The FTC signed off on Comcast's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation, the agency said in an early termination notice Monday. Comcast has said it expects to conclude the $3.8 billion deal by year's end (see 1604280010).
Comcast will spend roughly $3.8 billion on DreamWorks Animation in an all-cash deal, making it part of its Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, the cable company said in a news release Thursday. Comcast said it expects to close on the deal by year's end, subject to antitrust approvals in the U.S. and internationally. On close, DreamWorks Animation CEO/co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg will be chairman of DreamWorks New Media, which will hold its ownership interest in Awesomeness TV and Nova, and serve as an NBCUniversal consultant, Comcast said.
T-Mobile doesn’t fear the FCC will clamp down on Binge On, its zero-rated streaming video service, CEO John Legere said Tuesday. T-Mobile reported Tuesday it continued its strong growth in Q1 and executives said it's positioning itself to potentially go big in the TV incentive auction. “Binge On was really a first shot across the bow touching into the content area, kind of disrupting some of data monetization strategies” of Verizon in particular, Legere said on Bloomberg TV. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler “has been very clear” that he sees Binge On “as innovative and highly competitive,” he said.
Lobbying on encryption policy increased significantly in Q1, while interest in copyright and other tech sector policy issues remained largely on par with previous quarterly filings. At least 60 companies and groups lobbied on encryption issues and specific pieces of legislation during Q1, compared with just seven entities during the same period last year and 24 entities during Q4, according to available lobbying filings. Apple and Google reduced their lobbying expenditures in Q1 from the same period in 2015, while Amazon and Facebook posted significant increases (see 1604200036).
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn called FCC rate-of-return USF changes a "win-win" for rural consumers wanting broadband and phone consumers paying into the USF. Clyburn said she was proud the FCC went beyond fixing a stand-alone broadband problem that prevented rural telcos from receiving USF support when customers with high-speed Internet access dropped traditional phone service. "We are also establishing a blueprint to connect unserved households and modernize the Connect America Fund to ensure that rate-of-return carriers use finite resources as efficiently as possible," she said in a statement that accompanied the 249-page Order and Further NPRM released Wednesday (see 1603300065).
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee will take on a political hot potato Friday -- bidirectional sharing, in which commercial licensees would be asked to share their underutilized spectrum with the federal government (see 1508260066). CSMAC is to consider recommendations by its Federal Access to Non-Federal Bands Subcommittee during its quarterly meeting. Bidirectional sharing has been controversial (see 1509010059).
T-Mobile doubled branded postpaid net adds and nearly tripled branded postpaid phone net adds during the "Black Friday/Cyber Monday" weekend, compared with the same period in 2014, T-Mobile said in an SEC filing Monday. T-Mobile also confirmed guidance for 2015, projecting adjusted EBITDA of $6.8 billion to $7.2 billion, branded postpaid net adds of 3.8 million to 4.2 million and capital expenditures of $4.4 billion to $4.7 billion.
When shopping for tech products for the holidays, “remember that Black Friday savings don't have to stop at checkout,” said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Thursday in a blog post. “When you buy the most energy efficient devices on the market -- and adjust the settings to avoid unnecessary energy waste once you bring your new toys home -- you can enjoy year-round savings on your electric bills,” said Horowitz, who wrote NRDC’s new report that said Ultra HD TVs with high dynamic range have the potential to consume 50 percent more power than basic Ultra HD TVs without the HDR capability (see 1511180067) and 1511190025). “We have 3.8 billion electronic devices installed in homes across the country,” and collectively they use $22 billion worth of electricity a year, enough to match the output of 67 large power plants, he said. “Many of these devices, like always-on set-top boxes or gaming consoles, can rack up energy costs even when no one's using them -- an average of $165 dollars every year per household.”
Five G mobile subscriptions will reach 150 million worldwide by 2021, and an increase in mobile video consumption will drive about six times more data traffic volume per smartphone in North America and Europe by the same year, Ericsson said in its 2015 Mobility Report released Tuesday. It projects South Korea, Japan, China and the U.S. will lead the world with the first and fastest 5G subscription uptake, and the new technology will pave the way for new industries in the information and communications technology and IoT spaces. Due to the predicted rise in mobile video consumption, which Ericsson said will make up 70 percent of all mobile data traffic by 2021, data traffic per smartphone in North America will grow from 3.8 GB to 22 GB per month by 2021. Ericsson projects mobile broadband subscriptions will increase worldwide from 3.6 billion in 2015 to 7.7 billion in 2021, and mobile LTE subscriptions will experience a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent in that time. Mainland China will overtake the U.S. by 2021 as the largest LTE market in the world with a predicted 1.2 billion LTE subscriptions, Ericsson said, and Africa will continue to improve connectivity, which will improve opportunities for financial inclusion.
Comcast moved up two spots to sixth place on the list of U.S. providers in the Netflix October ISP Speed Index, Netflix said in a news release Monday. Comcast averaged 3.61 Mbps when its customers streamed Netflix in October, compared with 3.52 Mbps the previous month. Verizon FiOS maintained the top spot for U.S. service providers in October with an average speed of 3.8 Mbps, while Cox ranked second, averaging 3.75 Mbps. Bright House, Cablevision Optimum and Time Warner Cable rounded out the top five. Frontier, CenturyLink, Verizon DSL and Clearwire had the lowest average speeds for Netflix streaming among major U.S. ISPs for the month.