Through the Wire
by Mike Farrell, Todd Spangler and R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 6/8/2009 2:00:00 AM
N.Y. Protesters No Problem For DirecTV's John Malone
New York — Strolling through the lobby of the New York Hilton hotel here last week after DirecTV Group's annual meeting of shareholders, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei — who was walking point — asked his boss, Liberty and DirecTV chairman John Malone, if he'd prefer another exit besides the front door of the hotel.
Maffei's concern: a handful of picketers targeting DirecTV were outside the establishment, carrying signs and handing out brochures that said “John Malone — Stop the Interference!”
A group of satellite installers who belong to Local 103 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers had come to protest alleged unfair labor practices by a DirecTV contractor, Multiband-owned DirecTECH.
Four union representatives attended the meeting and stated their case: They claim DirecTECH refuses to negotiate with them (they have been at it for about a year), have made false claims about pay and have refused to pay for overtime.
Both Malone and DirecTV CEO (for the moment) Chase Carey took note of the union members' frustration, but said they have little control over their contractors.
Carey said in the past year DirecTV has taken about 33% of its installation business in-house. Though the company “clearly has work to do in this area,” he said, positive strides have been made.
Carey said the goal is to have happy employees — happy employees serve happy customers — and in instances where contractors violate the law, appropriate actions are taken.
While the in-meeting confrontation had the potential to get heated, the exchange actually was quite cordial, even with a hint of a raised voice toward the end.
One union rep even thanked Malone for chatting with him alongside the buffet table of donuts and bagels before the meeting began.
That union rep — Ray Rogers director of Corporate Campaign, a labor-union strategist — was so impressed by Malone and other DirecTV execs that he said the union will hold off on a planned June 9 launch of an anti-DirecTV Web site (www.stopsatellitesweatshops.org)
At the end of the meeting, Malone returned the praise. “You guys are the front lines,” he said. “You make or break this company.”
So, in making his way toward the Hilton entrance, Malone was feeling confident enough to face whatever music was waiting for him. When Maffei asked if he wanted to go through another entrance, Malone replied, “Nah, unless they're throwing paint.”
They left through the front door, past a few scattered pickets.
Dave Matthews Cuts Up With Cablers Backstage
Smile — and say “weed”?
The Dave Matthews Band played New York's newly renovated Beacon Theater June 1, a concert recorded by the Cablevision Systems-owned Fuse music network for a June 7 airing.
In attendance was one Sam Howe, DMB fan and Time Warner Cable's chief marketing officer. After the show, Howe was invited to meet the front man himself by Brad Samuels, Fuse's executive vice president of content distribution.
Matthews, who has a reputation as a bon vivant, circulated the room and chatted up the guests. Samuels persuaded him to get a picture of the three of them, whereupon Matthews requested an outtake: “Let's do a drunk, stoned one!”
The two cable guys complied, but as Howe recalled later, “I said to Brad, 'I don't have a problem with that, as long as it's not the last picture we take.'”
It wasn't: Fuse's photog snapped at least one more, reproduced here. To be honest, The Wire rather wishes we could have seen the one that got away.
WE TV Rides Multiple Wave With Masches' Sextuplets
Can't get enough of the real-life drama of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 and the super-sized family reality genre? WE TV will step up the TV diaper quotient with the June 11 debut of Raising Sextuplets, a six-part series focusing on the six 2-year-old Masche kids and their parents, Jenny and Bryan.
The network's 2008 special on the sextuplets' birth was the third-most watched special in WE's history, drawing 248,000 women ages 18 to 49.
WE TV president and general manager Kim Martin is confident viewers who tune into the series won't see a Jon and Kate Gosselin-like family train wreck with the Masche clan. Martin declined to comment directly on the TLC series, which has drawn nearly 20 million viewers in the first two weeks since debuting its fifth season on May 25. But she did address the Masches.
“Jenny and Brian have a strong marriage and they are surrounded by a great support system with their parents, their nieces, their neighbors — they have a lot of people helping them,” Martin said. “They're first-time parents so I think that's why people will be interested in their story.”
Martin also doesn't see any viewer fatigue on the horizon for the genre.
“I think people are definitely interested in couples who are raising multiples — the lifestyle is so chaotic, but its fun TV,” she said.
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