The FCC is urged to give fast approval to Tribune’s $8.2 billion sale in two company filings at the agency. Samuel Zell, buying the company along with its employees, met Tuesday with Chairman Kevin Martin and Chief of Staff Daniel Gonzalez, seeking approval of the deal before a Dec. 18 FCC meeting. Martin wants commissioners to vote then to lift cross-ownership rules in many circumstances for the largest 20 markets, a move that would help pave the way for Tribune’s sale (CD Nov 14 p7). Privatization of the broadcaster and newspaper publisher “would be jeopardized if the pending Tribune applications were not acted upon until that meeting,” said an ex parte filing. Tribune should get temporary cross-ownership waivers, Zell said. Another Tribune filing asked the FCC to deny a request by public-interest and religious groups that the agency pause its review of the transaction given the company’s alleged ex parte violations. The United Church of Christ and the Media Alliance had said ex partes of two meetings between a Tribune executive and FCC officials weren’t filed in a commission docket until weeks later (CD Nov 13 p14). Tribune said the documents were filed right away -- they just didn’t list the docket number, 07-119, which the FCC didn’t require, it said. “No one honestly may represent that the applicants hid the two presentations from public view.”
Internet radio service Pandora is available on some AT&T cellphones, the carrier said Thursday. Users can play, pause, skip and rate songs on their handset, and the service integrates with users’ online Pandora accounts, AT&T said. Pandora is available on eight phones: The Samsung SYNC, a717 and a737, the Motorola V3xx and Razr 2, the LG trax and the LG CU400 and CU405.
Internet radio service Pandora is available on some AT&T cellphones, the carrier said Thursday. Pandora creates personalized radio stations based on users’ favorite songs and artists. Users can play, pause, skip and rate songs on their handset, and the service integrates with users’ online Pandora accounts, AT&T said. Pandora is available on eight phones: The Samsung SYNC, a717 and a737, the Motorola V3xx and Razr 2, the LG trax and the LG CU400 and CU405.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin got more grief for taking steps to finish a media ownership review begun June 2006. Critics focused on plans for a final public hearing Friday and his refusal to pause the proceeding for work by a task force on minority ownership. Some minority ownership proposals that Martin included in the ownership rulemaking were supported by a wide array of broadcasters. Meanwhile, Martin is holding firm for a Dec. 18 vote on a rewrite (CD Nov 5 p4).
FCC Commissioners Robert McDowell and Jonathan Adelstein likely will come in for intense lobbying in coming weeks, as wireless carriers seek to beat a cap proposed for Universal Service Fund payments. The carriers want to know why they're getting special attention as the FCC tries to curb the fund.
Sirius expects to close its merger with XM within 24 hours of receiving regulatory approval, which it expects by the end of the year, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told analysts Tuesday in a Q3 earnings call. “If we get approval on a Monday, the assumption is that we would close on a Tuesday. We continue to expect the merger will close before the end of the year,” he said. Receiving regulatory approval by the end of the year would mean that the FCC’s informal internal six- month review clock will not be paused. Wednesday is Day 145, according to the FCC’s website. “Virtually all of the opposition to the merger has been generated either directly or indirectly by those who fear competition,” Karmazin said without specifically naming NAB, which has been the most vocal critic of the proposed merger. Sirius is holding its shareholder meeting to approve the merger Nov. 13 and Karmazin urged investors to vote. “If you do not vote, it will be counted as a no vote,” he said. Once the merger is approved and consummated, Karmazin thinks integration will be easy, he said. “I have a great deal of experience of integrating companies. I merged Infinity into CBS and CBS into Viacom,” he said. “I don’t think it will be overly complicated.” Sirius still expects to reach the 8 million subscriber mark by the end of the year after adding 525,000 new subscribers in the third quarter, Karmazin said. This result beat analyst expectations, said a call participant. More than 460,000 of those subscribers were among purchasers of new cars with Sirius installed, he said. Even with the gains satellite radio has made, it still only penetrates 15 percent of the homes in America, he said. Sirius’s churn was the same as last quarter, he said. Revenue was up 45 percent, said David Frear, executive vice president and chief financial officer. It was able to reduce its customer service and billing expenses by 17 percent from the same period last year, he said. The 95 cents per subscriber is a new low for Sirius, he added.
The third quarter was the “biggest OEM quarter for satellite radio,” Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told analysts during a Q3 earnings call Tuesday. Sirius grabbed 58 percent of the net OEM subscriber additions, he said.
The FCC will likely decide by November between competing cable industry and CE proposals for bidirectional plug-and- play, NCTA officials said Wednesday during a news briefing in N.Y. The FCC is weighing a two-way solution backed by the NCTA that uses OCAP as standardized middleware layer, and a rival proposal from the CE industry that makes it optional in plug- and-play units. The CE industry’s proposal for a DCR+ platform that would cost the cable industry “hundreds of millions” of dollars to upgrade hardware and network equipment to comply, said Kevin Leddy, senior vice president for strategy and development at Time Warner Cable. It would also likely force cable companies to drop features like Time Warner’s “Start Over” time-shifting service, which lets users pause and rewind programs in progress, and caller ID, available to customers who buy an MSO’s phone service, Leddy said. Time Warner launched Start Over in Columbia, S.C., and has expanded it to 16 markets, including Texas, Leddy said. CEA has countered that DCR+ lets devices have a “limited set” of interactive features including video-on-demand, impulse pay-per-view and switched broadcast video, without the OpenCable platform. It also has argued that DCR+ would permit access to all interactive services offered by MSOs through OpenCable, but with “minor modifications to that technology and its licensing agreements.” MSOs are deploying OCAP-compatible set-top boxes from Motorola, Panasonic, Samsung and Scientific-Atlanta at a premium of “a few dollars” over existing models, Leddy said. Time Warner has shipped 150,000 OCAP-enabled S-A and Samsung STBs in 10 markets, including 50,000 in N.Y., Leddy said. Samsung has supplied “a little north” of 30,000 STBs for the New York market and is in discussions with Time Warner on an HD- capable model featuring a 160 GB hard drive, Leddy said. Time Warner also tested OCAP in a Samsung 56W DLP-based rear projection TV in two markets, but the project was scrapped this year in part because of the $300 premium. NCTA officials said they were surprised by Samsung’s decision, since the cost of adopting OCAP will drop as manufacturing volumes increase. Comcast also has trials in several markets using Panasonic’s OCAP STB. The first OCAP-enabled products, including STBs and TVs, will arrive in late 2008, said Mark Coblitz, senior vice president for strategy at Comcast. Panasonic showed a 42W plasma set to the FCC earlier this fall, he said. Though the OCAP-based plasma set will be sold at retail, STBs will continue to be leased by MSO customers, Coblitz said. Comcast has tested Panasonic’s STB in the Denver, Colo., Derry, Mass., Union, N.J., and Willow Grove, Pa., markets. MSOs have said they want avoid the pitfalls that have dogged one-way CableCARD-ready CE products, only about 280,000 on which have been activated in TVs, though about 4 million have been bought, NCTA officials said. The cable industry also is pushing for a device about the size of a paperback book that would be supplied by each pay-TV provider to connect to a CE product and provide access to services from MSOs, telcos and satellite operators, industry said. The device will would based on a single chip and is “a few years” from hitting the market, Coblitz said.
The FCC will likely decide by November between competing cable industry and CE proposals for bidirectional plug-and- play, NCTA officials said Wednesday during a news briefing in N.Y. The FCC is weighing a two-way solution backed by the NCTA that uses OCAP as standardized middleware layer, and a rival proposal from the CE industry that makes it optional in plug-and-play units. The CE industry’s proposal for a DCR+ platform that would cost the cable industry “hundreds of millions” of dollars to upgrade hardware and network equipment to comply, said Kevin Leddy, senior vice president for strategy and development at Time Warner Cable. It would also likely force cable companies to drop features like Time Warner’s “Start Over” time-shifting service, which lets users pause and rewind programs in progress, and caller ID, available to customers who buy an MSO’s phone service, Leddy said. Time Warner launched Start Over in Columbia, S.C., and has expanded it to 16 markets, including Texas, Leddy said. CEA has countered that DCR+ lets devices have a “limited set” of interactive features including video-on-demand, impulse pay-per-view and switched broadcast video, without the OpenCable platform. It also has argued that DCR+ would permit access to all interactive services offered by MSOs through OpenCable, but with “minor modifications to that technology and its licensing agreements.” MSOs are deploying OCAP-compatible set-top boxes from Motorola, Panasonic, Samsung and Scientific- Atlanta at a premium of “a few dollars” over existing models, Leddy said. Time Warner has shipped 150,000 OCAP-enabled S-A and Samsung STBs in 10 markets, including 50,000 in N.Y., Leddy said. Samsung has supplied “a little north” of 30,000 STBs for the New York market and is in discussions with Time Warner on an HD-capable model featuring a 160 GB hard drive, Leddy said. Time Warner also tested OCAP in a Samsung 56W DLP-based rear projection TV in two markets, but the project was scrapped this year in part because of the $300 premium (CED April 30p1). NCTA officials said they were surprised by Samsung’s decision, since the cost of adopting OCAP will drop as manufacturing volumes increase. Comcast also has trials in several markets using Panasonic’s OCAP STB. The first OCAP-enabled products, including STBs and TVs, will arrive in late 2008, said Mark Coblitz, senior vice president for strategy at Comcast. Panasonic showed a 42W plasma set to the FCC earlier this fall, he said. Though the OCAP-based plasma set will be sold at retail, STBs will continue to be leased by MSO customers, Coblitz said. Comcast has tested Panasonic’s STB in the Denver, Colo., Derry, Mass., Union, N.J., and Willow Grove, Pa., markets. MSOs have said they want avoid the pitfalls that have dogged one-way CableCARD- ready CE products, only about 280,000 on which have been activated in TVs, though about 4 million have been bought, NCTA officials said. The cable industry also is pushing for a device about the size of a paperback book that would be supplied by each pay-TV provider to connect to a CE product and provide access to services from MSOs, telcos and satellite operators, industry said. The device will would based on a single chip and is “a few years” from hitting the market, Coblitz said.
Broadcasters and minority activists agree the FCC should relax media ownership rules (CD Sept 28 p9) to help women and people of color buy radio and TV stations, they said in filings. Clear Channel, the NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB), the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and 29 groups led by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) also agreed on how the FCC should define firms eligible for relief. Instead of targeting only minorities, the commission should exempt disadvantaged businesses from several limits on the number of stations that can be owned by a single company in each city, they said.