Cox Explores Bidding for Time Warner Cable

By 

DANA MATTIOLI, 

AMOL SHARMA and 

MARTIN PEERS - Nov. 26

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304465604579222300576167872

Cox Communications is considering jumping into the bidding for Time Warner Cable Inc.,TWC +3.95% according to people familiar with the situation, the latest twist in a fast-evolving takeover battle for the second-largest U.S. cable operator.  

In NBA, slow road to streaming

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/11/25/Media/NBA-streaming.aspx

By John Lombardo & John OurandStaff Writers

A month into the NBA season, just two teams have developed local streaming services, even though the biggest regional sports network groups reached agreements with the league to stream games locally at the start of the season.

What gives?

The answer from media and team executives is that local live streaming is still coming this season, but fans need to be patient.  

Charter Lining up Financing to Make Bid for Time Warner Cable

Charter Communications Has Held Talks With Banks, Sovereign-Wealth Funds

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304337404579212470182369600?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f

Charter Communications Inc. CHTR 0.00% is nearing an agreement with banks to borrow money for a bid for Time Warner Cable Inc., according to people familiar with the situation—a sign that the scrappy cable operator's effort to engineer a combination of the two companies may be moving into high gear. 

Google's Play: Sports Leagues Shouldn't Fear YouTube

Google's head of sport for North America didn't use his keynote at Tues' PromaxDBA Sports Media Marketing Summit in NYC to position the Internet giant as a creator of original content or purchaser of sports rights. 

Instead, Frank Golding appealed to sports leagues to put content on Google-owned YouTube to drive engagement back to their brands. 

NFL ratings should be down. But they're not.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/11/18/Media/Sports-Media.aspx

If ever there were a year when the NFL’s TV ratings should be down, it should be this one.

The league is suffering through what seems like an off-field scandal each week, its traditionally highest-rated teams are having off years and the continued popularity of NFL RedZone should be diluting TV ratings.

But just like the past several years, NFL ratings are up across the board. The shield is proving to be stronger than Teflon.  

Hulu Wants to Be Offered With Pay-TV Bundles

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304644104579193833342811814?mod=wsj_streaming_latest-headlines

Online video outlet Hulu LLC is in early discussions with several pay-TV providers about potential partnerships, said people familiar with the situation, the latest sign that the media company-owned service is trying to become integrated with pay television.

Among ideas being discussed is for pay-TV operators to sell Hulu's subscription service, Hulu Plus, as part of pay-TV operators' TV bundles, the people said.

Hulu also hopes that as part of a deal, consumers would be able to access the service through their cable set-top boxes, the people said. 

Pay-TV Industry Loses More Subscribers

By Shalini Ramachandran - Nov 12, 2013
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303460004579194271486828520?mod=wsj_streaming_latest-headlines

The pay TV industry continued to lose subscribers in the third quarter, analysts estimated on Tuesday, providing further evidence that some consumers are dropping their pay TV subscriptions, or cutting the cord.

The industry as a whole lost 113,000 subscribers in the quarter compared with 101,000 in the year ago-period, according to a report by Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson LLC, issued on Tuesday after Dish Network Corp. DISH +6.00% released its quarterly report. Dish was the last of the publicly traded pay TV providers to report for the quarter. MoffettNathanson's estimate includes a calculation for performance of privately-held distributors. The firm estimates that total pay-TV subscribers shrank 0.2% over the 12 months ended Sept. 30. 

Former FOX Sports North Girl - Current FOX Sports Live Host, Recognized as one of the Twin Cities Finest

Minneapolis St Paul Magazine’s November issue featured some of the “finest examples of young philanthropy (under the age of 40) in the Twin Cities.”

Former FOX Sports North Girl, turned FOX Sports Live Host - Jenny Taft was one of the 20 featured:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZu1txD3GjY

BSkyB Shares Plunge After BT Wins Soccer Rights

Investors Shaken as TV-Sports Battle Heats Up; Eyes Turn to Premier League Rights Next

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303914304579191803629035332?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f

LONDON— British Sky Broadcasting Group BSY.LN +1.87% PLC's shares dropped sharply Monday as the weekend news that rival BT Group BT.A.LN +0.11% PLC won away some of BSkyB's flagship European soccer-tournament rights rattled investors.

BSkyB shares fell 10.4% to 833 pence in London trading, making them among the worst performers on the FTSE 100. ITV ITV.LN +0.65% PLC, which shares with BSkyB the current rights to the tournaments that BT secured, lost 1.6%. 

Saturday, BT said it is paying £897 million ($1.43 billion) to show live UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League soccer matches for three seasons starting in 2015-16. That price is more than double the nearly $650 million paid for the rights package for 2012-15, according to a person familiar with the situation. The Europa League wasn't included in that bundle. 

Our Cord Cutter Suffers Relapse, Pines for Cable TV

Martin Peers for The Wall Street Journal

Weeks ago he ditched the cable TV. This weekend, another relic was tossed to the curb.

Martin Peers is the WSJ’s Media and Marketing Editor

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/11/11/our-valiant-cord-cutter-suffers-relapse-pines-for-cable-tv/?mod=wsj_streaming_corporate-intelligence

By 
• MARTIN PEERS

After two weeks as a cord-cutter, the novelty is wearing off. It didn’t help that I broke out in hives on Sunday while watching Amazon.com IncAMZN +1.16%’s streaming video service, the latest stage of my experiment in living without cable TV.

Not that I blame Amazon, mind you. My money is on the dust stirred up when I yielded to peer pressure and dumped our older high definition TV set on the curb outside our house. The 150 pound monster – it took four of us to carry it out of the house – had a decent picture but it wasn’t as good as our newer plasma set in a different room.

Leaving that aside, I’m beginning to understand why some in television see the threat of cord-cutting more in young people who never had cable to begin with than in older folks.  

Fox Sports looks to sell Scout back to Heckman

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/11/11/Media/Scout.aspx

Published November 11, 2013

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Fox Sports is in advanced negotiations to sell online college sports and recruiting network Scout.com back to Jim Heckman, the site’s founder, who sold it to Fox more than eight years ago.

Industry sources said the deal is set to close in the next several weeks, and will mark the departure of Fox Sports from the highly competitive recruiting content space, which also includes Yahoo-owned Rivals.com, ESPN’s Recruiting Nation, and 247Sports.com, now aligned with CBSSports.com.

Case Closed: Why A La Carte Pay TV Would Never Work

http://www.snl.com/interactivex/article.aspx?KPLT=7&id=25747593

News came out in October that the Industry Minister of Canada, James Moore, is pushing for legislation to force programmers to offer channels à la carte in Canada. This comes up periodically in the U.S., and most studies have shown it's simply not a feasible option for a number of reasons.

First, minority networks would never get off the ground. Although initially BET and other minority-owned channels were embraced by multichannel operators, in recent years tight channel capacity has made it extremely difficult for any independent network to get meaningful carriage.

It took an FCC initiative that required setting aside channel capacity for independently owned minority networks in order for Comcast Corp. to complete its acquisition of NBCUniversal Media LLC. This helped get recent launches like ASPiRE and Revolt off to a decent start. Without government backing, it would likely take hundreds of millions of dollars in start-up costs for them to reach breakeven, and in an à la carte world it's unlikely they could survive in a consumer-driven "free market." Furthermore, even established minority networks would wane and could even collapse. BET is now in 91.9 million homes and TV One in 58.7 million. How many people would have sampled these and subscribed on a stand-alone basis if they weren't bundled?  

FOX Sports Girl Named One of 50 Most Beautiful People in Atlanta

Canicka Cabarras: On-air host, FOX Sports South; and actress/singer, People Store

Age: 25


Originally from: Chesapeake, Va.

Neighborhood: Buckhead


Relationship status: Single


Georgia State University grad Canicka Cabarras knew from a young age that she was destined for the TV screen. “I used to turn the television on mute, put captions on and mimic anchor commentators on television,” she reveals. The acting paid off! She currently serves as an on-air host for FOX Sports South and has her M·A·C certification in makeup to go glam like a pro. Cabarras’ passion for charity work also started at a young age. She’s served as a global ambassador for Women’s Sports Foundation, encouraging kids to get active since she was in middle school. Look for her at The Capital Grille, STK and Park Tavern.

Full Top 50 List: http://modernluxury.com/jezebel/story/50-most-beautiful-atlantans-2013

Are the Cubs planning to start an RSN?

By Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune reporter

November 7, 2013

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1107-cubs-wgn-20131107,0,4941491.story?dssReturn&z=10036

The Chicago Cubs have had a television home on WGN since 1948. Other than the team's World Series drought, it's a whole new ballgame these days.

Most different are the escalating economics of baseball, which explains the Cubs' decision to exercise an option to leave WGN-TV after next season — unless the broadcaster agrees to pay up.

The team notified the Tribune Co.-owned station Tuesday that it had 30 days to agree to substantially higher fees for the 2015 season and beyond, or the broadcast rights would be opened up for negotiation with other media, according to sources close to the situation. 

The move not only sets a higher price for the broadcast rights, but it also shortens the duration of the agreement to 2019, lopping three years off the existing deal. If Tribune Co. doesn't step up to the plate, the team is free to explore other broadcast options for about 70 games televised each season by WGN.  

How I Did the Impossible: HBO Without Cable TV

By Martin Peers - November 4, 2013

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/11/04/how-i-did-the-impossible-hbo-without-cable-tv/?mod=wsj_streaming_corporate-intelligence

Life as a cord-cutter, without a pay television subscription, isn’t as much of a fringe activity as it might seem. Lots of TV shows are available for purchase on iTunes, often right after they first air on TV, and services like Netflix and Amazon.com offer cheap flat-rate options for catching up with others.

The one outlet whose content has typically been kept inside the walled garden of pay TV has been HBO. While someone willing to wait a few months could rent a DVD or buy an episode on iTunes, diehard fans who want to catch the latest episode of “Boardwalk Empire” or “Game of Thrones” as soon as it is available have had little choice but to subscribe to pay TV. (Well, they could engage in piracy, but that’s another story). 

Lesson from RSN bankruptcy: Getting distribution is harder than it looks

By Sarah Barry James - November 4, 2014

http://www.snl.com/interactivex/article.aspx?KPLT=7&id=25707930

Comcast SportsNet Houston is not a typical regional sports network, nor is the involuntary Chapter 11 petition filed against it a typical bankruptcy.

In the weeks since three units of Comcast Corp. — Comcast Sports Management Services LLC, Houston SportsNet Finance LLC and Comcast SportsNet California LLC — plus National Digital Television Center LLC first filed their involuntary Chapter 11 petition against CSN Houston, a number of important things have happened in the case.