Meredith stations in 12 markets will return to the Dish Network lineup after agreeing to a multiyear retransmission consent agreement, Meredith said Thursday. The blackout began in July and involved markets including Atlanta, Nashville and Phoenix.
AT&T said carriage disputes might have incremental effects on its video customer counts, Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche wrote investors Wednesday. She said the company indicates it's working through various asset sales including 2,700 or so towers in the U.S. and Mexico and four regional sports networks. AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens made the comments at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference. Disney has begun warning of a possible blackout on AT&T video services (see 1909100018), after recently ended Nexstar and CBS blackouts (see 1908300010 and 1908080040).
Over half of U.S. broadband households find voice control of connected devices appealing and 12 percent see it as a top feature when shopping for a TV, said Parks Associates Tuesday. Voice has had a “sizeable impact” in the smart home and connected device space, with four out of 10 homes using some form of smart speaker, said analyst Dina Abdelrazik. Voice control is extending into appliances, doorbells and smart TVs with nearly a fifth of consumers using voice commands to control connected entertainment devices several times weekly.
Disney is warning of a possible blackout of several owned-and-operated ABC stations, ESPN and other networks on AT&T. It established a website that says it's offering carriage terms similar to other agreements reached with other MVPDs, but the sides haven't come to agreement. It said negotiations cover WABC-TV New York; KABC-TV Los Angeles; WTVD Durham, North Carolina; KGO-TV San Francisco; KTRK-TV Houston; KFSN-TV Fresno, California; WLS-TV Chicago; WPVI-TV Philadelphia; the ESPN and Disney networks; and Freeform. AT&T said it's "disappointed [Disney] put their viewers into the middle of negotiations. We are on the side of consumer choice and value and want to keep Disney channels and owned-and-operated local ABC stations in eight cities in our customers’ lineups. We hope to avoid any interruption to the services some of our customers care about."
Fubo launched a free streaming sports network, Fubo Sports Network, featuring live sports and original programming, it tweeted Monday.
The major live TV contracts will likely stay in the traditional linear TV ecosystem because new media companies lack the reach, sports-quality TV production expertise and robust platforms that can handle tens of millions of streaming viewers simultaneously, S&P said Monday. But there could be movement among the TV broadcast partners, with Disney potentially pursuing and winning one of the three Sunday NFL broadcast packages, it said.
Elliott Associates and Elliott International, investment funds managed by Elliott Management CEO and Republican contributor Paul Singer, wrote AT&T Monday after acquiring $3.2 billion in stock and equivalents in the telecom. Elliott sought increased strategic focus, improved operational efficiency, a formal capital allocation framework and enhanced leadership and oversight. Elliott suggested adding more directors, and forming a board strategy and operations committee. It recommended AT&T "relieve investors of the ongoing fear that there is another major, distracting move" such as a merger or acquisition in the foreseeable future. AT&T responded that its management team and board "maintain a regular and open dialogue with shareholders and will review Elliott Management's perspectives." It said it's already executing many of the actions sought. President Donald Trump tweeted Monday the activist investor's involvement is "great news," and urged Elliott to help "put a stop to all of the Fake News" at CNN. Matt Dornic, CNN vice president-communications, disputed Trump's claim. The network delivered its highest August ratings on record last month and won the prime time demographic over Fox and MSNBC, Dornic tweeted. Trump claimed MSNBC had lost all credibility due to negative coverage of his administration. Comcast declined to comment.
Oct. 11 is the deadline for the next biannual registration with the FCC of U.S.-based foreign media outlets as required under the McCain National Defense Authorization Act (see 1809050009), said a Media Bureau public notice Friday.
Disney and Warner Bros. received a sought-after permanent injunction against streaming service VidAngel (see 1907300020). In an order Thursday (in Pacer, docket 16-04109), U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte of Los Angeles said the same reasons justify a permanent injunction as did the preliminary injunction previously awarded the plaintiffs. Those include irreparable injury, the inadequacy of legal remedies, the balance of hardships and the public interest, he said. Noting the $62.4 million verdict previously awarded in the copyright violation complain against VidAngel (see 1906180003), the judge said there was little direct evidence of actual money damages, so the high statutory damages reinforces the view the injury to the plaintiffs "is irreparable and that legal remedies are inadequate," especially because VidAngel likely won't be able to pay the award. It said VidAngel indicated it doesn't plan to restart its disc-based business, but there's no guarantee it won't so the permanent injunction isn't moot. VidAngel didn't comment Friday.
As cord cutting picks up steam, programmers are hurting the most, as they lose millions of monthly subscriptions that were paying for their programming, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Thursday. Some networks are recovering some of those losses by selling content to providers like Sling TV or PlayStation Now, but programmers overall have sizable losses of paying households, he said. It remains to be seen whether cord cutting continues to accelerate or if losses become slow and steady, akin to the dissolving of the landline phone, he said.