The FCC sought comment on one of the last DTV channel change requests it received in the few months before cutting off consideration of further moves (CD June 2 p7). Gray TV asked to change WEAU-TV Eau Claire, Wis., from Channel 13 to Channel 38, noted a Media Bureau rulemaking notice. It said comments are due 15 days after the notice appears in the Federal Register, replies 10 days later, in docket 11-100.
The FCC will spend “increasing energy” on broadband adoption programs, commission Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus told an FCBA luncheon in Washington Friday. Adoption is Chairman Julius Genachowski’s top priority after spectrum and Universal Service Fund reform, Lazarus said. “I can guarantee you we will be working with everyone in this room,” Lazarus said. The commission is not clear on which “levers” it will use to increase broadband adoption, but one possibility is through merger conditions, as with the Comcast-NBCU deal. A former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, Lazarus said he thought broadband adoption was the “civil rights issue for its time.”
AT&T and T-Mobile made their case for why the FCC should approve their proposed merger in a 229-page “joint opposition” to the dozens of petitions filed by merger opponents last month (CD June 2 p4). Support for the merger is wide and deep and the deal is critical to getting AT&T the spectrum it needs going forward as demand for wireless continues to accelerate, AT&T argues. The filing invokes the name of the primary opponent of the merger, Sprint Nextel, more than 370 times, compared to, for example, only 35 times for Free Press and 17 for Public Knowledge.
Q1 radio sales gained 3 percent from a year earlier to $3.78 billion, the Radio Ad Bureau said Friday. Sharp increases in ads bought by the auto, insurance and beverages sectors helped results, as did growth in stations’ off-air and digital revenue, RAB said. “The consistent ad spending increases from advertisers in Radio’s top 5 categories are significant,” President Jeff Haley said in a news release. During the quarter the communications industry spent $338 million on radio ads, led by AT&T, which spent $122 million and Comcast which spent $83 million, RAB said. Verizon Wireless spent $54 million and the Fox TV network spent $38 million, it said.
Two more TV stations want to leave the VHF band for UHF, they said in FCC filings posted online Thursday. Gray Television wants to move WEAU Eau Claire, Wis., to 38 from 13, while Media General wants to change the channel of WVTM Birmingham, Ala., to 21 from 13. “Having operated on DTV Channel 13 now for over a year-and-a-half, Licensee believes operation on Channel 21 would offer more meaningful replication of the traditional analog service area,” Media General said. Since 2009’s full-power DTV switch, “viewers in pockets of WEAU’s service area have reported difficulty receiving the station,” and “problems with indoor reception of digital VHF channels have been well documented through the real-world experiences of many stations,” Gray said. “The only long-term solution is to move to a UHF channel.” WEAU has been off-air since the tower holding its main antenna collapsed March 22, and it’s rebuilding it to resume full operation.
Q1 sales at Viacom gained 20 percent to $3.26 billion and profit increased 53 percent to $376 million, the company said Thursday. “We attracted new advertisers in the quarter and expanded the reach of our content onto new distribution platforms,” said CEO Philippe Dauman. MTV’s Jersey Shore helped boost that network’s prime time ratings almost 65 percent, which helped results, Dauman said. Sales at the company’s studio, Paramount, gained 38 percent to $1.2 billion while revenue at Viacom’s pay-TV networks gained 11 percent to $2.1 billion. “Despite the impressive revenue increase in Film, margins were still less than 5 percent, indicative of the challenges facing the studio,” said Gimme Credit analyst Dave Novosel in a note to investors.
The Virgin Islands Senate passed a broadband bonding bill that authorizes the Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority to borrow up to $38.5 million to help fund the Broadband Expansion Project. The project will develop, improve and expand telecom services in the Virgin Islands. They received four federal stimulus grants totaling $68 million, requiring a local match of 30 percent. The Senate in November passed legislation authorizing the Public Finance Authority to set up the Virgin Islands Next Generation Network as a wholly owned subsidiary to manage the broadband project. In February, Governor John deJongh proposed a bill to authorize the government to float a $42.5 million bond to cover the local match. The Senate changed the bonding ceiling to $38 million. DeJongh said he’s pleased to see the passage of the bill. “The completion of the middle mile in our territory’s broadband infrastructure will benefit all,” the Democrat said. “Once my staff and I have had the opportunity to review the effect of the amendments, I will be in a better position to discuss next steps for this legislation."
As of February, 38 percent of U.S. TV households had a DVR, Nielsen said. Only 28 percent of Hispanic TV households had one, and 36 percent of Asian TV households did, Nielsen said. Mobile video viewing in Q4 2010 increased 41 percent from a year ago, Nielsen said, reporting that 24.7 million mobile subscribers watched video on their phone during the quarter. On average they watched 4 hours and 20 minutes of mobile video a month during the quarter, and youth age 12-17 watched an average of 7 hours and 13 minutes a month, the most of any age group. TV ad spending increased 8 percent in 2010 to $69 billion. Prime time ad spending gained 8 percent to $20 billion, it said. Commercials are getting shorter, Nielsen said. Though 53 percent of all prime time ads were traditional 30-second spots, the number of shorter ads increased 12 percent while the number of ads longer than 35 second dropped 6 percent, it said.
New York, Atlanta and Chicago are the top three African American TV markets by household, Nielsen said. Los Angeles, New York and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale are the top three Hispanic markets and Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco are the top Asian markets by household, Nielsen said. About 38 percent of all U.S. TV households have a DVR, but White households are likelier to use one than Hispanic households, Nielsen said. And Nielsen found little evidence of VCR use among any ethnicity in November 2010 when it conducted it survey, it said. “The VCR has virtually disappeared for all groups,” it said.
Liberty Global said it lost 37,000 video subscribers during the fourth quarter, 10 percent fewer than a year earlier. It added 199,000 broadband subscribers, 38 percent more than a year earlier. It also 544,000 phone subscribers, a 31 percent improvement year to year, the company said. Q4 sales rose 18 percent to $2.43 billion. Profit fell 42 percent to $58 million because of a lower income tax benefit and higher interest expenses, it said.