Multichannel News

If cable operators are eager to keep the budding cord-cutting trend in check, they’d be well served to offer an integrated, aggregated one-stop-shop that combines traditional TV services with fare delivered over-the-top, according to a new study from Amdocs.

About 76% of purported cord-cutters or consumers who had reduced the size of their video subscription -- sometimes referred to as “cord-shaving” -- said they would reconsider if they were offered a service that aggregates all video content, according to a survey of 750 consumers in North America commissioned by the customer care and billing specialist. Roughly 66% of all respondents said they would prefer this TV/OTT mix, while 40% said they would pay more for that kind of combination, Amdocs found.

Although cable operators have fared poorly in recent consumer studies, Amdocs said its survey found that multiple service operators (MSOs) outperformed OTT players in terms of customer service (92%), content (89%), and video quality (83%).

Cable’s history with mobile services is full of stops, starts and outright disasters.

Now, many of the nation’s top cable operators have hitched their wagons to Wi-Fi, deploying hundreds of thousands of hotspots out on the HFC network coupled with roaming agreements, and an increasing use of in-home gateways as neighborhood hotspots.

Although Wi-Fi has traditionally been a fixed wireless technology, we’re already seeing evidence of next-gen Wi-Fi networks that can enable seamless handoffs between those hotspots, with Time Warner Cable taking the lead with its announced widespread deployment of Hotspot 2.0 technology.

As evidenced by Comcast’s TWC merger filing, Comcast has also been considering a so-called “Wi-Fi First” approach that would favor Wi-Fi over other connectivity options, namely cellular. But despite that important multiple service operator roaming partnership that remains limited to four card-carrying members (albeit large ones), Wi-Fi isn’t everywhere (yet), and there's still some doubt that it can offer mobility that is on par with cellular networks, so any notion of ubiquitous coverage still requires access to the cellular network. Cable doesn’t have one that it can call its own.

In a report that is sure to be fully embraced by the broadcast community, SNL Kagan said that retransmission consent fees, also known as the bane of multichannel video service providers, account for just 8.9% of total fees distributors pay to networks and is expected to rise to just under 13% by 2017.

The Kagan report comes just weeks after the Federal Communications Commission moved to prohibit Joint Sales Agreements where two of the top four stations in a market join forces to negotiate retransmission deals. Part of the reason for the ruling was to prevent what some MVPDs have said was onerous pricing for retransmission and to stop blackouts of channels. In its analysis, SNL Kagan said they saw little evidence for either.

The research house said that rising retransmission fees are just one factor in escalating programming costs -- others were the additional expense of TV Everywhere and multiplatform agreements, increasing costs for cable network programming (especially sports), and additional channel launches.

Timed with the Senate hearing on the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal, Comcast announced that it has boosted broadband speeds for two tiers in its Northeast division, and had deployed more than 1 million WiFi hotspots.

On the wireline side in the Northeast, a division made up of systems stretching across 14 states from Maine to Virginia that serve approximately one-third of Comcast's subscriber base, the cable operator bumped the max downstream capabilities of its “Xfinity Internet Blast” tier from 50 Mbps to 105 Mbps, and its “Xfinity Extreme” tier from 105 Mbps to 150 Mbps, without raising the price of those offerings.

On the WiFi side, Comcast said it has deployed more than 1 million hotspots, a number that factors in quasi-public hotspots (deployed in outdoor and in business locations) available to other MSOs that are part of the “CableWiFi” roaming consortium (Cox Communications, Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems and Time Warner Cable) and home-side “neighborhood” wireless DOCSIS gateways that emit a separate “XfinityWiFi” signal that is accessible to Comcast cable modem subs.

Comcast said it marks the 13th time in the past years that the multiple services operator (MSO) had increased its broadband speeds. Comcast did not announce when it would expand those speed increases to other areas, but a spokesman said the plan is to do so on a market-to-market basis.

In one of the shortest retransmission consent blackouts in recent memory, Dish Network said it had reached an agreement with Hearst Television a mere 14 hours after the broadcaster’s 29 channels went dark to Dish customers in 25 markets.

Hearst stations went dark to Dish customers at about 9 p.m. central time April 8, after the two could not reach an agreement. Hearst accused Dish of seeking terms that ere “radically off-market,” while Dish said the broadcaster’s “unreasonable demands” prevented a deal. Apparently they worked out their differences.

The people of broadcast television make their way to Las Vegas for the annual gathering of the National Association of Broadcasters.

For broadcasters in particular, it’s a weird time to be in television. The word itself -- television -- is equal parts strongly nostalgic and tele-vestigial.

We took a quick poll of our favorite go-to broadcast-side technologists recently to find out what’s on their shopping lists for the 2014 NAB show. Not surprisingly, 4K video and its consumer-facing brand, UltraHD, will be the main event -- but not all technologists are convinced it’s a go.

“I want to see if live-TV production gear, like big production switchers, has made any progress -- we’re building a big new production facility, but so far it’s only being outfitted for HD,” said one network-side technologist.

Rural Broadband Investments, the small-market cable operator formed by private equity firm GTCR in 2013, has closed on the acquisition of a municipal cable system in Poplar Bluff (MO), for an undisclosed sum.

The deal is the fifth for RBI and puts the company on the path toward building a platform of 300,000-to-400,000 cable subscribers in small-to-mid-sized rural markets. RBI now served more than 150,000 customers and passes more than 430,000 homes in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Nevada.

RBI’s first acquisition was its purchase of NewWave Communications in February 2013, followed by Cable Management Associates and McDonald Cable/Cablevison systems.

Picking up an additional 13 million live streams during the second week of the tourney, NCAA March Madness Live has posted a 31% gain over the entire 2013 event.

With the conclusion of the second week of the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, the platform has recorded 64 million live video streams, according to data from Omniture and Conviva, compared with 49 million in 2013. Gauged against the corresponding span of the 2013 competition, NCAA March Madness Live, which is managed by Turner Sports, recorded a 40% advance. Additionally, NCAA March Madness Live has netted 13.5 million hours of live video consumed, an increase of 7% in 2013 and on pace to rank as an all-time record.

Authenticated viewers can watch games via live streaming on TNT, TBS and truTV’s digital platforms, as well as participating TV provider websites. The games that air on CBS don't require pay-TV verification. Growth on mobile -- tablets and smartphones -- has been particularly strong, as live streams jumped 71% over the first two weeks of the tournament in 2013. The number of live streaming hours on those devices surged 38% from the comparable year-earlier period.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated on March 31 that the FCC has assembled its team to review the proposed Comcast/NBCU transaction, that it will be headed by someone internally, and that it has been and will be coordinating closely with the Department of Justice.

At a press conference following the FCC's March public meeting, Chairman Wheeler said that while the FCC had gone outside the agency for someone to review the Comcast/NBCU merger, he had the in-house talent to handle the job.

"We are frequently in touch with the Justice Department and we have put together a task force on Comcast/Time Warner. We will bring in the necessary external help," he said, but added that "We have not gone outside to hire someone to run that task force. We'd rather have someone who is well experienced in the...issues."

Among all the new media devices, tablets, smart phones, and other handheld, luggable and desk-bound computers, the TV set remains the top access device for news and local TV news remains the top outlet and the most trusted news source, according to a new survey, "The Personal News Cycle" from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute's Media Insight Project.

The survey found that 87% of those polled said they use television to get news, with 69% saying a computer, 65% radio, 61% print, 56% a cell phone, and 29% a tablet. Local TV news was the top source, with 82% saying they got news from local TV, followed by 73% who got news from broadcast network TV. Newspapers were third at 66%, followed by 24-hour cable news at 62% and radio at 56%. Age was said to have only a limited impact on those numbers. The study found plenty of "tech-savvy" news consumers who use their phones and tablets for news, but also found that "they are no more or less likely than everyone else to use print publications, television, or radio to access the news." And when they and others want news about weather, traffic, crime and health, they are most likely to turn to local TV.