A Thursday announcement from Nielsen that it will change its definition of a TV household to include those who get video only through a broadband connection and plans to eventually “capture all viewing” probably won’t help TV ratings and ad sales in the near term, wrote Bernstein Research analyst Todd Juenger in a note to investors. He said one explanation for an unprecedented two-year drop in the number of total TV homes is that more and more of them have TV sets, but no antenna or pay-TV service. “To the extent the number of households fitting this definition is greater than zero, then the estimate of total TV homes will increase,” he wrote but noted the stagnation in housing formation probably plays a larger role. Expanding the definition of a “TV home” to include such households is a necessary step for measuring video consumption, but the amount of time spent watching video through non-traditional platforms is still so small it probably won’t move ratings much, he said.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau found Life on the Way Communications liable for an $18,000 fine for operating earth station E970117. Life on the Way operated the earth station in Van Nuys, Calif., for more than eight years without commission authority, the bureau said in a notice of apparent liability for forfeiture and admonishment (http://bit.ly/YiSIH5). Life on the Way never sought or obtained prior commission consent to the assignment of the license of the earth station, the bureau said. The bureau said it rejected the licensee’s contention that the bureau’s approval of the assignment of KTLW(FM) Lancaster, Calif., “had the effect of granting consent to the assignment of the license of earth station E970117 to Life on the Way."
A Friday blog post distributed by the Free State Foundation tied the state of Iowa’s move to sell off its Iowa Communications Network to critiques of municipal telecom networks (http://bit.ly/YrFgMW). These networks create “the financial burden on taxpayers without providing commensurate benefits,” Free State Research Assistant Sarah Leggin wrote. Iowa released a request for proposals for the sale of its 24-year-old network earlier this month (CD Feb 19 p7). “The Iowa state government acknowledges that the private sector could, and likely will, provide service more efficiently to consumers than the government system can,” the post said, cautioning against such systems in most cases: “Municipal or state governments should consider undertaking the construction and operation of a telecom network only if customers are not adequately served by the private sector.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau Friday sought comment on a petition for declaratory ruling and/or rulemaking filed by TeleCommunication Systems on intellectual property rights in technologies used to provide 911 services. “TCS states that it provides Enhanced 911 and Next Generation 911 services including call routing and location information to customers such as wireless carriers and interconnected VoIP service providers,” the notice said (http://fcc.us/YhY9UO). “[TCS] claims that it has become a target of ‘predatory patent infringement suits’ based on its role as a provider of E911 services and capabilities that are required under Commission rules.” TCS asked the FCC to issue a declaratory ruling that service providers’ compliance with E911 and NG911 regulations “amounts to a use of intellectual property” under federal law, the bureau said. “Alternatively, TCS asks the Commission to adopt rules requiring intellectual property rights for mandatory 911 service capabilities to be licensed on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms.” Comments are due March 25, replies April 8.
The Justice Department used “gerrymandered product and geographic markets,” failed to “acknowledge significant competitors” and underestimated “the ease of entry and expansion” in the online product-review market in its antitrust lawsuit challenging Bazaarvoice’s June acquisition of PowerReviews (CD Jan 14 p13), Bazaarvoice said in a filing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco Friday. The companies provide product-review platforms for clients including Panasonic, Best Buy, Cisco and GoDaddy.com. Justice hasn’t alleged “any cognizable market share or market concentration, such that it would be entitled to a presumption that the acquisition is likely to harm competition,” Bazaarvoice said: “Customers have many choices to which they can turn in this dynamic, vibrant market sector.” It said it will show that its customers, “large and small,” don’t believe they're “constrained to absorb anticompetitive price increases (or reduced quality) from Bazaarvoice,” that the industry is “still in its infancy” and that the acquisition “has only helped, not harmed, customers."
Frontier announced 4Q 2012 revenue of $1.2 billion, operating income of $235.7 million and, and net income attributable to common shareholders of $24.9 million. “Our fourth quarter revenue was slightly lower than anticipated,” said CEO Maggie Wilderotter in a statement (http://bit.ly/XQW7c3). She said that was due to a decline in voice revenue as customers chose unlimited residential voice packages and standalone broadband options. But the telco is improving its customer retention and average revenue per business customer, and is seeing improved cash operating expenses when one time expenses for storm costs and gift card promotion costs are factored out, she said. UBS reiterated its “buy” rating, forecasting a “comfortable” 46 percent of free cash flow in 2013.
NTIA is exerting close oversight of its broadband stimulus grantees, Administrator Larry Strickling said in a blog post Friday (http://1.usa.gov/YiBMAD). He described the many ways NTIA monitors the more than 200 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grantees throughout the states, from site visits to reviewing quarterly reports. Potential action from NTIA has included technical assistance, performance improvement plans, corrective action plans and award suspensions or termination, Strickling explained. NTIA’s oversight allowed what Strickling called “proactive intervention": “In many cases, NTIA’s oversight and technical assistance have successfully enabled projects to get back on track after suffering initial obstacles,” he said. “Over the past two years, four grant recipients totaling approximately $229 million were put on suspension and then restarted after the grantee addressed our concerns.” NTIA has suspended three projects now for “performance-related issues, representing $158.9 million,” and is “hopeful” to restart them, according to the post. “In its three years of operation, NTIA has terminated only two BTOP projects for failing to live up to the terms of their grant,” he added. “Those projects spent $11 million, representing about .3 percent of all BTOP funds awarded. Separately, four projects voluntarily terminated their awards in the very early stages, spending less than $50,000.” Strickling’s blog post comes weeks after the Commerce Department Office of the Inspector General notified NTIA it’s beginning an audit of BTOP grant closeout procedures (CD Feb 15 p7) and less than a week before a House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing on broadband stimulus grant oversight (CD Feb 22 p14).
Crown Media Q4 sales rose 3 percent to $102.3 million from the year-ago period, the cable programmer said Friday (http://bit.ly/XQU6g6). It said ad revenue rose 2 percent to $83.1 million “due to Hallmark Movie Channel audience growth,” as subscriber fees rose 7 percent to $19.1 million on “contractual rate increases.” Income from operations excluding tax benefits fell 17 percent to $25.3 million.
Vonage continues to ignore the applicable legal standard for special relief through a waiver, Bandwidth.com and Level 3 told the FCC (http://bit.ly/12XUOju). Vonage must meet a “heavy burden” to show there are “special circumstances” that give Vonage a unique need “apart from all of the other non-carriers that would also like to have direct access to number resources without the burdens of becoming and remaining carriers,” the CLECs said. If the rules are going to be changed to give non-carriers direct access to number resources, “they should be simultaneously changed for everyone” in a rulemaking “that addresses the matter holistically,” they said. The “supposed benefits” raised by Vonage -- IP interconnection, bill and keep compensation, product enhancement, increased call quality and number portability -- are “readily achievable by Vonage today” by simply becoming a telecom carrier, the CLECs said. “The fact that Vonage is not a CLEC is purely a matter of choice."
The challenges of cyber research and development will be the focus of a joint hearing of the Technology and Research subcommittees Tuesday, the House Science Committee said (http://1.usa.gov/W8rCnK). Scheduled to testify: Michael Barrett, PayPal chief information security officer; Frederick Chang, president of 21CT, a “big data” analytics provider; and Terry Benzel, deputy director of cyber networks and cybersecurity at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute. The hearing will be at 10 a.m. in Room 2318 Rayburn.