Rules & Regs: Spectrum legislation
passed the House Tuesday on a 234-193 vote split largely along party lines. Observers say if the debate on the House floor is any indication, the
JOBS Act (and the larger legislation it is part of) has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. Sen. Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-NV) called it "dead on arrival." --- Senior House Republican
Darrell Issa (R-CA) says
SOPA is doomed unless "a number of problems are resolved." CNET details the who's who of
SOPA's opposition (
Google,
Facebook,
Twitter, human and civil rights groups
everywhere) and what the bill intends to do.
Politico chimes in saying
eBay,
HuffPost,
NYT and the
Wash Post also
blast the legislation. On the other side of the debate sits
Time Warner,
Viacom,
Disney,
News Corp.,
Sony and the
NFL.
NYT has big media's
side of the debate. --- After years of opposition, it seems the
CEA has changed its position on internet sales tax. The country's largest CE org didn't come out in support of any specific legislation, but it did say the internet is no longer an infant and universal sales taxes will help all retailers, regardless of size, operate on an even playing field.
PC World has
the story.
Research:
Bernstein Research released its latest projections for the future of broadband with some interesting figures, including: As of Q311, there are ~77.5M broadband subs in the U.S. and the firm expects the wired broadband market to expand from ~65% penetration to 73% of U.S. HHs by 2015. The firm says cable's share will increase to 67.7% by 2015 and 69.6% by 2020; while DSL's share will drop from 28.2% to just 8.8% by 2020. Meanwhile, FiOS will rise from 6% to 7.9% and U-verse from 4.7% to 10.1%. ---
Strategy Analytics says
AppleTV will control almost one-third of the market for streaming-media players in 2011 (including its own rivals such as
Roku and
Boxee). The consoles are used in 8% of U.S. and 7% of European HHs with sales expected to reach 12M this year.
Strategy:
Bright House Networks signed a deal with
Verizon FiOS,
Comcast Spotlight and
Viamedia to form an advertising interconnect in Tampa Bay. The agreement, which will cover ~80% of TV HHs in the market, will begin in 2012. (Viamedia sells ads on behalf of both FiOS and cable operator
Knology.) --- In response to the latest round of compatibility problems,
LightSquared has made even more concessions regarding its L-band spectrum in hopes of quelling fears its proposed network will interfere with GPS systems.
Fierce has details.
Retrans:
Sinclair Broadcasting said it may pull
Fox and
The CW affiliate stations from
Verizon FiOS TV subs in Baltimore. Sinclair says the current status of negations aren't good; Verizon says it won't pay unreasonable rate increases.
Online:
AOL TV is now
HuffPost TV. Said
Arianna: "HuffPost TV will have many of the same features: exclusive interviews and clips, reviews and recaps, and TV listings. But now, we’re adding HuffPost’s powerful blog and community platforms to the mix (for) a more comprehensive and social look at everything happening in the world of TV, both onscreen and off." ---
Hulu launched a dedicated Spanish-language programming service called
Hulu Latino featuring content from
Univision,
Caracol Television and
Comarex. The service offers the entire current season of prime-time shows from Univision,
Galavision and
Telefuture to users of Hulu Plus (with next-day access to free Hulu users). ---
TorrentFreak is running the results to its investigation of BitTorrent usage at major entertainment companies saying: "We wondered if these companies hold themselves to the same standards they demand of others." Bottom line?
Sony Pictures,
Fox Entertainment and
NBCU are all "busted." Interesting findings,
here.
Tech: How far can TV remotes evolve?
Fast Company says the technology is on the verge of a revolution… but with TV tech about to take a radical turn itself, will it even matter?
Check this out. ---
Barnes & Noble updated its Nook Color tablet including
Netflix and
Flixster apps. --- For those interested in the 'tech' side of 3D, the
International 3D Society announced honorees for its 2nd Annual 3D Tech Awards. A full list of winners can be
found here. ---
Comcast expanded its production of IPv6 deployment in Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Mobile:
Carrier IQ is in the middle of a PR nightmare now that consumers know its data-tracking software was secretly installed on more than 140M cellphones. The company has been caught off guard by the wave of attention resulting in a series of interviews and press statements that have only further muddled things up.
Free Press has
the latest.
Enterprise:
Verizon is launching
Verizon Enterprise Solutions - a global entity overseeing the company's business, gov't and wholesale operations. The new arm will be headed by
John Stratton, former EVP and COO of
Verizon Wireless.
Up, Down & Over There:
BBC World News signed a new deal with
Comcast for carriage in Philly, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Indy, Portland (OR) as well as across Northern California, Michigan and Western New England. ---
Chellomedia said it will launch a new premium channel in the Netherlands called
Film1 Series next year in response to
HBO's "imminent" start in Holland. In related news,
GfK Research says digital TV penetration in Holland is now 81%. ---
Irdeto signed a deal with Polish DTH platform
Cyfrowy Polsat for conditional access and mobile DTT tech support.
People:
FCC Chief of Staff
Eddie Lazarus announced his resignation, effective at the end of January. --- STB maker
Pace has replaced CEO
Neil Gaydon with
Mike Pulli - former CEO of
Pace Americas.Cool!: Hat tip to
AllThingsD for running a piece on the Boulder, Colo.-based
OpenSource, a new brick-and-mortar store designed to help consumers learn about the infinite world of mobile apps.
Check it out.
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Catch today's media market news in The Evening BRIDGE. •
