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BEST OF MULTICHANNEL.COM(Multichannel News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Bundling Bashers BuoyedWASHINGTON The class-action suit attempting to force cable and satellite to offer a la carte programming is not dead yet. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers 15 federal judicial districts in the West, last week withdrew a three-judge panel decision last June affirming a lower court's ruling that a group of cable and satellite subscribers did not have a case when they alleged that bundled cable programming was an antitrust violation. The suit had been filed against NBCUniversal, Viacom, The Walt Disney Co., Fox, Time Warner Inc., Time Warner Cable, Comcast, DirecTV, EchoStar and Cablevision Systems, among others. The subscribers claimed that bundling high-value channels with lower-valued ones reduces consumer choice and raises prices, precluding distributors from offering a la carte channels and constituting a restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. In June, the three-judge panel had upheld a district court ruling throwing out the antitrust suit, saying that it was “a consumer-protection class action masquerading as an antitrust suit.” But in a one-paragraph order Oct. 31, the court withdrew the decision and said it was going to reconstitute a panel, making moot requests to rehear the case. No explanation was given for the about-face, although the court had been fielding petitions to reconsider the decision, though obviously not from media companies. A new third judge will be selected following the death last month of Judge Pamela Ann Rymer, 70, who was one of the three on the June panel affirming the lower court's decision. FCC Reform Bill UnveiledWASHINGTON A pair of Republican legislators introduced Federal Communications Commission process-reform bills last week that would require the agecny to justify regulations according to costs and benefits, survey the state of the marketplace before initiating any new rulemakings, and take other steps to make sure the public is getting bang for its regulatory buck. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Communications subcommittee, joined with Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) last Wednesday to unveil the bills, which Walden suggested were the product of a collaborative process with the FCC and his colleagues across the aisle and talked about it in terms of improving transparency and efficiency. Walden held an FCC oversight hearing in June that made it clear House Republicans wanted to move on a discussion draft of an FCC reform bill that was circulated at that time. House Democrats at the hearing countered that too strict a regimen could actually impede the regulatory process while gutting the public-interest standard that they argue should be the FCC's North Star. While the bill has a chance to pass the Republican-controlled House, it would likely be a tough climb in the Democrat-controlled Senate. DirecTV's Riordan Retiring as Head of SalesEL SEGUNDO, CALIF. Bob Riordan, after heading DirecTV's ad sales group as senior vice president for five years, will step down from the post for personal reasons, the company said. DirecTV said it will conduct an internal and external search to find a replacement for Riordan. In 2006, DirecTV brought all of its ad-sales operations in-house, hiring Riordan to head the group. Previously, the satellite-TV operator had used Twentieth Television as its advertising-sales rep, where Riordan had been responsible for annual gross ad sales revenues. Prior to DirecTV and Twentieth Television, Riordan was executive vice president at Havas’ MPG, head of sales for the short-lived XFL football league, and a sales representative for USA Networks. On Riordan's watch, DirecTV has expanded interactive TV advertising and initiated a targeted-advertising project with Starcom MediaVest Group to deliver local ads to nearly 10 million subscribers with DVRs. The company is using the targeted-ad system from Invidi Technologies, which replaces national spots with ads stored on the DVR based on different criteria. DirecTV also struck a deal with NCC Media, the ad-sales company owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications, bringing the satellite-TV operator into the spot-advertising market for the first time and giving NCC the ability to expand coverage in 25 select markets. Last year, the company entered into a pact with Google, under which the Internet giant would sell some inventory across a handful of networks. Todd Spangler Cable Hall of Fame Taps Carlsen, Hindery, Lee, Lenfest, King, LindDENVER Six industry leaders have been elected to The Cable Hall of Fame's class of 2012, The Cable Center announced. The inductees are: Ann Carlsen, founder and CEO, Carlsen Resources; Leo Hindery Jr., managing partner, InterMedia Partners; Larry King, former host of CNN's Larry King Live;Debra Lee, chairman and CEO, BET Networks; H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, president and CEO, The Lenfest Group; and Phil Lind, vice chairman, Rogers Communications. The honorees were chosen “based on their outstanding achievements and contributions to the cable industry,” The Cable Center said. The 2012 Cable Hall of Fame selection committee was chaired by A&E Networks president and CEO Abbe Raven, who is a 2010 Cable Hall of Fame inductee. The six honorees for 2012 will be inducted during the annual Cable Hall of Fame Celebration, held in conjunction with Cable Connection-Spring centered around the NCTA Cable Show in Boston May 21-23, 2012. The 15th annual Cable Hall of Fame Celebration will be held Monday, May 21, 2012, at the Marriott at Copley Plaza in Boston. Since 1998, 90 men and women have been inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame. This Is Only a (Shorter) Test…WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission is shortening its national Emergency Alert System test from three minutes to 30 seconds, an FCC source confirmed last week. The unstated reasoning: so nobody will mistake it for an actual emergency, something some industry players had suggested might happen such an extended warning. The FCC is conducting the test at 2 p.m. on Nov. 9, in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service. The test requires broadcasters, cable operators, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers and direct-broadcast satellite operators to deliver a presidential message or other info during a national emergency. While the EAS system has been tested on a monthly and weekly basis at the state and local level that annoying “this is only a test” tone this will be the first national, end-to-end test of the alert, which is used for national emergencies. Google Looking to Run Pay TV Trial: ReportMOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. Google is considering delivering a subscription TV service over its experimental fiber-to-the-home network in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., sometime next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The online search giant has approached media companies including The Walt Disney Co, Time Warner Inc. and Discovery Communications about carrying TV channels on the test network, according to the Journal, citing unnamed sources. However, the talks were described as “exploratory” at this juncture. Google selected Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., as the cities where it will fund the buildout of a fiber-to-the-home network delivering speeds of 1 Gigabit per second far beyond what is available to most residential broadband users. The Kansas City test network is expected to go live in early 2012. Google has described the “Think Big With a Gig” initiative as an “experiment” to try to identify and develop applications that can take advantage of ultra-high-speed Internet. A 1 Gbps network would have ample headroom for an IPTV service. Google in September hired former cable TV executive Jeremy Stern, who has led the discussions with cable programmers. Stern was partner with telecom-oriented law firm Cole, Raywid & Braverman LLP. In the 1990s, he headed legal affairs for MediaOne (formerly Continental Cablevision), which is now part of Comcast. He also worked for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association in the ‘80s and ‘90s working on antipiracy projects and state legislative and regulatory matters. Todd Spangler 2011 International Press Telecommunications Council |