Liberty Media’s Starz is returning to the video streaming business, this time without Netflix. Having parted with Netflix earlier this year in a fee dispute, Starz introduced Starz Play and Encore Play websites and downloadable apps for Apple devices and Wi-Fi through Cox Communications and its 4 million customers. Cox is expected to make a marketing push next week for services, a spokeswoman said Wednesday at the Liberty Media investor conference in New York City. While the services only support logins for Cox customers, they're expected to expand to other cable operators, including two of Starz’s biggest customers, Comcast and Dish Network, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht told us. Android versions of the apps will be available “soon,” as will be one for Starz’s Movieplex service, he said. The apps represent a return for Starz to a business it originally entered in 2008 with a broadband video service that was initially available through Verizon’s FiOS TV and FiOS Internet/DSL customers. At the time, Starz charged a $5.99 monthly fee. This time the app is free to subscribers. Meanwhile, Starz remains scheduled to split off from Liberty Media by year-end, Liberty Media CEO Gregory Maffei said. While Starz will emerge as an independent company, its future could be better served by partnering with or being acquired by a larger media company, Liberty Media Chairman John Malone said. “I think everyone needs a big brother,” and Starz would offer “substantial synergies” for large media companies, he said. Part of the reason for spinning Starz off was to enable the company to “explore other relationships,” Malone said. Having Starz as part of a larger company would strengthen its hand in competing with HBO and Showtime, Malone said. “It’s all about marketing and pricing power,” which Starz could gain with a larger partner, Malone said.
Clarification of the historical context surrounding LightSquared’s authorization and proposal to build a terrestrial network is necessary, and wasn’t completely delivered by FCC staff during a hearing last month on the agency’s proposed revoked approval of the company’s network, said Trimble Navigation. Clarification is particularly necessary “in light of recent congressional testimony by members of the FCC’s staff,” GPS company Trimble said in a letter in docket 11-109. Commission staff were witnesses at a House Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing last month on the commission’s decision to revoke its approval of the network (CD Sept 24 p4). The FCC witnesses suggested that the commission has historically looked to the private GPS industry to raise interference issues, Trimble said. This “grossly understates the long-standing role of the FCC, in coordination with NTIA and other government agencies, in regulating and managing the GPS spectrum,” it said. The FCC witnesses didn’t acknowledge that LightSquared’s predecessors proposed strictly limited terrestrial operations to “fill in gaps in a nationwide satellite service footprint where such limited terrestrial operations would be fully integrated with and in support of the primary satellite service,” Trimble said. The witnesses also did not acknowledge that the FCC imposed a series of stringent interference restrictions on these limited terrestrial operations “that directly and indirectly protected GPS from interference of any kind,” Trimble added.
Time Warner Cable (TWC) asked to be let out of local rate regulation in 10 local franchise areas in Ohio. It said its cable systems in those areas are subject to effective competition either because satellite providers serve more than 15 percent of the homes or because TWC serves less than 30 percent of homes, it said in a petition for special relief (http://xrl.us/bntpcd).
Samsung won its fight Thursday to overturn a preliminary injunction banning U.S. sales of its Galaxy Nexus smartphone. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded the injunction, issued June 29, ruling that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh’s court in San Jose had “abused its discretion.” The injunction was related to a lawsuit Apple filed in February that alleged the Galaxy Nexus infringed eight Apple patents, according to the court. It’s not related to Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung over patent violations related to its iPhone and iPad products. A federal jury ruled in late August that Samsung had violated multiple Apple patents, awarding Apple more than $1 billion in damages. Samsung has since asked for a new trial in the case and has successfully tabled a preliminary injunction against its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet (CD Oct 4 p14). Koh had originally issued the injunction against the Galaxy Nexus smartphone in part because Apple claimed the phone violated a patent related to its Siri voice command service. Samsung asked to have the ban temporarily lifted, but was denied, according to the federal appeals court’s decision. “Apple has presented no evidence that directly ties consumer demand for the Galaxy Nexus to its allegedly infringing feature,” the court said in its decision. “The causal link between the alleged infringement and consumer demand for the Galaxy Nexus is too tenuous to support a finding of irreparable harm.” The court noted in its ruling that the prosecution history in the lawsuit “does not help Apple show that it is likely to succeed in its infringement claim."
The Universal Service Administrative Co. should consider “other reliable proof” submitted by wholesale carriers during an audit to establish its reasonable expectation the customer is a reseller, XO told the FCC Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bntpam). The FCC should also clarify that USAC may not assess USF on the “subject revenue” at both the wholesale and retail levels, XO said. If the commission requires apportioning of wholesale purchases to provide reseller certifications on a more specific basis, it should provide a guide to compliance, and an adequate transition period to implement the requirement, XO said.
The FCC Media Bureau dismissed an application from Truth Broadcasting to change the city of license of its KTIA(FM) Boone, Iowa, station to Johnston, Iowa (http://xrl.us/bnto9c). The public interest would be better served by keeping KTIA in Boone, where it’s the fourth local service, rather than moving it to Johnston, where it would be at least the 17th local service to the Des Moines area, wrote Peter Doyle, chief of the audio division, in a letter to the station’s counsel.
The FCC Media Bureau granted New Hampshire Public Broadcasting a continued waiver of the FCC “main studio rule” to operate WLED-TV, Littleton and WEKW-TV, Keene, from WENH-TV in Durham. The bureau said “locating the main studio for the NHPTV network at WENH-TV would be consistent with the operations of stations WLED-TV and WEKW-TV in the public interest,” it said in an order (http://xrl.us/bntpco). The FCC has repeatedly recognized the efficiencies of centralized operations for noncommercial educational stations and such circumstances are present here, it said.
Sales at Emmis Communications for the three months ended Aug. 31 fell 6 percent from a year earlier to $57 million. Emmis said some of the drop was because it got rid of some stations during the last year. On a pro-forma basis sales gained 1 percent to $55 million. The company is trying to refinance so it can lower its interest expenses and increase free cash flow, CEO Jeffrey Smulyan said. Its net income swung to $40 million from a $4.6 million loss a year earlier on one-time gains related to the sale of some assets.
Eleven congressional Republicans urged President Barack Obama not to issue a cybersecurity executive order, in a letter sent Thursday. The bicameral group of lawmakers said an “ill-advised” executive order would “undermine” the goal of maintaining a nonregulatory, multistakeholder governance model for the Internet. “Unilateral action altering oversight of the Internet in this country could be interpreted by the rest of the world as a statement of ‘do as I say, not as I do,'” the letter said. The letter noted that this year both the House and Senate passed unanimous resolutions to oppose any attempt by governments to exert control over the Internet. “An executive order exerting influence over critical infrastructure is not just a step in the wrong substantive direction. It will almost certainly be exploited by other nations to justify their efforts to regulate the Internet,” it said. The letter was signed by GOP Sens. Jim DeMint, S.C., Patrick Toomey, Pa., Kelly Ayotte, N.H., Marco Rubio, Fla., Mike Lee, Utah, House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, Mich., House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, Ore., and Reps. Lee Terry, Neb., Bob Latta, Ohio, and Adam Kinzinger, Ill. The White House did not comment.
The FCC Wireless Bureau seeks comment on a petition by Cordova for waiver of USF rules that determine support for competitive eligible telecom carriers starting Jan. 1, 2012 (http://xrl.us/bnto6m). Parties can request access to the confidential version of Cordova’s waiver petition, the bureau said. Comments in WC docket 10-90 and WT docket 10-208 are due Nov. 12, replies Nov. 27.