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Portland Broadcast Affiliates Pull Signals From Skitter TV

PORTLAND, ORE. — The ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC broadcast affiliates here
have told Internet TV venture Skitter to stop distributing their network feeds
as they “review our retransmission agreements,” according to a notice the
startup sent to subscribers.

Skitter, founded in 2009, is
aiming to deliver broadcast-TV
programming over broadband
to subscribers in local markets
via a range of connected
TV devices, pitching its service
as a lower-cost option
than cable TV.

In the initial Portland market,
the company has a partnership
with Stayton, Ore.-based Stayton
Cooperative Telephone,
which is planning to offer an
IPTV service based on Skitter’s technology, according to Skitter. As part of the
partnership with the telco, Skitter had been expecting to leverage the retrans
agreements TV stations signed with Stayton Cooperative Telephone to offer
its own direct-to-consumer service.

Now, the affiliates of the major networks have apparently decided that the
approach mandates further review.

According to Skitter, “the major networks wanted to review our retransmission
agreements and … we removed the channels at their request during the
process.” The company said it has been working with the networks “and have
made progress toward a new agreement but it is difficult to know how long
this will take.”

Representatives for Norcross, Ga.-based Skitter did not respond to a request
for additional comment.

Previously, Skitter was selling access to 10 Portland-area channels, including
ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, for $12 per month. The service provides live TV
and network-based DVR features, currently accessible to users with Roku or
WD broadband-connected set-tops.

Now, Skitter’s lineup in Portland is $6 per month for 12 channels: PBS, PBS
Encore, KWVT, TBN, TCC, JCTV, Enlace, SOAC, Retro TV, The CW, AntennaTV
and Azteca America.

After Skitter launched in Portland earlier this spring, Fox affiliate KPTV said
the startup did not have permission to carry its signal.

But Skitter president and co-founder Bob Saunders, in an interview with
Multichannel News last month, said his company contacted KPTV to request
service and did not receive a response after 30 days, and so Skitter picked
up the station under FCC “must-carry” rules for no payment. “We’re not stealing
their content,” Saunders said.

Skitter has positioned itself as trying to play by the rules, and Saunders
said the company is completely willing to pay retransmission fees to carry
broadcast content.

Other ventures attempting to offer over-the-air television signals via the
Internet have run afoul of broadcasters. Most recently, Barry Diller-backed
startup Aereo, which provides a streaming TV service in New York via dimesize
antennas that it says are dedicated to individual users, has been sued by
major broadcasters alleging copyright infringement.

— Todd Spangler

Mayweather Win Over Cotto Draws $94M in PPV Revenue

LAS VEGAS — Undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather secured his poundfor-
pound pay-per-view title after his May 5 fight against super welterweight champion
Miguel Cotto drew 1.5 million PPV buys, according to HBO officials.

The fight — in which Mayweather
won a hard-fought and
entertaining 12-round decision
over Cotto — also pulled in
$94 million in pay-per-view revenue,
ranking it as the second
highest grossing non-heavyweight
pay-per-view event in
boxing history, behind only the
$137 million generated in Mayweather’s
2007 fight against
Oscar De La Hoya.

Mayweather-Cotto is the
first major PPV boxing event to
break the gold standard of 1
million PPV buys in 2012, and is the fourth straight PPV fight in which Mayweather
has broken the 1 million-buy mark.

Mayweather’s last fight, against Victor Ortiz in September, drew 1.25 million
buys and garnered $78 million in PPV revenue. In June, the fighter will
serve 90 days in jail after being sentenced for assaulting a former girlfriend.

Industry executives said the Mayweather-Cotto event served as a positive
start to what they hope is a strong PPV boxing year that will hopefully conclude
with a Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao mega-fight. Pacquiao is set to fight
junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley Jr. on June 9 in the industry’s
second big PPV event in as many months.

To promote the fight, CNN will air replays of HBO’s 24/7 boxing documentary
series profiling Pacquiao/Bradley beginning Saturday (May 19).

— R. Thomas Umstead

Pew Study: Most Smartphone Users Have Location-Based Apps

WASHINGTON — The majority of smartphone users (74%) get real-time, locationbased
information on their smartphones, according to a new study from the
Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The study found that 41% of smartphone users get location info from their
phones, up from 23% in May 2011. Such apps include GPS, weather apps,
or applications that let users know where their friends are currently congregating
or how close they are to the newest movie, trendiest restaurant or to
an urgent care center.

For example, the study found that the percentage of respondents who use
“geosocial” services such as Foursquare is now 10%, up from 4% in 2011.

The number of those smartphone users has also increased, from 35% of
adults in May 2011 to 46% as of February, and smartphone owners are now
the biggest part of the cellphone-owning population.

That rise in tracking applications has become an issue in Washington,
where legislators are trying to figure out how to protect privacy while not discouraging
the Internet economy and its users, which, as the study indicates,
have a healthy interest in location-based services. But it is the potentially unhealthy
interest that has some lawmakers concerned. For example, the same
app info that lets a parent know where their child is could also provide that
data to a predator, if they can get access to it. One senator last year introduced
a bill to prevent the sharing of geolocation info with the government.

Last year, Google admitted it was collecting user data as part of its Street
View mapping initiative, and Apple admitted that the geolocation information
collected by the iPhone was being stored for too long a period of time and
was unsufficiently secured.

“We’ve watched mobile phones become increasingly entwined in people’s
everyday activities, and location-based services are an important part of
that,” Pew Internet Research Specialist and report author Kathryn Zickuhr
said in announcing the survey.

— John Eggerton

Pioneering Cable Engineer Michael Jeffers Dies, 90

FLOURTOWN, PA. — Michael F. Jeffers, one of the pioneering engineers in the
cable-TV industry,
died Monday (May
7) at age 90, his
family said.

The longtime
Flourtown, Pa.,
resident began his
career at Jerrold
Electronics in 1951
and retired from
General Instrument
in 1987, but continued
to consult and
work with cable
companies and
serve on National
Cable & Telecommunications Associations panels for several years after that,
his son, Michael F. Jeffers Jr., said. “Cable TV was his professional life,” his
son said. “He was proud of his accomplishments and of his many colleagues
and associates.”

The former vice president of engineering and later VP of research and development
at Jerrold, Jeffers’s industry accolades include a Vanguard Award for
Development from the NCTA in 1979. He held, alone or with others, at least
10 patents related to the cable industry, including one associated with early
video games.

— Kent Gibbons