Etc.: Next-Gen Cable Guy - ATA Flags NBC for Super Bowl Stream - Court Upholds Corporate Immunity
Strategy: A good read from
NYT suggests another byproduct from the OTT challenge to incumbent video providers is the 'upgraded cable guy.' No longer the
stereotypical crank who drags mud across your living room floor, now these highly-trained professionals often have backgrounds in engineering and computer science.
Read more. --- Outside its major cable deal, December has been a turbulent month at
Verizon Wireless. The company experienced 3 service outages in as many weeks and responded by notifying customers it would start charging $2 to pay their bills online. That didn't work… Subscribers blew up. The
FCC perked up. Verizon backed down.
WSJ has
the scoop.
Disputes: While fans may love the idea, TV companies certainly do not… as evidenced by the
American Television Alliance's challenge to
NBC's plans on streaming the Super Bowl. The group says the peacock's move undercuts demands from local stations for higher retrans fees.
NYP has
the story.
In Court: A U.S. appeals panel upheld the a federal law that grants immunity to telecommunications companies that assist the gov't when conducting surveillance of American citizens. Conversely, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said it would reexamine a separate lawsuit against the gov't over warrant-less wiretaps.
Reuters has
the story. --- Looks like
TiVo is getting a taste of its own medicine as the DVR pioneer is facing IP infringement allegations from
Digital CBT.
MediaPost has
the 411.
Rules & Regs:
Sony,
Nintendo and video game maker
EA have quietly withdrawn their support for
SOPA. The news comes on the heels of
GoDaddy flip-flopping its stance (
again) on the controversial piracy legislation as customers launched a
massive boycott of the domain registrar's services for supporting the measure. --- Heads up to the programmers out there, your platforms must be compliant with closed captioning rules by Jan. 19. Deadline for re-filing for an exemption is Jan. 18. --- As noted in the
Evening BRIDGE last week,
ACA President & CEO
Matt Polka urged the FCC to impose transparency requirements on TV station owners to prevent coordinated retrans consent negotiations that amount to "price fixing schemes" on the public and regulators. "Requiring disclosure of all agreements between separately-owned TV stations in the same market… would serve the public interest by enabling regulatory and antitrust authorities to both monitor the competitive effects of such agreements and detect violations of FCC regulations and federal antitrust statutes," he said.
Retrans: As of press time (Friday, Dec. 30),
Time Warner Cable had yet to settle its dispute with
MSG.
Bloomberg Businessweek has
details and updates. ---
Mediacom and
Hearst inked a last-minute deal last week to keep 10 local stations on in 9 service areas including:
ABC affiliates in Jackson (
WAPT), Milwaukee (
WISN) and Omaha (
KETV);
CBS affiliates in Des Moines/Ames (
KCCI), Louisville (
WLKY) and Kansas City (
KMBC); the
CW affiliate in Kansas City (
KCWE) and
NBC affiliates in Baltimore (
WBAL), New Orleans (
WDSU) and Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto (
KCRA). Financial terms were undisclosed. ---
Verizon and
Sinclair reached an agreement for
Fox affiliates
WBFF and
WNUV in Baltimore. ---
DIRECTV and
Morris Network reached a new deal for the company's 6 O&O stations including: NBC affiliate in Macon (
WMGT), ABC affiliates in Lexington (
WTVQ) and Wilmington (
WWAY), CBS affiliates in Columbus (
WCBI) and Chattanooga (
WDEF) and Fox affiliate in Gulfport, Miss. (
WXXV).
Footprint:
AT&T officially added
MSG HD and
MSG+ HD to its U-verse channel lineup in Connecticut.
Mobile: Social TV start-up
Miso launched SideShows, an interactive engagement service for iPhones. Partners signed up so far include:
Showtime,
Fox,
Food Network,
DIRECTV's
Audience Network,
Halogen,
Science Channel and
CBS Television Distribution.
ClickZ has details. ---
Time Warner Cable said it will add 37 Spanish-language channels on its TWCableTV app.
Rumor Mill: More rumors from the
AppleTV front, as several sources are reporting an Apple-branded TV product (
with possible a la carte pricing) could hit the market in early 2012.
AdWeek has details. And, while officially not a rumor,
GigaOm has details on the chipmakers of the world salivating over the possible Apple iTV contracts… --- Speaking of Apple, while some consumers are undoubtedly just unwrapping their iPad 2s… news comes that the company is already prepping its iPad 3 for a launch in the very near future.
CNN has more.
Tech:
Boxee 1.5 is the latest - and last - version of the video streaming software that will be released for PCs. The company said it will instead focus its resources on its OTT console (the Boxee Box).
M&A:
E.W. Scripps completed its $212M acquisition of 9 TV stations from
McGraw-Hill including the
ABC affiliates in Denver (
KMGH-TV), San Diego (
KGTV), Bakersfield (
KERO-TV), Indianapolis (
WRTV) and
Azteca America affiliates in Denver, Fort Collins (Colo.), Colorado Springs, San Diego and Bakersfield.
$$$:
Blip.TV raised $6M on the sale of its Series D shares with an option to sell another $5M down the road.
Politix: Some have noted the curious absence of
Keith Olbermann from
Current TV's 2012 election coverage. Is there trouble brewing between the net and its outspoken news anchor? NYT has
this story.
Letters to the Editor (
In response to the Dec. 23, 2011 SkyBOX):
Editor's Note: We get a lot of mail (and we mean A LOT) about DISH, its employees and practices. The letter below discusses both Netflix's losing business moves and Charlie Ergen
's spectrum plays from our awards for 2011.• It’s amazing we talk about Netflix so much here and ignore Dish’s inept business practices. They’ve lost over 500,000 customers in 2.5 years. Are they getting a free pass with the media? Their senior management is a good old boy network who manage up to each other so they can pay for each others' jet fuel. They regularly yell and scream at employees while checking the daily badge reports on arrival and departures and chastising them on not enough hours above 40 a week spent at their cubes. They think that working smart is working long hours not intelligence.
Can you imagine but its true, the new CEO Joe Clayton (this guy paid Howard Stern $500 million and said it was a good deal, Charlie laughed) requires his top staff to wear suits and ties as if that is going to help? As Dilbert says "the dress code will continue to change till profits improve."
They recently fired hundreds of smart employees even one notable PHD. Their PR machine consisting of two people stated they're upgrading their employees- to what if you fire smart people and PHD's? There is no annual strategic marketing plan, can you believe it. They think they can keep up with DirecTV or Cable’s marketing and sales strategies - time will tell.
-An avid reader.
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No edition of The Evening BRIDGE today ... Markets are closed. Back tomorrow afternoon. •
