Ownership

Comcast Xfinity Internet service suffered major problems on Nov 6, leaving customers in many major cities with slow connections or none at all.  Internet-monitoring company Downdetecter said that the outage is affecting Xfinity customers in Denver (CO), Portland (OR), Chicago (IL), Seattle (WA), New York (NY), San Francisco (CA), Houston (TX), Minneapolis (MN), Boston (MA), and Mountain View (CA). Comcast’s customer care on Twitter apologized for the outage and said that the company was trying to fix the problem, but it did not say when it would be solved.

[Commentary] Under the plain terms of the Communications Act, the Federal Communications Commission is obligated to review industry mergers and acquisitions to determine whether such transactions serve the public interest. Given that the FCC is “entrusted with the responsibility to determine when and to what extent the public interest would be served by competition in the industry," the commission’s merger review serves a useful and important function.

Apparently, 21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co., leaving behind a media company tightly focused on news and sports. The talks have taken place over the last few weeks and there is no certainty they will lead to a deal. The two sides are not currently talking at this very moment, but given the on again, off again nature of the talks, they could be revisited.

Fox News has canceled ads purchased by Democratic mega-donor Tom Steyer that call for President Donald Trump’s impeachment, CNN’s Brian Stelter confirmed. “Due to the strong negative reaction to their ad by our viewers, we could not in good conscience take their money,” Fox News told Stelter. Steyer said that Fox News informed him on Oct.

[Commentary] Based on our research, we have identified key strategies local newsrooms should be considering to reinvigorate themselves.

The media regulator Ofcom has ruled that the Fox News programmes Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight breached impartiality rules covering British broadcasting. The rulings relate to coverage of the Manchester Arena bombing in May and President Donald Trump’s executive order in January that restricted travel to the US from seven majority-Muslim countries. Investors interpreted the rulings as a setback for the Murdoch family’s hopes of taking full control of Sky.

US cable operator Altice USA will sell mobile service on wireless carrier Sprint Corp’s network under a new multi-year agreement announced on Nov 5, becoming the latest firm to enter the wireless market in a bid to retain customers.  The companies announced the agreement a day after Sprint and T-Mobile US Inc ended merger talks. Under the terms of the agreement, Altice, the fourth-largest U.S. cable operator, will use Sprint’s network to provide voice and data services in the United States. It gave no time line on when it will introduce such services.

The Walt Disney Co is apparently punishing the Los Angeles Times for a negative story about Disneyland, a reporter said in a series of tweets Nov 3 that were supported by a written statement from the newspaper. "The Los Angeles Times has been 'put on pause' by Disney, barring its reporters and critics from seeing its movies," tweeted Glenn Whipp, who writes columns about film and television for the newspaper.

During months of merger talks with T-Mobole, Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son sought a way to merge the two wireless rivals without really having to hand over the keys. There was discussion over inserting a provision to buy the combined company back after two years. The companies explored giving the Japanese billionaire the right to increase his stake over time. He was offered the role of co-chairman.

In the fall of 2010, the Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner took the stage for a Q. and A. at a technology conference in San Francisco. Milner, whose holdings have included major stakes in Facebook and Twitter, is known for expounding on everything from the future of social media to the frontiers of space travel. But when someone asked a question that had swirled around his Silicon Valley ascent — Who were his investors? — he did not answer, turning repeatedly to the moderator with a look of incomprehension.