The field of independent cable networks will shrink by one when NBC Universal closes its $925 million purchase of Oxygen Media. Announcement Tuesday of the deal capped months of speculation. NBCU plans to sell two Spanish-language TV stations to finance the deal -- independent KWHY-TV Los Angeles and Telemundo affiliate WKAQ-TV San Juan, Puerto Rico. Oxygen executives said the prospects of promoting their shows on other NBC-owned networks like Bravo and NBC led the to deal. Difficulty arranging carriage with pay-TV distributors and negotiating good rates may lead other independent networks to seek corporate parents if the rules governing such agreements don’t change, a cable lawyer said.
Notable CROSS rulings
Providence Equity Partners got an extra month to comply with FCC rules on broadcast-newspaper cross ownership, said a Tuesday Media Bureau letter. The leveraged buyout firm won a delay until Oct. 31, from Sept. 29, to sell its stake in closely held newspaper company Freedom Communications. Providence Equity had the choice of divesting that stake or TV or radio stations to meet the terms of the FCC’s 2007 order approving its $13.7 billion purchase of Univision (CD March 28 p5). Providence needed time to finalize an agreement with Freedom for that company to buy the minority interest. “We agree that the brief extension requested would serve the public interest,” wrote Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman. “Absent extraordinary circumstances, we do not anticipate granting further” delays.
The FCC has “tentatively concluded” that it should revise rules on access tariffs to ensure they remain “just and reasonable” in light of alleged “access stimulation” efforts by rural phone companies. The rulemaking targets what some call “traffic pumping.” It occurs when companies such as free calling services generate high volumes of traffic for rural telecom carriers, which then increase access charges paid by long distance companies that transport the increased traffic to the local carriers’ service areas.
Viacom was “reluctantly drawn” to sue Google’s YouTube, but won’t shirk regulatory and legislative battles involving copyright, including net neutrality, CEO Philippe Dauman made clear Monday. In a keynote to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Summit, Dauman said Viacom’s rising revenue from digital content, pegged at $500 million this year, was besieged by free online alternatives that made its licensed partners reconsider whether to keep paying.
Belo will split its newspaper business from its broadcast assets into two publicly held companies, it said. Belo will keep its 20 TV stations and two 24-hour regional cable news channels. “Regulatory obstacles to cross- ownership remain in place,” said Chairman Robert Decherd. “Relaxation of media ownership rules is long overdue. That notwithstanding, our experience with virtual cross-ownership in numerous markets suggests that some synergies across print, broadcast and online media can be effectively achieved through alliances and partnerships.” Decherd will become chairman and CEO of Belo’s newspaper company, A.H. Belo, and remain nonexecutive chairman of Belo Corp. Belo is the second publicly held broadcaster to consider changes to its corporate structure because of media ownership rules. Hearst Corp. bid to buy out Hearst-Argyle’s public shareholders in part because of its skepticism that ownership limits will get looser soon (CD Sept 17 p5). Belo shares gained 18 percent.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Public Utilities Commission is stirring the pot on state pay-TV franchising, leading players said. The commission will decide, probably in October or November, whether to require franchise holders to make detailed periodic reports of video subscriber numbers, Michael Morris, chief of the video franchising and broadband development group in the PUC communications division, told us. At a meeting of Women in Telecommunications Wednesday night, he expressed the view that the commission needs the data to enforce a new state franchise law’s ban on service discrimination. The PUC has taken up the matter in a second phase of rulemaking under a statute that took effect in January. Rules on buildouts by small incumbent telcos also are a part of the proceeding, Morris said.
Commissioner Michael Copps worries that the FCC’s media ownership proceeding is moving too fast, he told reporters Thursday. Recent news reports (CD Aug 2 p4) and FCC actions indicate the commission’s comprehensive ownership review is picking up speed, he said. “What I sense around here is a little quickening of the pace of how we look at things,” he said. “All of a sudden, the wheels started to turn a little faster.”
TV stations’ approaches to their Web sites are changing rapidly, with large marketing sums at stake, said industry officials and a lawyer active in the area. “Right now it’s kind of a ‘land grab’ and everyone is out selling everyone else’s inventory,” said Steve Shaw, senior vice president of Cox Cross Media, a unit that Cox Enterprises introduced this month to sell national marketers spots on local TV sites. “As inventory does become finite, people are going to have to pick long term partners.” Meanwhile, stations are finding that the rules of TV programming don’t transpose well online.
Time Warner Cable got another FCC extension of a deadline to comply with cable-satellite master antenna TV cross-ownership rules under the 2006 order approving its $17 billion purchase of Adelphia with Comcast. It initially had until September 2006 to show compliance but got “various extensions,” said a Media Bureau order Wednesday. After getting an extension until Oct. 1, 2007, to show compliance at a Los Angeles-area system, Time Warner Cable sought more time. The new deadline is Nov. 30, the bureau said. Time Warner said “a number of complications” had kept it from “reaching a final agreement for interconnection” at the property, said the order by bureau Chief Monica Desai.
GENEVA --ITU proposals for facilitating next- generation network (NGN) service assurance and appointment management entered the body’s 4-week approval process Sunday. A third recommendation covers interface behavior for managing network resources. The NGN management focus group likely will finish work on a specification roadmap next May, officials said.