Financially, Philippe Dauman had a good 2016, with Viacom's former CEO topping the ranks of pay-TV executives in salary and other non-equity compensation, according to our analysis of 2016 proxy statements of publicly traded companies in the pay-TV universe. Benefiting Dauman was a $58 million separation payment he received in August when he left (see 1608220029). That came atop his $3.6 million salary and $9.7 million cash bonus under Viacom's executive short-term incentive plan. He also received equity in the form of Viacom stock and options that the programmer valued at more than $21 million. The company didn't comment. In our analysis, we looked at compensation as two separate silos -- salary and other non-equity items; and stock and stock options. We used dollar value estimates of the equity awards as reported by the companies, and not estimates of future values.
Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC has been more productive in his tenure than under recent past permanent chairmen, with 49 items adopted in his first 100 days, compared with 34 under Julius Genachowski and 25 under Tom Wheeler during the same time period. Pai's comments were in a talk Friday at the American Enterprise Institute in which he largely recapped agency actions since he took over and described how they fit into closing the digital divide, modernizing rules, promoting innovation, consumer and public safety protection, and operational improvement. Text of the prepared remarks, which we heard live, was posted by the FCC along with a fact sheet.
Viacom is in talks about creation of a skinny bundle package of content, and such offerings from programmers "will be a catalyst for more," CEO Bob Bakish said during an analyst call Thursday. "Everyone acknowledges there's a marketplace opportunity there." While licensing content to subscription VOD offerings, one big Viacom goal is ensuring it's not undercutting itself by creating inexpensive alternatives for consumers to access its content, he said. Pointing to Hulu carrying some Nickelodeon content, he said while Viacom builds out its own consumer products business, it makes sense to have some content available across multiple platforms. Bakish said the uneven subscriber results being reported by different MVPDs reflects differences in execution, and the industry overall needs to put more focus on the product and marketing. He said Charter Communications is retiering some of its channels for new subscribers -- an issue still the focus of talks between the two. Viacom said Q1 revenue was up 8 percent, to $3.26 billion, driven largely by filmed entertainment and more affiliate revenue. The CEO said as part of Viacom's announced turnaround plan (see 1702090029), Paramount has a new leadership team in place and MTV is installing a new team and pivoting to a new programming pipeline with a heavier focus on unscripted content. The programmer's stock closed down 7.7 percent to $37.85.
Globalstar has identified more than 100 countries where it's interested in pursuing approval for terrestrial use of its 2483.5-2500 MHz band spectrum and has been looking into the feasibility of each, CEO James Monroe said in an analyst call Thursday. He said the company hired multiple legal, engineering and consulting firms to pursue regulatory approvals in various countries, and it applied in an unspecified number of countries covering 375 million people. He said Globalstar also expects to file additional applications with other countries' regulatory bodies this year. The FCC approved the company's terrestrial low-power service plans in December (see 1612230060). Globalstar reported sales rose 13 percent in Q1 to $24.7 million, while its net loss -- at $20.2 million -- was down from the $26.9 million loss in Q1 2016. Monroe said new one-way and two-way products were running behind schedule. He said the company was in talks with senior lenders about raising $150 million in refinancing to "provide runway beyond 2017." He said the apparent AT&T/Verizon bidding war over Straight Path (see 1705030056) shows "licensed spectrum matters." He said spectrum closely situated to Globalstar's was found in the AWS-3 auction "and not a scrap of that was unpurchased." Added Monroe, "It's not to say unlicensed spectrum doesn't get used -- we all live on Wi-Fi. But you can't run a service you want to charge a reasonable amount of money for on unlicensed."
While pricing is generally driving down MVPD subscriber numbers, Charter Communications has room to boost subscribership largely by taking market share from direct broadcast satellite, CEO Tom Rutledge said in an analyst call Tuesday. He said MVPD subscriber losses trend won't change anytime soon, but it also isn't accelerating. Charter said in a news release the number of residential video customers dropped by 100,000 in Q1, largely due to churn from legacy Time Warner Cable customers, ending the quarter with 16.7 million customers. During the quarter, it said it added 428,000 residential internet customers, putting its subscriber base at 21.8 million, and 37,000 residential voice customers, giving it 10.4 million. Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors that the subscriber numbers from churn off of lower-value products are apparently hiding customers shifting to higher-end packages. She said despite Charter assertions that streaming bundles shouldn't pose a competitive threat, "we'll believe it when we see it." MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote that the subscriber numbers confirm that cord-cutting is accelerating across MVPDs. Rutledge said Charter has now launched new pricing and service packages across all its legacy TWC and Bright House Networks territories -- with Charter having bought the two in 2016 -- except for Hawaii, with the pricing and packages launching there soon. He said minimum broadband speeds are 60 Mbps or 100 Mbps across Charter's footprint, depending on the market, and that Charter is about to restart its all-digital conversion across TWC and BHN markets that aren't all digital yet, with the work to last through early 2019. Rutledge said Charter is testing "5G-like services" on various spectrum bands in a variety of different markets. Asked about Charter not pursing 600 MHz incentive auction spectrum, unlike Comcast, Rutledge said Charter's mobile virtual network operator agreement with Verizon is sufficient for a planned wireless offering launch in 2018, and Charter doesn't see any need now for that spectrum, though "opportunities will be available to get it." Pointing to Charter integrating Netflix into its user interface, Rutledge said the company is in similar talks with YouTube.
Commercial space operators recommend harmonizing satellite spectrum allocations globally, and ensuring the FCC and other regulatory agencies are fully staffed and resourced, they and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) said during a House Aerospace Caucus panel discussion Tuesday.
Dish Network has multiple options for how to build out its planned IoT network expected to be operational by March 2020 (see 1703080026) and should make decisions later this year on frequencies being used, CEO Charlie Ergen said in an analyst call Monday. The planning process will then follow, with construction to start in late 2018, he said.
The idea of dividing 47 GHz and 50 GHz bands into four sub-bands, championed by an array of satellite operators, will face wireless industry opposition, wireless officials told us. The sub-band proposal raises wireless red flags because such band segmentation would make it harder for the FCC to establish the contiguous blocks that would allow terrestrial 5G operations, they said.
Comcast continues to look into offering its Xfinity Mobile service outside its footprint, but the mobile service won't go beyond the footprint anytime soon, CEO Brian Roberts said. The company hasn't found a business model that works beyond the footprint, since its competitive advantage is in bundling mobile with other services, he told analysts during an earnings call Thursday. The company didn't take questions about spectrum or the broadcast incentive auction, in which it spent $1.7 billion for 73 licenses (see 1704130056). In a note to investors, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said despite speculation Comcast's relatively slim spectrum buy was a sign it plans to buy a wireless operator, it very likely points to Comcast knowing it needs to get heavily into mobile wireless but not seeing an attractive takeover target in the near future. He also said a Comcast-Charter Communications deal is unlikely given the antitrust hurdles it would face and the risk it raises of prompting further regulation of the broadband marketplace. Asked during the call about the competitive threat of 5G, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said, "It's early," especially given the time it will take 5G to scale, so it doesn't yet pose a significant threat. He also said Comcast is doing fixed and mobile 5G testing. Pointing to NBC being the top-rated prime-time network by a wider margin than it has enjoyed in more than a decade, plus next year's Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke said he expects that to translate into notable leverage going into the ad sales upfronts. He said the company already is in discussions with big ad-buying groups. Roberts also said May will bring the launch of Comcast's cloud-based home networking Wi-Fi gateway, xFi.
An array of forthcoming seismic technological changes necessitates that policymakers and tech companies start talking about those applications and the policy questions they raise, NCTA President Michael Powell said Thursday at The Near Future. The joint CableLabs-NCTA event -- NCTA’s replacement for its now-canceled INTX show (see 1703060044) -- didn’t delve into those policy questions, but focused on tech, with hands-on virtual reality displays and an array of presentations. CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney said the intent was to showcase applications that could be realized in the next three to five years, all dependent on high-speed networks -- applications including for entertainment, videoconferencing, retail, manufacturing and healthcare. Powell and McKinney said the connective tissue for much of the highlighted tech will be the 1 GB-speed networks expected to become increasingly common over the next couple of years. Video content increasingly will be immersive and short form, with social interactivity aspects, said Technicolor Senior Vice President-Corporate Development Tim Dodd. He said videogame engines are increasingly being used in digital effects and video, because of their interactive real-time and high-end capabilities. VR has been talked about since the 1990s, but smartphones have “softened us up” to finally making that level of content interactivity go mainstream, said 20th Century Fox Futurist Ted Schilowitz. He said unlike the “box on face” model with clunky headsets, “it’s going to get a lot better,” with wearables coming quickly. He said he's working on VR original content now tied to other content, such as motion pictures.