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  2. January 2017

January 2017

An Examination of Apparent Disappointing 600 MHz Auction Results

With the 600 MHz auction results expected soon, it’s becoming increasingly clear that those results are likely to be disappointing. More and more industry observers are predicting that prices will be considerably lower than many initially expected — and lower they were in the 2015 AWS-3 auction, the most recent major spectrum auction. The Moffett Nathanson researchers pose several potential explanations for why the 600 MHz auction results appear poised to be considerably lower than the AWS-3 results. One idea relates to the value of lower-frequency vs. higher-frequency spectrum in today’s market. It wasn’t long ago that many industry observers were referring to lower-frequency spectrum as “lakefront property” because of its excellent propagation characteristics, which enable a carrier to cover a large area with a relatively small number of cellsites – albeit with capacity constraints. At the time 600 MHz auction results were first forecast, 5G appeared to be a more distant possibility than it has proven to be. Now that carriers are talking about beginning 5G deployments in 2017, I would expect to see much more intense competition for ultra-high-frequency spectrum best suited for 5G – including spectrum in the 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 39 GHz and possibly 12 GHz bands.

Cable One to Buy NewWave for $735M

Cable One said it has agreed to purchase mid-sized cable operator NewWave Communications from private equity group GTCR for $735 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017. Buying NewWave, headquartered in Sikeston (MO), will add about 214,000 residential primary service units (PSUs, a measure of video, voice and broadband customers) in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas to Cable One. Phoenix (AZ)-based Cable One had 315,589 residential video customers, 466,668 residential broadband customers and 100,510 residential telephony customers at the end of the third quarter.

More Than Half Of US Adults Live In 'Cell Phone-Only' Households

More than half (52%) of US adults live in households with cell phones, but no landline phones, according to new research from the GfK MRI Survey of the American Consumer. The figure represents a doubling of the percentage of cell phone-only households in 2010, when it was 26%. The proportion of senior citizens (ages 65+) in cellphone-only households quadrupled over the past six years to 23%, while the figure for Millennials (born from 1977 to 1994) climbed to 71% from 47%. The findings come from GfK MRI's Fall 2016 Survey data release, which is based on interviews with approximately 24,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and above. After Millennials, Generation X (born 1965 to 1976) is the age group most likely to live in cell phone-only households, at 55%. By comparison, the figure for Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964) is only four in 10 (40%).

Why TV Spending Went Down In 2016 Political Advertising

First and foremost, lower TV spending in 2016 political advertising may simply be a function of better media buying, said Ben Angle, senior media buyer-national media research at Planning & Placement. “In terms of TV being down, I think you really have to attribute it to master negotiators beating the stations down,” said Angle. Another factor was simply leveraging the TV calendar to commit buys during softer rate-card periods -- “booking in June, July -- or even, in some cases, May -- to get the best rate.” Angle said he did not really see a fundamental shift in the political media mix, and attributed most of the dollar-share changes to more effective and efficient TV buying. “There’s more to it than just people not spending money in TV,” he explained. That said, Elizabeth Kalmbach, vice president-group media direct at KSM Media, said TV’s share of political media budgets reflects what’s going on in all categories.

NBC/WSJ Poll: Nearly 70 Percent of Americans Give a Thumbs Down to Trump’s Twitter Habit

In these divisive political times, the American public actually has a pretty unambiguous message for Donald Trump: "Cool it with the tweets." Nearly seven-in-ten Americans say that Trump's use of Twitter is a bad idea, and only nine percent say they strongly support his use of the 140-character medium to announce policy positions and express his personal point of view. Sixty-nine percent of respondents in the survey said that Trump's tweeting is bad, agreeing with the statement that "in an instant, messages can have unintended major implications without careful review." Just 26 percent said that his use of Twitter is good, agreeing with the statement that "it allows a president to directly communicate to people immediately." Democrats overwhelmingly give Trump's tweets a thumbs down; 89 percent say his use of the medium is bad, while just 8 percent say it's good. But Republicans are divided, with 46 percent cheering on his 140-character messages while 47 percent call them a bad idea.

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