More cable news from across the Web:
> Comcast chief barrister David L. Cohen has been tapped by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to be on the first ever Digital Economy Board of Advisors. Multichannel News story
> Research firm eMarketer predicts spending on digital advertising platforms in the U.S. to come in at around $68.82 billion in 2016, just $1.78 billion behind TV advertising's $70.60 billion haul. Press release
> FCC Republican Commissioner Michael O'Rielly says Netflix should be investigated for throttling. Ars Technica story
> Fullscreen has set an April 26 launch date for its international SVOD service. Multichannel News story
> Comcast has announced its latest wave of senior VP promotions. Press release
> Lightower is happy to sell its carrier and businesses either dark or lit fiber services, but the service provider has found that in some customer verticals like financial the trend goes back and forth between both domains. Article
> A federal judge in Pennsylvania has tossed a lawsuit filed by a jilted Pennsylvania technology company, which claimed its subcontractors were improperly poached when Time Warner Cable opted to switch its business to an offshore vendor. Article
> While announcing the further expansion last week of its Internet Essentials to public housing residents in Miami-Dade County, and the cities of Seattle, Philadelphia and Nashville, Tenn., Comcast said last week that 600,000 low-income families have now participated in the subsidized broadband access program. Article
> Online video optimization vendor Conviva sued Nice People at Work, a big data and business intelligence provider that recently stepped into the online video analytics space, alleging that NPAW is violating a number of its U.S. patents. Article
> Foxconn will spend $3.5 billion to take over the struggling Japanese consumer electronics behemoth Sharp Corp., ending weeks of public negotiations. Foxconn had committed to pay roughly $6.2 billion for a 66 percent stake in Sharp last month before it reportedly discovered more than $3 billion in undisclosed liabilities, prompting it to shelve the deal. Article
> AT&T plans to offer smart grid services in the unpaired WCS C and D Blocks it once hoped to use for in-flight Wi-Fi services, but it's asking the FCC for more time to do so. Article
And finally… The average amount of time spent by U.S. viewers watching TV went up 7 percent in the fourth quarter, according to comScore. Multichannel News story