Cable is the “core” of ESPN’s businesses even as it expands into other areas of media distribution, its president, John Skipper, told C-SPAN’s The Communicators in an episode to be telecast Saturday. The interview was recorded at last month’s Cable Show in Boston. “We'll always remember that’s what has got us here,” he said. “There’s no doubt that’s the core of our business.” And the affiliate fees ESPN receives from pay-TV distributors are the most important revenue stream at ESPN, he said. Its new products such as authenticated online viewing applications WatchESPN “prolongs and expands that relationship” with distributors, he said. Discussing Dish’s “Hopper” DVR service that lets viewers easily skip TV ads, Skipper said he’s not very concerned about that hurting ESPN because so much of its audience watches live. “From a Walt Disney Company perspective, where on the ABC network you can’t produce those shows without the revenue from advertising, yes it concerns us,” he said. “But from an ESPN point of view … 99.4 percent of our viewing is live, so the Hopper is fairly inconsequential to ESPN.”
Replies in the rulemaking about a terrestrial service from Dish Network offered no new objections, and a ruling by the FCC could be made by the end of the year, said Guggenheim analyst Paul Gallant. Most of the discussion focused on what conditions, if any, “the FCC should impose on Dish’s use of its new spectrum” and “what spectrum Dish should use for its uplink,” he said in a research note. Reply comments in docket 12-70 were due June 1 (CD June 4 p16). The wholesale access limit condition and the data roaming condition, supported by Public Knowledge and other public interest groups, is likely under active consideration, he said. The basic concept of the wholesale access condition is to ensure that if Dish decides to offer wholesale capacity, “it should not permit access predominantly or exclusively by AT&T and Verizon,” he said. Given the growing importance of data roaming, that proposed condition “could become particularly important to the viability of smaller wireless operators,” he added. “We think the FCC will seriously consider shifting Dish’s uplink … up by at least 5 MHz to enable it to auction to the H Block.” Sprint Nextel would be a natural buyer and beneficiary of such a move, he said.
For the U.S. to transition from the public switched telephone network to broadband, companies will need more financial incentives from Washington to justify acceleration of broadband investment, Genband CEO Charlie Vogt told the Telecommunications Industry Association conference Thursday in Dallas. The buildout associated with broadband from the core to the edge is “highly, highly capitalized,” he said. “It’s all about cost, and it’s all about the return on that investment and where the priorities are.” Vogt marveled at the pace of mobile broadband buildout. A few years ago, none of the carriers thought they'd be accelerating the buildout of their 3G and 4G networks as quickly as they are today, he said. “Nobody saw the tsunami that hit with the smartphone and what it did, specifically around video content."
The FCC has legal authority to provide support for digital literacy training through libraries and should do so through a fifth universal service fund, representatives of the American Library Association said in a meeting with commission officials, including General Counsel Austin Schlick and Josh Gottheimer, aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski. “Section 706 [of the Communications Act] provides direct authority to the Commission to take action to ‘encourage the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans,'” ALA said in a filing (http://xrl.us/bna5tw). “Importantly, the Commission has already correctly recognized that poor digital literacy is a barrier to infrastructure investment because it reduces the revenue available to providers who invest in broadband.”
USTelecom representatives raised concerns about a provision in an FCC order released last week approving a temporary waiver the group sought of the June 1 deadline for implementing new Lifeline eligibility rules on eligible telecom carriers (CD June 1 p5). The group raised concerns about a statement in the order: “During the waiver period, in accordance with sections 54.410(b)(2)(i) and 54.410(c)(2)(i), these states must provide notice to the ETCs that their subscribers have complied with the Lifeline eligibility requirements and have executed a certification form.” USTelecom said the provision draws a conclusion it should not regarding ETCs. “While this language may address the issue of whether ETCs are entitled to seek reimbursement prior to having received customer certifications, it takes for granted a very important factual matter, that is, whether states have actually modified (or intend to modify during the waiver period) their processes to seek and collect end-user certifications,” USTelecom said (http://xrl.us/bna5sn). “It stands to reason that a state cannot send notice to ETCs that customers have executed a certification form if it has not actually required customers to execute such form. And this concern is not merely a hypothetical one, as the regulatory agencies from at least two jurisdictions that are covered by the waiver have already acknowledged that they will not be able to comply with the June 1st requirement to collect end-user certifications.”
Liberty Media’s FCC petition last month on its push for de facto control of Sirius XM may be a step toward merging its stake in Sirius with the satellite radio service provider, Canaccord Genuity analyst Tom Eagan wrote investors Thursday. The petition identified Liberty’s strategy for taking control (CD June 1 p7). As part of the potential merger, the analyst expects Liberty to split into two pieces: “A Liberty Siri stock” and “everything else, which includes the Starz group asset, $1.8 billion of public holdings, cash and debt,” he said. “We believe the FCC will approve LMCA’s most recent request to take control of SIRI.” Eagan said he expects Liberty “to increase its stake towards 50 percent over the next several weeks."
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood released a “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving,” offering a comprehensive national strategy for taking on the use of handheld cellphones by drivers (http://xrl.us/bna5p4). He said the department would provide $2.4 million in federal support to California and Delaware as they expand DOT’s “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other” pilot enforcement campaign. LaHood has made distracted driving a key focus. “Distracted driving is an epidemic,” he said. “While we've made progress in the past three years by raising awareness about this risky behavior, the simple fact is people are continuing to be killed and injured -- and we can put an end to it.” CTIA supported the move. “We agree with the Secretary that the combination of legislation, technology and education provides the best opportunity to combat the problem of distracted driving,” the group said. “CTIA continues to support a holistic approach to addressing the challenge of making our roads safer.”
Cox Communications opposed a telco’s USF waiver request. Accipiter Communications’ FCC petition (CD June 4 p5) “relies heavily on its inaccurate account of the facts involving” the telco’s “efforts to provide service in Vistancia, a subdivision in Peoria,” Ariz., which Cox serves, the cable operator said. “Accipiter also fails to meet the requirements for a waiver or to demonstrate that a taking will occur unless a waiver is granted.” Cox said in a filing posted Wednesday to docket 10-90 (http://xrl.us/bna5dz) that it’s “been subject to multiple attacks by Accipiter in Commission proceedings, starting in late 2010."
Comcast faces sufficient video competition from Verizon and both U.S. DBS providers to get FCC deregulation from rate regulation in North Arlington and Rutherford, N.J., the cable operator said. Its petition for a Media Bureau finding of effective competition was posted Wednesday in docket 12-1 (http://xrl.us/bna5da). A list of all such petitions the bureau has approved this year is at http://www.warren-news.com/competition.htm.
Block Communications and Time Warner Cable ended a carriage dispute (CD June 4 p16), returning the broadcaster’s WDRB (Fox) and WMYO (MyNetworkTV) to the operator’s systems in the Louisville, Ky., market after a blackout began last week. The companies reached a “long-term” retransmission consent agreement, a Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said early Thursday. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, Councilman Jim King and Tennessee Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson made “behind-the-scenes efforts to keep the lines of communication open,” President Bill Lamb said on WDRB’s website (http://xrl.us/bna5cu). “We know there’s been a lot of anger directed at Time Warner and a lot of anger directed at us, and we completely understand and apologize."