Dish Digital prepares to Launch Nutv

In what appears to be a common theme trending in the industry today, Dish’s internet TV service, Nutv, plans to launch before the end of the year. Dish Digital, the satellite operator’s online business subsidiary that is going to be in charge of the new service, has filed a number of trademarks for the brand, including one with a logo that could be used at launch.

The Nutv brand has also surfaced in conjunction with one of Dish Digital’s existing apps, suggesting that the app may be used for the new service as well. Dish has secured digital licensing deals with The Walt Disney Company and A+E Networks so far to program the service. It's unclear at this point if it will make more content deals, given that obtaining a low under $30 price point is key to the new offering. A Dish executive recently said that the company plans to target “cord cutters, cord nevers and… cord haters” with the service.  Dish chairman Charlie Ergen said during the company's second quarter earnings call in August, "We'd like to get them started on pay-TV. We'd like to get them started on ESPN. My concern is that we're missing a while generation of customers."

AT&T takes aim at Comcast with Direc TV Acquisition

AT+T may be on the verge of buying DirecTV for $50 million, which would be the largest in years and reshape the television business at a time of rapid change in the industry. Reports of rumors on the acquisition appeared all over the blogosphere today an a official announcement may be just weeks away. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reports the two companies are discussing a deal that would involve a mix of cash and AT&T stock. A combined AT&T-DirecTV would hold a vast swath of wireless spectrum, the public radio signals that make smartphones and tablets work and would also be better positioned to compete against the proposed Comcast/Time Warner combined entity.  The pact would be a way to expand its video offerings, which is similar to how the Comcast and Time Warner Cable deal could deliver. AT+T currently provides pay-TV service through its U-Verse brand. MORE: WSJ - 05/12/2014 -

AT&T Could Strike $50 Billion Deal for DirecTV, or

Bloomberg - 05/13/2014 - AT&T in Talks to Buy DirecTV for About $50 Billion

Cord Swapping replaces Cord Cutting

Interesting data has been made public in the FCC’s annual video competition report released this past Monday.  Comcast, Time Warner Cable and other cable operators lost about 2.5 million video subscribers between 2010 and 2012. As anticipated the Satellite and Telco side of the industry are still in the growth mode for the most part.  AT&T's U-verse TV posted the biggest video subscriber gain, growing its subscription base from 3 million to 4.1 million during the same period. Verizon's FiOS TV expanded from 3.5 million to 4.5 million subscribers during the same period while DirecTV Inc. grew its subscriber base by 700,000 to 19.9 million during the same period, and Dish Network  remained flat at 14.1 million.

Total gain of 2.8 million reflects a modest net gain of 300K for the overall industry, so is it safe to assume that the feared cord cutting rumor is untrue and frankly should be renamed cord swapping.

Other note worthy items listed in the report:

•  The FCC said cable operators installed 38,000 CableCARDs in retail devices such as TiVo DVRs and connected TVs in 2012.

•  The number of households that rely solely on over-the-air antennas to watch TV remained flat at 11.1 million in 2012.

•  Deployments of DVRs in pay TV homes increased to 50.3 million in 2012, up from 46.3 million in 2011. DVR penetration in TV homes has increased to 43.8 percent.

 More on this topic: See the FCC Report.

Aereo Continues to Push Forward

Barry Diller's streaming video service Aereo continues to win its courtroom victories. Last year, a federal judge in New York rejected TV networks' request to prohibit the service from launching its new video-on-demand offering. Today the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to issue an injunction that would have shut down Aereo, the streaming service that delivers broadcast signals to customers willing to pay $8 a month. Meanwhile, according to the Wall Street Journal, the company is bolstering its programming with ATnT, which is talking about packaging high speed Internet service with Aereo’s programming and Dish Network is looking at ways to use Aereo as a way of offering low-cost programing packages to its customers.

“Today’s decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals again validates that Aereo’s technology falls squarely within the law and that’s a great thing for consumers who want more choice and flexibility in how, when and where they can watch television,” said Chet Kanojia, Aereo CEO and Founder. “The ruling to uphold Judge Nathan’s decision sends a powerful message that consumer access to free-to-air broadcast television is still meaningful in this country and that the promise and commitment made by the broadcasters to program in the public interest in exchange for the public’s spectrum, remains an important part of our American fabric.”

Broadcasters have argued Aereo violates copyright rules by streaming over-the-air signals to customers so the court decision is a major set-back. Moreover, other pay TV distributors could be prompted to create similar services to avoid paying broadcasters retransmission consent fees. In the U.S. almost $2 billion dollars were paid by TV distributors last year for broadcast programming, up 33% over the prior year according to SNL Kagan. More: Deadline 04/01 - Aereo Exploring Alliances With Pay TV Distributors: WSJ  Also See: SMM Post from 1/13/13 – Aereo: An Industry Disrupter!

UPDATE 04/03/13 - In a surprising move given ongoing legal challenges between the respective services, FilmOn.TV founder and CEO Alki David – the billionaire media entrepreneur – has congratulated the legal team at Internet TV streaming service Aereo on what he describes as its “hugely significant” win in court against the Major Networks… More: AdvancedTelevision 4/03 - FilmOn welcomes Aereo ruling

Value of Pay-TV Diminishes

Although pay-TV penetration remains high, new research from TDG has revealed that the perceived value of traditional pay-TV service like cable, satellite, and telco TV appears to be on the decline as subscribers increasingly questioning the value of what they sign up for.

TDG's Benchmarking the Connected Consumer survey data found that this fall occurred regardless of what competitive services were available, regardless of which operator was running the best deal at the time, and regardless of regional price advantages. Considering that prices are on the rise and the growth of OTT with services like Hulu, Netflix and other's the data should act as wake-up call to the industry. Sounds great in theory doesn't it?

Partnership for Google's TV Advertising System

Google has an important partner for the new TV ads system. "EchoStar Communications Corporation and Google announced today that the companies have entered into a partnership agreement to introduce the first automated system for buying, selling, delivering and measuring television ads on EchoStar DISH Network's 125 national satellite programming networks. Google will have access to a portion of DISH Network's advertising inventory that spans across all channels and dayparts. The agreement is the first of its kind for a national pay-TV provider and Google."The ads are bought through the same interface as AdWords and their performance will be measured by aggregating anonymized metrics from the set-top-boxes. Google will target the ads to the shows and not to their viewers: advertisers will be able to choose the "demographic, daypart and channel and pay only for actual impressions delivered".