Good day, cable crew. Legal battles, a new over-the-top competitor in Canada and a Jeff Zucker sighting comprise today's cable news compendium.
Creditors of DBSD North America Inc. are making
Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH)'s lawyers work overtime to close his $1 billion deal to buy the bankrupt satellite company and its wireless spectrum. A judge is worried that the proposal could block other bidders. (See Charlie Ergen's Spectrum Grab .)
Speaking of DirecTV, the satellite-TV giant paid Kansas $185,000 as part of the $13.25 million settlement it reached to fix deceptive advertising claims, but that didn't stop it from hiring Usher to play at its Super Bowl party.
Some Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) subscribers in Panama City, Fla., watching the Super Bowl in standard definition recalled the infamous "Heidi Game" when a glitch caused Fox's broadcast to switch over to NBC programming during the Steelers' final drive.
Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) is taking a run at Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) in Canada with the launch of its Qriocity streaming video service, charging $4.99 to $5.99 for HD movie titles.
Big cable MSOs won't carry Al-Jazeera English partly because they're afraid of getting grief from the talking heads at the all-news networks, according to this theory from former NBCUniversal LLC chief Jeff Zucker. (See Egypt Protests Throttle Up Web Video Traffic.)