Turksat and Eutelsat signed an agreement to increase satellite resources and services for Turkey. Eutelsat will redeploy Eutelsat 33A in May from 33 degrees east to 31 degrees east, “where it will be operated by Turksat under its satellite network filings,” Eutelsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/JZCCPY). Turksat operates two satellites at 42 degrees east and it plans to launch Turksat 4A and Turksat 4B next year, Eutelsat said.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents were concerned about computer and phone data collection by private companies and the federal government, according to a Washington Post poll published Sunday (http://wapo.st/1hw6QoC). The poll found 43 percent were “very concerned,” as opposed to the 26 percent “somewhat concerned.” Sixty-six percent were concerned about data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA), said the poll. In separate cases, 69 percent of respondents were concerned about personal data collection on websites such as Amazon, Google and eBay, and the same was true of information collected by phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon. Fifty-nine percent of respondents were concerned about data collection from retail stores such as Target, Walmart and CVS, said the poll. Thirty-four percent of respondents were more concerned about data privacy since the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, while 62 percent maintained that the leaks had made “no difference” in their estimation of data privacy, said the poll. Seventy-four percent of respondents said they have not taken any action to “better protect” data privacy in the wake of the Snowden leaks, said the poll. A random sample of 1,006 adults from across the country, which included landline and cellphone users, was polled from Nov. 14 to 17, said an adjoined article in the Post (http://wapo.st/JgXocs). The poll has a margin sampling error of 3.5 percentage points, it said.
NAB bought the assets of the Content and Communications World and the Satellite Communications Conference and Expo (SATCON) New York-based events from JDEvents. The conferences will complement NAB’s existing trade shows and events, NAB said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1fBJI76). The association’s goal is to grow both the attendee and exhibitor base “of what has emerged as an important East Coast venue for the content community,” it said.
Meredith Corp. signed a definitive agreement to buy the broadcast assets of TV stations in Phoenix and St. Louis from Gannett and Sander Media. Gannett also completed its acquisition of Belo. The agreement with Meredith stems from a Department of Justice consent decree, which required Gannett to divest a St. Louis station to get approval for its Belo acquisition (CD Dec 17 p6). The stations -- KTVK Phoenix, KASW Phoenix, and KMOV St. Louis -- will be sold for $407.5 million, Meredith said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1hzeX3R). “At the closing, Meredith will simultaneously convey KASW-TV to Sagamore Hill of Phoenix, LLC, which, through its affiliates, owns and operates two television stations in two markets,” Gannett said in a separate press release (http://ganne.tt/1c2USgP). The purchase of Belo “nearly doubles Gannett’s broadcast portfolio and creates the largest independent station group of major network affiliates in the top 25 markets,” it said (http://bit.ly/1cNF4zr).
Verizon Wireless federal regulatory executives touted during a meeting with FCC staff Wednesday the carrier’s improvement in delivering timely location information for public safety answering points. The executives told an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and staff from the Public Safety Bureau that the carrier is “part of the solution” and was taking steps to continue improving the location information it sends to PSAPs, Verizon Wireless said in a filing. Those steps include making caller location information available within an average of 12-15 seconds, and within 25 seconds for 99 percent of all 911 calls where info is available. Verizon Wireless said it’s also working with E911 vendors to improve chipset sensitivity to GPS signals and working on enhancements to its A-GPS location accuracy solution for voice over LTE. Verizon Wireless also “remains on track” to make text-to-911 available to PSAPs by a voluntary May 15 deadline. The carrier will offer PSAPs three text-to-911 options, including two that are already available. The third option will be ready in Q1, Verizon Wireless said. Each of the options will include bounceback message capability (http://bit.ly/1lamshL).
Cable operator Cogeco’s Atlantic Broadband will launch TiVo-based mobile app and TV Everywhere services in early 2014 as it completes deployment of the Roamio DVRs across seven markets, Atlantic Chief Marketing Officer David Isenberg told us. Atlantic launched sales of Roamio in the Cumberland, Md., market in October and has since expanded it to Aiken, S.C., and Miami, and plans to add the Annapolis, Md., and Uniontown, Altoona/Johnstown and Warren/Bradford, Pa., areas by early next year, Isenberg said. The Roamio DVR marketed by Atlantic added a Multimedia over Coax (MoCA) connector and Atlantic is “in the final stages” of internal testing of both the TiVo-based mobile app and TV Everywhere offering, Isenberg said. Atlantic had 230,304 video customers Aug. 31, along with 177,108 customers for broadband and 78,246 for telephone, Cogeco said. Video subscribership was down 7,009 from a year earlier and the service had 44.5 percent penetration in Atlantic markets, Cogeco said. Cogeco bought onetime Charter Communications affiliate Atlantic for $1.3 billion in 2012. “We plan to knit together these services so that if you are a TiVo customer and TiVo knows what things you have set season passes for, the TV Everywhere platform will know that and serve you related content instantly,” Isenberg said. “It will lead to a much more personalized and consistent experience across platforms and will ultimately allow people to find the content they want to watch faster and easier.” The mobile app and TV Everywhere services will be offered free to subscribers to Atlantic’s existing TiVo bundles. Atlantic hasn’t disclosed how many TiVo customers it has. Isenberg said it has so far received a “great response” from new and existing customers. The Internet services, which were recently upgraded to 75/5 Mbps and 30/3 Mbps from 40/3 Mbps and 20/2 Mbps, have attracted many TiVo customers, Isenberg said. About 70 percent of Atlantic’s new subscribers choose the DOCSIS 3.0-based services, he said. Less than 50 percent of the total subscriber base get the DOCSIS 3.0 service, he said. While its parent Cogeco has deployed Rovi’s remote recording and XD tablet streaming services in Canada, Atlantic will retain TiVo in the U.S., Isenberg said. It also will continue to push TiVo with an install base that also includes Cisco and Arris’s Motorola Mobility set-tops, he said. Those customers subscribing solely for video will likely get Cisco or Motorola set-tops, Isenberg said. “What we market, sell and believe is the right platform to meet customer needs going forward is TiVo,” he said. “For us they are the only platform that offers the ability to stream live TV into the home and because they are cloud-based we can provide a multi-screen experience.” With TiVo readying both a cloud-based user interface and network DVR, an increasing number of functions will likely migrate to servers from a set-top, Isenberg said. The trend will start with “incremental storage and archiving and then over time I would expect to see more and more of the capabilities moving to a hosted platform,” Isenberg said.
Communications Daily won’t be published Wednesday, Christmas Day. Our next issue will be Thursday, Dec. 26.
Time Warner Cable and Tribune signed a new multi-year retransmission consent agreement for Tribune stations in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Diego and Indianapolis. “The agreement also covers Time Warner Cable’s continued distribution of Tribune’s superstation WGN America,” the companies said in a press release (http://bit.ly/JZds3K).
Verizon has fewer than one million customers remaining on copper facilities in areas where Verizon fiber is available, the telco told aides to FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday and Wednesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/18DERmF). Verizon discussed its work to “facilitate IP VoIP interconnection through voluntary commercial agreements,” citing its agreement with Vonage to exchange voice traffic in IP format (see related story in this issue). Verizon’s agreement with Vonage is its “second voluntarily negotiated commercial IP interconnection agreement for VoIP,” and the telco expects other agreements will follow, it said.
Alcatel-Lucent said it’s selling its LGS Innovations subsidiary to a Madison Dearborn Partners-led investor group that also includes CoVant. LGS Innovations provides secure networking, satellite communications, VoIP, optical routers and other services to U.S. government clients, Alcatel-Lucent said Friday. The deal, which could cost the investment group up to $200 million in cash, is expected to close in Q1. The deal is part of Alcatel-Lucent’s larger divestment plan, in which the company is seeking to reposition itself as a specialist in IP networking and Ultra-Broadband access. Alcatel-Lucent expects the divestment plan will reduce its fixed cost structure by 1 billion euros (http://bit.ly/JK6f74).