Google Gobbles: More movement on
Google's much reported plans to offer paid-TV services as old friend and former cable TV exec
Jeremy Stern is said to be negotiating with major programmers on Google's behalf. Speculation is focused on the Kansas City area where Google is building a high-speed broadband network. (Can you say "overbuild"?) More from the
WSJ. (For an analyst's take, see "Analyze This" below.) --- This one is kind of a reverse gobble, but
Politico reports that Google is considering dropping out of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce over differences on legislation. That would be on top of
Yahoo and other large tech firms who have left the organization.
Family Spat?:
MediaPostBLOGS has this report of
Tom Dolan suing his family company
here.
Analyze This:
Bernstein Research's new internet analyst,
Carlos Kirjner, says of
Google's apparent foray into pay TV: This "has absolutely nothing to do with becoming a competitor to cable." Rather, he suggests, it's "an experiment/R&D activity" designed to help Google learn about technology and consumer behavior as well as the economics of deploying and running infrastructure. Plus, it gives them a bit more credibility on the public policy front. That, of course, is for now.
Quarterly Reports: Higher programming costs (a 25% bump due to new shows) drove expenses up 14% to $285M at
Scripps Networks Interactive. Still, the programmer reported a y/y consolidated revenue gain of 7.9% to $504M. Of the company's networks, only
Great American Country reported lower numbers (-21% to $6.1M). ---
IAC
saw lots and lots of cash in the first nine months of this year, as
free cash flow for the period ended Sept. 30 hit $242.2M, up 34% y/y.
Much of the revenue growth came from the company's digital B2C and B2B
operations under the
Mindspark label. ---
Outdoor Channel saw
revenues sink by 17% y/y to $18.9M in 3Q11, primarily due to the
planned reductions in its production services segment. Ad revenues were
also down slightly (4%) to $10.7M but subscriber fees were up.
Deals:
Liberty Global is looking for big news from overseas as the company faces imminent decisions from regulators in Australia and Germany. In the Australian case, the
John Malone company is looking to sell its
Austar satellite TV service to competitor
Foxtel and in Germany the group hopes to buy the
Kabel Baden-Wurttemberg cable TV system. More from the
Denver Business Journal. ---
DIRECTV and
AT&T have signed a three-year extension to their agreement to offer co-branded DIRECTV service in the 22 states where AT&T offers residential broadband and voice service.
More News in The Morning BRIDGE ... early Monday in your in-box. Have a great weekend!•
