Up, Over & Under: DIRECTV says it plans to double its Latin America subs to more than 16M
while boosting annual revenues to more than $10B across the next 10
years. According to execs economic growth in the region, particularly
in Brazil, will fuel the expansion. Currently subscribers in the region
number 11.9M with revenues at $5.1B. --- A selection of
Disney movies are now available for rent in the U.K.via
Google Play and
YouTube.
Programming: The
LA Times'
Joe Flint has been on a sports-dollars roll lately ... and the numbers don't bode well for pay TV bill payers. In short order: The cost of sports channels, and thus most providers basic packages, is going up, up, up propelled by such deals as yesterdays $2.15B price tag on the
LA Dodgers. (Hey, even
Mark Cuban didn't think it was worth that much!) Anyway, in southern CA,
ESPN tops $5/month,
Fox Sports West is over $2.60 (number courtesy of
SNL Kagan),
Prime Sports is over $2.50 and
TWC is said to be looking for more than $3.50. Add it up and you get (for the lowest possible low-end estimate) a $13.60 per month, per subscriber price tag. And that's without the impact of the newly purchased $2B baseball franchise. --- In more sports news,
Bloomberg reports that
News Corp is considering its own U.S. sports network aimed at that golden goose called ESPN. So in short order we could be looking at, on the national scene alone, ESPN,
NBC Sports Network,
CBS Sports Network and, presumably,
Fox Sports Network (possibly replacing
Fuel?)
Money & Markets: The
WSJ reports that
Facebook could launch its IPO in May. The offering could bring in as much as $10B, valuing Facebook at $100B.
Battlegrounds:
News Corp.
is hitting back hard at allegations of a secret group formed to promote
piracy of rival pay TV providers. The allegations, noted News Corp
subsidiary
NDS "were the subject
of a long-running court case in the United States which concluded with
NDS being totally vindicated of all allegations of piracy and its
accuser having to pay almost US$19 million in costs."
D.C.: It's a "return to the glory days of monopoly," says
TheVerge, as the
FCC's thumbs down on
AT&T/T-Mobile has galvanized carriers, lobbyists and Republicans to look at "reforming" the Commission. It's a good overview, albeit with a distinct point of view. For another look at the same issues check out the latest from
Bloomberg Businessweek.
People:
Comcast's long-time PR honcho
D'Arcy Rudnay is the cable biggie's new chief communications officer. Congrats!
More news in The Morning BRIDGE ... first thing tomorrow in your inbox.•
