Sales at Meredith during the three months ended March 31 gained 1.9 percent from a year earlier to $345.5 million, the company said. But profit fell 31 percent from a year earlier to $21.2 million. Political ad sales in the current quarter are pacing up “in the mid-single digits,” the company said. Its shares fell 3.5 percent Wednesday.
Q1 sales at Rogers Communications fell about 1 percent from a year earlier to $3 billion, the company said. Adjusted net income fell 16 percent to $361 million. “Despite highly competitive markets, particularly impacting both the wireless and cable portions of our business, we continue to leverage our technology leadership to deliver new and innovative products and services,” CEO Nadir Mohamed said.
Buckley Broadcasting of San Joaquin Valley agreed to sell KIOO-FM Visalia, Calif., to Momentum Broadcasting for an undisclosed sum. The Class B station operates on 99.7 MHz at 24 kw. The sale is subject to FCC approval, broker Dick Foreman said.
Bloomberg said it relied on Comcast’s own reporting to Tribune Media Services for its analysis of channel lineup changes that Comcast said didn’t occur (CD April 25 p16). “Whether ignoring a legally-binding FCC Order to which it agreed, or ignoring the obligation to submit truthful information about channel lineups to the industry-standard reporting service Tribune Media Services, which is relied upon by advertisers, courts and regulators … Comcast has shown that it does not feel bound by the same rules that apply to everyone else,” said Greg Babyak, head of government affairs for Bloomberg LP.
Motorola Solutions said Q1 profit fell 68 percent year-over-year to $157 million partly due to income tax charges. The enterprise segment posted a 2 percent decline in sales to $655 million because of weak iDEN sales. However, sales in the government segment grew 11 percent year-over-year to $1.3 billion, with demand strong in all geographic regions, the company said. The government unit is benefiting from public safety agencies upgrading their equipment and transitioning from legacy networks to next-generation networks, the company said. It expects Q2 sales to grow about 6 percent versus Q2 2011.
House Agriculture Rural Development Subcommittee leaders endorsed the re-approval of broadband and telecommunications loan programs during a subcommittee hearing on the 2012 Farm Bill Wednesday. Subcommittee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., said that “without a doubt” access to broadband infrastructure plays “a critical role in each community’s ability to create a competitive business environment.” Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim Costa, D-Calif., said the government has “a lot of work to do” to bridge the broadband divide between the “haves and the have nots. … This is so important, especially to rural America, because we are closely reaching our ability to have access or capacity of broadband,” he said. “American agriculture is at the cutting edge around the world in this broadband technology as it relates to irrigation technology. … Broadband is being used to make our farmers more efficient and more effective. … Yet when you limit their capacity for American farmers and ranchers it has an economic impact in this global environment they have to compete in.”
The Media Bureau issued a protective order in the Sky Angel-Discovery Communications program access dispute. The parties had asked for such an order to protect the confidentiality of agreements between them and others that may be sought through the discovery process, the order said (http://xrl.us/bm45wi). The order limits access to such sensitive information to outside counsel.
WFBD-DT Destin, Fla., fails to deliver an adequate signal to Comcast’s headend facilities that serve the Mobile, Ala.,-Pensacola, Fla., market, Comcast said in a response to the station’s must-carry complaint. WFBD licensee George Flinn complained to the FCC in late March that Comcast had refused to honor its must-carry obligations (http://xrl.us/bm45ux) and the station’s offer to deliver its signal by alternate means. But the station is geographically remote from Comcast’s systems and its carriage boundaries should be modified to better reflect the market it serves, Comcast said in its response and in a petition for special relief to modify the station’s market area (http://xrl.us/bm45vm).
Three House Republicans asked the FCC to justify the agency’s proposed requirements for TV stations to post public inspection files online, in a letter Wednesday to Chairman Julius Genachowski. The commission plans to vote Friday on a Media Bureau order implementing an electronic public file system for broadcasters, including giving the public online access to the amounts stations are paid to run political ads (CD April 23 p8). The order would direct broadcasters to allow access to their public files through the Internet, recommended in the commission’s report on the information needs of communities (http://xrl.us/bkq83f). The agency “has not adequately assessed the costs or burdens associated with this proposal, nor articulated the need,” wrote Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. The commission should “explore less burdensome alternatives,” to prevent the economic impact that the proposal could have on TV stations, particularly the 74 percent of stations that qualify as small entities, they said. The letter said it’s troubling that the FCC’s proposal will include the online publishing of “proprietary and competitively sensitive information” such as lowest unit charge or other price information. “There are significant competition issues at play here that warrant careful consideration,” it said. The FCC’s eighth floor has been considering whether to change the draft to exempt online disclosure of the LUC that TV stations are paid for spots during the weeks before elections (CD April 24 p2). The commission appears to be continuing to consider that LUC change, an industry official said Wednesday. Bureau Chief Bill Lake declined to comment when asked at an industry luncheon about whether his bureau or Chairman Julius Genachowski are willing to consider not requiring online files to list LUC figures.
The $3 billion Time Warner Cable paid to acquire Insight Communications looks like a fair price, said Citi analyst Jason Bazinet in a note to investors. Factoring in some cost savings and Insight’s non-operating losses, the price translates to an earnings multiple that’s in line with TWC’s own public valuation at the time of the transaction, he said. “Furthermore, we believe Insight may improve TWC’s” return on invested capital by 10 basis points, he said. Meanwhile, the proceeds from its proposed spectrum sale to Verizon Wireless should allow TWC to continue returning cash to shareholders, he said.