There will be “continued consumption” of entertainment, especially movies, on tablets globally, Disney CEO Robert Iger predicted on an earnings call Tuesday. That’s “great for us,” and Disney is “hard at work at creating a set of apps to enable subscribers of multichannel services” to view Disney-owned TV channel content on tablets and smartphones, he said.
Televised sports rights remain a challenge in terms of rising programming costs across the board for DirecTV, CEO Michael White said on an earnings call Tuesday. DirecTV has looked at several options as it relates to regional sports networks, he said. The first choice was to have an entertainment programming package of cable channels without the sports programming, he said.
Having five FCC members for the first time in about a year automatically gives the agency more legitimacy, and the new additions may push the commission to act on some long-pending issues, industry officials and the most recent member to step down predicted. USF contribution is an issue that will see commission action soon anyway, and adding Ajit Pai as the new Republican member and Jessica Rosenworcel as the new Democratic commissioner brings differing views that could be helpful (CD May 8 p1). Meredith Baker left the FCC late last spring, and Pai fills her term through 2016.
NEW ORLEANS -- FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell Tuesday said the government must do what it can to get a better estimate of the actual cost of moving federal users off the 1755-1850 MHz band. NTIA Deputy Administrator Anna Gomez conceded over the weekend that NTIA’s report on the band merely repeated numbers submitted by federal agencies like the Department of Defense on their internal estimates of how much it would cost them to move operations out of the much-coveted band (CD May 8 p3). McDowell spoke on a panel at the CTIA annual meeting.
Low-power FM (LPFM) advocates and incumbent radio broadcasters squared off this week in comments on how the FCC should implement the Local Community Radio Act (LCRA). Individual LPFM stations and the Prometheus Radio Project also solicited listeners and members of the public to file comments with the agency, resulting in hundreds of brief comments in the docket. In general LPFM advocates argued for broader interpretations of the statute allowing more flexible rules for LPFM operators while incumbent FM broadcasters made the case for more narrowly tailored rules that protect their services.
Liberty Media plans to ask the FCC to reconsider a recent dismissal of an application the company filed that, if granted, would give it de facto control over Sirius XM, Liberty CEO Gregory Maffei said on an earnings call Tuesday. The International Bureau dismissed Liberty’s application Friday, saying it was procedurally defective (CD May 7 p12). Meanwhile, Liberty has taken steps to increase its financial stake in Sirius XM, the company said.
NEW ORLEANS -- FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski went on the offensive Tuesday, explaining in a keynote speech at the CTIA national conference the efforts of the agency to get on top of what is expected to be a coming spectrum crunch. CTIA attendees say privately concerns about spectrum are only growing, especially given the problems the FCC has encountered getting any new spectrum online for commercial use in the near future. But, with the spectrum legislation that cleared Congress in February, carriers have the promise of the first major spectrum release since before Genachowski took over at the FCC with the pending incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum.
NEW ORLEANS -- With profits low throughout the wireless industry, carriers face some major financial challenges, Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett warned during the initial policy panel at the CTIA’s annual conference late Monday. Panelists agreed that wireline will play a big role in ensuring wireless growth will continue during an expected spectrum crunch.
Forthcoming standards from two industry groups will more closely integrate the Internet, mobile devices and other consumer electronics with broadcast TV, executives from the Advanced Television Systems Committee and Motion Picture Experts Group predicted at the ATSC’s annual meeting. Work at the ATSC is under way on its 2.0 standard, which is backward-compatible with the existing TV standard, ATSC President Mark Richer said Tuesday. ATSC 2.0 has better video compression, and new features allow for audience measurement, digital rights management and “advanced” electronic program guides, he said. MPEG Chairman Leonardo Chiariglione summarized his group’s ongoing work (CD April 30 p12) on a variety of standards for any industry to use, including broadcasters.
Dish Network met its initial sales targets on the Hopper receiver/DVR, prompting manufacturer EchoStar to court other potential customers, EchoStar Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Carroll said on an earnings call Monday.