MediaBiz

Strategy: It's all over the intrawebs, so you've probably seen it: Steve Jobs said in his authorized biography that he "cracked" the code to an Apple TV product. "An integrated television set that is completely easy to use… seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with the iCloud. No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes… the simplest user interface you could imagine." Read more at the Wash Post. --- With the help of $13.5M in venture capital, start-up Clearleap is sitting on a couple products that it says will help MSOs compete head-to-head with OTTs. The company has landed deals with more than a dozen unnamed mid-sized providers and one major telco (Verizon) for its cloud-based offerings. One is a stream-on-demand product for IP connected STBs and another with an IP content management solution with ad insertion and social network integration. Cable360 has details.

Rumor Mill: Reports have surfaced that suggest a release of GoogleTV 2.0 is coming to the U.S. sometime next year. Company execs have said the video product would be available in the UK "by Christmas" or "early next year." Read details about the technology and the company's domestic plans at InformITV.

Rules & Regs: The FCC last week released an order overturning nearly 300 previously-granted closed-captioning waivers. The move is seen by some as going to cause headaches for cable systems, broadcasters and content producers alike. Get details at CommLawCenter. The agency also granted the NAB's request for a one-week extension of the reply comment deadline for closed-captioning of IP video. --- Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) asked the FCC to complete its retrans reform proceeding quickly due to so many carriage deals expiring at the end of the year. --- Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) wrote to the FCC last week saying he was "very concerned" that the agency's USF reform plan "award(s) the vast majority of funding to incumbents with little or no opportunity for competitive broadband providers to participate."

Battlegrounds: Reports suggest that Apple is selling fewer iPhones than Samsung is selling of its smartphones. Unconfirmed figures reported in the WSJ show Samsung shipped between 20M-30M smartphones in Q3 while Apple shipped just over 17M. Read more, here. --- Fox Networks went on the offensive in its growing dispute with DIRECTV. Check out The Wrap's coverage of the company's decision to take out a full-page ad in the LA Times proclaiming the game to be "over" for local sports. --- Fox isn't the only programmer battling with DIRECTV as the Golf Channel is also having difficulty sinking a long-term carriage deal with the satcaster. SBJ's John Ourand says the two sides' current deal expired at the end of last year and they've been on a month-to-month basis since. His report says negotiations are ongoing, but neither side has been able to make progress on a new deal.

Scandal du Jour: After only a little more than an hour, Rupert Murdoch abandoned News Corp.'s annual meeting before shareholders had a chance to vote on whether he should remain the company's CEO and if the board should be re-elected. Reports said the turmoil was "embarrassing," but with the Murdoch family holding 40% of voting shares, the coup attempt's failure was all but a foregone conclusion. On Monday, the company said Rupe got 84% approval for him to stay on News' board and the proposal to split the chair and CEO roles was voted down. Sons James and Lachlan Murdoch both received 35% and 34% opposition votes. Read details at THR.

Tech: Wired says Comcast appears to be in compliance with the FCC's earlier decision demanding that it stop throttling BitTorrent traffic. According to a new study, Comcast throttled 49% of all BitTorrent traffic in 2008. Last year, the number plummeted to 3%.

Programming: Fox Sports and Telemundo scored English and Spanish (respectively) language U.S. media rights to the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments. Fox also secured FIFA U.S. media rights for World Cup events in 2015 and 2022 which includes the men's and women's tourneys.

Dist.: Verizon added E! HD to its FiOS TV channel line-up.

SkyREPORT: Eutelsat said its Atlantic Bird7 is now live operating with full commercial services. The company said it has completed the transfer of all channels from the 4A satellite to 7 and is now broadcasting more than 400 channels to 30M HHs across the North African Atlantic coat across to the Gulf states.

Up, Down & Over There: Netflix said it will expand instant streaming into the UK and Ireland sometime early next year. --- The BBC said its BBC iPlayer app now supports Airplay - enabling users to stream video to their TVs. Apple's iOS 5 allows the BBC to one of the first VOD providers to sync with Airplay.

Letters to the Editor (In response to Friday's SkyBOX): I always enjoy reading commentary from industry insiders instead of analysts. Regarding your point about the new normal, you have much evidence over the decades to support your conclusions. On the other hand, what has changed is the availability of technology, which is different than the acceptance or use of such technology. So I think the new normal is ‘market fragmentation.’ Consider that you are right for a large portion of the US and that there is a sizable portion of the US viewing video on portal devices, game boxes, via YouTube, Hulu and Netflix. Appreciating the need to a catch phrase, consider this the "new normals" (intentionally plural). Maybe I’ll see you at CES to see what the next fragment will be. -Hal Schlenger

• How many more times must pay TV subscribers have to endure service turn offs due to carriage disputes? It seems that on both sides contract terms are almost an afterthought until "Oops, we forgot!. Our agreement ends tomorrow." On the pricing side, it appears that producers believe they have providers and viewers by the short hairs. Each new proposal has us seeing commentary regarding "unreasonable price increases." At the end of the day, each party blames the other for the loss of services. Meanwhile, the consumer continues to pay for the missing services while the attorneys hurl spitballs at each other. Producers should only be asking for increases in proportion to the ratings the channels draw. For example, when Turner demanded a 40% increase in subscriber costs from Dish Network, Charlie told his subscribers he was not about to charge 40% more for programming which saw it's ratings decline 30% over the term of the previous agreement. Makes sense to me! Providers may very well tell producers to "stuff it." After all, if the providers do not dispense the services, who then will the producers turn to for distribution of their services? -Ken Young

--- Catch today's media market news in The Evening BRIDGE. •