Verizon’s Q2 profit came in at $1.6 billion versus a loss of $1.2 billion in the year-ago quarter. It added a total of 2.2 million subscribers, including 1.3 million postpaid customers, bringing the total connections to 106.03 million.
Global TV ad sales should increase 3.8 percent in 2011 to $149 billion, Informa Telecoms & Media said. “Growth thereafter will generally be slow, though the soccer World Cup Finals in Brazil will boost the 2014 figures and the 2016 Olympics (also in Brazil) will have a similar impact.” The forecast for 2011, after sales gained more than 10 percent in 2010, reflects the perception that the global economic recovery isn’t on solid footing, said Adam Thomas, Informa’s media research manager. Audiences have become more fragmented, giving advertisers more outlets to turn to reach them, he said, allowing advertisers to “negotiate lower rates."
Imposing the right window determining how soon consumers can watch Viacom shows online or on mobile devices is vital to the company’s strategy in extending its distribution to the platforms, CEO Philippe Dauman said Thursday on the fiscal Q1 earnings teleconference. “A window makes it complementary” to Viacom’s traditional businesses “and makes the revenue that we're getting under this deal incremental,” he said. Dauman was referring to a new deal with Hulu that will bring some Viacom shows back to Hulu.com and add programming to Hulu’s nascent subscription service, Hulu Plus.
Vivendi completed the sale of its remaining 12.34 percent of NBC Universal to General Electric for $3.8 billion, paving the way for the recently-approved Comcast-NBCU transaction, it said.
Globecomm will design and install antenna switching systems and refurbish existing antennas for an undisclosed “major media and entertainment company,” it said. The $3.8 million contract also includes Globecomm’s network management software and engineering support, it said.
Motorola posted a Q3 profit of $109 million, up from $12 million a year earlier. Revenue jumped to $4.9 billion, in its first year-over-year revenue increase since 2006. The company and a few other iDEN players said they remain confident of the technology despite Sprint’s intention to phase out its network that uses it.
Arbitron Q2 sales gained 1.8 percent from a year earlier to $88.3 million. Costs increased 2.1 percent to $87.7 million. Working closely with radio clients, Arbitron will promote the medium to advertisers and marketers, CEO William Kerr told investors. “We are looking to become an advocate for radio and to increase the medium’s profile in the ad buying and planning process.” Profit gained 8.7 percent to $3.8 million.
The digital transition prompted many TV stations to jump ship from the formerly desirable VHF channels, and that reordering should affect the regulatory fee structure, commenters told the FCC. The commission agreed the changes will affect how much stations must pay and adjusted its assessment method, though not in the wholesale fashion some commenters wanted. The change is one of the issues noted in the commission’s report on assessment and collection of regulatory fees for 2010, released Friday. The commission said it must collect $335,794,000 in regulatory fees for 2010, down from $341,875,000 in 2009. The fees are meant to cover the cost of the commission’s enforcement, policy and rulemaking, user information and international activities. The commission said it used the same assessment methodology it used last year.
Comcast’s reported plan to raise cable rates 3.8 percent on average in its Sacramento systems was seized on by an opponent of the company’s planned purchase of control of NBC Universal. Coming before the FCC’s public hearing next week on the deal (see separate item in this issue), “Comcast reminds us that we have cause for concern about the impact of this union,” Associate Program Director Josh Stearns of Free Press said Wednesday. Contrary to its name, Free Press counters freedom of choice and consumer interests, deal supporter Competitive Enterprise Institute said. “The greatest hazard of blocking ventures like the proposed Comcast-NBC merger is that it makes competitive responses to it unnecessary."
Cable operators are again seeing broadband businesses grow at faster rates, after a few quarters of slowing growth, Comcast executives told investors Wednesday. The renewed growth, which they said was rare for a business line that’s been active for a decade, had to do with its DOCSIS 3.0 deployments and the growing popularity of online video and gaming. “We and other cable companies have started to re-accelerate our net adds,” said Chief Operating Officer Stephen Burke. “In each of the last two quarters our net adds alone were as much as the entire big RBOC footprint combined."