NBC Universal isn’t willing to take “the big hit” financially and emulate what News Corp. did in its acquisition of DirecTV, CEO Bob Wright told McGraw-Hill’s 2005 Media Summit in N.Y.C. Thurs. “They ran through $1 billion of costs associated with that acquisition. I can’t do that. Nor can Disney do that. Viacom can’t do that, and Sony can’t do that.” People in Hollywood may be “very self-focused, but they're also very economically oriented,” Wright said. In the finances of TV sports, Wright said he was in the cable business 25 years ago with Cox, and as a result of that experience, “I've always believed sports would migrate to pay.” NFL football and NASCAR racing have done a much better job than other televised sports in striking the “balance” between a broad-based audience and more niche-oriented viewership, Wright said. “ESPN today probably can afford to pay $900 million for prime-time football, and the broadcast breakeven for something like that is probably $450 million.” He said that isn’t a “dilemma” for broadcast TV, “it’s just a fact. So you have to be careful. What you're seeing out of the broadcast side is, ‘God damn it, I'm gonna compete with them.’ But you'd better think about that.” On NBC’s signing of Martha Stewart to host an extension of The Apprentice, Wright praised her as “bigger than life,” and “very admired for her ability to communicate style and sense.” He said he has known Stewart 20 years and while he can’t “excuse” the crimes she was convicted of, she’s paying her debt to society. As for the successful transition to Brian Williams as the NBC Nightly News anchor, Wright hailed it as “one of the most significant marketing achievements I've ever been associated with.” Many were “skeptical” of Williams’ ability to follow successfully in Tom Brokaw’s footsteps, but Williams’ ratings are ahead of Brokaw’s in his final weeks, Wright said. He ridiculed the turbulence at CBS News, as it tries to find a successor for Dan Rather, who hastily resigned in the wake of the reporting scandal over President Bush’s military record. He sarcastically promised that NBC won’t follow the CBS business model of “destroying the franchise for tremendous upside.” Responding to a questioner, Wright said NBC’s challenge isn’t trying to lure younger viewers to the Nightly News, because that demographic has never been avid network news watchers. “Our issue isn’t to get 20 year olds to watch Brian,” Wright said. “It’s to get 40 year olds to watch Brian and to get 35 year olds thinking about watching Brian.”
Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin recently held talks with Apple CEO Steve Jobs about an iPod with a satellite radio receiver built in, Karmazin told McGraw-Hill’s 2005 Media Summit on Wed. in N.Y.C. But Karmazin sought to douse speculation the talks had yielded agreement on such a product, suggesting Apple didn’t place a high priority on it.
Neither the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) nor the Sony Betamax decision precludes mandating content protection requirements in the FCC’s DAB service rules, the RIAA said in a letter filed at the Commission (MB 99- 325).
Comcast “is committed to continued cable support for CableCARDs”, the company told the FCC in an ex parte filing. Comcast said it supports not only the unidirectional plug-&-play CableCARDs currently available, but also “multistream” CableCARDs that will be used in future LG and Samsung products. LG Vp John Taylor told us any LG products that would use multistream CableCARDs have “not yet been defined” but will conform to specs announced by CableLabs at the Las Vegas CES on OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) middleware for interactive DTVs and set- top boxes. Taylor said LG signed a CableCARD-Host Interface License Agreement with CableLabs for the commercialization of such products. CableLabs said the agreement is an “amendment and restatement” of the original POD-Host Interface License Agreement on unidirectional CableCARD products. Taylor said moving ahead with the OCAP agreement would allow LG to work on interactive plug-&-play products now, without precluding work on a future bi-directional CableCARD standard, which has been bogged down in multi-industry negotiations. Samsung couldn’t be reached for comment. Competitive market “imperatives” have spurred Comcast and other MSOs “to establish cooperative and mutually beneficial relationships” with CE makers and retailers, Comcast told the FCC. At the same time, Comcast said its desire to make all-digital video delivery available to households in an “economically efficient manner” requires -- along with the development of very low-cost digital set-tops -- successful development of a “next-generation network architecture” security for cable that’s “reliable, renewable and downloadable.” If the Commission bows to CE pressure and leaves the July 2006 implementation ban intact, Comcast said, that would “divert industry resources away from downloadable security and low-cost digital boxes, delay widespread consumer access to all- digital cable services and unnecessarily increase costs to consumers.”
Ultimate Electronics will close its Highlands Ranch, Colo., SoundTrack store Feb. 20 with the expiration of the store’s lease, the chain said Fri. All employees of the store, which opened in 1992, will be offered jobs at nearby outlets, such as the Park Meadows SoundTrack location 5 miles away in Englewood, Colo., which opened 5 years later, Ultimate said. The Highlands Ranch closing “completes a transition that started when we built our newer, larger Park Meadows store,” said CEO Dave Workman. He said traffic had been “migrating away” from Highlands Ranch toward the larger -- and better-performing -- Park Meadows and Chanson Plaza locations as the population of Englewood neighborhoods has grown the past several years. Nothing in Workman’s statement suggested the closure was due to the chain’s recent bankruptcy filing. Ultimate recently confirmed the layoffs of 30 employees at its Thornton, Colo., hq, and said all options were being considered but declined to comment on rumors the chain may close upwards of 20 stores (CED Jan 27 p8).
Macrovision will evolve to protect entertainment content in the “network hole” as opportunities in analog copy protection diminish over time and new digital distribution methods complement physical packaged media, senior executives told the company’s first Analyst Day conference Tues. in N.Y.C.
Those that oppose CEA’s petition seeking clarification or reconsideration of V-chip rules for DTV have “completely mischaracterized” the nature of that petition, CEA told the Commission in reply comments. Contrary to statements by the Coalition for Independent Ratings Services that the CE industry wanted to undermine the flexibility in ratings systems the FCC seeks, CEA said its only aim was “to implement this flexibility while maintaining some semblance of usability.” CEA said its request to have the Commission specify the rating region code that activates V-chip operation has been confused by those who believe that CEA’s request would somehow limit the ratings systems that can be transmitted in the rating region table. “Specifying rating region codes in advance has always been the intended approach in the PSIP system” of DTV, CEA said. “Doing so allows the receiver to pull the correct rating information simply by knowing in what region the receiver is operating,” it said. It said DTVs that are compliant with the proposed rules in the U.S. will process 2 ratings codes -- one “locked” to existing V-chip specifications, the other “being completely flexible to process whatever rating region table is delivered in the transport stream.” As for the licensing of V-chip by patent holder Tri-Vision, CEA urged the FCC to accept Tri-Vision’s stated offer to “do whatever is necessary” to assure that license terms are fair and reasonable. TiVo, in separate comments supporting CEA’s petition, urged the FCC to go a step further in assuring that Tri-Vision doesn’t gain a patent windfall at the expense of consumers. It urged the Commission to confirm “that so long as a DTV product is able to process new ratings systems, it need not utilize the same technology or processes protected by the Tri-Vision patents.” TiVo said it believes it can design its own devices capable of accommodating any new ratings systems “that would render licensing of the Tri-Vision patents unnecessary.” It also urged that the FCC protect those companies that have no choice but to license the Tri-Vision patents. “If the Commission endorses a rule where only Tri-Vision legally can produce or license the right to produce compliant devices, the Commission has a special responsibility to ensure that all regulated entities have access to the license on roughly the same terms,” TiVo said.
Macrovision agreed to work with Microsoft over the next year to support interoperability between Windows Media DRM and Macrovision’s copy management solutions, the companies announced Tues. With about 10 million PVRs expected to ship in 2005, a surge in demand for PCs running Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005 and broad consumer adoption and use of digital media technologies, “Microsoft and Macrovision are working to provide a flexible rights solution that allows the entertainment industry to take full advantage of new usage models for today’s digital home,” they said. Under the agreement, Windows Media DRM will “recognize” the Macrovision signals, enabling time-shift storage on digital devices of Macrovision-protected content received through analog interfaces. Additionally, an Internet-delivered movie, downloaded to a PC, can now be protected on analog video playback on a PC. Microsoft also has licensed portions of Macrovision’s patent portfolio for managing and preventing unauthorized copies through analog video interfaces, the companies said. The agreement covers technologies including Macrovision’s original analog copy protection (ACP) and enhanced ACP derivatives targeted at such applications as video on demand and pay per view, Macrovision said. It said the agreement would open the door for makers of PCs, set-top boxes and other devices using Microsoft software to license new Macrovision ACP capabilities, “with confidence that the Microsoft operating system software will be compatible with all the possible uses of the world’s leading analog copy protection and rights signaling technologies.” Meanwhile, Macrovision set its fiscal-year 2005 revenue target at $220- $230 million and projected pro forma earnings per share at $1.03-$1.06. The targets entail a 30% revenue increase and 17% increase in pro forma earnings.
Dolby Labs expects its IPO price will be $13.50- $15.50 per share when its stock begins trading on the N.Y. Stock Exchange, the company disclosed Mon. in an amended registration statement filed at the SEC. By comparison, shares of Dolby’s DTS rival debuted at $25.79 on the Nasdaq in July 2003; DTS shares Mon. closed at $20.41 -- 2% higher than their closing price Fri.
The Information Technology Assn. of America (ITAA) supports holding to the July 2006 CableCARD deadline, its pres., Harris Miller, told FCC Chmn. Powell in a letter last week. Developing “full and open competition” in the market for digital cable navigation devices requires that all participants “start from the same set of technical requirements, and face the same set of underlying costs and basic capabilities,” Miller said. “That will only happen here if all participants - including the cable operators - support the CableCARD in their navigation devices.” ITAA has long been an advocate of fully competitive telecom and information networks, Miller told Powell. “Since the days of the Bell System,” he said, “incumbent carriers have extended their monopoly positions by requiring users to rent devices to use their networks, from the black analog dial-up telephone to the cable set top box.” Cable’s goals of scrapping or extending the July 2006 deadline “is simply a way to hobble the competition and retain the market dominance of cable operator leased systems,” he said. “If cable operators are allowed by the Commission to leverage their market dominance in this way, the goals of vigorous competition, innovation and improved consumer welfare will not be met.”