carriage fees. licensing | Concurrent Media

Earlier this month, just after Comcast dropped its bid for Time Warner Cable in the face of opposition from the FCC and Justice Department, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler separately called TWC CEO Rob Marcus and Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge, along with several other senior cable industry executives, to let them know they shouldn’t consider all M&A deals to be off the table just because the agency put the kibosh on Comcast, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

On Tuesday, Charter took Wheeler up on that seeming invitation and announced a plan to acquire TWC for $56 billion. Charter also reaffirmed its plan to acquire it smaller rival Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion. Read More »

No U.S. television network is more invested in, or has benefited more from the dynamics of the bundle than ESPN. The combination of must-have programming for a key segment of the pay-TV audience, and the must-carry leverage of its sister-broadcast network ABC, has given the Disney-owned sports network the power to command the highest per-subscriber carriage fees in the industry, ensure placement on basic tiers, and compel carriage of ancillary networks like ESPN Classics and ESPN Deportes.

For those pay-TV subscribers not in the ESPN demographic, however, that leverage has acted like a tax, imposing higher costs for networks and programming they don’t watch, yielding what amount to windfall rents for ESPN. Those windfall rents, in turn, have given ESPN the wherewithal to pay the skyrocketing rights fees for live sports. Thoseinflated rights fees, in turn, have become the primary economic engine of most professional and big-time amateur sports while acting as a formidable barrier to entry for would-be competitors to ESPN, yielding a virtuous cycle that reinforces ESPN’s dominant position within the pay-TV ecosystem. Read More »

Top Headlines

WarnerMedia to Launch Direct to Consumer Streaming Service in Late 2019

AT&T’s WarnerMedia is joining Disney in the race to launch a global direct-to-consumer streaming platform next year. The new platform will be fronted by HBO, with content from additional WarnerMedia brands bundled around that premium cable service Source: WarnerMedia to Launch Direct to Consumer Streaming Service in Late 2019

Netflix Content Quota in Europe May Lead to TV Buying Spree

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Chase Carey: Expect continued media consolidation, because scale matters

Media consolidation will continue as companies compete for unique franchises and greater scale, 21st Century Fox Vice Chair Chase Carey told CNBC on Tuesday. Source: Expect continued media consolidation, because scale matters, 21st Century Fox vice chair says

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According to the latest IHS Markit “Connected Devices & Media Consumption” survey, one-third of pay TV households downsized their pay TV packages across the United States. Source: The pay TV conundrum: cord shavers, cord cutters and cord nevers

Hollywood startup NewTV christens itself Quibi

NewTV, the closely watched Hollywood startup with $1 billion in funding from Hollywood studios, on Wednesday rechristened itself Quibi, a portmanteau of “quick bites” Source: Hollywood startup NewTV christens itself Quibi

Spotify and Netflix both make moves to reduce payments to Apple

Various content-on-demand platforms have expressed concerns about how three of their big competitors – Apple, Amazon and Google – all also control devices, operating systems, stores and/or other channels that they rely on to sell their services. Source: Spotify and Netflix both make moves to reduce payments to Apple

‘Facebook What?’ Half of Users Have Never Heard of Facebook’s Watch Video Service

A year after Facebook Watch’s initial rollout, a survey found that 50% of U.S. adult Facebook users have never heard of the video service. Source: ‘Facebook What?’ Half of Users Have Never Heard of Facebook’s Watch Video Service