Etc.: Knicks Fans Sue TWC - NCTA: Let Cable, Not Gov't Develop STB Efficiency - Comcast's Billing Woes
In Court: A group of
NY Knicks fans is suing
Time Warner Cable for being unable to watch Knicks games with
Jeremy Lin on a tear. In a class action suit, the plaintiffs are demanding the cable company reimburse subs for more than $5M in service fees for withholding the games. Of course, Knicks games are back... but the lawsuit moves forward. (No word if the
Carmelo trade is part of the damages.)
Rules & Regs: The
NCTA filed a response to the
Dept. of Energy's Dec. inquiry into power usage of cable set-top boxes saying the industry "fully supports improving energy efficiency of STBs." The group says the industry's voluntary efforts are achieving reduced energy consumption already, with further progress coming thanks to collective work by cable ops, vendors, and
CableLabs. The problem, however, is the NCTA's opposition to gov't intervention. "In light of the significant legal questions regarding the Department's authority to adopt standards for set-top boxes, the better approach to achieving the Department's and the industry's energy conservation goals would be to permit ongoing marketplace developments to proceed without the specter of government regulation." --- The
FCC received more than 200 complaints about the Super Bowl ranging from
M.I.A.'s flipping of the bird to questionable content within the ads. Let's see... 222 complaints out of 111.3M viewers. Win some, lose some.
Deals:
Bell signed an agreement to acquire Montréal-based
Astral Media for $3.38B. The deal covers all Astra shares and its pay-TV channels, radio stations, digital media properties and ad platforms across Canada. Bell will acquire all Class A non-voting shares for $50 per share (a 39% premium), and Class B subordinate voting shares for $54.83. Part of the agreement includes a $150M breakup fee that Bell would pay to Astral if the deal fails to close for regulatory reasons. ---
ESPN Deportes signed a multiplatform agreement with
impreMedia for content and cross-promotion to Hispanic sports fans in the U.S. Both brands will provide content and co-produce promos for online, print, TV and social media.
Breakups:
Sprint officially terminated its spectrum hosting contract with
LightSquared Friday. In ending the agreement, Sprint returned $65M in prepayments LightSquared had previously made to cover some upfront costs. LightSquared said Sprint's decision was in the best interests of both companies.
Research:
Nielsen says U.S. consumers are paying for content on their tablets... as long as it isn't news. The firm says, of paid content on tablets in Q411, 62% of U.S. users have paid for music, 58% for books, and 51% for movies. Interestingly enough, when those users were asked if they were willing to pay for content, 46% said they would pay for music, 45% for books and 38% for movies. Nielsen says the discrepancy could be that people are willing to try a media purchase, but they may not be going back for another...
OTT:
Netflix will soon offer "TED" talks for streaming customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and Ireland.
Online:
Hulu redesigned its website with a 55% larger video player and a handful changes to emphasize its growing content library.
VentureBeat has details. ---
Viacom's
MTV is launching a multiplatform music destination called Artists.MTV this spring giving indie and major label acts a new space to showcase their work... while promoting the content across MTV,
MTV2,
VH1,
CMT and
Palladia.
Tech: As
Apple blankets the country with new iPads, more observers are wondering how it will affect data plans and LTE network traffic. This piece from
The Verge says while
AT&T and
Verizon have promised family data plans, there's simply "t
oo much profit to be made charging multiple times for the same data." Further, this piece from
Light Reading asks can LTE networks in the North America "
cope with the (increased) traffic?"
Labor:
AT&T recently reached a four-year agreement with the
Communications Workers of America covering about 8,800 employees in the telco's SW region.
Over, Up & Under: Global multiplatform entertainment service
Mela launched First Day First Show, a program that releases new Bollywood movies in international markets simultaneously to their theatrical releases in India.
Details here.
People: The
ACA added three new board members:
Kate Adams, CEO,
James Cable (Braintree, MA);
John Conrad, Legal Affairs Director,
Liberty Cablevision (Luquillo, Puerto Rico); and
Dave Keefe, CEO,
Atlantic Broadband (Quincy, MA).
Obit: One of satellite's originals lost his bout with cancer last week ...
Larry Wyman was the original "satellite radio" purveyor launching North America One on August 1st, 1986 via C-Band "audio subcarrier radio."
Uh Oh: Many within the movie-making world say
Disney's latest film "John Carter" is a good film. But the picture's less-than stellar weekend opening has those on the business side of things saying there are problems with Disney's movie-making strategy.
More from The Wrap.
D'Oh!: Just last week, the
Consumerist called
Comcast a "perennial favorite" for its 'Worst Company in America." Not helping the cable company's case was news that it accidentally charged Xfinity subs twice in March. To make matters worse, Comcast then charged these subs $25 to fix the problem. Ha! The company apologized via
Twitter, and said the issue actually stemmed from a billing problem at
Wells Fargo. Not sure if it will help the MSO's rep, but Wells Fargo came clean on its responsibility.
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Catch today's media market news in The Evening BRIDGE. •
