Outdoor Channel Holdings said its board decided the bid from Kroenke Sports & Entertainment is a “superior proposal” to an earlier, competing takeover bid from InterMedia. The programmer got the unsolicited bid for all its outstanding shares for $8.75 a share this week (CD March 5 p16). The definitive terms and conditions of a merger agreement detailing the KSE proposal have been fully negotiated, Outdoor Channel said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/16bqx0r). The company intends to terminate its agreement with InterMedia, and InterMedia may propose changes to its terms within four business days, it said. “At this time the InterMedia Agreement remains in effect, and the Outdoor Channel board has not changed its recommendation with respect to the InterMedia transaction.” Leo Hindery’s InterMedia in November agreed to a deal to combine the Outdoor Channel with the first company’s Sportsman Channel (http://bit.ly/Zue8Q1).
TV broadcasters can prohibit Internet retransmission of their programs by another company, said the European Court of Justice Thursday in ITV Broadcasting v. TVCatchup (http://bit.ly/WX5JbL). The case involves a challenge by several U.K. commercial broadcasters to TVCatchup (TVC), an Internet broadcasting service that lets users receive virtually live streaming of free-to-air television shows. TVC restricts its content to those already legally entitled to watch in the U.K. by virtue of their TV license, the court said. Commercial channels alleged, however, that the service breaches their copyright by offering a communication to the public that’s outlawed by national law and the EU directive on harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. They sued in the High Court of Justice, which asked the ECJ to decide whether there’s a communication to the public within the meaning of the directive in a case where an organization such as TVC streams broadcasts to members of the public who would have been entitled to access the original broadcast signal on their own TV sets or laptops at home. Under EU law, “communication” covers any transmission or retransmission of a work to the public not present at the place where the communication originates by wire or wireless means, including broadcasting, the ECJ said. It ruled that when content is put to multiple use, each transmission and retransmission using a specific technical means must be individually authorized by its author. Making TV shows available online uses a specific technical means different from that of the original broadcast, so retransmission must be considered a communication, it said. Moreover, under ECJ case law, “public” means an indeterminate number of potential recipients and implies a fairly large number, it said. In this case, TVC’s programming was aimed at, and could be watched by, anyone residing in the U.K. with a TV license, so its retransmissions of the protected works were in fact communicated to the public. Therefore, TVC’s online retransmissions fall under the directive and can be barred by TV broadcasters, the court said.
Sixteen percent of Britons ages 12 and up access online content illegally, the Office of Communications said Thursday. Its second consumer tracking study into Internet copyright infringement (http://xrl.us/bomwqg) showed no significant changes from the first one last November, it said. The main changes included: (1) Streaming of TV programs rose from 30 percent to 33 percent in the past three months, with overall consumption of online content, including downloading, increasing as a result from 32 percent to 35 percent. (2) Since the first survey, three content types experienced small but important changes. The proportion of consumers of music who downloaded all their tracks for free fell from 72 percent to 69 percent, in favor of a “mix of paid and free” group, which increased from 18 percent to 22 percent. (3) Consumer confusion about the legality of online activity has dropped since November -- when 44 percent of all users over 12 claimed to be either “not particularly confident” or “not at all confident” about what’s legal on the Internet -- to 41 percent. In general, attitudes toward online activities and reasons given for online infringement haven’t changed, Ofcom said. Infringement levels varied by content type, it said. Ten percent of users over 12 consumed at least some music illegally over the three-month period, while 6 percent did so for films. For videogames and computer software the number was 2 percent, for e-books, 1 percent. Across all content categories, copyright violators were more likely to be male and under 35. Music was the most frequently infringed content, followed by TV shows, films and videogames, Ofcom said. Thirty-five percent of those who accessed any content unlawfully claimed to do so via peer-to-peer services, with 20 percent saying they used the unlicensed uTorrent service in the three-month period. The most common reasons given for infringing were because it’s free, convenient and quick. Users who access content illegally said cheaper legal services would encourage them to stop, as would having everything they want available lawfully. Eighteen percent said they'd avoid illegal services if their ISP said it would suspend their Internet access; 12 percent if the ISP threatened to restrict online access; and 11 percent if the provider merely informed them that their account had been used to breach copyright.
The Department of Justice let a deadline pass Tuesday without filing to block the proposed combination of T-Mobile and MetroPCS, MetroPCS said (http://prn.to/108hDN0). “The required waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 in connection with the Company’s proposed combination with T-Mobile USA ... has expired,” MetroPCS said. FCC officials said Wednesday an FCC order approving the deal may soon follow.
The House Judiciary Committee postponed the Intellectual Property and Internet Subcommittee’s hearing on patent litigation abuse scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday “due to a change in the House schedule.” The committee had not rescheduled the hearing by late Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/XTvVlp).
Tennessee lawmakers, telcos and utilities are stirred up over possibility of a new law changing how pole attachment pricing will work. There are two broad models for governing negotiated pole pricing rates under consideration -- the Watson/Matlock bill (HB 1111/SB 1222) and the telco-backed Freedom to Connect Act (HB 567/SB 1049), both of which have strong supporters and detractors. The Tennessee Senate Commerce and Labor Committee passed the Senate version of the Watson/Matlock bill Tuesday, advancing it to the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee, with eight votes in favor with one pass. The Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association (TCTA) issued a press release last week (http://bit.ly/XdiIEb) warning of what it sees as an “unprecedented fee increase” of this Watson/Matlock bill. It would add $21 million in costs for private broadband Internet providers, TCTA argued. “This is big-government, anti-business, anti-consumer legislation that has severe consequences for Tennessee,” said TCTA Executive Director Corum Webb in a statement. But the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association (TECA) said Feb. 26 on its website “the Watson/Matlock bill is based on good-faith efforts to compromise with cable in the past.” (http://bit.ly/WKsKsH). “The bill preserves a cooperative’s authority over its own property while giving attachers a clearly defined dispute resolution process and protection against legitimate abuse.” TCTA praised the alternative Freedom to Connect Act and said it will “establish guiding policy for rates, based on actual costs, and set up independent, third-party review for situations when utilities and private companies disagree.” TECA, however, said the act would hurt rural Tennesseans and “result in increased electric bills across Tennessee.” On Tuesday, the Knoxville News Sentinel said the Freedom to Connect Act would be the better deal. The Watson/Matlock bill “supported by utilities would require the [administrative law] judge to split the roughly $100 per year annual cost of maintaining a pole equally among the users,” the editorial said. “That would mean that cable and telephone companies would pay $33.33 per pole per year, with the utility responsible for the remaining $33.33. Companies such as AT&T that own at least 300,000 of their own poles in Tennessee or another state are exempt.” The Taxpayers Protection Alliance also attacked the Watson/Matlock bill in a March 1 letter to legislators, alleging it would “would force providers to pay millions in additional pole fees, which in turn would mean phone and Internet providers would have to raise rates” (http://bit.ly/169jxAZ). Grover Norquist, president of the national group Americans for Tax Reform, bashed the Watson/Matlock bill in a similar March 1 letter to Tennessee legislators (http://bit.ly/W68Efa).
The FCC Media Bureau should force Charter’s Los Angeles-area systems to resume carrying KJLA Ventura’s signal on Charter’s analog tier until the cable operator gives the station and subscribers the proper notice that the it would no longer be available in analog, KJLA said (http://bit.ly/XR5qvM). In a petition for an order to show cause, the broadcaster said Charter violated the procedure the FCC spelled out when it allowed the FCC’s viewability rules to sunset last year by removing KJLA’s analog signal without first telling the station. Those rules had required cable operators to deliver must-carry TV stations in analog and digital to subscribers for three years following the DTV transition. “Charter’s failure to provide proper notification to KJLA violates the notice requirements of Section 76.1601 of the Commission’s Rules, and marks a clear departure from the commitments cable operators made to the Commission,” the station said.
Boeing will offer bandwidth for commercial services through Inmarsat-4’s L-band service. Inmarsat certified Boeing to offer capabilities like streaming video, direct dialing and secure communications and VoIP service, Boeing said in a release (http://bit.ly/YxOhYc). Boeing also is working toward the launch of three Inmarsat-5 Global XPress satellites, it said.
CBS Radio brought its brands to Triton Digital’s a2x “audience-based programmatic buying solution for online and mobile audio ads,” Triton said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/Zr7vhd). Triton said a2x was the only “audio advertising exchange” that lets advertisers programmatically buy targeted online and mobile audio inventory in real time, which “facilitates increased efficiency, eliminating waste and resulting in the highest price for publishers and the greatest efficiency for advertisers.” CBS Local Digital Media President Ezra Kucharz said a2x will provide “a great compliment [sic] to our strong traditional sales channels.” Triton Chief Operating Officer Mike Agovino said the “beta phase” of a2x was “nearly complete with significant success achieved for early adopter advertisers.”
Michael Gravino can hardly get a meeting on the 8th floor. The general manager of the Civic Affairs Network, which has proposed the FCC set aside some TV stations to provide over-the-air access to educational and governmental access cable TV networks in the post-auction repack of the TV band, said he sought meetings with every commissioner’s office. Only Commissioner Robert McDowell’s office scheduled any time with him, he said in an ex parte letter disclosing the meeting. “I find this disturbing and alarming considering that 40 percent of the nation could be structurally left out of daily civic life if the Civic Broadcast Digital Divide is not at least studied and a remedy not considered post-repack,” the letter said.