A (Legit) LiveTV Streaming Service?

The Barry Diller-backed Aereo may be making headlines in New York City (and beyond), but another player in the live TV-to-internet space has emerged... with one major (scale-tipping) difference: Legal footing.

News this week comes from an Atlanta-based start-up called Skitter which is streaming TV stations from all the major big-four broadcasters directly to a Roku OTT box or WD Live STB. The catch, of course, is that unlike Aereo, Skitter is said to have all the necessary licenses to operate in the clear.

According to the company, Skitter began offering its OTT platform to smaller telco operators that wanted to give subscribers a pay-TV service but didn't want to simply resell DIRECTV or DISH. These regional telcos insisted Skitter obtain retransmission licenses from the broadcasters it would be pulling from, which led the company to launch its own (legitimate) consumer service.

Where Aereo began in NYC, Skitter kicked off services in Portland mostly under the radar. The company has plans on offering live TV access via Roku and other connected devices nationwide for an Aereo-like $12-$15, but should be able to avoid all the legal wrangling with broadcasters.

Currently, customers in Portlandia have access to a private Roku channel (or app on the WD) that displays a separate on-screen programming guide where users can search for stations and shows. Initial offerings include 10 live channels from Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS.

And, according to GigaOm, Skitter is looking to expand its line-up this summer with 10 more channels not available from a TV antenna.

Interested? Who (in this business) isn't... Check it out. •

Pay-TV Bills to $200?

A new report from The NPD Group says the average pay-TV subscription for basic video service and premium-TV channels in the U.S. reached $86 per month in 2011. And as program licensing fees continue to rise, pay-TV monthly rates are growing at an average clip of 6% per year.

Of concern, NPD says, is that consumer household income has remained essentially flat, and if nothing changes, average pay-TV bills will reach $123 by 2015... and $200 by 2020.

"As pay-TV costs rise and consumers' spending power stays flat, the traditional affiliate-fee business model for pay-TV companies appears to be unsustainable in the long term," said Keith Nissen, research director for NPD. "Much needed structural changes to the pay-TV industry will not happen quickly or easily; however, the emerging competition between SVOD and premium-TV suppliers might be the spark that ignites the necessary business-model transformation of the pay-TV industry."

According to NPD's recent "Digital Video Outlook" report, 16% of U.S. HHs do not currently subscribe to pay-TV services. The firm says a sharp rise in housing vacancies due to the mortgage crisis alone has led to five million fewer U.S. HHs viewing pay-TV services. •

Comcast Testing IP Delivery - Sinclair Fires Back at Mediacom - Porn on Netflix? (Not exactly)

Strategy: Comcast is reportedly prepping tests for an IP-delivered video service on the MIT campus in Cambridge. "We want to deliver video everywhere people want to watch it," Comcast president of converged products Sam Schwartz tells the WSJ. "We have to do a better job getting people to realize what they are paying us for." Read more.

Service: Comcast's Xfinity On Demand service will be rolling out to TiVo Premiere subs in SF. --- Virgin America added new original content to its in-flight Red platform on the newly-launched Virgin Produced Channel. (Clever name!) The airline says "creative juggernauts" from Funny or Die (Will Ferrell & Judd Apatow) will contribute, in addition to Ben Stiller and Seth Green.

Tech: Reports have started digging into a new Comcast patent that would enable the company to offer web-based search engines and cable-based commerce solutions via STB. (Hat tip to Fierce's Steve Donahue for patent mining.) Read more at ZatzNotFunny.  --- IDC is launching its new Digital Tattoo suite of products designed to enable DTH satellite operators to offer IPTV services.

Disputes: Sinclair Broadcast Group EVP & General Counsel Barry Faber told the FCC that comments made by Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso that retrans rates are outpacing inflation should be seen as a "red herring." In a letter to Julius Genachowski, Faber also said Commisso's claims that broadcasters assert too much leverage over small cable operators is "facially suspect given that broadcast stations, despite providing close to 50% of all ratings, are reported to receive well less than 10% of the total programming expenditures by cable."

Rules & Regs: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has no intentions of lifting his hold on President Obama's FCC nominations, despite receiving a boat-load of information about the Administration's dealings with LightSquared. Hillicon Valley has details.

Research: Nielsen numbers suggest that while 92% of consumers say they trust word-of-mouth recommendations, less than 1/2 trust paid ads in traditional media outlets like TV, mags and newspapers (a decline of 20% since 2009). The firm says trust in online ads is up with 33% of consumers believing banner ads, 40% search ads and 36% social media ads. Mobile ads seem to perform about the same, as 33% said they trust mobile banner ads and 29% trust mobile text ads, Nielsen said.

Demographics: Do tablets and e-readers contribute to the 'digital divide'? According to a new poll from Pew: 18% of Americans said they hadn't read a book in a year. This group is more likely to be: male than female (23% v. 14%), Hispanic than white or black (28% v. 17% and 16%, respectively), age 65 or older (27%), lacking a high school diploma (34%), earn less than $30K (36%), unemployed (22%), and rural residents (25%). Pew says: 30% of those who consume e-content now spend more time reading, and owners of tablets and e-readers particularly stand out as reading more now (41% of tablet owners and 35% of e-reader owners). The study suggests that while the devices seem to be promoting the consumption of e-content, "prohibitive costs for accessing devices and content" could contribute to the digital haves and have-nots. --- In not-so related (but other e-book) news, reports say the DoJ could sue Apple sometime this week over e-book price fixing.

Mobile: Mobile app maker Mobiles Republic signed a content partnership with Al Jazeera English.

People: The NCTC announced a handful of organizational changes, including the hiring of Judy Meyka as EVP of programming; Frank Hughes taking on the newly-created role of SVP of member services; and NCTC CFO Corey McCarthy will add SVP of business development to his title. The co-op also renamed its hardware dept. as the "Tech Solutions Team," and said SVP of legal affairs Jeff Nourse will assume responsibilities for "regulatory oversight." --- Hughes president Pradman Kaul will be honored by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation with a 2012 Innovator Award this week.

Kudos: NAMIC announced the winners of the 2012 Next Generation Leadership Awards: Rosalyn Durant, VP, ESPNU / ESPNHS / ESPN; Sree Kotay, SVP, chief software architect, Comcast; Fernando Laguarda, VP, external affairs, Time Warner Cable; and Pawan Mehra, EVP, Ameredia.

Uh-Oh!: There's a new service out there called BateFlix. What is BateFlix, you ask? Um... it searches Netflix for nudity. Heyo! VentureBeat has details.

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