Wireless Whammy – A Facebook/Google Shopping Duel? – Dark on DISH

Wireless Whammy:  How important is wireless to the consumer media future?  Contemplate this:  Hard on the heels of the cable/Verizon Wireless deal, Bright House, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable have announced plans to open their metro WiFi networks to each other's high-speed data customers.  Said Bernstein Research's Craig Moffett, "The strategic implications are profound .... (It leaves) the door open for a potentially very disruptive Wi-Fi-first service."

$$$:  Can Facebook out-shop Google?  Not an easy task but with $6.84B in IPO funding + a $5B credit line + $3.49B in cash holdings, the hoodies are expected to make a big splash in the buy-'em-up market.  More from Bloomberg. --- Intelsat has filed for its own IPO, with hopes to raise ~$1.75B.  The company will trade under the symbol "I" on the NYSE. --- Google's $12.5B purchase of Motorola Mobility should close this week.

Programming:  Sundance has gone dark on DISH Networks as the company's spat with AMC (think litigation over VOOM) continues.  Reportedly on the chopping block as of June 1: The AMC network, IFC and WE TV.  (A tip of the hat to Satellite Guys for the heads up.)  --- Go NBC!  According to the latest from Nielsen, the network has edged out ABC for the No. 3 spot among the 18-49 demo for broadcast nets.  That's after a long, long time at the bottom of the basement.  More from Crain's New York.  --- Coming from the folks at Outside Magazine, Outside Television will begin a nationwide launch on Comcast's Xfinity TV systems in June. 

Advertising:  No ads on Facebook and no ads at this year's Super Bowl ... GM says neither are worth it.  The start of a trend?

Rumor Mill:  About those reports circulating that News Corp might exit the newspaper biz .... No way, says Rupert.

More news first thing tomorrow in The Morning BRIDGE.•

A few months ago, we wondered what to call these various businesses including content and conduit providers ... and now the Federal Confusion Commission is trying to define what it calls Multichannel Video Programming Distributors and what the world calls a “channel” ... presumably, a video channel.

... an interesting pair of questions.

Is over-the-top (or OVD ... online video distributor a la Netfix et al) an MVPD?

Nah.

Is a channel the same as a canal?  Full of run-off rain?

Sure.  It isn’t 6 MHz anymore.

Whatever comes from the Portals, I’ll bet it will cause more confusion than clarification.  For example, even though a broadcaster is now more than likely to be broadcasting more than one channel, that TV station wouldn’t qualify ... at least not directly unless you count retransmission revenues.  (Here’s the Congressional definition: "{A} person such as, but not limited to, a cable operator, a multichannel multipoint distribution service, a direct broadcast satellite service, or a television receive-only satellite program distributor, who makes available for purchase, by subscribers or customers, multiple channels of video programming.")

For our part, calling the OVDs of the world MVPDs is ludicrous.

So ... Boston for NCTA or Las Vegas for MFM?

The cable world or the entire financial eco-system?

In Boston, the once collegially symbiotic world of programmers and operators is meeting amid growing tensions as fees keep growing while margins keep shrinking.

The more than half a century of cooperation and mutually-beneficial approaches is slowing unraveling.  Gotta wonder when – not if – it will result in a major splintering.  If Comcast doesn't have a researcher looking closely at aggressively rolling out Xfinity nationwide ... well they should.  And that collegial world?  How can Comcast – with NBCU – truly negotiate retrans  in the best interests of ... well, anyone but themselves?

In Las Vegas, many of the same companies plus the other MVPDs, broadcasters and others will be there.

Wonder where the future will be decided?

Will shows such as the NCTA, NAB and some others soon be a thing of the past?  The silos or the eco-system?

Seems to me, the real divisions in the world aren't among broadcasters/cable ops/programmers/DBS/Etc. ... but really the very big vs. the rest of the world.

Just think, four of the Top Ten MVPDs are NOT cable operators.  The four include two satellite ops and two, in effect, telco overbuilders.

A true shift in the eco-system ... the silos don't make sense anymore.

For the record, I'm still in Boston this afternoon ... still a little hung over from last night's Cable TV Pioneer's dinner ... we welcomed these deserving new Pioneers: Marshall Cohen, Bruce Collins, David Downey, Robert Grassi, Stan Hitchcock (where's the guitar?),  Ed Holleran, Jr., Howard Horowitz, James Ludington, Kenneth Woods and Rouzbeh Yassini.  Congrats!

Tonight is the CableCenter Hall of Fame celebration inducting six new members: Ann Carlsen; Leo Hindery, Jr.; Larry King; Debra Lee; Gerry Lenfest and Phil Lind.  Cool group!  Mega-congrats!

Meanwhile ... a little rambling:

• Is AMC v. DISH really Neilsen v. Rentrak?  That is, will STB data actually become the new currency someday?

• For my part, if it weren’t for the Cable TV Pioneers and the CableCenter Hall of Fame – not to mention my almost half century of cable bias – I think I might be in the city I don’t like instead of Boston.

• Lest you've forgotten:  Our next major, quarterly trend report via The BRIDGE is due out in June.  (You can get a year-long subscription now for $667 ... it goes up to $1000 next month.  Click here to sign up.)•