"The Internet of Things” was the key topic at a two-hour California Public Utilities Commission panel late Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnjbcd). “The notion of the Internet of Things is that we have advanced communications to the point where not only is it people communicating with each other,” said Cisco Senior Director of Tech Policy Jeff Campbell, “but also the things talking to each other” and a part of the equation is getting “enough devices talking to each other.” Cisco projects there'll be 50 billion connected devices by 2020 and “we have to start thinking about what the devices are going to do as designed by themselves going forward,” he said, speaking of myriad applications. Richard Adler, people & technology principal at the Institute for the Future, said he sees a change from an era where “these machines didn’t know anything” to an intimate, physical manifestation of that digital world. “It’s bringing together those two worlds,” the digital world and “the physical world.” Much better, richer data will also be made available and come with “enormously exciting” potential, Adler said. Ericsson Innovation Head Gabriel Broner considered the way different players in the healthcare industry could get involved and said “the incentives must be aligned.” Campbell and Adler agreed in multi-stakeholder governance and the market guiding the Internet of Things rather than any one authority, whereas Broner said, “Perhaps there needs to be a trusted entity that’s going to be collecting data and going to have rules on how they make that data available. But this is a barrier ... People don’t want their personal data broadcast to the world.”
The FCC should not stay its recent order requiring Comcast to carry the Tennis Channel on the same tier as Comcast’s own Versus and Golf Channel networks, the Tennis Channel said. In an opposition to Comcast’s stay petition (http://xrl.us/bnjba4), Tennis Channel lawyers argued that any delay to enforcing the order would be inappropriate. “Tennis Channel has succeeded at every stage in this proceeding,” it said, speaking of procedural victories in its program carriage complaint at the Media Bureau, Enforcement Bureau, in an administrative law hearing and before the full commission. “Each has also concluded that Comcast should pay the maximum fine allowed by law, an expression of shared judgment that Comcast’s behavior with respect to Tennis Channel has been egregious and inexcusable,” they wrote. Furthermore, Comcast will probably lose its appeal of the order and will not be harmed by enforcing it, they wrote. And Tennis Channel and the public interest will continue to be hurt should the commission grant a stay, it said.
Spectrum Five continued to urge the FCC International Bureau to review an order denying the satellite manufacturer’s application for serving the U.S. market from a 17/24 GHz broadcasting satellite service at 103 degrees west. DirecTV filed an opposition to the review last month (CD July 23 p22). The DBS company claimed Spectrum Five’s application for a satellite operating in the same band and from the same frequencies as a DirecTV satellite would cause interference to the DirecTV satellite. Nothing in DirecTV’s oppositions “masks the reversible errors in the bureau’s order or the fundamental failure by DirecTV to comply with clearly delineated application requirements and unambiguous power levels,” Spectrum Five said in a reply (http://xrl.us/bnja99). DirecTV had an express obligation “to provide a technical showing to demonstrate that operation of its satellite at an offset location would cause no greater interference than operation at an on-grid location,” it said. But DirecTV’s “technical showings regarding compliance with off-set power levels literally consisted of no showing at all,” Spectrum Five added.
Lawyers for the American Cable Association urged FCC officials to change the program access rules so program buying groups such as the National Cable TV Cooperative (NCTC) are given the same protections that individual pay-TV distributors enjoy under the rules, ex parte notices show (http://xrl.us/bnja9v, http://xrl.us/bnja9x). They argued that the current definitions under FCC rules of a “buying group” are too restrictive and should be expanded. And they argued that MVPDs that buy most of their programming through buying groups should be excluded from master agreements the group reaches with cable-affiliated programmers. They also pushed for prohibition on cable-affiliated programmers from charging above-market rates for their networks. “Under the [ACA’s] proposed policy, if an MVPD files a complaint, the Commission compares the contract that the complaining firm is being offered not only to the contracts that the programmer offers to other MVPDs ... but also to the contracts that other programmers the same MVPD and other MVPDs for similar programming,” it said.
Q2 sales at Liberty Global increased 4 percent from a year earlier to $2.52 billion, the company said. The increase reflects its acquisition last year of KBW, Germany’s third-largest cable operator, it said. It swung to a $701 million profit from a $347 million loss a year earlier as a result of a one-time gain on its sale of Austar.
The Washington Post Co.’s Cable One recorded Q2 sales of $195.6 million, up 2 percent from a year earlier. The division’s operating income fell 5 percent to $38.4 million, it said. Sales at its TV station business gained 13 percent from a year earlier to $95.6 million and operating income gained 34 percent to $43.7 million, it said. Improved ad demand and higher political ad sales helped results, it said.
Expect Viacom to introduce more apps that let pay-TV subscribers watch its shows on more devices, CEO Philippe Dauman said during the company’s Q3 earnings call Friday. “We already have it with distributors like FiOS,” he said of Verizon’s video service. “You'll see it at several other distributors.” At first, the apps will allow pay-TV subscribers to watch VOD and linear content in the home, but out-of-home access to shows will be enabled “eventually when we have measurement and other issues sorted out,” he said. Dauman said Viacom also plans to make some announcements around the new, premium Epix channel. Viacom’s deal with Netflix, giving that Web distributor exclusive online distribution of Epix movies, is set to expire this month. “We've had discussions with several parties,” Dauman said. “We expect to have an announcement on the outcome of those discussions in the next couple of weeks.” Viacom Q2 sales fell 14 percent from a year earlier to $3.2 billion. Profit fell 9 percent to $523 million. Viacom said the drop was a result of the timing of certain theatrical releases from its film studio, TV event programming and digital distribution agreements in the same quarter a year earlier.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau denied requests by the Rural Cellular Association and Rural Telecommunications Group for blanket waivers of the April 7 deadline for carriers that elected to do so to have the capability to transmit Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) alerts to subscribers through their wireless devices. Both groups had sought waivers of the now-passed deadline on behalf of their members. “We find that neither RCA nor RTG has provided sufficient information to warrant a waiver ... of the deadline for either the wireless industry generally or their member carriers in particular,” the order said (http://xrl.us/bnja7n). “Their petitions fail to provide sufficient facts by which we can determine whether any particular carrier acted in a timely and diligent manner in order to meet the April 7, 2012 deadline.” The bureau approved waiver requests by various other smaller carriers, including MetroPCS and Leap. But it denied a request by American Messaging. “American elected to participate in CMAS in 2008, and states that technical issues in its network prevented it from meeting the ... deadline,” the order said. “However, American does not explain with particularity what those issues were, or why it could not have addressed those technical issues in time to meet the deadline. Thus, we find that American has not met the criteria for grant of its requested waiver of the April 7 deadline and therefore, we deny its petition, but do so without prejudice for American to refile its petition in a manner that states with specificity the reasons for its request."
A new presidential administration could provide a boost to the U.S. economy, Gray TV President Bob Prather said Friday on the company’s quarterly earnings call. “If there’s a change in administration, there’s going to be a feeling of optimism here again,” he said. “I think that’s always there when a new president comes in,” he said. “You saw it when Obama came in and I think there will be again if there’s a change,” he said. That could provide a short-term boost for the economy, which could then help local ad sales, he said. Most of the markets where Gray operates haven’t suffered as much as the overall economy since 2008 because they didn’t experience as much of a boom before then, Prather said. The housing market was “extremely hot” prior to 2008 in Reno, Nev., and Colorado Springs, two of Gray’s “toughest” markets, he said. Otherwise, “most of our markets have outperformed the economy in general,” he said. Aereo and services like it don’t pose a big threat to Gray TV, which owns stations in smaller markets, Prather said. Aereo investor Barry Diller “is a big market guy, and I would think it would be a long, long time before he got past the top 25 markets,” he said. For one, it is probably expensive to install the equipment necessary to offer the online video service, which relies on having individual antennas and DVRs for each subscriber who uses it, he said. Second, there may be efforts to get Congress to change Aereo’s legality, he said. However, that’s probably not the best path, he said. “I'm a big believer that it’s hard to fight technology. If there’s a superior technology out there, it’s hard to keep it underground.” Q2 sales at Gray increased 24 percent from a year earlier to $94.7 million. Political ad sales jumped 467 percent from a year earlier to $13.1 million while retransmission consent revenue increased 64 percent to $8.3 million, it said. Profit increased sharply to $9.8 million from $771,000 a year earlier.
MetroPCS launched sales of the first Dyle mobile DTV-compatible Samsung smartphone to prepay customers at $459. The Lightray 4G LTE, available in MetroPCS’s 15 metro markets, is being marketed as part of the carrier’s four 4G LTE rate plans, starting at a $40 monthly fee for 250 MB of data and including 2.5 GB ($50), 5 GB ($60) and unlimited ($70) plans. MetroPCS will sell the phone through its 162 company-owned stores and more than 6,000 corporate and authorized resellers in 11,000 cities and 15 metro areas, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami and New York, the company said. MetroPCS had 9.1 million customers June 30, having lost a net 186,062 in Q2, the company said. The Lightray features a 4.3-inch active matrix OLED with 480x800 resolution, 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1,600-milliampere lithium-ion battery with 3.3 hours talk time and 8.3 days standby, 8-megapixel camera, Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and 1.37 GB internal memory. It’s to be packaged with a 16 GB microSD card. It weighs 4.9 ounces and measures 5.1x2.6x0.5 inches. MetroPCS chose to launch the first Dyle-branded smartphone because it “meets the needs and wants” of the carrier’s customers, which “over-index” in multimedia and mobile entertainment, a MetroPCS spokesman said. Dyle mobile DTV, which provides free-to-air channels, also “complements” the Rhapsody Unlimited Music and MetroStudio video-on-demand services the carrier offers, the spokesman said. MetroPCS will “put sufficient effort” behind marketing the Lightray to “ensure the phone is visible” online and in stores, said the spokesman, who declined to say whether this will include TV and radio ads. Dyle, which has the backing of Fox, Ion, NBC and Telemundo, is available in 35 U.S. markets.