Fox reported fiscal Q2 profit of $230 million vs. $314 million from the year-ago quarter, though revenue increased 8% to $4.09 billion. Fox's quarter ended Dec. 31. That increase was “driven by revenue growth at the Television and Cable Network Programming segments,” Fox said Tuesday. Fox TV Stations, Fox News Media and Tubi “experienced record highs in the December quarter, led by an unprecedented political advertising cycle,” digital growth and new advertisers at Tubi, said CEO Lachlan Murdoch. “We are looking forward to a return to normal entertainment and sports production schedules.” Ad revenue increased 14%, “primarily due to record political advertising revenues at the FOX Television Stations, continued linear and digital growth at FOX News Media and the impact of the consolidation of Tubi,” the company said. Fox had a 14% decrease in some other revenue, “primarily due to lower sports sublicensing revenues at the Cable Network Programming segment as a result of cancelled college football games” due to COVID-19, the release said. The pandemic “resulted in widespread and continuing negative impacts on the macroeconomic environment and disruption to the Company’s business,” it said. The stock closed down 6% to $30.73.

Dish Network and Fort Myers Broadcasting (FMB) blamed each other for a blackout of WINK-TV Fort Myers, Florida, which started Saturday on the Dish lineup. Dish said it made "a fair offer" and FMB "is using our customers as bargaining chips." FMB said the two have been in talks since November, and the broadcaster's proposals "are the same or similar as what have been agreed to by all of DISH’s cable and satellite competitors."

A blackout of Cox Media Group stations in 20 markets on AT&T's DirecTV (see 2102030005) ended Sunday with the announced signing of a multiyear retransmission consent agreement. (Editor's note: An earlier version of this report incorrectly identified the broadcaster.)

Maryland legislators plan to consider an exemption for news media from a proposed digital ad tax if it becomes law. The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee scheduled a hearing Feb. 17 at 1 p.m. on SB-787, introduced Friday by Sen. Bill Ferguson (D). Del. Eric Luedtke (D) introduced companion HB-1200 Monday. The exemption would address the state press association’s concerns about the digital tax bill, said Rebecca Snyder, Maryland, Delaware and District of Columbia Press Association executive director. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) vetoed the tax bill passed in March (see 2003180047). Snyder expects the House to vote this week on overriding it, she said.

Walmart bought advertising technology firm Thunder Industries and is developing a display self-serve platform for suppliers, Janey Whiteside, the retailer's chief customer officer, blogged Thursday.

Broadcasters shouldn’t be allowed to black out major events or own multiple top-four stations in a market, said the American Television Alliance in an FCC filing Friday in docket 15-216 blasting Apollo Global Management and Cox Media Group for blocking AT&T customers just before the Super Bowl over retransmission consent negotiations. “Apollo Global has chosen to use the moment in which it can inflict maximum harm on viewers in order to extract maximum fees well into the future,” ATVA said. The blackout affects Seattle; Dayton; Yuma, Arizona; Greenwood, Mississippi; and Eureka, California. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., sent Cox a letter Thursday over the blackout affecting his constituents. Switching to another MVPD or a streaming service isn’t an option for all his constituents, Huffman said. Many “live in rural areas with limited access to broadband and other distributors,” he said. Many of those in his district had switched to AT&T from Suddenlink over a previous blackout, Huffman said. He will add provisions requiring that interim carriage be provided during retrans negotiations to a bill aimed at repealing the UHF discount. Friday, AT&T said retrans blackouts “fly in the face” of NAB assurances that broadcasters wouldn’t have service interruptions during the pandemic. “While NAB successfully lobbied Congress for stimulus relief for local broadcasters, to ‘serve their communities during this critical time,’ CMG has now turned their back on those very communities,” the update said. “It’s time that Congress and the FCC take a fresh look at this broken retransmission consent system that encourages blackouts and skyrocketing rate increases at consumers’ expense.” If "the companies don’t fix this problem, the FCC should act," said Public Knowledge Legal Director John Bergmayer. The FCC "has the statutory authority to order interim carriage during program carriage disputes," Bergmayer said. "Timing blackouts to coincide with marquee events like the Super Bowl should be considered unlawful under the ‘good faith’ standard that governs retransmission consent negotiations." NAB declined to comment, and Cox Media Group didn’t respond to a request for comment.

With Fuse Media entering into a carriage agreement with AT&T for its networks, it dropped its carriage complaint against the MVPD (see 2012140052), Fuse said Thursday in an FCC docket 20-426 motion to withdraw complaint. Fuse's outside counsel didn't comment on the status of the company's contract breach complaint against AT&T in its U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceeding (see 2012160050).

A blackout of Cox local stations on AT&T's DirecTV in 20 markets, including five where a blackout could jeopardize Super Bowl viewing, demonstrates that broadcasters "intentionally cause maximum disruption and harm for consumers in order to extract exorbitant fees," the American TV Alliance said Wednesday. Cox said the blackout came Tuesday after AT&T opted not to "reach a fair and reasonable deal." Local stations in 16 states are affected. AT&T said it's "disappointed Cox Media Group and Wall Street financier Apollo Global Management have intentionally put our customers into the middle of a private business matter. Broadcasters like Cox gin up these contrived blackouts at the precise time it hurts their viewers the most, extract higher fees, and then use their own news outlets to try to intentionally mislead people and skirt any accountability for their relentless and unwarranted price-gouging. That’s a shameless violation of the public trust -- especially from a local news provider during a global pandemic."

SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz is unfazed by Google creating services and capabilities for Ford customers beginning in 2023 (see report, Feb. 2 issue of this publication), she said Tuesday on a Q4 call, her first with investors as chief. “We’ve always had a clear competitive advantage in the car.” The satellite radio platform continues “strengthening our OEM relationships,” said Witz. Reversing declining Pandora ad-supported listener hours remains a problem, as it was before SiriusXM’s 2019 acquisition of the music-streaming service, conceded Witz. Listener hours fell 7% last year to 12.5 billion. “We’re clearly focused on decline in listenership,” the CEO said. “We’re continuing to find ways to work at that,” including “improving engagement across connected devices and in the car,” she said. “It has been harder than we expected.” The “valuation” of the SXM-7 satellite is underway after it “suffered damage during in-orbit testing that resulted in the failure of certain payloads,” said new Chief Financial Officer Sean Sullivan. Though the “full extent of the damage to the satellite is not yet known, we do not expect our service to be impacted,” he said. SXM-7 launched successfully aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December, he said. The SXM-3 and SXM-4 satellites “are expected to support our service for several years,” said Sullivan. SXM-5 “remains available as an in-orbit spare.” he said. Development of SXM-8 is “well underway, and we expect it to be launched later this year,” he said. SiriusXM bought a $225 million insurance policy on SXM-7 for its “first year of in-orbit operations,” he said. “We have notified the underwriters of a potential claim.”

Mike Fidler had no “preconceptions” about how long he would stay when he became UHD Alliance president in summer 2017 and didn’t foresee then taking on “a long-term role,” he told us now. The Sony and Pioneer veteran stepped down last week (see personals section, Jan. 28 issue). UHDA won’t seek a replacement, Chairman Michael Zink, Warner Bros. vice president-technology, emailed the board last Tuesday. Zink is adding the president title. Fidler thinks most of what UHDA “set out to do” under his watch, “we really met,” he told us. “We were able to complete the initiatives we put focus on, including Filmmaker Mode and the work we were doing on interoperability.” Fidler regrets that COVID-19 inhibited UHDA from “getting out in front of people," as “with something like Filmmaker Mode, it would have been advantageous to be able to really effectively promote it by seeing it, demonstrating it. That was very difficult, if not impossible." Fidler in hindsight “thought we could get more traction with manufacturers and retailers” on the Ultra HD Premium logo: “That’s a disappointment.” The group's website lists 32 current members, including Amazon and Qualcomm. Founders including Disney and Netflix are gone, while AT&T bought DirecTV and Warner after UHDA's formation and doesn't now belong to the organization.