Coda

Verizon Claims 'Pure’ HD

New York — Verizon Communications is standing by its claim that FiOS TV delivers “uncompressed” high-definition channels, while acknowledging that the video it distributes is already compressed by programmers.

Verizon is running a TV ad campaign claiming that FiOS TV delivers “pure uncompressed high-definition,” touting the supposedly superior picture quality available through the service over cable (see page 8).

In one of the spots, a fictional cable customer excitedly plugs a coaxial cable into the back of a flat-panel HDTV set, saying, “This is going to look amazing!”— whereupon the TV spits the cable out.

But the statement that FiOS TV delivers “uncompressed” video is, on its face, not true. All digital video that is delivered by commercial cable, telco or satellite TV services must be compressed.

A single, uncompressed 1080i HDTV stream would a consume around 1.5 Gigabits per second. That would occupy almost two-thirds the capacity of one Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) wavelength.

In fact, Verizon delivers video in MPEG-2 format — the same compression technology used by virtually every cable operator.

Verizon media relations director Bobbi Henson, asked to substantiate the claim in the TV spots, said the point of the campaign is to show that “our FiOS TV customers are receiving HD that’s not compressed by Verizon.”

“It’s true that content owners compress their video before sending it to video service providers,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “But we forward the signal to our customers the way that we receive it.”

Verizon is attempting to highlight the fact that many cable operators perform additional processing on digital video signals — a process called transcoding or rate-shaping — before distributing them to subscribers’ homes, in order to save space. The more highly compressed digital video is, the more likely it is to exhibit blocky and blurry images.

— Todd Spangler

Writers’ Strike Hit Broadcast Hard

New York — It appears the TV writers’ strike did accelerate broadcast’s primetime viewership losses in the first quarter, while cable continued to see gains.

Nielsen Media Research last week put out a 17-page white paper on the impact of the Writers Guild of America strike on TV viewing, which concluded the average primetime rating for broadcast networks declined 6.8% during the strike compared with the year-ago period.

“Advertiser-supported cable benefited from the strike, as viewers shifted there from broadcast television,” Nielsen said.

The bitter strike lasted more than three months, ending Feb. 12, more than a month into the first quarter.

Turner Research also analyzed first-quarter Nielsen ratings, finding the combined six broadcasters lost 3.2 million households in their primetime delivery, while ad-supported cable gained 2.5 million.

The six major broadcast networks registered a 37.4 share of households in primetime in the quarter, an 11% drop from the year-ago quarter, according to Turner. Ad-supported cable had a 56.8 share, up 6%.

“The big takeaway is the strike isn’t the only reason the broadcast networks have lost ground,” Turner’s chief research officer Jack Wakshlag said. “They were losing viewers in record numbers before the strike, and the strike only served to make that bigger …”

— Linda Moss

Liberty Boosts DirecTV Stake

Denver — Liberty Media has upped its ownership stake in DirecTV after buying a 41% control stake in the satellite-TV firm from News Corp. in February.

Liberty said it bought an additional 78.3 million shares of DirecTV stock through private transactions financed by borrowing $1.98 billion against a newly executed equity collar on 110 million DirecTV shares. The equity collar is a series of puts and calls with maturities ranging up to 4.4 years, Liberty said.

Liberty now owns 48% of DirecTV shares.

As a result of selling the DirecTV stake, News Corp. wants the Federal Communications Commission to remove two restrictions previously imposed. One condition lets any cable, phone, and satellite TV distributor trigger compulsory arbitration on the licensing of News Corp.-owned regional sports networks. The other forces News to enter into arbitration with pay-TV distributors to resolve disputes on the carriage of News Corp.-owned TV stations.

— Mike Farrell and Ted Hearn

Live from Vic’s, It’s Vegas HD

Las Vegas — Seeing an opportunity in getting HD signals into and out of Sin City, a new firm called VegasHD is launching new mobile production facilities to let broadcasters and clients to deliver signals over fiber from the Las Vegas market.

The company, founded by longtime CNN and Court TV executive Jim Rutledge and Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous host Robin Leach, and also including former Court TV affiliate exec John Moran, hopes to establish itself “as the go-to” company for networks looking to hire facilities in Vegas, president Gordon Wason said.

Wason sees the company’s HD mobile facilities and its ability to fiber connectivity and its plans to set up plug-and-play HD studios in key locations in Las Vegas, as key competitive advantages.

“When we began looking into the Vegas market and talking to the networks we found that every time they went to Vegas, they had issues,” Wason said. “There wasn’t a clear go-to company for broadcast for hire that was of the level that you can find in New York, Los Angeles” and other cities.

VegasHD is planning to set up studios at several locations, the first being inside the new Trader Vic’s restaurant at the Planet Hollywood Resort Casino, offering unobstructed views of The Strip. That venue will go live at the NAB conference this month, where VegasHD plans to announce additional locations.

— George Winslow

More Pink Slips At Motorola

Schaumburg, Ill. — Motorola, which is in the process of splitting off its money-losing mobile-devices business, will lay off an additional 2,600 employees, resulting in $104 million charge for the first quarter, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing.

The company said the cutbacks affected its three business segments — Mobile Devices, Home & Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions — as well as various corporate functions. Last year Motorola cut 7,500 jobs, about 11% of its 66,000 employees at the end of 2006.

— Todd Spangler