Verizon Cuts Another Cable Spectrum Deal, $315 Million To Cox
Verizon has found more wireless spectrum in the cable industry. It has signed a deal with Cox to acquire wireless spectrum in exchange for $… Read more at paidContent »
Cox is latest to bring live TV to the iPad
Cox Communications is making live TV available on the iPad, with the release of a new app that lets subscribers watch shows in their homes. The Cox TV Connect app makes it the latest pay TV operator to extend its service to new devices. Read more »
Subscriber Content
AT&T’s loss with T-Mo likely to be another bidder’s big gain
AT&T is scrambling to make huge concessions to gain approval of its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Approval now looks highly unlikely, and the fallout could change the mobile landscape in a big way. Here’s who might ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
So Much For Quad-Play: Cox To Halt Cox Wireless Service
When the cable operator Cox launched its “unbelievably fair” wireless service in the U.S. a year ago, we asked right off whether the company… Read more at paidContent »
Cox Jumps On the TV Everywhere Bandwagon
Cox is the latest provider to join the TV Everywhere party, introducing a new site enabling its subscribers to view tens of thousands of videos online. Cox subscribers can now sign in and watch more than 15,000 pieces of content from cable and broadcast networks. Read more »
HBO Doubles Down On TV Everywhere
HBO gave its TV Everywhere offering a big boost today, announcing that the service now has more than 1,400 video titles available, including entire series runs of popular scripted programming like The Sopranos. It also added Cox Communications as its latest HBO Go distribution partner. Read more »
TiVo ‘Premieres’ on Cox
TiVo announced a deal with Cox Communications that will place cable video-on-demand services alongside linear TV programming and online VOD choices. The deal will enable Cox subscribers to purchase TiVo Premiere DVRs at retail locations and hook the devices in to their existing cable services. Read more »
Cox Goes Mobile in 3 Test Markets
Cox has rolled out mobile services in three test markets ahead of a general launch for residential and business customers next month. But we’re still waiting to hear what kind of services and handsets it will offer, and how much service will cost. Read more »
The Ultimate Guide To TV Everywhere
Over the past three years, the Internet has become a major secondary distribution platform for free-to-air broadcast programming. Whether through network programmers’ own sites, such as ABC.com, or through aggregators like Hulu and TV.com, ad-supported broadcast programming today is generally available online shortly after its initial airing at no cost to the user. However, programming such as ESPN, TNT and the Discovery Channel, which originates on pay-TV platforms (i.e. cable, satellite and telco TV services) has been a different story.
Cable system operators and other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) are loathe to see the programming for which they are charging subscribers hefty monthly fees made available “over-the-top” without a subscription. Over time, they fear, consumers would be tempted to drop their expensive cable service if they could access their favorite programs online.
Cable networks, for their part, collect hefty fees from MVPDs for the right to retransmit their programming, from a few cents per subscriber per month, to as much as $3.75 per subscriber per month, for the most popular channels like Disney’s ESPN. In aggregate, cable networks collect about $25 billion per year in “affiliate fees” from MVPDs, about the same amount as they generate collectively from advertising sales.
As a result, much of the original programming on pay-TV networks is not currently available online, and that which is often doesn’t appear until well after its original air date. The popularity of portals like Hulu (not to mention illegal sources of TV content), however, has accustomed consumers to expect access to their favorite shows online, putting pressure on the industry to respond. Network programmers and marketers, meanwhile, are also anxious to extend their programming franchises by tapping the broad, online audience.
TV Everywhere, which aims to make subscription programming available online exclusively to current pay-TV subscribers, represents an effort to square that circle. In this report, we look at the players, potential costs, and emerging opportunities of these efforts. Read more »
Subscriber Content
Report: The Ongoing Battle for the Digital Home
The term “digital home” has been tossed around for a number of years with few indications of how big the market actually is. Small startup companies and potentially-disruptive technologies are regularly identified as the key players in what was, in 2008, a $553 billion U.S. market. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
