DMA Bound Blues

More chafing at those Nielsen-dictated market boundaries so beloved by broadcasters:  A piece in the Anniston Star notes that folks in Randolph County, AL were unable to get timely information on the April 27 tornadoes because DMA market lines meant they could receive only the "local stations" from Atlanta.  The story is here.

In other footprint news, Hawaiian Telcom has launched its TV service in "selected areas" on Oahu. --- Charter and James Cable will trade cable systems in Alabama and Georgia with Charter giving up  its 5,500 customer Douglas, GA system in exchange for James operations surrounding Eatonton, Georgia and Roanoke and Gu-Win, Alabama, with approximately 9,500 customers.•

Programming: NBA Red Ink – ESPN Nets Wimbledon – CBS Eyes 3D

Red ink will flow from a continued NBA lockout, says AdWeek.  It puts the potential (full season) loss to ESPN/ABC Sports and TNT at as much as $1.25B in ad sales revenues. League losses could hit $930M in media rights.--- It's now official:  ESPN got Wimbledon with an "all live" 12 year contract including both ladies' and men's singles finals. --- CBS is reportedly eyeing a new cable net offering 3D versions of its existing shows. --- Charlie Sheen v. Ashton Kutcher?  Yep, almost as Comedy Central will dampen Kutcher's debut on 'Two and a Half Men' with a roast of Charlie Sheen an hour later on Sept. 19th at 10 pm LA time.•

Etc: Netflix Heads South (& North) – Rumor Mill Puts TiVo in Play

Online:  Netflix says it will expand into Latin America and the Caribbean this year.  The market says Yea!, boosting the Netflix stock to by 8.07% to $289.63. ---  France now has 11.4M IPTV subs, a 23% gain in the past year. --- Apple's iPad already counts for about 25% of US mobile web traffic ... and 2% of TOTAL web traffic! --- The all-new, improved (they hope) MySpace may be devoted to talent shows and/or new artists.  So says the manager of Justin Timberlake who teamed with Specific Media to buy the ailing site from News Corp.

Wireless:  Thursday is last day of Verizon Wireless' all-you-can-eat data plans. --- GPS woes aside, LightSquared continues to attract funding as the company announced another $265M raised from investors, bringing its 12 month total to more than $2.3B. --- Cincinnati Bell has launched their 4G offering with service  to parts of Cincinnati.

Deals - Real & Rumored:  The latest takeover rumor has TiVo in the cross hairs as Bloomberg quotes Chris Marangi of Gamco Investors as noting that the DVR original "“would be attractive to any company trying to become a more important part of the new video ecosystem.”  Separately, Bloomberg notes that the first half saw takeovers of tech and media companies jump 38% globally to $51.1B. --- Gray TV expanded its Rentrak deal for local market ratings.

Warning Signs:  The Atlantic takes a close look at costs for communications, home entertainment and digital information (author Peter Osnos' tab comes in at near $500/month, not counting the electric bill) and notes:  "Why does the rising cost of technology matter? The reason is that this upward trend is extending the divide in our social fabric between the haves and have-nots."  Read the article here.

Tech:  Broadband TV News reports KPN IPTV's new set-top boxes also include a cloud-based network PVR that allows 200 hours from 6 channels at the same time. --- The official Cable Card count is now 29.3M, with just 582,000 standalones, according to info from the NCTA.

SkyREPORT:  Arianespace got the contract to launch Telnor Satellite's THOR 7 in the fourth quarter of 2013.  The broadband/spotbeam satellite will be built by Space Systems/LORAL. --- Meanwhile, Russia's Soyuz rocket is under inspection by a Qualification Committee at Europe's Space Center in French Guiana.  The reviews start July 19, end in mid-September, and Soyuz has to pass in order to make its intended Oct. 20 inaugural launch.

Catch up with the markets this afternoon in The Evening BRIDGE.•