Welcome to the cable news roundup, T.G.I.F. edition.
The Big Four U.S. TV broadcasters joined the cable industry in urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change a rule that allows MSOs to encrypt basic tiers in all-digital cable systems. CBS Corp., News Corp. (Fox), Walt Disney Co. (ABC) and NBCUniversal LLC (now part of Comcast Corp.) claimed a rule change would ensure the "secure delivery of high-value broadcast content," pointing out that satellite and telco TV distributors already lock up their basic tiers. Boxee's among those rallying against any changes, claiming that many of its users rely on "clear QAM" to obtain basic cable programming. (See Boxee, Cable Spar Over Video Encryption .)
The FCC is seeking more data on the service-bundling agreements forged by Verizon Wireless and four cable operators as part of the agency's review of the carrier's proposed purchase of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS). Verizon Wireless and the MSOs have argued that the bundling components have no bearing on the spectrum sale, but the FCC said it found that "portions of the commercial agreements are inseparable from the proposed license transfer." (See Rivals Try to Freeze Verizon-MSO Spectrum Buy .)
Netflix Inc. is starting to learn that developing original content is not a walk in the park. Its upcoming series House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey is in danger of being bogged down by a budget battle between director David Fincher and independent studio Media Rights Capital. Fincher wants more money and has threatened to leave, reports The Hollywood Reporter. (See Netflix Shopping for Original TV Series.)
The ad sales arm of Time Warner Cable Inc. has launched Enhanced iTV, an interactive ad product that lets advertisers deliver targeted messages based upon the time of day. TW Cable's launch of Enhanced iTV in New York City, Cincinnati, and Charlotte, N.C. comes into view soon after Canoe Ventures LLC, the cross-MSO advanced advertising J.V., decided to shut down its national interactive ad platform. (See Cable's Canoe Sinks Interactive Ad Business .)
mPortal Inc. has unveiled Springboard Media, a TV Everywhere authentication system for smartphones, tablets and connected TVs. It's pitching it to cable operators, programmers and other content owners, and starting off with support for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and devices that speak HTML5.
Currently we allow the following HTML tags in comments:
Single tags
These tags can be used alone and don't need an ending tag.
<br> Defines a single line break
<hr> Defines a horizontal line
Matching tags
These require an ending tag - e.g. <i>italic text</i>
<a> Defines an anchor
<b> Defines bold text
<big> Defines big text
<blockquote> Defines a long quotation
<caption> Defines a table caption
<cite> Defines a citation
<code> Defines computer code text
<em> Defines emphasized text
<fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form
<h1> This is heading 1
<h2> This is heading 2
<h3> This is heading 3
<h4> This is heading 4
<h5> This is heading 5
<h6> This is heading 6
<i> Defines italic text
<p> Defines a paragraph
<pre> Defines preformatted text
<q> Defines a short quotation
<samp> Defines sample computer code text
<small> Defines small text
<span> Defines a section in a document
<s> Defines strikethrough text
<strike> Defines strikethrough text
<strong> Defines strong text
<sub> Defines subscripted text
<sup> Defines superscripted text
<u> Defines underlined text
Network Computing encourages readers to engage
in spirited, healthy debate, including taking us to task.
However, Network Computing moderates all comments posted to our site,
and reserves the right to modify or remove any content that it determines to be derogatory,
offensive, inflammatory, vulgar, irrelevant/off-topic, racist or obvious marketing/SPAM.
Network Computing further reserves the right to disable the profile of any commenter participating
in said activities.
