• Big Four: Retrans Costs Ops 85 Cents per Month
• BET Names Mills President and COO
• Father-Daughter Rift at Viacom
• Senate Panel Wants Better Broadband Data
• Cohen: Price of Broadband Not the Problem
• Three Cable Shows Top Emmy-Nomination List
• Sprint, Clearwire Team Up on WiMax Buildout

• AMC’s Mad Men Heads for iTunes
• Scripps Networks Looks Up Recipezaar
• Senate Panel Revives FCC's Indecency Authority
• Comcast Heads South of the Border
• CBS Aims to Spread Web Content
• Cablevision Rings Up to Four Phone Lines

• The Voices Behind 1-800-OK-Cable
• Startup Ooma Readies Peer-to-Peer Phone Run
• Blast Shuts YES Doors for Day

Big Four: Retrans Costs Ops 85 Cents per Month
The four major broadcast networks submitted a consultant study to the Federal Communications Commission concluding that cable-operator payments to local TV stations were too small to take the blame for driving up retail cable rates. The study claimed that Comcast, Time Warner Cable and two other major MSOs each paid on average about 85 cents per month in fees to local TV stations -- an amount representing less than 2% of an average monthly consumer bill of $58.49. Moreover, the network-funded study argued that the four cable operators spent about one-third of their total video-programming revenue to acquire programming from broadcast and nonbroadcast sources, proving that programming costs weren’t necessarily squeezing margins. click to read more...
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BET Names Mills President and COO
BET Networks made several executive moves Thursday, naming 10-year network veteran Scott Mills as its president and chief operating officer and appointing BET Interactive executive Michael Pickrum as its chief financial officer. The network also named MTV Networks executive Denmark West as its president of digital media. click to read more...
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Father-Daughter Rift at Viacom
The rift between Viacom chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone and his daughter, vice chairman and heir apparent Shari Redstone, seems to be widening, with several published reports Thursday claiming that Shari Redstone could step down from the board of directors of her father’s company soon. News of Shari Redstone’s possible departure appeared to be greeted warmly by Wall Street -- Viacom stock was up as much as $2.62 per share to $43.85 in early trading Thursday, before falling back slightly, closing at $42.50 each, up $1.27 per share. click to read more...
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Senate Panel Wants Better Broadband Data
The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would overhaul the Federal Communications Commission's measurement of broadband use and availability around the country. “The FCC has been claiming that more people have access to broadband service than actually do,” Sen. Bryon Dorgan (D-N.D.) said in a prepared statement. “We must improve the accuracy and quality of broadband-data collection in order to address the shortfalls in access and make better-informed decisions about broadband policy." click to read more...
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Cohen: Price of Broadband Not the Problem
Newport, R.I. -- As Washington policymakers ponder ways to improve the country’s broadband-adoption performance, at least one cable-industry official believes public programs designed to drive down the cost of access won’t succeed in convincing millions of Americans to sign up for high-speed-Internet access. Comcast executive vice president David Cohen said Thursday in remarks at the New England Cable & Telecommunications Association convention here that broadband adoption was far more complicated that the just price of service. Even free broadband service, he stressed, would not address the needs of people who consider the Internet, computers and computer software too complicated to master. click to read more...
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Three Cable Shows Top Emmy-Nomination List
Cable produced the top three vote-getters in the 59th Annual Emmy Awards, with those programs (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and The Sopranos on HBO and Broken Trail on AMC) responsible for 48 of 219 nominations for programs distributed on cable. HBO was the top cable nominee, but kudos were spread across 22 networks. Other double-digit-earning networks included AMC, Comedy Central, Disney Channel, Showtime, TNT and USA Network. click to read more...
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Sprint, Clearwire Team Up on WiMax Buildout
Sprint Nextel and Craig McCaw’s broadband-wireless startup, Clearwire, announced Thursday a 20-year agreement to jointly build a nationwide WiMax network, eventually covering areas serving 300 million people. The companies said the deal would result in a faster and more efficient buildout of a WiMax broadband network than either company could accomplish by itself. WiMax is a wireless-broadband technology that provides up to 15 megabits per second of bandwidth -- enough to feasibly download full-length movies and songs wirelessly, according to the companies. click to read more...
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AMC’s Mad Men Heads for iTunes
AMC announced that iTunes will offer Mad Men episodes beginning Friday. The 13 episodes from AMC’s first original series will be available on iTunes the day after they air on the network for $1.99 each, or as a “season-pass” for $24.99.

Scripps Networks Looks Up Recipezaar
Scripps Networks, with Web properties among the top-rated lifestyle-content providers on the Internet, acquired Recipezaar, a user-generated recipe and community site featuring more than 230,000 recipes. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. click to read more...
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Senate Panel Revives FCC's Indecency Authority
The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday unanimously adopted by voice vote a bill that would revive the Federal Communications Commission's authority to punish radio and TV stations for the fleeting broadcast of the F-word and other profanities. The bill, sponsored by Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), came in response to a June federal court ruling that said the FCC's new policy of cracking down on the unscripted, one-time utterance of the F-word was such a significant departure from precedent that it was "arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act" -- a law that imposes due-process requirements federal agencies like the FCC.

Comcast Heads South of the Border
Comcast and Latin American television distributor Alterna'TV will team up to launch Mi Cine on Comcast, a video-on-demand service tapping one of the largest libraries of Mexican cinema. Mi Cine on Comcast -- which will be available exclusively to all Cable Latino de Comcast subscribers -- will debut Friday. click to read more...
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CBS Aims to Spread Web Content
CBS television content will be available through 400 sites on the Internet by the fall, according to executives from the broadcast network's interactive division. "CBS is all about open, nonexclusive partnerships," CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith said. "Just CBS.com is not the answer" to reaching viewers, he added, so the network is devoted to going out where the viewers are, not forcing them to CBS.com. click to read more...
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Cablevision Rings Up to Four Phone Lines
Cablevision Systems is offering residential Optimum Voice customers up to four phone lines -- for less than one-half what Verizon Communications charges for additional phone lines. Existing Cablevision digital-phone customers can add up to three additional lines for $14.95 per month each. Each additional Optimum Voice line has its own dedicated phone number and provides unlimited calling to the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The service includes features like caller ID, call waiting, voice mail and directory assistance. click to read more...
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