• Martin Preps for New Cable Fight
• Martin Defeat Spurs Cable Rally
• Root Out At Discovery
• Hallmark Buys Series
• NFL Rejects Suddenlink
• TiVo Readies OpenCable DVR
• McCaskill Slams Martin

• Comcast Sets TiVo Pricing
• History Hypes Brokaw Special
• CenturyTel Launches Akimbo
• TWC Rolls Biz Phone
• Top Basic Nets Post Flat November
• Time Warner Promotes Witmer
• International Writers Picket

• Hearst Cuts Google Deal
• Sci Fi Spins Tech Blog
• Worth Watching
• High Def Opera

Martin Preps for New Cable Fight
Washington – After batting just .250 at Tuesday night’s public meeting, FCC chairman Kevin Martin has decided to slap more pine tar on his regulatory bat in preparation for taking another huge swing at big cable. Martin, FCC and industry sources said Wednesday, has told the other FCC members to be prepared to vote Dec. 18 on rules that would reinstate cable system ownership limits, which have lain dormant since 2001 after a federal appeals court held that the agency’s cable restrictions were unconstitutional. The FCC’s old rule barred one cable company from serving more than 30% of pay-TV subscribers nationally. If Martin were able to revive the 30% cap, Comcast, with 26.1 million subscribers or 27% market share under FCC attribution rules, could probably add Cablevision, with 3.1 million subscribers, and fit under the cap. But a deal to buy Charter’s 5.3 million subscribers probably wouldn’t fit. A 30% cap wouldn’t pose an immediate business risk to Time Warner Cable, which has 13.3 million subscribers, or about 14% of the 96.9 million pay-TV subscriber universe. click to read more...
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Martin Defeat Spurs Cable Rally
Cable stocks enjoyed a bit of a rally Wednesday, the day after Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin’s attempt to heap new regulation on the industry fell short of the mark. The rise in the sector was but a blip compared to the overall decline of the stocks this year, but was a welcome respite from what has been a steady decline in cable issues. Cable stocks are down about 26% this year, compared to a 60% gain in 2006. “Kevin Martin getting batted down has helped somewhat,” said Miller Tabak media analyst David Joyce. However, he noted that the issues that have driven down the sector for the year – declining basic customer growth and competitive fears – still remain. The biggest gainer for the day was Time Warner Cable, with a 6.3% increase ($1.52 per share) to $25.55 each. Comcast rose 2.6% (50 cents) to $19.97 per share; Charter was up 10.3% (12 cents) to $1.28 each; Cablevision rose nearly 2% (52 cents) to $27.03; Mediacom was up 3.8$ (15 cents) to $4.08 each and Time Warner Inc. finished the day up 3.6% (60 cents) to $17.22 per share. click to read more...
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Root Out At Discovery
Jane Root has been unearthed as president and general manager Discovery Channel and Science Channel. Discovery Times president and general manager John Ford, who returned to the Discovery fold in September, will now head up the 96 million subscriber channel, Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav said Wednesday. click to read more...
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Hallmark Buys Series
The Hallmark Channel will bolster its family-friendly line-up in 2008 with the acquisition of the popular series 7th Heaven, Cheers and the classic I Love Lucy. In addition, the channel extended its carriage agreement for the drama series Matlock, allowing Hallmark to televise the Andy Griffith series through 2011; with a similar extension for Touched By an Angel. click to read more...
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NFL Rejects Suddenlink
Suddenlink failed to hit paydirt with a trio of proposals to the NFL Network. The nation’s seventh-largest operator sent a letter, signed by senior vice president of programming Patty McCaskill, to NFL Network president Steve Bornstein the day before Thanksgiving offering three scenarios, including free-stand-alone digital positioning or pay-per-view offers for its game coverage, for the channel’s consideration. Suddenlink said the NFL Network turned down the proposals on the afternoon of Nov. 27. A spokesman said the operator “wants to reach a deal for our customers who want the network, but we don’t want 100% of our customers to have to pay for it.” Suddenlink, in a statement, said the NFL “would accept nothing less than the same $100 million ransom they demanded more than a year ago.” click to read more...
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TiVo Readies OpenCable DVR
TiVo has reached an agreement with major cable operators on a blueprint for a retail digital video recorder that will use the industry’s OpenCable Platform middleware specification, after cable agreed to make certain “clarifications and adjustments” to the technology, the DVR company said in a filing this week with the FCC. click to read more...
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McCaskill Slams Martin
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is upset with Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, accusing the media’s top regulator of hiding data from his FCC colleagues in an effort to advance his goal of applying more regulation to cable operators. “The public interest cannot be served by manipulating or hiding data to serve an agenda, no matter what its merits may be,” McCaskill said in a letter Wednesday to Martin. On Tuesday, FCC Republican Robert McDowell and FCC Democrat Jonathan Adelstein claimed that Martin withheld FCC survey information on cable because it contradicted Martin’s claim that cable operators had grown too large. click to read more...
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Comcast Sets TiVo Pricing
Comcast will charge subscribers $2.95 extra per month if they opt for TiVo-based digital video recorder service and the operator will “aggressively market” the service, TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers said, in prepared remarks for the company’s quarterly earnings announcement Wednesday. Rogers noted that Comcast has made TiVo-enabled DVRs available in “some non-employee subscriber homes” in the operator’s New England territory, and said that “full marketing efforts will begin shortly in the greater Boston area.” click to read more...
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History Hypes Brokaw Special
To promote 1968 With Tom Brokaw, The History Channel is asking viewers, affiliate partners and sponsors to send in their photos from the ’60s – whether their own, or those of parents or friends, network officials said Wednesday. To market the Dec. 9 special, The History Channel has three “The Power of ’68” online promotions – each with its own unique Web site – that encourage participants to join in ’60s photo-sharing, video-sharing, a music trivia widget, playing “Where Were You?” and offering everyone the opportunity to dig into the online game “Lady Madonna’s Closet” and dress up in ’60s styles. click to read more...
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CenturyTel Launches Akimbo
CenturyTel has inked a distribution agreement with Akimbo Systems to offer 8,000 on-demand titles to the phone company’s high-speed Internet customers. Monroe, La.-based CenturyTel is the first customer to use Akimbo’s Web-based solution for navigating and accessing VOD content. click to read more...
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TWC Rolls Biz Phone
Time Warner Cable, taking aim at Verizon and other telcos, will offer “business-grade” phone services – which include flat-rate, unlimited local and long-distance calling in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico – to small and medium-size businesses in its New York operating area. The operator’s Business Class Phone service will be available starting Wednesday in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Mt. Vernon and Hudson Valley, N.Y., and Bergen County, N.J. click to read more...
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Top Basic Nets Post Flat November
The top basic cable networks weren’t exactly primed in primetime during November. Among the medium’s upper echelon only two, TBS and MTV, posted average household ratings gains from Oct. 29 through Nov. 25, according to a Disney ABC Cable Networks analysis of Nielsen Media Research data. Of the 15 network in or sharing a place in the top 10 for Nielsen’s November period, only six registered advances, while seven were off and six were flat against the corresponding month last year. Led by its pro and college football programming, ESPN finished first with a 2.3 household average in primetime, but its mark was down 12% from a 2.6 last November. Sister service Disney Channel was second, even with a 2.2 average, 0.1 point ahead of USA Network. The “characters” service matched its year-earlier Nielsen household ratings grade. Drama proponent TNT ranked fourth, down 12% to a 1.5 from a 1.7, while its “very funny” corporate cousin TBS improved 8% to a 1.4 from a 1.3. click to read more...
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Time Warner Promotes Witmer
Time Warner Cable has elevated Melinda Witmer. The nation’s second-largest cable operator has promoted Witmer to executive vice president and chief programming officer. Most recently senior vice president and chief programming officer, Witmer will continue to lead Time Warner Cable's programming acquisition team, reporting to senior executive vice president Rob Marcus. click to read more...
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International Writers Picket
International members of writers guilds will join striking television writers on the picket line in the U.S., as well as holding solidarity marches in Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Sydney, Auckland, Montreal and Berlin Nov. 28. Members of the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds will join the Writers Guild of America West at the NBC Studios Burbank as part of the job action there. Speakers will include IAWG members such as Alex Cary of FX's The Riches. click to read more...
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Hearst Cuts Google Deal
In an effort to target the local-search ad market, Hearst-Argyle Television will become a reseller of the Google AdWords advertising program, officials said Wednesday. Under the partnership, Hearst-Argyle, operator of 29 TV stations and more than 30 Web sites, will become an official reseller and will use its digital sales force to provide marketers in its 26 local markets access to Google AdWords. click to read more...
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Sci Fi Spins Tech Blog
Sci Fi Channel and SciFi.com, the world’s most heavily trafficked genre Web site, have launched a consumer-entertainment tech site called DVICE, officials said Wednesday. DVICE – formerly SciFi.com’s Tech Blog – is the latest extension of the Sci Fi brand. It has a staff of writers and contributors who will aim to keep readers current in the ever-changing world of technology. The new site will feature innovations that make their lives less complicated, not more, and only the hottest and best will be featured. Peter Pachal, who edited the Sci Fi Tech Blog, will be DVICE’s content editor. click to read more...
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