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EchoStar, Paul Allen Eye Wireless Bids
The 266 applicants that have filed to participate in the FCC’s 700-Megahertz spectrum auction next month include a subsidiary of EchoStar and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, which is the majority owner of Charter Communications. Other cable operators that filed to participate include Advance/Newhouse Communications and Bresnan Communications. Allen’s Vulcan already holds 700-MHz spectrum in Oregon and Washington, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analysts Blair Levin and Rebecca Arbogast wrote in a research note. Only AT&T, which picked up two 6-Megahertz channels in the 700-MHz band in a $2.5 billion cash deal with Aloha Partners, has a larger 700-MHz footprint currently, they said. With the new wireless spectrum, cable companies “could be looking to provide either portable data or small business service in their territories, but are likely to be bidding against the regional wireless carriers for spectrum,” the analysts wrote.
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DirecTV Gets PBS HD
Starting next year, DirecTV will provide high-definition feeds of local public TV stations to subscribers after reaching a 10-year deal with the Association of Public Television Stations and PBS. The HD carriage marks the first time the satellite operator will offer public TV programming in digital format.
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CableLabs Certifies DOCSIS 3.0 Gear
CableLabs said it has awarded qualification status for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 3.0 gear from Arris, Casa Systems and Cisco Systems. DOCSIS 3.0 enables downstream data rates of 160 Megabits per second or higher and upstream data rates of 120 Mbps or higher.
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Verizon Targets Dolan’s Home Town
Verizon continues to turn up the heat in Cablevision’s backyard, winning a franchise for its FiOS TV service in the Long Island village of Oyster Bay Cove, N.Y., where Cablevision chairman Charles Dolan lives. The Oyster Bay Cove Board of Trustees granted a video franchise to Verizon Tuesday. Verizon now counts 77 cable franchises in New York.
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Invidi Teams Up With Nielsen
Targeted advertising firm Invidi Technologies struck a deal with Nielsen Co. that will give the company demographic data that it can use for its Advatar addressable advertising system.
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Vuze Raises $20 Million
Vuze, a startup that runs a peer-to-peer Internet video distribution service, said it has raised $20 million in third-round funding and named TiVo co-founder Mike Ramsay to its board of directors. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), the venture-capital firm where Ramsay is a partner, and included participation from existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Greycroft Partners, BV Capital and CNET chairman Jarl Mohn.
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Strike Threatens L.A. Economy
If the current strike by the Writers Guild of America lasts 153 days, as did the strike of 1988, Los Angeles County stands to lose an estimated $380 million in revenue, according to a UCLA economist. Dr. Jerry Nickelsburg told members of the Los Angeles City Council the strike hasn’t deeply impacted the L.A. economy as yet, since most studios accelerated production, actually creating a spike in revenues from the industry in the second quarter. But the strike will eventually cause losses in sales taxes through lowered spending rates by laid off worker, and from long-term losses as consumers flee to other media and don’t return to TV after the strike. The professor said 10% of viewers never came back to television after the 1988 strike and he expected at least that percentage to permanently disappear from the TV audience this time.
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Viacom Cuts Microsoft Deal
Viacom struck a broad agreement with Microsoft which will see the companies team up on advertising, content distribution, event promotions and games over the next several years. The agreement came just a few hours after Viacom’s MTV Networks unit announced the formation of an MTV Games video game studio with powerhouse Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Viacom said the deal has a projected base value of approximately $500 million in financial considerations and business services between the two companies over the initial five-year length of the agreement. The agreement includes a combination of revenue sharing provisions, guarantees and content licensing agreements.
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Cox Extends Gemstar Deal
Cox Communications signed a contract extension with Gemstar-TV Guide International which gives the cable TV operator rights to distribute its Passport interactive program guides on both Motorola and Scientific Atlanta set-tops.
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Pace to Buy Philips’ Set-Top Business
England’s Pace Micro Technology has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the set-top box and connectivity solutions business of Royal Philips Electronics, in a deal valued at about $135 million (95 million euros).
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Former Sprint CEO Heads to Missouri
Two months after resigning as CEO of Sprint Nextel, Gary Forsee is expected to be named president of the University of Missouri. The official announcement is expected on Thursday, the Associated Press reported.
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Africa Channel Interviews Mugabe
The Africa Channel will air a rare interview with controversial
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Dec. 27 as part of its African Presidents series.
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VHI Taps 60 Minutes Interviews
Vintage interviews with music icons like Elton John and Ray Charles from CBS News’ 60 Minutes series will air next month on VH1 Classic as part of a distribution deal between the network and CBS News.
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Brightcove Scores IAC Agreement
Internet video distributor Brightcove scored an agreement with Barry Diller’s IAC which will see the company use Brightcove’s platform to for Web sites run by Ticketmaster, Citysearch, 23/6 and other IAC Web properties.
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Bloomberg Signs Political Commentators
Bloomberg Television said it hired two political communications veterans to provide on-air analysis for its coverage of the presidential primaries. The business news network signed Terry Holt, the national press secretary for the Bush-Cheney Campaign, and Stephanie Cutter, the communications director for the 2004 John Kerry campaign.
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Liberty Cablevision Tracks VOD
Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico deployed management software from Everstream to track video-on-demand system performance, capacity and usage trends for 90,000 subscribers.
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