Analyst: Dish's Clearwire Bid Has 'Slim Chance'

Welcome to the broadband and cable news roundup, Hump Day edition.

Dish Network Corp. has but a "slim chance" of success with its unsolicited bid for a piece of Clearwire LLC and its coveted spectrum, ISI Group Inc. analyst Vijay Jayant wrote in a research note the morning after Dish's surprise move became public. Jayant says Dish's offer "creates a nuisance factor" aimed at disrupting the pending Sprint Nextel Corp. acquisition of Clearwire that could cause investors to believe that Sprint's offer could use some sweetening. Jayant also believes that Dish's chances are small because Sprint's ownership position in Clearwire could prevent Clearwire from inking such a deal with a third party, anyway. Still, Dish's overture could end up being strategically good for Charlie Ergen's crew, as it could get Dish "a seat at the table" of a wireless consortium that's now made up of Sprint, Clearwire and SoftBank Mobile Corp., the Japan-based operator that has a pending deal to acquire 70 percent of Sprint, he said. (See Dish Puts In Rival Bid for Clearwire.)

Verizon Wireless is developing a way to deliver live broadcast TV via its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, Verizon Communications Inc. Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam said during his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show. McAdam said the project could launch this year, but didn't note how such a service might involve Verizon Wireless's new cable partners, reports Multichannel News. (See Verizon Wireless: Cable's New BFF.)

Southwest Chelsea is the first Manhattan area to get access to a free neighborhood Wi-Fi service from Google, which claims it's the first step toward the launch of the "largest contiguous Wi-Fi network in New York City." Time Warner Cable Inc. and Cablevision Systems Corp., which have also launched extensive Wi-Fi networks of their own in the Big Apple, may have something to say about the claim when all is said and done. (See Cable Goes Big With Wi-Fi Roaming.)

A Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) 2.0 chipset from Entropic Communications Inc. is gracing a new "headless" hybrid/IP gateway Arris Group Inc. has developed using Comcast Corp.'s XG5 and Reference Design Kit (RDK) specs. It's the first product to be announced with Entropic's MoCA 2.0 design. The Arris gateway, the MG2402, is also powered by the Intel Corp. Puma6 Docsis 3.0 chipset. (See Comcast All-Service Gateways Go 'Headless'.)

Sling Media Inc. has added some bells and whistles to its new Slingbox 500 and Slingbox 350 models. The 500 will get MyMedia, an app that lets users transfer photos and videos for viewing on the TV. The Slingbox Companion is a second-screen social TV app for the iPad that features new content discovery tools. That piece is initially available on the Slingbox 500, with support for the 350 coming online later this year.

Staying with Sling, Netgear Inc. has added the SlingPlayer app to its new line of NeoTV video streaming devices, including a model that supports the Google TV platform.

ActiveVideo Networks Inc. has launched CloudTV Access, a developer program designed to spur the development of HTML5-based apps for connected TVs, set-tops and other CE devices that use the company's interactive video platform. ActiveVideo has a strategy underway to get its platform on CE devices, but its largest customer is Cablevision. ActiveVideo says its CloudTV platform currently supports more than 10 million devices.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable