A $14.7B Bubble? – Money & Trouble at NWS – ESPN Targets Ads ... and Apple?

$$$:  First 5, then 10, now $14.7B is the money Facebook aims to raise via its upcoming IPO.  Now for the really interesting part:  According to a new Associated Press-CNBC poll, one out of two Americans think Facebook is a passing fad.  Details from CNBC.  GM kind of rained on the increased IPO range cancelling $10M in ads because they "didn't work" ... the tweet from WSJ reporter Dennis Berman is here.  What timing! --- Sinclair Broadcast has a new five year affiliation deal with FOX, starting Jan. 1 2013. 

In the Courts: The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the FCC's decision allowing Time Warner Cable to refuse to carry the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network on analog in North Carolina.

Scandal du Jour:  First the good news:  They're making lots and lots of money with annual revenues hitting $34B at the end of March 2012.  Now the bad news:  That phone hacking scandal in the U.K. continues to spiral out of control as two activist groups (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Credo Action) have now called on the FCC to revoke News Corp's U.S. broadcast licenses and U.K. authorities say they'll charge Rebekah Brooks, former honcho at News Corp's British newspaper group, with conspiring to obstruct justice.  More from the HuffPost and the Wall Street Journal.

Programming:  ESPN wants advertisers to know that viewers really, truly see their .com ads, partnering with Horizon Media and RealVu to determine how many ESPN.com ads are readily viewable.  More from AdWeek.  Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported – semi-falsely – that Sean Bratches says he's talking to Apple regarding AppleTV.  ESPN is "platform agnostic" and will talk someday.  Update here. --- Univision has a new digital initiative via UVideos Digital Network, with "thousands of hours" of on-demand content, multi-device availability and, of course, a big social component with services available for both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences.  Now in beta, Uvideos will launch this summer.

Up, Over & Under:  Canal+, which has services in France, overseas territories and Africa, gained 211K net new subs y/y in the first quarter.  That's a record for the company. --- Sky Deutschland also reported good numbers with revenues up 18% to €318M ($406M) plus 73K net new subs to near 3.1M.    More from BroadbandTVNews. 

People:  Mediacom has promoted Italia Commisso Weinand to EVP, programming and human resources.  Go Italia!

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