Shalini Ramachandran

Pay-TV providers could lose nearly $1 billion in revenue as 800,000 customers cut the cord over the next 12 months, according to a new study from the firm cg42. The study, which is based on an online survey of 1,119 US customers, estimates that pay-TV providers lose about $1,248 per cord-cutter annually. That’s because the average cord-cutter saves $104 a month—about 56 percent of their bill--from dropping cable TV. Some analysts say that if consumers ditch cable TV they could wind up paying even more for the combination of standalone high-speed Internet and streaming services. But the study found the opposite -- that going without pay TV service yields savings. That’s in part because people tend not to spend much more than $15 on streaming services even after cutting the cord.

A “cord-haver” spends about $187 a month on average prior to cutting the cord, including cable TV, phone, Internet access and streaming services. Meanwhile, a typical “cord-never” -- someone who never had a pay-TV connection -- spends about $71 on streaming services and home Internet combined, and the average cord-cutter spends $83. “The consumer is discovering they don’t need the mean, evil cable company to get the content that they want, and they can get it for a better deal,” said Steve Beck, managing partner at cg42. A $1 billion loss of revenue is small for the entire pay TV industry, but it is a warning sign. According to the survey, the vast majority of people who cut the cord or never had pay-TV in the first place don’t exactly thirst for traditional television, despite the draw of live sports. About 83 percent of cord-cutters surveyed said they can access “most or all” of the content they want to watch without a pay-TV subscription, and about 87 percent of cord-nevers said the same.

The two biggest cable companies said they will soon start selling wireless service but they will be entering a competitive market with handcuffs.

The CEOs at Comcast and Charter Communications both discussed plans to begin reselling Verizon Wireless service as early as 2017. But the Verizon contract only allows the companies to sell cellphone service as part of a bundle, not as a stand-alone product. That means consumers won’t be able to switch to Comcast or Charter for cellular service without also buying either cable television or home internet, too.

Apple executives had every reason for optimism when they approached Walt Disney Co. in early 2015 to join the streaming television service Apple planned to launch. Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger is an Apple director and had said he was keen to strike a deal. Disney, which owns channels such as ESPN and ABC, was stunned, though, when Apple executive Eddy Cue made demands that would have upended decades of cable-industry and Hollywood practices, people familiar with the discussions say. In particular, Apple wanted to freeze for several years the monthly rate per viewer it would pay to license Disney channels. TV channels usually get annual rate increases and rely on them to fuel profit growth. Disney balked.

Similar talks with media giants that included 21st Century Fox Inc. and CBS Corp. also stalled. When Apple debuted its newest Apple TV set-top box last September, it announced no streaming TV service. Television is an important part of Apple’s strategy to reignite growth now that sales of the iPhone, the most popular and profitable product in the Cupertino (CA), company’s 40-year history, have fallen for two quarters in a row. Yet some of the same tactics previously used by Apple to such success have hurt its efforts to revolutionize the TV-watching experience, raising pointed questions about how it can revive its growth.

Dish Network is in discussions with NBC over Dish's ad-skipping digital video recorder, say people familiar with the situation, the latest sign that a two-year-old standoff between Dish and major broadcasters is easing.

While the talks are under way, NBC has put its lawsuit against Dish on hold, the people say. NBC is one of three major networks still in litigation with Dish over several features on its "Hopper" digital video recorder, including one that makes it easier to automatically skip commercials.

In early March Dish settled a lawsuit over the same issue with Walt Disney's ABC as part of a broader deal in which Dish renewed its right to carry Disney-owned TV networks on its satellite TV service.

It's unclear whether NBC and Dish are anywhere near close to resolving their differences, but the mere fact that the talks are under way at all highlights how the ground may be shifting in the long-running battle between the broadcasters and Dish. The Supreme Court ruling on Aereo may become a factor, as some lawyers say the ruling could complicate Dish's legal case.

For roughly two months, about 900,000 households in small towns across the US haven't been able to watch Nickelodeon, MTV or Comedy Central, as a result of a blackout of the Viacom-owned channels by some 60 small cable operators. So far, there is little evidence any more than a handful of the households care.

After bracing to lose as many as a 10th of their customers, the operators have lost less than 2% of their collective subscribers, according to an industry group that represents the operators.

Viacom isn't worried either, saying it expects "no financial impact" from losing what is only about 1% of total pay-TV households. As a result, with the cable operators unhappy about the price Viacom wants for the right to carry the channels, executives say the blackout is likely to be permanent.

Several have replaced the Viacom channels with others.

The situation signals a shift in the often-tense relations between pay-TV operators and entertainment companies. With video choices increasing, operators are starting to push back at program cost increases by dropping channels altogether.

The markets in the current dispute are mostly rural and suburban, in states including Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa and Idaho, where Viacom's portfolio of young-skewing channels with edgy programming popular in urban centers may not carry as much sway.

The owners of Univision Communications, in their search for an exit, have held preliminary discussions in recent weeks with several media companies, including CBS and Time Warner, according to people familiar with the matter.

Univision is controlled by a consortium of investors including billionaire Haim Saban. The owners are seeking north of $20 billion for the company, according to people familiar with the matter. The group bought Univision for $13.7 billion, including debt, in early 2007.

Univision has long been the dominant Spanish-language broadcaster in the US. The broadcaster's owners had been expected to take the company public in a stock offering in 2015, paving the way for them to exit, though those plans aren't set yet.

The owners had also looked to Mexican media conglomerate Grupo Televisa, which owns a minority stake of Univision and supplies much of its programming, as a possible buyer. Televisa's ability to acquire Univision rests on changes in regulatory rules capping foreign ownership in broadcasters at 25%.

While the Federal Communications Commission voted to allow exemption to that cap on a case-by-case basis last fall, a person familiar with the situation said the regulatory climate for a Televisa acquisition remains uncertain. It is also unclear whether Televisa is interested in buying the company.

Propelled by the country's rapidly growing Hispanic population, Univision's flagship network was the only one of the top five networks to increase its prime time viewership in the 2012-13 season in the coveted 18-49 demographic.

Comcast’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable has sparked fears across the media industry that the combined giant would have too much influence over everything from cable industry pricing to the broadband-related services consumers can access.

TV network owners worry the merger could give Comcast too much control over TV-viewing data and the broadband market, industry executives say. Small cable operators, meanwhile, fear they could face higher costs as TV networks try to make up the difference from discounts that a larger Comcast would win. Companies with online-video offerings fret that Comcast could charge more aggressively for broadband use.

Regulators will have to weigh such concerns as they consider the $45 billion deal, which brings together the Nos. 1 and 2 cable operators. Comcast and TWC are expected to submit their merger documents to the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission in coming weeks. After that, the FCC will invite comments from the public and competitors. Industry comments could shape any conditions regulators impose on the deal. The government approved Comcast's NBCUniversal acquisition in 2011 with conditions. Already the top executives at satellite-TV providers DirecTV and Dish Network have come out strongly against the deal, citing concerns about the power Comcast will have in the broadband market, where it would have nearly 40% of US subscribers.