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8 August 2014
Consumers Embrace Connected TV
According to a new study conducted for the Council for Research
Excellence (CRE) by GfK, the most important determining factor among consumers
in purchasing a new TV or video device is the ability for it to connect to the
Internet and stream content.
Why This Matters: Smart TVs and/or OTT
streaming devices were among the top devices selected by households
participating in a 50-household qualitative study. The main consideration for
these shoppers was the availability of content, whether in the form of
streaming, live watching or casting from one device to another.
4 Takes: Media Post
| Broadband
TV News | RBR | Advanced
Television
Netflix Surpasses HBO in Subscriber Revenue
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted on Facebook that the streaming service
generated greater revenues than its premium cable network rival HBO in the most
recent quarter.
Why This Matters: The streaming
service reported $1.15 billion in subscriber revenue at the end of June,
compared with $1.14 billion for HBO. Hastings called it a minor milestone, but
acknowledged that, “They still kick our ass in profits and Emmys, but we are
making progress.”
5 Takes: Video Ink
| Quartz
| Fierce
Cable | Mashable
| Venture
Beat
7 Aug 2014
DirecTV and AT&T to Take Over Houston RSN
Under a reorganization plan filed yesterday in a federal bankruptcy
court, AT&T and DirecTV will become the sole owners of Comcast SportsNet
Houston.
Why This Matters: The channel, which
carries the Houston Rockets and the Houston Astros, has been unable to secure
carriage deals with any major TV providers in the Houston market, other than
Comcast. Consequently, CSN Houston has had to declare bankruptcy and is now
operating in Chapter 11.
4 Takes: Fierce Cable
| TV
Predictions | Houston
Chronicle | Houston
Business Journal
1 August 2014
DirecTV Struggles to Rein In Skyrocketing Content Costs
DirecTV CEO Mike White continued his ongoing war against rising
programming costs, telling analysts Thursday that the second largest pay TV
provider in the country is doing everything it can to slow down cost increases
in sports programming and retrans.
Why This Matters: White said that Time
Warner Cable has created “stratospheric pricing,” with SportsNet, which carries
Los Angeles Lakers NBA games, and SportsNet LA, which is asking as much as $4
per subscriber per month in carriage fees for access to Dodgers games, adding
that if those charges were extrapolated across all RSNs, DirecTV subscribers
would be paying $26 per month just in RSN fees.
4 Takes: MCN | 89.3 KPCC
| Fierce
Cable | L.A. Times
Lackluster Q2 for Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable reported a mixed second quarter Thursday, with basic
video subscriber and high-speed data customer additions beating year-over-year
marks, but missing analysts’ estimates.
Why This Matters: TWC lost 147,000
basic video customers in the quarter, a 22% improvement over the same period
last year, but far short of analysts’ estimates of a loss of 99,000 video
customers. The company added 86,000 high-speed data customers in the period, a
significant improvement over last year’s 21,000 additions, but again short of
estimates of 105,000 additions.
5 Takes: MCN | Ad Age |
L.A.
Times | Home Media
| Media
Post
31 July 2014
Set-Top Box Market Stable Despite Streaming Media Player Influx
According to a new research report from Futuresource Consulting, despite
competition from other devices such as smart TVs and digital media adaptors,
the market trade value for set-top boxes (STBs) at the end of 2013 was $20
billion.
Why This Matters: While the domestic
multichannel video program distribution market hovers around 100 million
households, increasing numbers of MVPD distributors are migrating traditional
STBs to Internet-connected devices with cloud-based storage and related
features.
3 Takes: Home Media
| Broadband
TV News | Rapid TV
News
Quote of the day 29 July 2014:
“Access to 54 million homes is going to be controlled by just a couple of
program executives in major cities. That’s what concerns us.”
–
Patrick Gottsch, founder and chairman of Rural Media Group, which owns RFD-TV
and FamilyNet
29 July 2014 News summmaries
California Lawmakers Ask FCC to End
SportsNet LA Standoff
A number of Democrat members of Congress from California have asked the
FCC to step in and mediate the dispute between Time Warner Cable and various
distributors over carriage of SportsNet LA, the television home of the Los
Angeles Dodgers.
Why This Matters: TWC signed a
25-year, $8.35 billion deal with the Dodgers in January 2013 to launch a new
RSN home for the team. However, with exceedingly high carriage fees reportedly
in the range of more than $4 per subscriber, and unable to provide pay-TV
operators TV Everywhere rights due to constraints mandated by Major League
Baseball, TWC has been unable to strike deals with DirecTV, Cox Communications,
Charter Communications and Verizon FiOS.
5 Takes: L.A. Times
| MCN
| Fierce
Cable | Variety
| RBR
Time Warner to Offer HBO Go to Cord Cutters
According to reports, Time Warner is looking to accelerate growth at HBO
by expanding access to broadband customers who don’t subscribe to a traditional
cable-TV package.
Why This Matters: The $49-a-month
Internet Plus trial introduced last year with Comcast may be offered through
additional cable and Internet providers. The package, which includes web access,
a limited number of TV channels and the HBO premium cable network, is aimed at
the 10 million U.S. broadband customers, many of them younger, who don’t buy
traditional cable TV.
5 Takes: Bloomberg
| Media
Post | Fierce
Cable | Ad Age |
Re/code
Amazon to Spend $100 Million on
Original Content in Q3 Amazon is planning significant growth in its original
content spend, increasing its investment in Prime Instant Video productions to
more than $100 million in Q3.
Why This Matters: Amazon has been
chasing Netflix' original programming strategy to keep its Prime Instant Video
service competitive. Netflix execs last fall said the company would double
spending on original content in 2014. But CFO David Wells said at the time, its
investments in original content will represent less than 10% of overall global
content spending.
5 Takes: Variety
| Home
Media | Tubefilter
| Fierce
Online Video | Cnet
23 July 2014
Netflix Passes 50 Million Subscribers In
its earnings call yesterday, Netflix revealed that it had signed up an
additional 1.69 million subscribers during the second quarter, extending its
total to 50.05 million. The company also added 1.12 million international
streaming subs, giving it a total of 13.8 million in that category.
Why This Matters: Looking ahead,
the company expects to add 3.69 million subs worldwide in the third quarter,
including 2.36 million in its international markets – enough to push its
subscriber base past 53.74 million.
5 Takes: MCN | L.A. Times
| WSJ
| Video
Ink | The
Wrap
Netflix Calls for Title II
Reclassification of ISPs in FCC Comments
Netflix came out swinging in its submission to the FCC over proposed
internet “fast lanes,” arguing Wednesday that this would be a bad idea and that
the agency should instead focus on forcing broadband providers to deliver the
speeds they promise to their customers.
Why This Matters: In a 28-page filing,
Netflix called for Title II classification of ISPs, and reiterated its
accusations that Comcast and Verizon are intentionally letting interconnection
gates become congested, resulting in "nearly VHS quality" of Netflix
video streams, unless, of course, Netflix pays an interconnection fee.
5 Takes: Gigaom |
Variety
| The
Hill | DSL
Reports | Quartz
NBA Wants to Double Licensing Fees
According to reports, the NBA is looking to double the TV-rights fees it
receives from Walt Disney’s ESPN and Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting as the
league finalizes deals for nationally televised games.
Why This Matters: Such an increase
could have a major impact on pay TV providers and their relationship with their
subscribers. Currently, ESPN is commanding average carriage fees of $5.54 per
subscriber. TNT was listed as the second most expensive channel at $1.33 per subscriber.
4 Takes: Reuters
| Bloomberg
| Fierce
Cable | THR
14 July 2014
Comment:– Moffett
Nathanson principal analyst Michael Nathanson"… Smaller cable
network groups have been hit the hardest as investors have been forced to think
about four negative factors: 1) Like broadcast, cable nets are now facing a
zero-sum ratings game; 2) Weak scatter and lighter volume in the upfronts point
to a continuing slow cable ad market; 3) The fiercer battle for audiences are
driving programming costs higher; and 4) The consolidation of distribution
muscle will drive affiliate fee growth down into the future."
FCC Launches Comcast/TWC Review
On Thursday the FCC issued a public notice kicking off the official
review of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, starting an informal 180-day
clock on vetting the deal.
Why This Matters: The agency is
asking for comments about the proposed $45 billion transaction (including
Comcast’s spin-off deal with Charter Communications). Initial comments are due
Aug. 25, with final comments due Oct. 8.
5 Takes: B&C
| Re/code
| L.A.
Times | Deadline
| Variety
American Community Television Joins TVFreedom.org .
TVFreedom.org announced
Tuesday that American Community Television, (ACT) has become a member of the
coalition, which includes network affiliate associations, the National
Association of Broadcasters and others pushing back against calls for retrans
reforms.
Why This Matters: ACT, which has been
battling cable ops over PEG channel placement, is the 28th organization to join
TVFreedom.org, and will work with coalition members to help push for
legislation and policies that will preserve localism, while protecting
affordable access to broadcast TV programming and PEG channels on cable TV
systems for millions of low-income households, seniors, and minority communities
across the nation.
2 Takes: B&C
| RBR
FCC Names 'Merger Hawks' to Review
Pay-TV Mega-Mergers
The Federal Communications
Commission announced the members of the panel that will review two proposed
mega-mergers – Comcast-Time Warner Cable and AT&T-DirecTV.
Why This Matters: In a story
headlined, "These are the merger hawks who will decide your cable future,"
the Washington Post noted, "From the looks of it, the companies
will face a tough review."
4 Takes: Washington
Post | Fierce
Cable | CED | TVT
YouTube’s 2013 Revenue Estimated at
$3.5 Billion.
According to a report from The Information, YouTube generated $3.5
billion in revenue for Google in 2013, well below analyst estimates, which put
YouTube’s 2013 revenue anywhere from $5 billion to $5.6 billion.
Why This Matters: These figures show
that new CEO Susan Wojcicki has plenty of work ahead of her. When Wojcicki
replaced Salar Kamangar in February, it was seen as a move geared toward
increasing ad revenues, since Wojcicki came from Google’s ad department.
Netflix Maintains Lead over Amazon for
Top Movies, TV Shows.
Netflix continues to outpace Amazon.com’s subscription-video service in
terms of content-licensing, delivering substantially more of the top 50 movies
and top 75 TV shows from the last few years, according to an analysis by Piper
Jaffray & Co.
Why This Matters: The report also
suggested that online subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services including
Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus are retreating from licensing movie
content, but loading up on TV show rights.
3 Takes: Variety
| Deadline
| Fierce
Cable