TiVo needs to approach 10 million subscribers for its advertising to become a “meaningful” business, Tara Maitra, senior vice president and general manager for content and media sales, told us last week at the Digital Hollywood conference in New York. TiVo had 2.2 million subscribers Dec. 31, up from 2 million a year earlier.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Hactivist group Anonymous has its thumb on the scales of justice, lawyers said at the RSA Conference on network security: Attorneys now must pause before taking action on behalf of clients that activists have grievances against, to take the risk of cyberattack into account in giving their advice and in their own decisions on IT security. “The risk of electronic retaliation for litigation is kind of new,” said Steven Teppler of Edelson McGuire.
The departments of Justice and Homeland Security and FBI asked the FCC to defer action on a streamlined application for transfer of control of Keywest Communications (USA) to Sifa Technology pending their own investigation (http://xrl.us/bmwh2m). “DOJ, DHS and FBI are currently reviewing this matter for any national security, law enforcement, and public safety issues but have not yet completed the effort,” they wrote Wednesday. Kuala Lumpur-based Key West Global Telecom Berhad filed an application to transfer control of KCUSA to Sifa. KCUSA provides interstate and intrastate interexchange telecommunications services; Sifa is a British Virgin Islands corporation wholly-owned by a Canadian citizen named Xiao Ping Yang. An FCC public notice had said Sifa doesn’t currently provide telecom services. U.S. regulators often ask the commission to pause action on deals while the security agencies review them.
NBCUniversal may face an arbitration request from an upstart online video distributor (OVD). It could seek a programming deal with the company under terms of an FCC order approving Comcast’s purchase of control in NBCU that gives OVDs the rights to buy some content accords if they strike distribution deals with other programmers. Project Concord Inc.’s request may be the first such instance of an OVD intending to seek arbitration to get access to shows from Comcast’s cable channels or the NBC broadcast-TV network to distribute them online, consumer advocates who opposed the NBCUniversal deal told us. The OVD’s request was made public in an FCC filing last week. It asked the agency not to pause issuance of a protective order to keep programming contracts confidential while it reviews Comcast’s request to change a condition in the 2011 order (CD Feb 22 p4).
NBCUniversal may face an arbitration request from an upstart online video distributor (OVD). It could seek a programming deal with the company under terms of an FCC order approving Comcast’s purchase of control in NBCU that gives OVDs the rights to some content accords if they strike distribution deals with other programmers. Project Concord Inc.’s request may be the first such instance of an OVD intending to seek arbitration to get access to shows from Comcast’s cable channels or the NBC broadcast network to distribute them online, consumer advocates who opposed the NBCUniversal deal told us. The OVD’s request was made public in an FCC filing last week. It asked the agency not to pause issuance of a protective order to keep programming contracts confidential while it reviews Comcast’s request to change a condition in the 2011 order (WID Feb 22 p2).
Dish Network lacks the legal standing to force the FCC to pull back encoding rules for set-top boxes adopted in 2003 as part of plug-and-play device implementation, the FCC and Justice Department said in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Dish appeal, filed in 2004, was paused as the agency considered DirecTV’s petition for reconsideration of the plug-and-play order, which the commission denied in 2010. Dish argued in its brief last month that the agency’s application of plug-and-play rules to all multichannel video programming distributors, rather than just cable, goes beyond the congressional intent.
Dish Network lacks the legal standing to force the FCC to pull back encoding rules for set-top boxes adopted in 2003 as part of plug-and-play device implementation, the FCC and Justice Department said in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Dish appeal, filed in 2004, was paused as the agency considered DirecTV’s petition for reconsideration of the plug-and-play order, which the commission denied in 2010. Dish argued in its brief last month that the agency’s application of plug-and-play rules to all multichannel video programming distributors, rather than just cable, goes beyond the congressional intent.
Work by career FCC lawyers is picking up steam on making all TV stations post almost all of their public inspection files online, agency and industry officials told us. They said staffers in the Media Bureau are intensifying work toward a final order to require the files now kept on paper in TV stations’ main studios to be given electronically to the FCC to put on its website. Commissioner Robert McDowell Friday slammed the agency for moving toward a fix to a problem that appears to be “non-existent,” by imposing unnecessary burdens on industry. Broadcasters, meanwhile, continued to oppose a notice of inquiry in another proceeding that would make them file quarterly standardized forms about the types of local programming they air.
Rent-a-Center is slowing expansion of its RAC Acceptance rent-to-own kiosks, slashing the number of planned 2012 openings to 200 from the 445 that were added last year despite expected increased revenue from the format, company officials said in a conference call.
Tribune may make changes to media ownership waiver requests the bankrupt broadcaster and newspaper owner has sought from the FCC to exit Chapter 11, the company said. Changes would reflect developments in the proceeding in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, representatives of Tribune and some major creditors told Media Bureau staff. The court plans a confirmation hearing May 16-17 on a revised reorganization plan, an ex parte filing from a Tribune lawyer said. “Certain pro forma applications would be filed by Tribune as part of the emergence from bankruptcy to accomplish intra-company reorganizations,” and those requests will “be coordinated with the Exit Applications” for the commission, Thursday’s filing said (http://xrl.us/bmpy3o). Posted in docket 10-104, it reported on a meeting that also included former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley, representing JPMorgan Chase, and an attorney for Angelo, Gordon & Co. and Oaktree Tribune. The bureau’s review of Tribune’s reorganization has been slowed by changes to the deal, and the commission’s merger review clock (http://xrl.us/bmf3e6) is paused (CD Oct 14 p).