Sinclair Broadcast CEO Chris Ripley is “bullish” about the future of MVPDs, he said Tuesday, and he reiterated his willingness to offload broadcast stations and the Tennis Channel. “A lot of changes are afoot in the industry” and Sinclair wants “to be nimble,” Ripley said at the Deutsche Bank 32nd Annual Leveraged Finance Conference. “We are here to maximize shareholder value.” The MVPD industry will improve because companies such as Charter are offering customers a better deal through packages that combine MVPD service and streaming offerings, he said. Meanwhile, streaming companies are raising subscription prices and cracking down on password sharing. “It's really dramatically changing the value proposition for the consumer,” Ripley said. “Consumers don't like complicated; they don't like too much choice.” Sinclair is seeing extremely high levels of political advertising along with increased core advertising, he said, and it recently raised its 2024 political ad guidance. The company has seen “large uplifts” in ad spending since Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race, Sinclair CFO Lucy Rutishauser said.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment said most-favored nation and alternative distribution method contractual terms are adversely affecting its ability to function as an independent video programmer. In a docket 24-115 filing posted Friday in which it recapped meetings with FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez, Monumental said ADM provisions can be a big hurdle to distribution through online platforms, some of which would otherwise make Monumental's content available to all subscribers. In addition, it said MFNs can impede providing direct-to-consumer offerings, even making it impossible to offer those at competitive prices. Such contractual terms often don't account for large differences in the technology and economics of different distribution methods and ultimately leave fans with fewer ways of following their local teams, it said. MFN consequences are particularly significant for consumers lacking access to premium subscription plans offered by multichannel video programming distributors, as regional sports networks like Monumental often aren't part of MVPDs' base plans, it said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has granted a motion for a time extension for Standard General to respond to a flurry of motions to dismiss (see 2409100008) in the company’s discrimination case against the FCC, Allen Media, Dish Network and several unions and public interest groups. Standard’s oppositions to the motions are now due Nov. 8, replies Dec. 10, the order said.

Amazon Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios are joining the Motion Picture Association, MPA said Thursday. “We are proud to join the MPA and its member studios in their collective efforts to protect creators, content, and consumers worldwide," said Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios.

FuboTV carriage agreement claims against Fox as part of its broader claims against the Venu sports streaming joint venture (see 2402210007) should be severed and transferred to another court, Fox told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in a motion Tuesday (docket 1:24-cv-01363). The carriage agreement between the two states that carriage agreement claims should proceed before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Fox said.

Based on news reports, DirecTV and Dish Network are talking about a merger again. Yet MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett noted Monday that such a deal would likely not face big regulatory challenges, and synergies might be limited. The satellite fleets have different scrambling technology, so synergy would come only after replacing one or another's set-top boxes, he said. There also isn't much churn to be eliminated from customers back and forth between the two companies, as both see few gross additions. A merger "clearly should" happen, given the secular decline of their subscriber bases, "but it would be a mistake to overestimate its importance."

The blackout of Disney broadcast networks and linear channels on DirecTV's satellite and streaming systems ended Saturday as the two reached a distribution deal. DirecTV said the agreement included the ability to offer genre-specific packages such as Disney linear networks. In addition, Disney's streaming services will be included in some DirecTV packages as will distribution rights for Disney's upcoming ESPN streaming service at no additional cost to DirecTV subscribers. DirecTV said Monday its bad-faith negotiation complaint lodged against Disney with the FCC remains active (see 2409090003).

The Charter Communications-Warner Bros. Discovery distribution deal announced last week (see 2409120002) is a win-win for the companies, MoffettNathanson said. WBD secured a critical distribution partner and seemingly avoided having to settle for smaller fees for TNT, as was expected, while Charter can include Max and Discovery+ for its subscribers at no extra cost and completes a free suite of direct-to-consumer streaming services in its bundle, MoffettNathanson said. WBD will likely use the Charter agreement as a template in forthcoming affiliate fee deals, but it's uncertain Comcast and DirecTV have different negotiating priorities from Charter, it said.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Charter Communications have inked a multiyear distribution agreement that ties together linear video with streaming services, the two said Thursday. Under the agreement, Charter's Spectrum TV Select subscribers receive Discovery+ and ad-supported Max for free. The agreement also renews Spectrum's carriage of WBD's linear networks. WBD CEO David Zaslav said the companies "did this agreement together nearly a year early to set a framework for the future and to provide more consumers access to our unparalleled content offering while giving the industry more resilience as it evolves." Charter in the past 12 months has signed similar deals involving streaming and linear channels with programmers including Disney (see 2309110034), AMC Networks and Paramount Global.

The DirecTV-Disney blackout (see 2409090003) illustrates the unsustainable two-tiered system of linear video regulation, with rules for some but not all operators, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said Thursday. "We must balance the scales," he said, urging that the FCC in the future "either unleash the video marketplace from outdated rules or balance it with smart and targeted reforms." He added, "What cannot persist is a system that entrenches marketplace power at the expense of the consumer."