analyst conference.

CenturyLink has major upside revenue potential in marketing to small and medium-sized businesses outside its traditional coverage area, CEO Jeff Storey told analysts noting that the telecom now owns the assets of Level 3 Communications. He cited need of SMBs for additional capacity and security as well as the growing demand for managed services.

The software-defined WAN market grew more than 700% from 2017 to 2018, master agent Telecom Brokerage reported. Other cloud-based technologies have realized strong gains as well, TBI said noting revenues more than doubled for unified communications-as-a-service and contact-center as-a-service.