Free Press dropped its petition for review of the FCC’s net neutrality rules Mon, the deadline for the 1st briefs of net neutrality appeals at the DC Circuit. Free Press believes its appeal, which centered on wireless provisions of the rules, is unlikely to be heard. Expect the longtime “open Internet” advocate to continue to voice its concerns in other venues. The group joined over 100 advocacy groups Mon to launch the “Declaration of Internet Freedom,” a set of principles to preserve and open Internet. Meanwhile, the rules’ other challengers, Verizon and MetroPCS, filed their joint brief.

Also in the July 3 issue of CableFAX Daily:

DISH dropped AMC Networks and WV Media stations over the weekend. In the WVM spat, both sides claimed they made offers to reach an agreement. As expected, DISH subs took their frustration to social media.

Telecom engineers were still working to recover service outages Mon after severe storms struck the Mid-Atlantic Fri. Many video, Internet and phone subs lost service as storms knocked out electricity for more than 1mln people in and around DC, MD and VA.

Team owners have passed a resolution that starting this season will allow for local broadcasts of NFL games even when as few as 85% of tickets are sold. Under the new rule, each team has more flexibility to establish its own seat-sales benchmark as long as it’s 85% or higher.