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Analyze This: Auto sales are helping
SiriusXM report 1Q11 373K net sub additions bringing its sub total to 20.6M. Revenues jumped 9% y/y to $724M.
Citadel’s
Vijay Jayant wasn’t too impressed, though, calling it a “mixed quarter” bolstered by auto sales.
Mel Karmazin wants to raise prices, too ... but needs government approval. ---
Citadel’s
Shing Yin is downgrading
Verizon to ‘reduce’ ($33/share target) citing smartphone trends that don’t live up to the hype. ---
Radio One announced it closed on the 12.4% of equity that was previously held by
DIRECTV giving Radio One about 50.9%; the company also reported updated preliminary results for the quarter ending in March of $65M in revenue, up just over 10% y/y. --- Is this a sign of an improving economy?
Bernstein Research’s
Craig Moffett, covering
MetroPCS (‘marketperform’), reports, “Last week,
Sprint blew away expectations by adding 846K direct pre-paid subscribers, with strength in all their pre-paid brands (Boost, Virgin, and government-assisted Assurance), a result that was up 143% YoY. Today, MetroPCS made it clear that Sprint's gain was not a matter of stealing market share, but rather a reflection of a pre-paid segment that has gotten its mojo back. The results bode well for growth for pre-paid peer
Leap Wireless, as well.” ---
Bloomberg reports
DISH sold $2B of 10-year notes “in its first bond offering since 2009 after doubling the size of the transaction.” ---
Reuters reports 1st round for
Insight is mid-May.---
Charter reported 1Q11 revenues up a real 2% powered by commercial and internet growth while posting a loss of $110M. Video ARPU grew 8.2% to $131.01. Basic “residential customer relationships” (?) grew by about 22K while non-video customer relationships grew by almost 50K, up 23.5% y/y.
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Rules & Regs: Debt ceiling deadline is now 08/02 (tax receipts are up). ---
Bloomberg reports the
DoJ is asking for more info from
T-Mobile and
AT&T ... with the likely result the review will drag out longer, perhaps even indefinitely.
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Measurements & Ratings: We don’t like to often say “told you so” ... but this morning’s
NY Times story on “Ownership of TV Sets Fall in U.S.” (
here) citing
Nielsen
figures that indicating 2.2% of households abandoned TV set ownership
because of the economy or a new generation of alternative viewing
habits. Two things: (1) Nielsen had predicted the growth of over 1M
TVHH in ’10 (our
MediaCensus internal predictions, mentioned in
The Evening BRIDGE
at the time, was down just under a million); and (2) the definition of a
TVHH is in review ... a question we often ask, “What’s a TV?” -
PSM•
Tech:
Motorola Mobility cut a deal with
BelAir to integrate its Wi-Fi portfolio with Motorola cable infrastructure.
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Online:
Sony admitted another hacking incident and took down Sony Entertainment.
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Heads-Up:
Media Matters for America ran a full page ad in the
International Herald Tribune telling
News Corp heir apparent
James Murdoch make changes in corporate governance ... or become a “global pariah.”
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Programming:
NBCUniversal is going 24/7 local news in Dallas, Miami and California markets ... a quick follow through on some promises pre-merger.
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Up, Over & Down There: Big changes up north; Canada’s Conservatives won a majority of seats in Parliament as Liberals dropped from 77 to 35 as Bloc Quebecois dropped from 47 to 3 (Parliament has 308 seats).--- Police have raided
Google’s South Korean office.
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Mobile:
RIM will replace
Google with
Bing.
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More News in The Morning BRIDGE ... early tomorrow morning in your in-box.•
