In a case that stretches back to 2018, Comcast was found guilty Thursday of patent infringement and was ordered to pay the plaintiff—Wherever TV—$213 million in damages.

The case began in 2018 when Wherever TV filed a lawsuit the Middle District of Florida accusing Comcast of violating its patent for interactive program guide technology and asking for $177 million in damages.

Comcast was granted a judgement in a jury trial in 2023 when the judge dismissed the case based on a lack of evidence. That decision was reversed in 2025 when a Federal Court agreed with Wherever TV’s argument that the prior decision had not clearly defined certain terms of how the patent was violated.

Comcast appealed to the Supreme Court, which denied its request in February. This week’s trial was overseen by U.S. District Court William Jung; Mark A. Cavicchia is identified as the inventor of the technology.

Adam Sanderson, representing WhereverTV, said the plaintiffs “are deeply grateful to the jury for their diligence and attention to this case, which has lasted over the last eight years."

"The United States is unique because it protects the freedom to innovate and ensures inventors get credit for their breakthroughs," he said "Today, a federal jury in Tampa, Florida, validated our client Mark Cavicchia's vision from over 20 years ago — an invention that has transformed the television-viewing experience for consumers by merging traditional cable channels and modern streaming channels into a single user-friendly program guide.”

Comcast said the verdict was not supported by evidence,

"While we thank the jury for their consideration, we strongly disagree with today's verdict and the damages awarded, which are unsupported by the facts and law," Comcast said. "We remain confident that our X1 guide does not infringe WhereverTV's patent, and we will pursue all of our legal options including appeal. This decision has no impact on our customers."

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Nielsen-owned company Gracenote is bringing its Electronic Program Guides for OTT to Europe in its latest expansion, the company announced on Thursday.

With recent reports detailing that 45% of U.S. viewers in 2019 subscribed to three or more streaming services, Gracenote looks to offer assistance to on-demand video streaming services, Smart TV makers and cable and satellite operators with delivering next-gen content navigation, search and discovery capabilities.

“While much of the focus in the ‘Streaming Wars’ conversation has been on the largest catalogs and original content, the winners will also understand how to successfully integrate with a diverse set of video platforms,” said Simon Adams, chief product officer at Gracenote.

To help meet these goals, Gracenote provides interested parties with the following services: 

• Unique Gracenote IDs, which provide connectivity between related content assets to power universal search capabilities across different services; 
• Deep descriptive metadata to enable intuitive content navigation and recommendations based on advanced video descriptors like mood, theme, setting and character attributes; 
• Custom content imagery to populate OTT guide interfaces and carousels with images for visual navigation; and 
• Streaming service feeds that provide deep linking, audio/video quality, content availability and a critical data structure required to integrate a streaming service into mobile, set-top boxes and Smart TVs.

With its expansion into Europe, Gracenote offers coverage of more than 200 catalogs in 13 markets across North America, Europe, Latin America and APAC.