There's trouble on the telephone line … hosannahs on broadband … and video ….

Well, video is just kind of hanging in there.

This is not to say that the MVPD universe is in tatters. Some players are doing very nicely, thank you (hello, DIRECTV!). And while some analysts predict a big bomb on Monday (when DISH holds its 3Q conference call), fact is that, with eight major players reporting, the traditional pay TV video universe has remained more or less static with about 110,500 net new subscribers added.

Of course, all those adds came from DIRECTV, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse ... to the tune of 634,000.  Meanwhile, the five cable operators who have reported thus far (Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Suddenlink and Time Warner Cable) came out short of approximately 524,000 customers. Put that in context of reports from USB Securities and IHS Global Insight calling for new home formation of between 750,000 to 1M (yeah, really) in 2011 and cable video is not looking healthy.

Which brings us to the comment by Charter CEO Mike Lovett's that "the mantra inside the company is to think of ourselves as an ISP." Indeed. Here we have the cable hallelujah as the five cable cos reporting thus far came in with nearly 462,000 net new broadband subs. Add to that the totals from AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS and the MVPD high-speed tally grew by nearly 680,000.

Look at this and the current rush to TV Everywhere and offerings of a single online directory for streaming services via your cable provider make a whole lot of sense.

This, in turn, brings me to a comment posed by a friend of mine (thanks, Brad!) earlier this week: "How will OTA's get paid on internet?," he asked. "Is it possible another decade or so down the road we'll see the demise of free OTA's altogether?"

For some elucidation on that, we now turn to Cablevision's Tom Rutledge who, in announcing his company's less than stellar financial results, commented: "Right now, we're absorbing the collapse of the broadcast model..."

MVPDs have every reason to back that sentiment as the broadcasters demand more and more compensation for their product. So if the cable guys are going the route of ISPs, one obvious question asks just how, and where, they'll be looking to block the broadcast money grab. And whether the broadcasters will be able to ride along with the brave new programming via ISP models that the cable guys are surely dreaming up. •

More Media Quarterly Reports

Another big day for quarterly reports… We couldn't get to all of them, but here's a rapid fire round-up of several major players:

• Service: Analysts are calling DIRECTV's Q3 a defiance of gravity as the satellite company continues to impress. The satcaster's Latin American operations netted 574K new subs during the period while domestic net new adds totaled the company's best Q3 mark in 7 years at 327K. DIRECTV reported a 14% increase in revenue to $6.84B, a net income increase of 8% to $516M and diluted earnings per share growth of 27% to $.70 y/y. --- CenturyLink reported operating revenues of ~$4.6B during Q3 with $891M in FCF. The company said it increased its PrismTV subs by nearly 25% during the period  (the service is now available in more than 1M HHs) while netting 57K new broadband subs. --- Canadian BCE reported adjusted net earnings of $724M, up 18.5% with adjusted EPS up 14.8% to $.93. The company's net TV subscriber adds shot up 40.5% on the back of Bell Fiber TV service with IPTV service now passing 1.5M HHs across Montreal and Toronto. --- Frontier reported Q3 revenue of $1.29B, a y/y decrease from $1.32B, credited to a loss in both residential and business customers. The company posted quarterly net income attributable to shareholders of $20.4M ($.02 per share). Frontier said it successfully dropped ~10K "unprofitable" Verizon FiOS TV subs and ~3K FiOS internet subs from its base during the period… The company dropped $8.6B for Verizon assets last year but said it prefers to push TV service through its partnerships with DISH and DIRECTV.

• Media: News Corp. reported total revenue for Q1 of fiscal 2012 of $7.96B, a 7% y/y increase of $533M. The company credited the increase to double-digit affiliate rev growth from its cable and TV biz in addition to double-digit growth from film entertainment. News' TV segment reported operating income of $133M, a 27% increase of $28M while its cable operations posted $775M, an 18% y/y increase of $116M. The company also said its international cable biz increased earnings by 25% thanks to Fox International and Star India. --- Crown Media touted strong performance at its Hallmark Movie Channel which saw an 87% y/y increase in ad revenues for the nine month period ended 9/30/11.  Overall the company reported 3Q revenues of $74M, up 18% y/y. --- Scripps Interactive Networks is spending on new shows and planning for tomorrow as it reported +25% in programming costs and +33% in marketing costs ... Q3 net income dropped 4.5% to $130M on revenues of $503.7M (slightly off consensus $509.7M). --- Suddenlink (Cequel et al) reported operating costs rose 6.2% "primarily due to higher programming costs and retransmission consent expenses ... "  On the other hand, Q3 revenues of $482.7M were up 7.3% y/y.  Dodging the "how-many-video-customers-did-you-lose" game, the company reported a 5.2% RGU y/y gain.  Also, bucking the VoIP trend, Suddenlink reported a gain.

• Broadcast: Belo reported total Q3 revenue decreased by 7% y/y with spot rev (which includes a political rev drop to $2.1M from $11.2M in Q310) was down 9% y/y. The company said other revenue (including retrans) enjoyed double-digit increases during the period but was "offset by declines in network compensation and miscellaneous" expenses. --- LIN TV reported a net revenue decrease of 3% to $100.8M while digital revs (including internet ads and retrans fees) increased by 38% to $22.1M. Political revenues decreased by 78% to $2.8 million, compared to $12.5M for Q310.

*The Evening BRIDGE contributed to this report. •

Etc.: DIRECTV's Cancelation Quandary - "Global" Decisions Pending for Liberty - Nick Produces Beatles Movie

In Court: While shareholders are likely pleased with DIRECTV's Q3 performance, Consumer Watchdog is not. The group says the company's net profit of $1.89B for the first 9 months of the year, in addition to 2010's $2.3B, "comes at the expense of its customers assessed with hefty cancellation penalties." The consumer advocacy group said it has pending legislation against DIRECTV challenging the company's early cancellation penalty policy that the lawsuit says can be as high as $480. More info can be found at the group's website. --- Courtesy of The Evening BRIDGE: In a rarely (if ever) seen reversal of itself, a federal appeals court withdrew its opinion supporting channel bundling by pay TV programmers and providers. As noted by Amanda Bronstat in The National Law Journal, "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ... withdrew the opinion, issued on June 3, after an array of amicus organizations showered it with petitions to reconsider."  What does it mean?  Get armored up for the bundling wars ... they're on again.

$$$: CBS' board of directors approved a $1.5B increase to its ongoing share repurchase program. Under the previous plan the company repurchased $850M of CBS Corp. Class B common stock and will authorize the remaining amount plus the new$1.5B by the end of 2013. --- RBC Capital Markets said it is the exclusive financial adviser to IT services firm Perimeter in its sale to Cequel Data Centers.

Research: ABI says cable gateways (STBs w/ broadband routers) will grow from less-than 7K units in 2010 to more than 10M in 2016. The firm says the growth will be driven by service providers in North America and Europe looking for advanced gateways while Asian companies desire low-cost solutions to offer triple-play functionality.

Deals: Reports says Liberty Global expects regulators outside the U.S. to soon make a couple decisions regarding two major deals the Colorado-based company has pending. The company anticipates regulatory action in Australia on a proposed $2.1B sale of its Austar satellite TV subsidiary and in Germany on its pending $4.5B acquisition of KBW cable systems. Denver Business Journal has the story. --- DIRECTV and AT&T signed a 3-year extension on their commercial agreement that enables AT&T to continue offering a co-branded version of DIRECTV's satellite TV service across the telco's 22-state footprint. --- Media General signed a long-term contract with Rentrak for audience measurement data on the majority of its TV stations. With the agreement, Media General now subscribes to Rentrak for data on 13 of its 18 stations.

Tech: Citing "up-the-supply-chain" sources, DigiTimes is reporting that many Apple products will see a significant "overhaul" next year. The news implies new models of the iPhone, iPad and possibly new MacBooks could emerge in 2012. --- Comcast said its 100 Mbps high-speed internet service is now available to businesses in Michigan. The company says the "game-changing" service is up to 60x's faster than a T1 line.

Programming: All together now… Nickelodeon says it is producing a modern-day, Beatles-inspired original made-for-TV film called "Big Time Movie." The program features stars from "Big Time Rush" doing Beatles covers from all the classic Fab Four movies. --- SWRV TV, the interactive music vid net, said that it has hit 30M viewer interactions since first launching in February of last year. The net, available on Verizon FiOS, Cox and AT&T U-verse, registered 63% internet and 37% mobile interactions.

Dist.: FOX Television Stations has reached a deal with Bounce TV to air the African American-centric OTA station on several of its MyNetworkTV sub channels, including stations in NY and LA.

SkyREPORT: ViaSat says its ViaSat-1 satellite was successfully placed into orbit and will commence in-orbit operational tests.

Folks: NYP says Sony CEO Howard Stringer will step down in March. --- Comcast promoted Peter Kiriacoulacos to EVP of procurement for its Comcast Cable unit.

FYI: Another reminder, but the first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will be Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 2pm ET/11am PT. The test will last about 3 min on all TV and radio channels. (We got our notice of it from Comcast, too.)

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