Editor's Note: WhatBOX? is a new weekly column in The Morning BRIDGE about compelling content. WhatBOX? is an homage to our stimulating Friday column SkyBOX while maintaining that today's programming is now platform agnostic, being delivered to consumers via the Silver Screen, the flat-screen, the computer screen and the mobile screen.

This past weekend, the comedy Our Idiot Brother starring Paul Rudd and Zooey Deschanel opened in theaters across the country. The Weinstein Company cut a commercial trailer to promote the film not unlike it would do for any other movie the studio produced.

The commercial spot has been running nationwide on "other" broadcast and several cable nets for weeks. But for some reason, ABC rejected the trailer until the studio made specific edits to the spot. Here's the original:



Happy to oblige, the Weinstein studio put together an updated trailer for the film. Said company co-chair Harvey Weinstein, "We'd like to dedicate our new red band trailer for Our Idiot Brother to censorship everywhere. Enjoy!"

Something tells us ABC isn't going to air this one, either. •

- matthew colella is the creative director at blue13creative and a media consultant for The Morning BRIDGE parent company MediaBiz.

Broadband In, Cable Out

It's happening: Pay-TV subs are downgrading their services quicker than ever before. Research shows that 13% of subscription video customers with broadband connections have made service cutbacks within the last 12 months with another 9% coming next year.

According to Parks Associates, this cord-cutting trend includes nearly 4 million people who regularly watch video on a connected device via the internet. While considered heavy TV users, the firm calls these consumers "downgraders" and they're typically spending $20 or less on monthly video services.

Parks says these customers average 4.2 hours of internet video viewing on their TVs each week. And, the firm says, more than one-in-five households with broadband now also subscribe to Netflix. The kicker, according to Parks, is that the increase in "downgraders" - or cord-cutters - is more closely linked to the growth of broadband adoption than having the ability to watch internet video itself. •

Etc: More Antiquated Regulations - Icahn Bows Out - 1st Amendment Victory

Rules & Regs: The U.S. Copyright Office is proposing that Congress phase out the cable/satellite statutory licenses in the Copyright Act, saying the rules are "an artifact of an earlier era." Established in 1976, the compulsory license allows operators to distribute broadcast TV signals after paying a one-size-fits-all fee to the Copyright Royalty Tribunal. --- Minnesota Public Radio has an interesting piece on whether the state should request special bond funds to support broadband projects... even if the networks would eventually be owned by private companies. Check it out.

M&A: Broadcast vet Mike McKinnon submitted a bid for McGraw-Hill's four-station group for an undisclosed amount. Reports have speculated the deal to be worth around $200M. In addition to KMGH Denver, WRTV Indianapolis and KERO Bakersfield, McKinnon is bidding on ABC-affiliate KGTV San Diego - a market in which he already owns the independent KUSI (creating a duopoloy, for those keeping track.) TVNewsCheck has details. --- Billionaire Carl Icahn and son Brett have agreed to sell more than 44M shares of Lionsgate for about $7/per to the studio. As part of the sale, both parties agreed to dismiss all outstanding litigation between the two sides. The Wrap has details.

Analyze This: Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce says on top of the 338K net pay-TV sub losses during Q2, continued unemployment, sluggish housing sales and consumer frugality will contribute to more losses next period. The analyst says the pay-TV sector could see a drop in subs of 48K in Q3 as compared to a gain of 12K in the same period last year.

In Court: Score one for the good guys. The US Appeals Court for the 1st Circuit ruled that video recording police officers and public officials is protected by the first amendment. ZDNet has the story.

4G: LightSquared entered into multi-year, wholesale agreements with Simplexity MVNO and InterGlobe Communications for voice and high-speed mobile data services for retailers, OEMs and other orgs.

Alt. Video: Frontier Communications is partnering with high school sports site MaxPreps to launch GameOn!, an OTT high school football video channel across 14 states.

Mobile: Bloomberg is reporting that Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are planning a $100M investment in their joint venture enabling consumers to pay for goods via mobile phones dubbed Isis. The investment will pit the service against Google's mobile-payment service for a piece of what Juniper Research calls a $670B market by 2015. Read details here. --- T-Mobile is notifying customers that the company is launching a pay-as-you-go data plan for $1.99 per MB.

Tech: Vimond Media Solutions added support for connected TVs to its online TV platform, allowing users to publish services on connected TVs through widgets or TV apps. Vimond's multiscreen OTT platform already supports mobile devices, tablets and STBs. The company says supporting connected TVs enables service providers to reach yet another viewing platform from the same infrastructure. --- Baldwin Telecom selected Adara Technologies for a switched digital video network upgrade in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area.

Research: In-Stat says 50% of tablet owners are viewing feature-length movies and full TV show episodes on their mobile devices. --- Dell'Oro says wireless LAN revenues experienced a 24% y/y increase during Q2 driven by a 40% growth in enterprise WLAN services.

SkyREPORT: SES Astra is demonstrating its glasses-free 3D technology next week at IBC 2011 in Amsterdam saying the technology is ready for the consumer market. --- RRsat Global Communications Network signed an agreement with AMOS satellite fleet operator Spacecom for monitoring, backup and disaster recovery services. Financial terms were unavailable. --- Hughes landed a contract with Iseyco Ecuador for high-speed internet and voice services across Ecuador under the South American company's pact with the country's state-run telecommunications operator Corporacion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CNT). --- ViaSat completed its addition of Yonder high-speed internet coverage over Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador and surrounding areas with the help of regional provider Andesat S.A. --- South Asian broadcaster ZEE TV launched 5 new channels in the U.S. on DISH Network including Zing, ZEE Business, ZEE Smile, ZEE Kannada and ZEE Marathi.

Retail: An IHS survey found the number of Americans planning to buy a new TV (who had not purchased one in the previous quarter) plunged to record lows of just 13%, down from 32% in Q1. Additionally, 83% of respondents said they had no intention of buying a new set within the next 12 months. --- Interestingly enough, DisplaySearch says flat screen TVs (with prices expected to drop 10% y/y) will actually be cheaper than Apple's iPad. Average prices for a 42" LCD TV this year will hit $578 while 32-gig iPads run $599.

Up, Down & Over There: Google, the Wananchi Group and wireless data service firm Aptilo Networks unveiled a joint launch of Wazi Wi-Fi, a high-speed wireless broadband network in Nairobi, Kenya.  

Folks: Twitter hired telco policy vet and former FCC adviser Colin Crowell as head of global public policy. --- Charter VP and GM John Higgins has been named area VP for Time Warner Cable's northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania unit. --- E.W. Scripps hired Tim Wesolowski as SVP and CFO.

--- Catch today's media market news from The Evening BRIDGE. •

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