FCC Trying on Bigger caps Erik Wemple The FCC will kick off a proceeding on Sept. 13 aimed at coming up with new restrictions on cable industry consolidation. The FCC was forced to rework its ownership caps by a March 2 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The […]
Gemstar, Wink Form ITV Link Andrea Figler Gemstar-TV Guide International plans to integrate Wink Communications’ interactive services onto a digital set-top box running its interactive programming guide in the second half of this year, a deal that will significantly strengthen both parties if cable operators use the two together. The agreement, to be announced today, […]
Adult Networks’ Revenue Suffers As Content Gets Trickier to Find Byline: ANDREA FIGLER U.S. viewers were prudish in the third quarter, if earnings for adult content TV programmers are any indication. Net revenue generated by Playboy Enterprises’ domestic television networks remained flat at $23 million in the quarter ending Sept. 30 compared with the same […]
Mystro Wants To Play Byline: SHIRLEY BRADY AOL Time Warner executives were no doubt grinning when, in this season’s second episode of Sex and the City, Miranda fell in love with her TiVo. The story line on the company’s hit HBO series could not have come at a better time. Mystro TV, AOL TW’s stealth […]
RCN: Can It Survive? Mavis Scanlon What Does Cable’s Nemesis Need to Do to Compete This is a make-or-break year for RCN. The once-cocky overbuilder’s recent history has been marked by disappointments. Its revenue growth has been inconsistent. It scaled back its operations and halved its capital spending plans for 2001, moves that sent its […]
500 Channels on Your Cell Phone? Not quite yet, but watch out! Here’s what programmers are working on now…and for tomorrow. By Mavis Scanlon The Weather Channel’s mobile content experiment has ended. Now it’s a mobile content business. “We went from thinking that wireless is a secondary and somewhat experimental platform, to a primary platform […]
Sony Fine Tunes Marketing Strategies – Company Business and Marketing Matt Stump When upper level managers at AOL and Time Warner begin meeting to discuss synergies, it might be helpful if they took a page from Sony Corp. of America. Soon after Howard Stringer took over as head of Sony’s operations in the U.S., he […]
What Price Satellite? Christopher Schultz EchoStar’s $9-a-month promotion fuels a battle for subscribers THE NATION’S TWO BIGGEST satellite services may be headed for a price war. Hughes’s DirecTV unit and EchoStar’s DISH Network will this week unveil new national advertising campaigns, with EchoStar touting an aggressive low-ball pricing push designed to keep pressure on DirecTV, […]
Cox’s Legal Eagle Keeps Eye on Hiring Practices By Simon Applebaum When Cox established a legal department for its cable systems 12 years ago, Jim Hatcher was it–the boss and the support staff. Hatcher now oversees 59 people as SVP of legal and regulatory affairs. And he’s doing his best to pursue an inclusive workplace […]
Bill Promises Bells Equal Internet Regulation Byline: ALICIA MUNDY It doesn’t regulate cable, but it could change the industry’s bottom line. That’s the reaction among Washington telecom analysts to the new Regulatory Parity bill proposed by Sen. John Breaux (D-La.). The legislation, pushed unabashedly by the Bells, would force the Federal Communications Commission to see […]