Will FCC Draw a Line in the Sand Tomorrow?

• Analyze This: Earthlink will acquire One Communications for about $370M.

• Rules & Regs: Tomorrow, the FCC (probably, but not for sure as 2 of the Democrats are pushing for tougher rules) draws a line in the sand vis a vis the new Congress as it votes on the Chairman’s 3rd way for net neutrality.  Meanwhile, Cmr. Robert McDowell wrote in today’s WSJ, “Net neutrality sounds nice, but the Web is working fine now.  The new rules will inhibit investment, deter innovation and create a billable-hours bonanza for lawyers.”  Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) doesn’t much like it either ... nor does he like the idea of the Comcast/NBC-U deal’s likely approval.  New Cte. Chair Fred Upton (R-MI) weighed in promising the Cte. will "vigorously fight any effort to regulate the Internet, pledging strict oversight of the FCC and hearings early in the 112th Congress.” --- And The Drudge Report calls it all "Julius Seizure."

• Retrans & Renewals: Comcast Nets and DIRECTV deals expire 12/31. --- Points (2) to Wayne Friedman of MediaPost for his dubbing a new kind of TV season: The Retransmission-Blackout Season.

• Tech: 2.0 Google TV has been delayed ... tweaking underway.

• Retail: Roku says it'll have sold a million units by year end ... sales doubled as Apple TV launched.

• Online: Cool ESPN app ScoreCenter has launched for internet enabled TV sets..

• Advertising/Marketing: In an interesting national first, DIRECTV will work with Starcom MediaVest Group to launch “scaled, household-addressable advertising to customer households with DVRs.” --- A&E is the latest client of TRA’s Media TRAnalytics® and TV HealthRatings™ for pharma.

• Programming: Sezmi is punting on its wireless linear cable channel bundles. --- SBJ’s John Ourand says MLS and FOX Soccer are way apart in fees ... $20M v. $7M. --- Now OU wants its own Sooner net (hey, if UT has one ... ).

• Folks: Retirement Living TV named Paul Fitzpatrick president/COO.

• Mobile: Sprint turned on its 4G in Denver and Bridgeport, CT.

• Over There: News Corp might get a present this week ... EC is expected to approve its acquisition of the 61% of BSkyB it doesn’t already own.

• Spectrum: $1.93B is the deal as AT&T does buy Qualcomm’s FLO TV spectrum.•

It’s that time for our annual unanswered wishes: Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Mankind.  Nevertheless, may your season of worship be fulfilled and leave your hearts at peace.  God bless to all.
    • Short week ... and upcoming Holidays ... MediaBiz takes the week between Christmas and New Years sort of off ... we won’t be in the office though The Evening BRIDGE will be sent every day the markets are open with, if something important happens, brief news items.  The Morning BRIDGE will not be sent after Thursday, 12/23/10 until Monday 01/03/11.
    • In bigger news, SkyREPORT is folding into The Morning BRIDGE.  MediaBiz was among the first to pay attention to direct broadcast satellite launching SkyREPORT in ’93... but, today, the multichannel video program distribution (MVPD) business isn’t bound up in silos ... instead, it is among the most highly competitive industries around with telco video, satellite and cable fighting hard for every subscriber in an in increasingly zero sum game.  Everyone now needs to know what everyone else is doing ... and there’s no reason to have to skim three different kinds of publications ... our daily two-fisted (well, morning & evening) all-inclusive coverage now boasts significantly greater circulation.  Coverage of the silos will now all be in one place.  Attitudes retained.
    • Seems Level 3 made a strategic error with significant tactical implications.  A Content Distribution Network (CDN a la Akamai) is paid and also pays ... Level 3 seems to want to be a CDN without the latter pay to last mile ISPs.  Fat chance.
    • CTHRA’s annual compensation survey is out and finds that “base pay remained stable, fewer employers froze salaries, and incentives increased dramatically over last year.”  Full details on the 2 categories (MSOs & programmers) here.
    • Mary Collins and her Media Financial Management Association (MFM) are doing some interesting stuff ... and not just at the larger conferences (like the one coming up in May in Atlanta featuring Citi analyst Jason Bazinet at Media Finance Focus 2011).  MFM is doing monthly telephone conferences with experts (and pundits) on different subjects.  While the numbers aren’t too big, the participants represent some significant companies.  The other day MFM asked me to talk to a dozen or so broadcasters about retransmission consent ... and they all knew in advance what I think about that (heads broadcasters win, tails cable ops - and their customers - lose).  With the issue now part of the FCC’s increasingly controversial actions, what’s going to happen is up in the air.  But, like a lot of issues, the outcomes in this case are driven by size and leverage.  Seems smaller broadcasters find themselves in situations not unlike smaller cable operators ... in need of some leverage help.
Meanwhile, we’ll be back in the New Year ... may it be prosperous for all.•