Etc.: Indie Cable vs. Small TV - Britt: Give Sports Own Tier - 1st "White Spaces" Device
Disputes: A group named the
Coalition of Smaller-Market TV Stations told the
FCC this week that shared service agreements actually help smaller stations preserve local programming. The Coalition said in the "real world," SSA's save and extend local public service and diversity in news operations. Said
ACA President & CEO
Matt Polka: Um, no. "It is unfathomable that smaller TV stations would not only admit that separately-owned broadcasters in the same market collude in establishing retransmission consent pricing terms for cable and satellite TV operators, but would defend the practice as harmless. Under any circumstances, there is simply no justification, legal or otherwise, for allowing TV station owners to engage in price fixing under the guise of resource 'sharing agreements' that permit evasion of broadcast ownership limits, violate retransmission consent good faith rules, and defy antitrust statutes." ---
Time Warner Cable Chief
Glenn Britt tells the
WSJ that sports channels should be
sold on their own tier separate from basic line-ups. "What was a minor problem is turning into an astronomical problem," he said with regards to TWC's current conflict with
MSG.
Retrans: Many retrans negotiations have been worked out. Some have not.
TVNewsCheck says with broadcast nets demanding reverse compensation, this year is unlike any other... as for the first time pay-TV providers are willing to go without broadcast signals. Looks like the retransmission conflict will come
down to the wire.
Analyze This:
The Diffusion Group laid down four OTT-related predictions for 2012: 1)
Netflix will return to growth in Q1 as consumers open a TON of connected device gifts this season with pre-installed Netflix apps; 2) pay-TV providers will raise subscription fees in 2012 thanks to continued sub loss and that new
NFL deal; 3) 50M U.S. HHs will be watching internet video on their primary TVs by the end of the year; and 4) all 32" and above TV sets will be "smart" i.e. connected, and less than 10% will contain
GoogleTV. Good stuff from TDG.
Rules & Regs: The Congressional payroll-tax debate has created somewhat of a legislative traffic-jam with regards to spectrum regulation.
National Journal runs down why those with a stake in the future of spectrum feel
stuck in the mud. --- The
FCC launched
MyFCC, a new customized internet dashboard that allows users to create a customized page to take advantage of the agency's tools and widgets. --- Notice to
SOPA supporters: Creative interwebs people are "already finding easy ways to circumvent" the proposal's intentions.
Forbes has details.
Tech: The
FCC this week approved the first device to run in the so-called "white spaces" between TV channels offering broadband services.
AllThingsD has
the 411. --- Despite
Microsoft saying it pull out of future
CES expos (after this year), there are several exciting new technologies to keep your eye on. Here's
Forbes' top 5 tech trends to watch in 2012.
Op/Ed:
Free Press Policy Dir.
Matt Wood authored a piece for the
Mercury News saying the
Verizon/cable deal would bring an end to competition between ISPs, wireless services and cable/telco companies. "That means higher prices, fewer choices and less innovation," he writes.
Read the piece. --- With the Olympics and next year's presidential election expected to bring a flood of money to broadcast nets both locally and nationally,
MediaLife says broadcast TV is "
still the medium of choice."
Research:
ABI says global pay-TV revenues continue to grow with services generating $236B by the end of next year. The firm says while cable ops will continue to face stiffer competition from IPTV and OTT services, the industry will still control nearly half of the entire pay-TV market as broadband penetration drives subscriber growth in IP-based services.
Service:
Verizon Wireless experienced a nationwide outage of its 4G LTE service this week, the second such "disruption" in a month.
Bloomberg has
the story.
M&A:
Akamai Technologies has agreed to acquire cloud-based acceleration tech developer
Cotendo for ~$268M in cash, and is expected to close in the first half of 2012. Cotendo, with offices in Silicon Valley and Israel, raised around $36M in VC funding from
Benchmark Capital,
Sequoia Capital,
Tenaya Capital,
Citrix Systems and
Juniper Networks.
Programming:
Ski Channel Chair/CEO
Steve Bellamy is touring "Winter," a new film he wrote and directed about some of the world's most-inspiring winter athletes. The film recently premiered in LA … and people love it.
Dig the trailer. --- Bollywood Hits On Demand is now available to
Time Warner Cable subs in Dallas, Greenville and Wichita Falls. ---
SiriusXM will air a handful of cool live concerts and special performances to ring in the new year including: Furthur, Willie Nelson, Widespread Panic and Paul Oakenfold.
Full details here.
$$$:
Heritage Global Partners, the same company overseeing the sale of
Solyndra assets, will auction off the office and equipment of bankrupt wireless broadband company
Open Range Communications. The sale is looking to generate upwards of $100M to pay back creditors.
DBJ has more. ---
Charter landed a $750M term loan A for "general corporate purposes."
SkyREPORT:
GlobeCast signed a deal with
Fashion One TV to deliver the channel across sub-Saharan Africa via the Astra 4A satellite.
--- Catch today's media market news in
The Evening BRIDGE. •
