TV Business Targets Digital Viewership Claims With Proposed Measurement Standard (Ad Age)
The TV industry has long argued that reports of huge audiences for Facebook and YouTube don’t tell the whole story. Now a TV trade group is proposing metrics that it says would put digital on the same footing as networks for the first time.
FCC Proposes Charter-Time Warner Cable Merger Conditions (Broadcasting & Cable)
The FCC circulated its expected approval—with conditions extending out seven years—of the proposed Charter-Time Warner Cable-Bright House merger. That followed the Department of Justice announcement it had allowed the deal to proceed with conditions. The chair is expected to be able to secure the votes to approve the merger.
Fullscreen SVOD Will Blend Tech and Programming Flair, Execs Say (Broadcasting & Cable)
Fullscreen, a $5-a-month SVOD service launching with backing from AT&T and Peter Chernin’s Otter Media, will feature 1,000 hours of original and licensed programming, the company’s executives said. The target audience is 13-to-30-year-old “social-first” viewers.
Smaller Cable Ops Bash Bundles (Broadcasting & Cable)
Smaller cable operators and telecom companies drew a direct line between program bundles and program diversity, high-speed broadband upgrades and access to online video, all hot-button issues at this commission, in an FCC workshop on independent programmer access to distribution platforms.
6 Billion Connected Devices In Use This Year; Security Spending To Hit $348 Million (Media Post)
Security issues involving the Internet of Things are raised on a quite regular basis. Whether a connected toy, thermostat or even a car got tampered with remotely in one way or another, eyebrows are easily raised when details ultimately emerge.
Study Challenges ‘$150 Billion’ Saved by FCC Business Internet Regs (Inside Sources)
As the FCC prepares to vote on new rules aimed at increasing competition in the business market for high-capacity internet later this week, economists on both sides of the issue are arguing whether the current market is costing consumers billions in overcharges.
Cord Cutting Hits Cable Nets Across Board (Media Post)
Cable cord-cutting/shaving may be worse than expected. Pivotal Research Group’s Brian Wieser says the latest estimates from Nielsen (its May 2016 results) show a 3.2% year-over-year decline in cable TV homes and 2.2% in median decline in all pay TV homes (cable, satellite and telco).
Cutting the Cord: Amazon unbundles to take on Netflix (USA Today)
Amazon has unbundled its streaming video service from Amazon Prime, directly challenging Netflix’s dominance. Does that mean binge-watchers need to make a decision on one or the other? Not necessarily. How do they stack up in terms of subscribers? Netflix is in about 47 million U.S. homes.
SNG 50 STATES OF BROADBAND REPORT (Strategic Networks Group)
In conjunction with the Rural Telecommunications Congress, Strategic Networks Group released its extensive report on broadband investment and activity. The report combines FCC availability and adoption figures with SNG’s survey results of 48 states to rank states on Availability, Adoption, Growth Investment, and Regulation.
SPIES AND SURVEILLANCE OF AMERICANS (The Hill)
Federal intelligence officials would face multiple obstacles in calculating the number of Americans whose data is swept up in a large surveillance regime meant to target foreigners, the nation’s top spy said. Intelligence agents will “do our best” to come up with a way to roughly calculate how many Americans are included in the spying.
Will AT&T follow Verizon in selling its California landline network? (LA Times- Commentary)
Frontier Communications’ bumpy takeover of Verizon’s landlines in California raises a question about the fate of the state’s other big controller of copper wires. Is AT&T also looking to unload its landline network? The answer is a resounding maybe.
A Faster FT.com: How Slow Websites Damage Publishers’ Revenue (Media Shift)
The FT is building a new version of its website. Conventional wisdom states that web performance matters and the emphasis of new technical standards like H2 and products for publishers like AMP and Instant Article is speed, acceleration, and instantaneousness. But why does this matter to our business?
When Bitcoin Grows Up (London Review of Books)
It’s impossible to discuss new developments in money without thinking for a moment about what money is. The best place to start thinking about that is with money itself. Consider the UK’s most common paper money, the English five or ten or twenty quid note. On one side we have a famous dead person.