Coda

S.O.S. Doesn’t Hold Water

Bob Gessner, president of Massillon Cable TV, is a bit of a maverick with lots of ideas. But he wasn’t able to get the cable industry to support his unorthodox “Save Our Sets” digital-transition plan.

This summer, Gessner unveiled a proposal for operators to provide free TV service in exchange for securing free carriage for local broadcasters’ signals.

It was an opportunity for cable to look like a hero, by helping to ease the pain of the transition to the all-digital delivery of broadcast signals on Feb. 17, 2009.

But the cable industry, and groups like the American Cable Association, had concerns about S.O.S. and didn’t hop on board.

Under Gessner’s proposal, multichannel-video providers would hook up TV service — to provide the analog version of each local TV station’s primary broadcast signal and their digital multicasts — for anyone who was not a current subscriber for seven years, all for free. That way, analog TV sets wouldn’t be rendered obsolete.

Broadcast-only consumers would then surrender $40 government-issued coupons, meant for them to buy boxes to convert digital signals to analog, to cable operators such as Massillon. These operators would then return the coupons to the federal government, for recirculation.

In exchange, the cable company would get free retransmission consent for the local TV stations’ signals for seven years.

S.O.S. was an interesting plan, but ultimately cable operators didn’t like the notion of wiring homes for free, and questioned if they could really secure retransmission consent under it.

For the full story, see www.multichannel.com/article/CA6510628.html.

— Linda Moss

Sundance Serves Festival Favorites

Six cable operators will have 10 titles to titillate local indie film fans, part of a special film festival package compiled by the Sundance Channel.

The video-on-demand package is part of the channel’s celebration of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and is incremental to the 31 independent films that will be telecast on the channel. Four of the VOD titles will be offered in high definition.

Participating operators are Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, Mediacom Communications and Time Warner Cable. The “Festival Favorites” package will be offered throughout January.

“We have found that free VOD is a great way for viewers to sample Sundance Channel programming and drive them back to the linear channel,” said Sundance Channel senior vice president of affiliate sales Tim Boell. Films in the package include Down to the Bone, Live-in Maid and Unfolding Florence.

— Linda Haugsted

The High (Def) Road

HDNet co-founder and owner Mark Cuban and DirecTV settled their dispute last week in a Solomon-like manner.

HDNet had sued the nation’s biggest satellite provider for planning to move both it and sister service HDNet Movies to a new premium $4.99 tier of HD-only networks from DirecTV’s most widely distributed HD offering, HD Access.

HDNet had not only won a temporary restraining order, but filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission asking that special conditions be set on Liberty Media’s pending $11 billion purchase of News Corp.’s stake in the satellite provider.

But the rhubarb has been settled. Only HDNet Movies will be switched into the HD Extra Pack, according to Cuban. As part of the settlement, HDNet also withdrew its FCC filing.

See, everyone can get along for the holidays!

— Linda Moss

NBCU Sheds 60 Oxygen Staffers

New York — NBC Universal didn’t waste time moving forward with the integration of its new acquisition, Oxygen. Last Monday, just two weeks after the sale closed, NBCU laid off 25% of Oxygen’s 260 employees, more than 60 people.

A job loss is tough, especially around the holidays. But NBCU claimed to ease the pain by either offering Oxygen staffers opportunities within NBCU, or paying workers through the end of the year and providing them with severance packages and outplacement services.

Jennifer Davidson, 38, Cartoon Exec, Dies

Atlanta — Jennifer Davidson, senior vice president of programming and scheduling at Cartoon Network, died on Dec. 1 of a sudden illness at age 38. She is survived by her husband, John Davidson, and three young children.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported she died of a bacterial infection at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. Friends said she had checked into the hospital, suffering from dehydration.

The Sandy Springs, Ga., resident was among the first 15 employees at Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network, which launched in 1992, and in September 2007 was promoted to her position in which she oversaw day-to-day scheduling and strategic positioning of all on-air content for Cartoon Network and Boomerang, plus on-air promotion for Adult Swim.

Gemstar Guided To Macrovision

New York — Gemstar-TV Guide International has found a buyer after five months of scouting: copy-protection technology firm Macrovision, which last Friday bid $2.8 billion in cash and stock for the larger TV listings, on-screen guide and media company.

Shares in both firms fell more than 25% after the deal was announced. News Corp., which owns 41% of Gemstar-TV Guide common stock, agreed to vote for the deal with its holdings worth an estimated $1.1 billion under the terms of the transaction — less than one-fifth the $6.1 billion in write-downs News Corp. took on its Gemstar investment in 2002.

Read the complete story at www.multichannel.com/article/CA6510595.html.