Requests to ban blocking of online video by NBC after control of its parent company goes to Comcast may gain traction at the FCC after a different broadcast network prevented its Web video from being seen by some cable broadband subscribers, antitrust lawyers and industry analysts predicted. The blocking of Fox.com and Hulu.com video from News Corp. over the weekend, in the company’s retransmission-consent dispute with Cablevision, has raised speculation about similar action by NBC against a pay-TV provider during a retransmission contract dispute when it’s controlled by Comcast (CD Oct 21 p5). The American Cable Association, DirecTV and Dish Network -- foes of the Comcast-NBC Universal deal as it’s planned -- cited the Fox Web video blackout to the approximately 2.6 million broadband subscribers with Cablevision Internet Protocol addresses to renew their request for curbs on Comcast.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Connected TV is a “survival game” for the industry, Gaurav Arora, senior manager of Broadcom’s consumer electronics group, said on a panel at this week’s CEA Industry Forum. The Internet-centric purchasers of five to 10 years from now are in college and if TV sets aren’t connected for them, “the product will die” and be replaced by an iPad, laptop or smartphone, he said.
BELLEVUE, Wash. -- The arrival of Apple TV, Google TV and other services to deliver programming directly to consumers threatens cable companies’ business model, venture capitalists said Thursday at the Network Computing Architects Security & Technology conference. Carriers will also have to re-think business models as data-intensive applications, such as video, swamp their networks, VCs said. The backdrop to the discussion was Cablevision’s fight with Fox over carriage fees. Fox briefly blocked Cablevision subscribers Saturday from its programming on Hulu, and on Thursday was still denying Cablevision customers in New York and Philadelphia wired access to Fox TV stations.
The FCC has shipped 1,000 “white boxes” to academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech, in an effort to test broadband speeds around the country, the commission said Thursday. The boxes are designed to be installed in consumers’ homes to track hourly data on broadband speed. By month-end, 10,000 of the boxes are scheduled to have gone out, Chief Walter Johnston of the commission’s Electromagnetic Compatibility Division told an agency meeting on broadband.
AT&T added and retained more wireless customers in the third quarter than it had in any previous Q3, the carrier said Thursday. And it sold a record number of Apple iPhone handsets, though many were to subscribers it already had. AT&T mobile broadband “is approaching a $20 billion a year business, and the business is growing at 25-30 percent,” Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner said on the carrier’s earnings call. Wireline isn’t achieving the same success, but Lindner said the carrier isn’t thinking about ditching the business.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will announce Thursday that the commission will act at its Nov. 30 meeting to seek comment on spectrum-related proposals affecting wireless carriers and broadcasters, the chairman said in an interview Wednesday. Genachowski, scheduled to headline the commission’s Spectrum Summit, will also warn that the nation’s spectrum deficit will hit 300 MHz within five years if, as analysts predict, mobile broadband traffic grows to as much as 35 times recent levels.
Telephone companies in states like Wisconsin and Maine have contacted state legislators as they challenge local stimulus projects. The companies cited competition issues, but their efforts aren’t likely to go far, officials and experts said in interviews.
Ensuring deterrence and resilience to enhance cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, government officials said at the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Cybersecurity Conference at Gallaudet University. The administration recognizes that “this is not just a government issue,” said Howard Schmidt, White House cybersecurity coordinator. “We need to fully engage and use the intellectual capital we have … to develop the right mechanisms for managing the risks that we have out there.” No one is naive enough to think “we'll have 100 percent security” or that there'll be no disruptions, Schmidt said. But the administration wants to ensure that when an attack happens, “the effect is minimal, duration is as short as possible and we're able to recover and get back to full operations as soon as possible,” he said.
The Broadband Initiatives Program has disbursed more than $3.5 billion in loans and grants and created some 25,800 jobs, the Department of Agriculture said Wednesday. The Rural Utilities Service and the NTIA have improved broadband access for 7 million Americans by 297 infrastructure projects, four satellite awards and 19 “technical assistance” grants, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday. But Hill leaders and industry lobbyists are voicing skepticism about the way the Obama administration is measuring the impact of broadband stimulus.
The FCC is sticking to the sidelines in the Cablevision-Fox dispute that left all of the cable operator’s 3 million video subscribers without access for a fifth day to the three News Corp.-owned TV stations in the New York area and in Philadelphia. On Wednesday, Commissioner Michael Copps became the second FCC member to speak out against the contractual dispute, raising net neutrality concerns voiced by others. Chairman Julius Genachowski the day before criticized both sides for “petty gamesmanship” (CD Oct 20 p1). The head of the Fox affiliates group told us his members back the network’s position, as TV stations owned by networks and those held by independent companies seek more money to be carried by subscription-video providers.