China is the leading market in the world for IPTV, with Chinese telecoms serving 30 percent of the world’s IPTV subscriber base, said SNL Kagan in a release Thursday (http://bit.ly/KEAg48). “IPTV is the fastest-growing pay TV platform from a global perspective,” said SNL Kagan analyst Julija Jurkevic. She said the growth in Europe and Asia is driven by “accelerated rollouts of next generation broadband networks.” The release said the top 20 IPTV operators have more than 57 million subscribers, with more than 28 million of them in Asia and 17 million in Western Europe. Seven of the top 20 IPTV companies are based in Asia, and nine in Western Europe. Four of those are in France, which SNL Kagan named the second-largest IPTV market after China. The release said Microsoft Mediaroom is “the world’s most deployed IPTV platform,” with 16 percent of global subscribers at the end of 2012.
Comcast petitioned to be excluded from municipal rate-setting for basic video and some other prices for five Massachusetts communities this week, said three separate filings posted in FCC docket 12-1. The petitions cited video competition from DirecTV and Dish Network. The proposed deregulation would affect just under 76,000 households, including the communities of Gloucester (http://bit.ly/ZSWjix), Revere (http://bit.ly/1926GDU) and Taunton (http://bit.ly/1926nsK).
NCTA officials asked the FCC not to impose proof-of-performance testing on digital cable, in an ex parte letter filed with the commission last week (http://bit.ly/15BCsTC). “Instead, consistent with FCC precedent in other areas, operators should be permitted to certify that they are in compliance with the digital technical standards, and test only in response to a complaint,” NCTA said. The association said there’s “no evidence of a problem warranting semi-annual proof-of-performance testing for digital signals” and that technical differences between digital cable and analog cable and operator safeguards mean that there’s no reason for “costly, burdensome and unnecessary prophylactic digital testing."
Fred Campbell, director of the Communications Liberty and Innovation Project at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, questioned in a blog post Thursday whether the FCC can mandate a single band plan for the lower 700 MHz band, as favored by smaller carriers and opposed by AT&T (http://bit.ly/13djmBA). Campbell offered a discussion on the topic, in the form a parody of “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,” which Galileo penned in 1632, attempting to prove that the earth revolves around the sun. “SIMPLICIO. I do not mean to join the number of those who are too curious about the mysteries of physics. But as to the point at hand, I reply that licensees in the A Block are asking the FCC to impose an interoperability mandate for competitive reasons,” Campbell wrote. “AT&T, who owns spectrum in the lower 700 MHz B and C Blocks, has deployed only Band Class 17, which excludes the A Block. Licensees in the A Block must use Band Class 12, which is not supported by AT&T. That is preventing A Block licensees from taking advantage of AT&T’s economies of scale for purchasing devices and roaming on its network. This seems to be conclusive evidence that AT&T excluded Band Class 12 from its B and C Block devices to raise the costs of its rivals, a form of anticompetitive behavior.” A second speaker, Sagredo, replies: “I do not claim to comprehend the mysteries of physics, but I have some knowledge of the laws governing competition. The law does not penalize a company merely for being successful in the marketplace -- it prohibits only anticompetitive behavior that is ‘unreasonable’ or ‘wrongful.’ The fact that AT&T’s decision to deploy Band Class 17 may incidentally raise its rivals’ costs is irrelevant if AT&T had legitimate business reasons to make that decision.”
It’s important that the U.S. be a “vigorous competitor in the Trans-Pacific” and show China that free trade is a “better course to prosperity,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. He and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, acknowledged concerns Wednesday about trans-Pacific relations and the need to dispel distrust. Several questions raised during the luncheon of the Emergency Committee for American Trade addressed the lack of cooperation toward free trade from China and India. Portman said free trade would be in China’s best interests because it would modernize its economy, and that more barriers would obstruct innovation. “When China agreed to be in the [World Trade Organization] and we still have to fight for trans-shipment and intellectual property … that’s not the right way to conduct trade,” Blunt said. “The more closely we're related, the less likely people are to try and disrupt that.” Portman raised additional concerns about India’s “protectionist” intellectual property policies in discordance with WTO rules. “There’s always temptation for the short-term advantages of protectionism, but it comes back to the U.S. political system and will encourage other countries to do the same,” he said. “These violations affect all of us, and you want to make sure the rules are maintained.” Portman said he supports “fast-track” legislation. Otherwise known as Trade Promotion Authority that would expedite trade agreements through Congress and facilitate the progress of negotiations like TPP. Portman noted that this is the first administration since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s that has not had such legislation in place. “I think it’s crazy,” he said. “We won’t make any progress without it.”
Holly Springs, N.C., should build fiber to connect its county facilities and public safety agencies, said a June report from the consultants at CTC Technology & Energy, which prepared it for the town (http://bit.ly/1b9uWR7). It also proposed “expanding the fiber optics to come within reasonable distance of key businesses and residential neighborhoods, such that private sector providers can elect to lease Town fiber and build their own ‘last mile’ facilities to directly connect businesses and residences,” it said. CTC emphasized the many benefits of fiber in terms of scale and what the technology can provide. The cost of Holly Springs’ plans to build a fiber backbone would be $1.3 million to $1.5 million, CTC estimated, though noted “a Town-owned fiber infrastructure is the most cost-effective approach for meeting internal Town networking needs in the long-term.” The report characterized a broader trend of municipalities building and operating fiber for government purposes: “We anticipate that this trend, which has continued unabated over the past decade and a half, is likely to continue into the future.” CTC President Joanne Hovis also serves as president of NATOA, which has advocated for the rights of municipalities to build their own networks.
The FCC is seeking comment on a petition from Boeing that urges the commission to make changes to its rulemaking on rules for earth stations aboard aircraft (ESAA). The notice will be published June 7 in the Federal Register. Oppositions to the petition are due 15 days after the publication date, replies 10 days later, the FCC said. Boeing’s recommended changes would increase the clarity and consistency of the ESAA rules and ensure that they “fully reflect the technical realities of ESAA systems as well as the commission’s policy objectives,” Boeing said in its January petition in docket 12-376 (http://bit.ly/ZT5L5D). Boeing urged the FCC to require ESAA terminals to be licensed by the commission when operated aboard U.S.-flagged aircraft, and to ensure that emissions demonstrations and certification requirements better reflect the technical and operating characteristics of ESAA systems, it said.
Media General and Young Broadcasting will combine into one company majority-owned by Young shareholders but retaining the Media General name and headquarters, after an all-stock merger transaction announced in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1b9p1LY). It said Young will add 12 network stations to the 18 already owned by Media General, giving the company 30 after the deal, operating in 27 markets and reaching 16.5 million U.S. TV households. They said Media General’s 2011 to 2012 average revenue was $320 million and Young’s $219 million. The release said the estimated total shares outstanding after closing is 89.1 million, and Media General’s ownership split will be “approximately” 32.5 percent Media General shareholders and 67.5 percent Young shareholders. “The combination provides immediate accretion to free cash flow, a strong balance sheet, the opportunity to refinance debt at a much lower cost and attractive synergies,” said Media General Chairman Stewart Bryan. The release said Media General will issue “approximately 60.2 million shares of the new Media General common stock” to Young’s shareholders. The release said the transaction is expected to close in Q3 or Q4.
Tennessee’s Metro-Moore County E-911 upgraded its next-generation 911 system, said Emergency CallWorks, which provided what it called “a new user experience and enhanced functionality for ... call taking, emergency incident response workflow, GIS and decision support.” The upgrade “provides users with a more intuitive, web browser-based interface making it easy to manage the entire emergency response incident from call to resolution,” the company said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1876Mue). “The software is built to allow faster innovation, lower cost, fault tolerance and needs substantially less hardware than typical 9-1-1 systems.”
ActiveVideo will provide cloud services for Charter Communications and Cablevision on its CloudTV platform, it said in a Thursday release (http://prn.to/12uFFYn). The company will also partner with Sumitomo for deployments in the Japan and Asia-Pacific markets, it said. Improvements to the CloudTV platform include reduced bandwidth requirements for rendering and more efficient delivery of partial-screen user interfaces, it said.