This Just In
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 3/25/2007 8:00:00 PM
Items:
Vyyo Hires Davis as CEO, Adds Chiddix to its Board
MTVN Preps Mobile Trio, Stepping Up Series Output
Judge Bars Vonage Use Of Verizon VoIP Patents
MTVN Pairs iFilm Operation With Spike TV's Web Site
FiOS TV Adds a Dozen City Rollouts in Calif.
Comcast Makes C-SPAN2, MASN Share
Vyyo Hires Davis as CEO, Adds Chiddix to its Board
Norcross, Ga. — Broadband-equipment provider Vyyo has hired Wayne Davis — previously chief technology officer for Charter Communications — to be its new CEO, and appointed former Time Warner Cable CTO Jim Chiddix vice chairman of its board.
Davis takes over for Vyyo founder Davidi Gilo, who remains chairman. “I've been the CTO of a large cable operator — that's been my career,” Davis said. “Listening to what the customer really needs is what I think is going to put Vyyo on the map.”
Davis said he'll remain based in Denver, traveling to Vyyo's suburban Atlanta headquarters as needed.
MTVN Preps Mobile Trio, Stepping Up Series Output
New York — MTV Networks has created three TV series it will premiere exclusively on wireless video services.
MTV's mobile channels will carry the dramatic series I Remember Chloe, which appears to chronicle the last two months of a 20-something woman's life, and Dances From the Hood, a collection of hip-hop instructional videos. CMT's Radio Sessions will feature videos of live performances from country-music stars. The series are nine to 12 episodes, each lasting three to five minutes.
Greg Clayman, senior vice president of MTVN's Mobile Media Group, said the on-demand programs will be available to more than 5 million mobile-video subscribers with Verizon Wireless, AT&T's Cingular and other carriers. MTVN now has about two-dozen original mobile shows and currently serves about 2.5 million streams per month, but Clayman noted that “two years ago, we had zero.”
Judge Bars Vonage Use Of Verizon VoIP Patents
New York — A federal judge Friday issued a permanent injunction barring Vonage Holdings from using certain voice-over-Internet Protocol patents held by Verizon Communications, but Vonage has requested a stay of the injunction and plans to appeal the decision.
Recently, a jury in the case said Vonage must pay Verizon $58 million in damages plus a percentage of future revenues for infringing on three of the Baby Bell's patents.
Vonage said Friday it was “confident its customers will see no change in their phone service.”
Verizon, which filed the patent-infringement suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in June 2006, had been seeking $197 million in damages.
Judge Claude Hilton scheduled an April 6 hearing on whether to grant Vonage's request for a stay of the injunction for 120 days. If the court denies the stay, Vonage said, it will appeal the decision to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals.
Vonage CEO Mike Snyder, in a statement, said: “Our fight is far from over. We remain confident that Vonage has not infringed on any of Verizon's patents — a position we will continue vigorously contending in federal appeals court — and that Vonage will ultimately prevail in this case.”
The company said it has drafted its notice of appeal of the March 8 jury verdict and will file that notice at the appropriate juncture.
Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage has 2.2 million Internet-phone customers.
MTVN Pairs iFilm Operation With Spike TV's Web Site
New York — MTV Networks is combining its iFilm and SpikeTV.com units under a single platform that will focus on the Spike brand.
As part of the consolidation, which will see iFilm and Spike TV focus on the men 18 to 34 demographic, MTVN said iFilm president and CEO Blair Harrison will step down.
The newly created iFilm/SpikeTV.com group will report to Erik Flannigan, senior VP of digital media at MTVN Entertainment Group. It's not clear how many other positions may be consolidated. MTVN official couldn't be reached for comment by deadline.
FiOS TV Adds a Dozen City Rollouts in Calif.
Los Angeles — Three weeks after receiving California's first state-issued video franchise, Verizon Communications on Friday began offering FiOS TV to 129,000 households in 12 cities in Southern California, and plans to roll out the service to a total of half a million homes in the region by the end of 2007.
In the Los Angeles area, Verizon is going after Time Warner Cable, which has suffered chronic customer-service problems following its takeover of systems from Adelphia Communications and Comcast there.
Verizon credited “the state's new streamlined video franchising law” for the new rollouts. FiOS TV is now available in these Southern California communities: Chino, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Lakewood, Long Beach, Montclair, Pomona, Santa Monica, Stanton, Torrance and Westminster, as well as “many unincorporated areas” of Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Ventura County.
The telco already offered TV service in 17 communities under locally negotiated franchises. With the expansion, FiOS TV passes 350,000 homes in Southern California. Verizon plans to offer the service to more than 500,000 homes by the end of 2007.
The California Public Utilities Commission earlier this month granted Verizon a cable franchise that allows the telco to offer FiOS TV service in 45 cities in Southern California.
Comcast Makes C-SPAN2, MASN Share
Washington — About 1 million Comcast cable customers in the Washington, D.C., region could lose around-the-clock access to C-SPAN2 because the cable operator decided to share the public affairs channel with live coverage of Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals baseball games.
C-SPAN2, launched in January 1987, provides gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Senate to tens of millions of cable and satellite TV homes. Sister channel C-SPAN has provided similar coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1979. The C-SPAN brand is considered one of cable's crown jewels.
“At C-SPAN, we are not very happy that in this market — the home of all the staffers and senators and everyone who uses C-SPAN's programming for their livelihood and their special interests — we're not very happy about going off in this market, particularly for baseball games,” C-SPAN vice president of affiliate relations Peter Kiley said.
Under intense pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast last summer relented and agreed to carry the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network in the homes of 2.2 million expanded basic subscribers in a region that runs from Baltimore, Md. to Richmond, Va.
Cable rates went up almost immediately by $2 a month to help recover the cost of the MASN contract.
MASN, which has cable and satellite rights to Orioles and Nationals games, needed a second channel because the two ballclubs play live at the same time on dozens of occasions during the April-to-October baseball season. During 2007 season, “MASN2” will air 63 Orioles and 62 Nationals games, replacing C-SPAN2's live Senate and other public affairs coverage. MASN2 is a so-called “overflow channel,” designed to accommodate overlapping live events but not to serve as a second 24-hour channel.
Comcast has promised to air C-SPAN2 on a digital tier without interruption. Analog subscribers — about half of the 2.2 million subscribers affected by Comcast's programming change — may obtain digital boxes to receive C-SPAN2 at no extra programming charge.
“They will not need to change their level of service,” said Beth Bacha, vice president of communications for Comcast Cable's eastern division. Comcast will lease a digital set-top box “for at most $1,” she added.
C-SPAN2 was selected to share time with MASN2 mainly because Comcast assumed that C-SPAN2's most ardent viewers already subscribed to a digital tier and because live Senate proceedings had largely concluded before the start of evening baseball games, Bacha said.
In a March 1 notice, Comcast told customers that the programming changes would occur on March 31. Although the notice included a Comcast phone number, it did not provide information on obtaining a digital box or accessing C-SPAN2 on a digital tier for free. —Ted Hearn
FiOS TV Expands In SoCal
07/14/2009FiOS TV To Add Six MTVN HD Channels
06/23/2009FiOS TV On for 12 More Cities in SoCal
03/23/2007AT&T U-verse TV Targets L.A.
04/18/2007
