NFL: Leave Retrans, Blackouts Alone

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told the FCC not to make any changes to the current retransmission regime or sports black-out rules. In a filing with the Commission late last week, Goodell said the FCC should leave intact the current broadcasting ecosystem as the rules now "serve the public interest and are working for fans, sports leagues, and the broadcast industry."

The filing came in response to the latest comments by the Sports Fans Coalition that told the FCC it was "upholding an anti-consumer practice by professional sports leagues that has no rational economic basis (but) for the leagues themselves." In its most recent formal comments, the group said the NFL was basically blacking out "elderly, disabled and poor fans..."

The league also chimed in program carriage disputes saying the FCC should update the complaint process to "benefit independent programmers." Of course, the NFL Network is still not available on Time Warner Cable or Cablevision systems.

In other retrans news, the FCC fined Bailey CableTV for carrying two local broadcast signals in Baton Rouge last week despite not having a new retrans deal in place. The stations involved in the dispute, operating under a shared services agreement, are CommCorp.'s Fox-affiliate WGMB and White Knight's NBC-affiliate WVLA.

Interestingly, Bailey said it had picked up the stations via antenna - much as an individual viewer would - and re-aired the signals using the FCC as a "tool." The cable company also inquired as to how much the FCC would charge for such a service...

The FCC initially responded with a $7,500/day fine (~$510K in total), but eventually reduced the amount to $30K. Bailey can appeal. •

Cable Getting into Piracy

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) CEO Cary Sherman says the cable industry is ready to help police copyright infringement. The exec says the country's largest internet service providers are on track to implement a major piracy program by as early as this summer.

Citing last year's announcement that Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other leading ISPs would participate, Sherman said the program is on the verge of going live. And, according to some, this system could become the most effective anti-piracy initiative the market has ever seen.

Speaking at the Association of American Publishers annual summit, Sherman said each ISP has been developing their infrastructures to automate the system, which will keep a database of repeat offenders. He said some companies are nearing completion while others are still a little further off.

Commonly referred to as a "graduated response" system, ISPs will soon begin notifying users that it is known they are downloading copyrighted content. If the illegal activity doesn't stop, the ISPs will send out confirmation notices requiring receipt of the communication with warnings to cease. If the user is flagged for illegal activity again, the ISP can either throttle the customer's connection speeds or suspend access to the internet. •

Etc: Thumbs Up/Down on Aereo – Supreme Shame – EchoStar Pays $19M

Online:  Aereo is (a) Dead in the water as broadcasters will win their lawsuit to prevent the streaming service from offering over the air signals via a built in antenna; or (b) Likely to succeed as OTA antennas are, after all, legal.  The second view is championed by BTIG's Richard Greenfield; the first by Moody's (as reported by Deadline's David Lieberman).  Whatever, it's gonna be a fun battle and these two pieces offer a good preview. --- France Telecom Orange has selected Viaccess and Orca for launching "la nouvelle TV d'Orange," representing the largest-ever IPTV middleware migration into a single unified platform.  The service, which has gained 400K subs in less than three months, is adapted for IPTV, OTT delivery and Hybrid, combining different delivery modes.

Shame On!  Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, Pandora, Foursquare, Pinterest, Yelp and Angie's List which have failed to appoint even one woman to their boards, despite a female skew among social network users.  More from TheDaily.com. --- The U.S. Supreme Court which turned down C-SPAN's request to televise oral arguments over the health care law.  Audio only, said the black-robed ones.  At least they won't wait until the end of the week (their usual timetable) to release the tapes.

Fines:  NDS Group collected near $19M from EchoStar which had filed a $2B claim against NDS alleging that NDS had compromised its DISH Network security.  The courts found against EchoStar and awarded NDS damages.

Analyze This:  Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett downgraded Sprint to an Underperform with a target price of $1.75, considerably below its current trading price.  Moffett notes that Apple's next-gen LTE iPhone, which could debut this year, "will likely be badly disadvantaged on Sprint's network, potentially impairing sales ... at a time when Sprint is subject to a punishing take-or-pay deal with Apple." 

People:  Brian Lamb is stepping down as CEO of C-SPAN; he'll continue as executive chairman.  Here's three cheers for Mr. Lamb who has worked harder than anyone we know to bring some fresh air into politics. --- Former FCC Commish Michael Copps has added his name to the national governing board of Common Cause. --- Congrats to Scripps Networks EVP for human resources Chris Powell who is listed among the “Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America” by Savoy Magazine.  

Programming:  Starz is kicking off its "Magic City" series with a nationwide sampling of its first three episodes via linear, on-demand and/or on-line offerings from 18 MVPDs.  --- The Pew Research Center's latest info shows a gain for every sector of television news in 2011.  Together, ABC, CBS and NBS showed growth of 4.5%, their first gain in a decade.  Pew warns, however, that 2011's myriad video-friendly news stories could explain the growth, leading to a possible decline this year this year.  Find the Center's State of the Media Report here. --- Sports Business Journal reports that Fox Sports will offer many of its LA regional sports nets games in Spanish ... likely in response to plans for a Spanish-language regional sports net in LA from TWC. --- DramaFever, a streaming video service specializing in Asian content, has scored $4.5M in funding in its latest round of financing. 

Measurements:  Nielsen says its "cross-platform campaign ratings" system which standardizes ratings for TV and online ads, is ready to roll with global advertising giant GroupM as the initial user. More from the NYT.•