As the last of the quarterly reports roll in, Wall Street begins snuffling through tea leaves, trying to divine  tomorrows hot trends and companies.  Watching these reports, we find that most analysts are on the same page with two (maybe three) key trends to keep your eyes on:

1)  An improvement in the housing market, spelling possible upsides for all multiplatform players;  

2) The cable industry's overwhelming strength in broadband services; and

3) (Maybe) The revival of DISH in the DBS market.

Of course, that housing improvement is still iffy.  Bernstein Research's Craig Moffett notes in his report that the pay video biz grew "just barely" in 4Q11.  Moffett estimates that traditional players added 241K in the last three months of the year ... a nice number, but "on a subscriber base of ~100M Pay TV households in the U.S. it is literally and figuratively a rounding error."  Still, there are signs of growth and, as ISI analysts Vijay Jayant and Judah Rifkin point out, Comcast's relatively low video losses coupled with its huge base ("most representative of the general demographic posture of the U.S.") suggests "renewed strength in the housing sector."  So, hey.  Let's hope

The second trend should be obvious as cable CEOs increasingly describe themselves as broadband providers.  But still ... the cable folks are cleaning up on broadband.  Note the ISI analysts, "Cable MSOs have what can be considered a superior broadband product in every market, save for territories where Verizon has overbuilt FTTH and sells service under its FiOS brand name (about 15% of the country, collectively)."  Even there, they add, the cable product is at least as good as the legacy telco services, making it no surprise that cable took more than 80% of net broadband adds in 4Q11.

And finally, DISH ... ah, DISH.  Analysts were much relieved to see adds in DISH video subs.  As pointed out by Jayant and Rifkin, "in this past quarter, DISH added subscribers for only the second time in two years, once again suggesting that either the company is righting the ship, Macro conditions are improving, or perhaps, both."  

So again, let's hope.  And wait for those 1Q12 reports to tell us more.•

Cable Unites Over Basic Tier Encryption

Top leaders from across the cable landscape are urging the FCC to quickly eliminate the ban on basic tier encryption for all-digital cable systems. In a letter to FCC Chair Julius Genachowski, chief executives from the nation's top cable operators said encryption prohibition is "prime" for repeal, and changes to the "bygone" rule would be in consumers' and the industry's best interest.

Of the group's qualms with the rule, by far the most egregious is that the ban on basic encryption only applies to cable. The letter says the practice was adopted when satellite TV was in its infancy, telcos were allowed to offer video services, and before any video was ever delivered over the internet.

The group said when the ban was implemented, cable was wholly an analog service and most subscribers could access a slew of channels without a set-top box. The cable consortium pointed to Cablevision's waiver of the rule and subsequent results from its test-run in New York City that "confirms very few customers will be impacted (as) fewer than .1% requested (encryption-access) equipment."  

Further, the letter said lifting the ban will incentivize cable operators to adopt all-digital networks freeing up bandwidth for faster internet services, more HD channels and VOD options, and other services that today's consumers demand. The rule may have made sense 20 years ago, the group said, but "there is no valid basis for continuing to hold back cable innovation..."

Among those who signed the letter include: BendBroadband CEO Amy Tykeson, Bright House CEO Steve Miron, Cablevision CEO James Dolan, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge, Comcast CEO Neil Smit, Cox president Patrick Esser, Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso, Suddenlink CEO Jerald Kent and Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt. •

Etc.: GOP Sens. Intro 'SECURE IT' - Analyst: Apple TV is 'For Real' - Top Insight Mgmt OUT

Rules & Regs: A group of Republican senators Thursday rejected the proposed CyberSecurity Act of 2012 and introduced their own bill conveniently called the Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and Technology Act (SECURE IT). Led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the bill proposes that companies be allowed to share cyberthreat data and information with the government voluntarily as opposed to giving the Dept. of Homeland Security authority over private networks. --- Politico says the FCC and Sen. Chuck Grassley may have found a way to work out their impasse on FCC nominations Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel. Details here. --- The FCC will take up program access rules at its March 21 open meeting. --- The FCC will hold a workshop in March on spectrum efficiency and receivers exploring how device performance affects spectrum usage and the creation of new services. Details here.

Analyze This: Speaking with Bloomberg Radio this week, analyst Gene Munster said Apple's rumored TV "is real" and "will be the biggest thing in consumer electronics since the smartphone." Read his cheerleading at Business Insider. --- Meanwhile, the NYP says Apple is having a heck of a time getting content providers to play along... but the company is forging ahead with an OTT streaming service anyway.

Strategy: Are cable companies 'warming up' to outdoor WiFi? Says Bernstein's Craig Moffett: "The original expectations for what you could do with Wi-Fi were much less grandiose, and they're only now coming to the realization that this could turn out to be much more significant strategically than they had ever imagined." WSJ has more. 

Service: Windstream is launching a high-speed internet and video streaming service called Merge across its entire footprint which includes a WiFi-enabled Roku box. Get details. --- Comcast subsidiary thePlatform inked a deal to provide video management services to A+E Networks.

Tech: Save cable from cord-cutting? There's an app for that. Kinda. GigaOm has a story on RUWT (Are You Watching This?), an app that helps sports fans find the games they want on TV. How will it save cable? Find out, here. --- MobiTV is working with Dolby to create multiplatform surround-sound technolgoy for mobile devices, tablets, connected TVs and STBs.

Research: Nielsen says among the top three devices connected to U.S. HH's TV sets (video game/OTT consoles, DVRs and DVD players), DVRs account for the greatest percentage of Americans' watching time. The firm says DVR usage has grown five-fold from 1.6% in 2006 to 8% in 2011, reflecting a 4% drop in the amount of live TV being viewed in the same test period. Read more. --- In related news, reports have surfaced that suggest DVR shipments next year may be negatively affected by as much as 40% due to the recent floods in Thailand. And, according to IMS analyst Anna Maxbauer, it's pay-TV operators that will take the hit. "Consumers will not feel the price hike to the extent that operators and STB manufacturers will," she said. "Consumers' willingness to absorb shocks in the equipment ecosystem is very limited." --- The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped 9% during the month of January.

Disputes: Cox and LIN TV reached a deal late Wednesday that will keep WTNH and WCTX on Cox systems in CT. --- Time Warner Cable agreed to a one-week extension on its retrans negotiations with Young Broadcasting over ABC affiliates in Albany and Milwaukee.

Online: ESPN will stream NCAA conference basketball tournament games on Facebook and ESPN3.

In Court: Conservative video prankster James O'Keefe - known for his undercover video of duping ACORN and NPR staffers - has filed a lawsuit against Current TV and Keith Olbermann for calling him "a convicted felon" on air. According to NYP, O'Keefe was accused of harassment but the charges were dropped for lack of evidence.

Labor: Reports have surfaced that AOL is gearing up to lay off "hundreds of employees" as early as next week. --- Comcast eliminated 16 jobs in Knoxville, Tenn. but will add ~85 positions at its Ashville Highway regional customer service and operations center.

$$$: Belo declared a quarterly cash dividend of $.08 per share payable on June 1. --- Bloomberg reports that Tribune Co. has paid "lawyers and other advisers" $233M since filing for bankruptcy protection in Dec. 2008.

Footprint: AT&T said its U-verse suite of products now reach more than 400K HHs in Kansas City.

SkyREPORT: Intelsat reported Q4 revenue of $652.9M, a 1% y/y increase, with a net loss of $3.5M. --- Al Jazeera expanded its contract with Eutelsat for capacity on EUTELSAT-7 West A for coverage across NW Africa.

Over, Up, & Under: Rogers signed an agreement with Groupe TVA and Sun News to offer TVA Network, TVA Sports and Sun News content to Rogers subs. The multiplatform deal includes on-demand content, mobile rights, access to TVA Sports and continued distribution of Sun News and French-language programming from the Rogers Anyplace TV web platform.

People: Top management at Insight Communications has stepped down now that its acquisition by Time Warner Cable is complete. Those who will not join TWC include: COO Dinni Jain, CFO & EVP John Abbot, CTO & EVP Hamid Heidary, and EVP of operations Chris Slattery ... not to mention CEO Michael Willner (who did a gracious visit to his now-former systems).  Insight's systems will now be overseen by TWC EVP Bill Goetz.

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