Broadcasters, multichannel video programming distributors and pay-TV industry experts see retransmission consent fees increasingly facing price pressure. In recent earnings calls, some local broadcast chains said they are seeing slowdowns due to cord-cutting among MVPD subscribers.
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Federal lawmakers from both parties back reforming the Universal Service Fund (USF), but whether that happens likely will depend on the November elections, speakers said Monday at NATOA’s annual local government conference. Localities will increasingly face broadband-only providers wanting right of way (ROW) access, and those cable competitors raise questions of whether they too should pay franchise fees, said localities lawyer Brian Grogan of Moss & Barnett.
DirecTV is using the Venu sports streaming joint venture as a model to push for linear skinny programming bundles in other genres. Programmers and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) have "an ocean of opportunity" for creating content packages around genres from entertainment to children's programming, akin to Venu's sports focus, Chief Content Officer Rob Thun told us Wednesday. "If they believe any of their own projections [for Venu], why wouldn't they embark upon this?"
FuboTV will likely succeed in proving that the planned ESPN/Warner Bros. Discovery/Fox Sports streaming joint venture will violate federal antitrust law, a federal judge ruled Friday as she granted plaintiff Fubo a preliminary injunction to block it. The sports streaming JV, Venu, has raised anticompetitive concerns on the part of some federal lawmakers (see 2404170067).
Streaming services increasingly are cracking down on password sharing as they see the success that Netflix has had with its initiative, industry analysts tell us. Executives at streamers tell Wall Street the effort will help drive revenue growth.
Don’t expect major daylight between a Kamala Harris administration and the Joe Biden White House on major communications policy issues, industry and policy experts predicted. Much focus and effort would center on defending the FCC's net neutrality and digital discrimination orders in the current federal circuit court challenges, as well as pursuing net neutrality rules, they said. Less clear would be the nature of the relationship between Harris' White House and Big Tech. The Harris campaign didn't comment. Deregulation and undoing net neutrality are considered high on the to-do list for the administration of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump if he's elected (see 2407110034).
SpaceX is facing opposition from wireless and satellite entities over its requested waiver that would allow relaxed out-of-band power flux density limits for the company's proposed supplemental coverage from space service, according to docket 23-135 filings Tuesday. In its June waiver request, SpaceX said its proposed PFD limits would protect adjacent band networks from interference while avoiding too-restrictive limits. Separately, Omnispace petitioned the FCC, urging denial of SpaceX's pending request to add the 340-360 kilometer altitude shells as a deployment option for its SCS service (see 2406210006).
An FCC notice of inquiry on whether to require cable, phone and broadband providers to offer simple cancellation and access to live representatives is getting applause from consumer advocacy groups. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office on Monday circulated the draft customer service NOI. The White House said the NOI was part of a broader "time is money" initiative aimed at consumer woes. In addition, the effort will investigate whether health insurers make it difficult for customers to submit claims online.
Facing $2 billion in debt coming due in November and likely short of the cash on hand it will need to operate in Q4, EchoStar plans to use spectrum assets to raise the funding it needs, CEO Hamid Akhavan said Friday as the company announced Q2 earnings. EchoStar has more spectrum than it needs for its wireless plans, Akhavan said. But the company doesn't intend to dispose or relinquish ownership of spectrum holdings, he said. Instead, it's considering financing options that don't require selling.
Some states emphasize Buy American preference requirements more than others in their broadband equity, access and deployment plans, we found in our analysis of NTIA-approved BEAD volume 2 initial proposals. Whether Buy American provisions in state BEAD plans mean all the fiber optics and other materials used will be solely American-made is unclear. NTIA has signed off on 34 BEAD volume 2 plans so far, including Wyoming's on Thursday (see 2408080054).