MediaBiz

Analyze This: Looking at circumstances surrounding Tom Rutledge's sudden, and unexpected, jump from Cablevision to Charter, BTIG's Richard Greenfield says, "We believe something really bad transpired between Jim Dolan and Tom Rutledge in recent weeks." One key point in the turmoil (and, we would guess, in the $30M lawsuit filed against CVC by Hartman Enterprises) will be whether Rutledge left for "good reason" as defined by his contract. Greenfield downgraded his CVC rating to NEUTRAL and removed his price target. (Here, registration required.) --- Looking at AT&T's $4B breakup with T-Mobile, Citi analyst Michael Rollins notes, "We expect AT&T will get back to focusing on the future by using its recently built cash position to consider alternative sources for spectrum, possibly repurchase shares with an authorization already in-place for around 5% of its shares outstanding, and look to optimize its asset portfolio." Rollins sticks with his BUY. --- Agreeing that AT&T will certainly be looking for more spectrum, Stifel Nicolaus' Nicole Kahle notes that "DISH/EchoStar could very well be the next target for AT&T" given the Ergen companies' large, and growing, stash of spectrum.

Online TV: According to the latest from comScore, (through 11/11), Hulu's audience grew 23% y/y. That left the cable-company backed effort in sport No. 8 for most viewers ... not a bad spot considering its competitors. For the accompanying table, comScore defines a video thusly: "any streamed segment of audiovisual content, (both progressive downloads and live streams). For long-form, segmented content, (e.g. television episodes with ad pods in the middle) each segment of the content is counted as a distinct video stream."--- CNN is hoping to boost its standings (it's now behind both Fox News and MSNBC) by providing more programming for smartphones and tablets. More from Bloomberg. --- Live streaming from Indianapolis as NBC will stream the Super Bowl in 2012.

Taxman: Liberty Media and Liberty Interactive have resolved their disputed tax positions through 2010 with a payment of $136M to the IRS.

In Court: Sprint Nextel has brought a patent suit against Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox and Cable One saying the companies are violating its patents for transmission of voice data packets. More from Bloomberg.

D.C.: Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Lee (R-UT), the two top dogs on the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, want the FTC to look at whether Google's expansion into services beyond search violates antitrust law. More from NationalJournal. Meanwhile, Google chairman Eric Schmidt indicated that the giant intends to move even further away from search with a media tablet "of the highest quality." --- Verizon Wireless is petitioning the FCC for fast track approval of its $3.6B deal to buy spectrum from Comcast, TWC and Bright House.

More News in The Morning BRIDGE ... early tomorrow in your in-box.•