This Just In
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 10/22/2006 6:00:00 PM MT
Items:
AOL Sells Downloads Of Paramount Movies
EchoStar Inks a Deal to Resell WildBlue Broadband
Insight to Boost VOD Fare By 82% Across Systems
Los Angeles Cable Co-Op Succumbs to Consolidation
BET Execs Henderson-Moore, Lewellen to Leave
Verizon Adds Franchises For FiOS in Mass., N.Y.
Clearing the air
Sidebars:
'Runway' Finishes In Top-Rated Fashion
AOL Sells Downloads Of Paramount Movies
Dulles, Va. — AOL is expected to announce an agreement today (Oct. 23) with Paramount Pictures to sell downloads of the studio’s movies for prices ranging from $9.99 to $19.99 per title.
The deal with the Viacom subsidiary follows similar agreements AOL cut in August with 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures and AOL’s Time Warner sister Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
The movies are available for download at http://www.aolvideo.com.
With the addition of Paramount movies such as Failure to Launch, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Chinatown, AOL said it counts more than 300 titles in its library from major movie studios.
EchoStar Inks a Deal to Resell WildBlue Broadband
Littleton, Colo. — Looking to turn at least a double play, EchoStar Communications has struck a deal to resell WildBlue Communications’ satellite-based broadband Internet-access service.
EchoStar will offer the service as Dish Network High-Speed Internet powered by WildBlue, with pricing starting at $49.95 per month. The service provides speeds of 1.5 Megabits per second downstream and 256 Kilobits per second upstream.
The WildBlue service requires a separate satellite dish. However, unlike previous satellite-based Internet-access services, an additional phone-line back channel is not necessary.
Insight to Boost VOD Fare By 82% Across Systems
New York — Insight Communications will increase the amount of hourly video-on-demand content it offers subscribers by 82% by the end of 2006, according to vice president of programming Melani Griffith.
“We’re about to roll out a massive VOD upgrade across all of our districts,” Griffith said at an event here Thursday sponsored by the New York chapter of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing. The programming will be a mix of free and paid content, she added.
Overall, Insight will increase its number of VOD titles by 115%. “We’ll have almost 7,000 titles per month,” Griffith said, without detailing the types of programming.
Los Angeles Cable Co-Op Succumbs to Consolidation
Los Angeles — The regional marketing co-operative in Southern California will shutter in December, a victim of market consolidation.
The action was anticipated once Time Warner Cable took over more than 75% of the regional market through its acquisition of Adelphia Communications and related system swaps with Comcast.
When the market was more fragmented, multiple cable operators — those companies, as well as Cox Communications and Charter Communications — pooled money to buy broadcast and print ads, alternately highlighting offers from each of the participating companies. They jointly supported a regional marketing number, 1-800-800-CABLE.
Current efforts include a full-page newspaper ad touting the frequency of football games in HD available on broadcast and cable networks, designed to counter DirecTV’s marketing for its NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market National Football League package. That ad will be among the co-op’s last.
Co-op officials said Time Warner will promote its own brand. The change likely means that Cox and Charter, with smaller regional concentrations, will no longer advertise on broadcast stations.
The co-op may not be the only organization to sunset: According to sources, the Southern California Cable & Telecommunications Association — which sponsored leadership summits and offered networking opportunities between programming and regional cable executives — will have a board meeting Friday to discuss its future.
BET Execs Henderson-Moore, Lewellen to Leave
Washington — Veteran Black Entertainment Television executives Nina Henderson-Moore and Michael Lewellen will leave the network to pursue other interests.
“We’re in a strategic evolution point in terms of the overall direction of the business and the company in particular,” Lewellen told Multichannel News. “My role has evolved through a variety of iterations during my seven years at BET, so at the point I think now is a good time to bring in some fresh blood and some fresh approaches at some key roles.”
Verizon Adds Franchises For FiOS in Mass., N.Y.
New York — Verizon Communications was awarded video franchises to offer its Verizon FiOS TV service in two New York communities and one in Massachusetts.
The Board of Selectmen in Nahant, Mass., unanimously approved a video franchise for the regional Bell operating company last Thursday night.
Earlier, the New York Public Service Commission confirmed the telco’s video franchises in the Long Island village of East Rockaway and in the Westchester County community of Greenburgh.
Clearing the air
Missouri Public Service Commission staff representatives said last week the commission does not disagree with Federal Communications Commission rules to date regarding regulation of voice-over-Internet-protocol services (See “Missouri Tries to Regulate VoIP Via Cable,” Oct. 16, pg. 18). The PSC instead disagrees with local VoIP provider Comcast Corp. on how the FCC VoIP rules are to be interpreted and applied to the regulatory scenario in Missouri. The story incorrectly cited a PSC spokesman as saying the staff disagreed with FCC rulemakings on the subject. The PSC has asked Comcast to explain why it hasn’t applied for a certificate of service authority, and Comcast has cited an FCC ruling that VoIP providers should be exempt from state regulation.
