$$$: Maybe
Hulu is reconsidering its IPO? That's the latest from
Bloomberg, as reports suggest after canceling its first stock offering, shareholders may again be presented with an IPO as the company looks to compete with
Netflix and
Amazon…
Details here. Rules & Regs:
Senate Commerce Committee Chair
Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA) asked the
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to include his
S. 911 bill that would potentially raise billions through spectrum auctions and create a communications network for emergency response personnel. In a joint letter to the so-called supercommittee with
Kay Hutchison (R-TX), the Senators wrote, "…reassigning 300 megahertz of spectrum to the mobile broadband marketplace within five years would spur $75B in new capital spending, creating more than 300K jobs and $230B in additional gross domestic product." --- The
Coalition for Free TV and Broadband will host a news conference Thursday to unveil its
Broadcaster Broadband Plan which the group says would raise as much as ~$80B for the U.S. Treasury by 2023 and $125B by 2026. --- The
FCC said
MSG needs to cut a deal with
Verizon and
AT&T by Saturday and make HD feeds of its RSNs available to the telcos by Nov. 14. --- The
FCC also unveiled the
CTIA-backed
Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines that will provide users with free alerts when subscribers reach their monthly limits on voice, data and text.
In Court: A small band of
Frontier customers have filed suit against the company alleging a $1-$1.50 fee on their monthly bills is an illegal tax.
PC World has
the story.
Strategy: In what's being called one of the more unusual moves in niche programming, the national fast-food chain
McDonald's is launching its own in-house HD TV channel called…
McTV. The
Chicago Trib has details. ---
Cablevision launched a new iO en espanol programming package with 45 Spanish-language channels including content from Puerto Rico, Cuba and Peru. ---
WOW said it will begin marketing wideband internet service tiers of 30 Mbps and 50 Mbps by the end of the year. No word on how much the service(s) will cost.
Analyze This:
GMI says
News Corp. and
Discovery are among the top-10 companies "most at risk for implosion."
Retail:
Apple said yesterday that it sold more than 4M unites of its iPhone 4S during the first three days on the market. The company also said its install base for the new iOS5 has reached 25M customers since being released last week.
Dist.:
TV5MONDE, the French language entertainment network is now available in Miami (and surrounding communities) and Fort Lauderdale on
Comcast.
Tech: A little early to tell, but this could be the beginning of something big (like Napster, iPod or Twitter)… the
miniCASTER is a pocket-sized mobile encoder that allows users to broadcast live streams of video and/or audio via cellular network or WiFi.
Check it out. --- Premium audio company
Bose is launching its VideoWave entertainment system… the company's first-ever TV set with an entire audio system built into the HD flat video display.
Pretty cool.
Folks:
Cox named former
Time Warner Cable executive
Asheesh Saksena as EVP and chief strategy officer. ---
Starz promoted
Eric Becker to VP of corporate communications for
Starz Entertainment and
Starz Media.
Letter to the Editor: With regards to the pitched battles between premium VOD vs. movie theaters, it reminds of another failed attempt at self-preservation that makes no sense - NFL blackouts in home markets when a game isn't sold out. Movie theater companies, as with the NFL, would like to think everyone who wants to go see a movie can, despite practical concerns barring many from being able to get out; i.e. families with young children. Personally the premium VOD is astronomically priced anyway, but the reaction from the theaters is even more ridiculous. -
Sebastian H.Editor's Note: The Cable Center's Cable Mavericks Masters Forum is Friday, Oct. 28 and will be streamed live online.
Details here.
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Catch today's media market news in The Evening BRIDGE. •
