Archives

Time Warner, Comcast to Buy Bankrupt Cable Firm Adelphia for $18 Billion

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2005 - 3:14am.
New York -- Reuters reported on Friday that Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV operator, and partner Time Warner have reached an agreement to purchase bankrupt cable TV operator Adelphia Communications for about $18 billion, citing a source familiar with the matter. The deal was reportedly approved late Thursday, and calls for Time Warner to contribute a large percentage while Comcast provides around $2 billion in cash for Adelphia, which counts 5.3 million subscribers. The joint Time Warner-Comcast bid would better a rival bid from fellow cable TV operator Cablevision, which offered $16.5 billion for Adelphia, a source told Reuters. Adelphia filed for bankruptcy in 2002, amid an accounting scandal that resulted in fraud and conspiracy convictions for several members of the company's founding Rigas family.
tags: Comcast | Cable | Adelphia | Time Warner |

House Judiciary Hears Testimony on Digital Music Interoperability

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2005 - 3:12am.
Washington -- The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property held an oversight hearing on "Digital Music Interoperability and Availability" this week -- a hearing at which the invited leading firm in the field, Apple, was conspicuously absent. Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.) argued that Apple should be compelled to open its iPod and iTunes music products to competitors. Currently, songs purchased from Apple's online music store -- which claims 70% of the market -- cannot be played on devices other than the iPod, while songs purchased from Apple may only be played on the iPod. The lawmakers proposed a national interoperability standard, as well as labels on devices that would alert consumers to compatibility issues. However, in Apple's absence, rival Napster echoed industry sentiment that the market should resolve the issue, as opposed to lawmakers. "It does not seem prudent for [the] government to pick a winner in the continuing, but still quite early-stage, marketplace battle between Apple's Fairplay DRM and its competitors," Napster chief technology officer William Pence said in testimony before the committee, which admonished Apple for not showing up. "Generally speaking, companies with 75 percent market share of any business, in this case the digital download market, need to step up to the plate when it comes to testifying on policy issues that impact their industry. Failure to do so is a mistake," said Congressman Smith.
tags: Law | House Judiciary | Digital Music Interoperability |

Cablevision to Shutter Voom HD Satellite TV Service on April 30

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2005 - 3:07am.
New York -- The board of directors of cable TV operator Cablevision has voted to shutter Voom, the high-definition satellite TV service that Cablevision founder and chairman Charles Dolan has battled to keep alive. The board had given Dolan until March 31 to come up with a deal to privately purchase Voom's assets, following the sale of the Voom satellite to EchoStar Communications. But in lieu of such a proposal, Cablevision will shut off Voom's 21 high-definition channels to the service's 26,000 subscribers on April 30. The struggling service posted a loss of $661.4 million for 2004, on revenues of just $14.9 million. Cablevision said it will now examine the sale of some or all of Voom's HDTV channels to other cable and satellite TV providers.
tags: Cablevision | HD Satellite TV | Shutter |

AOL Looks for Ad Edge by Partnering with DoubleClick

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2005 - 3:05am.
Dulles, Va. -- Nearly a year after its heralded acquisition of Advertising.com, America Online on Friday took another big step toward increasing its ad revenue by announcing a key partnership with DoubleClick, a New York-based provider of marketing tools to ad agencies. The deal will bring a new slate of ad serving, inventory management, workflow tools and delivery operations to AOL Media Networks, the Internet provider's ad sales, commerce and search arm. AOL Media Networks also handles the marketing of the AOL's web brands, such as Netscape, Mapquest, Moviefone and CNN. The company is currently testing DoublClick's ad management platform on Mapquest, and plans to roll it out across all AOL brands later this year. The hosted tool is designed to help web publishers manage, serve and report on online ads, ideally allowing them to run more complex ad campaigns and promotions. Mike Kelly, the president of AOL Media Networks, said that the deal, combined with the Advertising.com acquisition, gives his company "a real edge in the ad market" in terms of ad serving and optimization.
tags: AOL | Deal | DoubleClick | Ad Edge |

Comcast-Cox Joint Venture Completes Purchase of Interactive TV Firm Liberate

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2005 - 3:03am.
San Mateo, Calif. -- Double C Technologies, a joint venture owned by cable TV operators Comcast and Cox, announced on Friday that it has completed its acquisition of the North American assets of Liberate Technologies, a provider of interactive TV software and services, for $82 million in cash. Double C, which will now operate under the business name TVWorks, said it will maintain San Mateo, Calif.-based Liberate's operation in London, Ontario, Canada, and retain about 130 Liberate employees. In addition to Comcast and Cox, Liberate also provides its interactive TV middleware software for cable set-top boxes to Insight Communications, NTL, Telewest and UPC. The software enables cable operators to run multiple services -- including high-definition television, video-on-demand and personal video recorders -- on multiple platforms. TVWorks said it will build upon Liberate's software platform to provide a flexible platform for adding new digital cable products and applications.
tags: Deal | Interactive TV | Comcast-Cox | Liberate |

French Media Content Protection Firm Medialive Raises $4.2 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2005 - 3:01am.
Paris -- Medialive, a French provider of multimedia content protection technologies, announced recently that it has raised $4.2 million in its first round of venture capital financing, from Nextel Communications and Sophia Euro Lab. Medialive provides technology that protects audiovisual content transmissions from piracy to media firms including Siemens, Alcatel, Mediasyscom, PacketVideo and Streamezzo. The company plans to use the funds to expand into new markets.
tags: VC | French Media Content Protection | Medialive |

Siemens Acquires Set-top Box Software Developer Myrio

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2005 - 2:46am.
Munich -- German global telecommunications firm Siemens announced on Friday that it has acquired Myrio, a provider of software enabling the delivery of video over the Internet. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bothell, Wash.-based Myrio develops middleware software used by more than 65 customers, to run TV set-top boxes and other devices that offer services like video-on-demand, games on-demand and IP telephony. Myrio's 75-member staff will operate as a subsidiary of Siemens, which said the purchase will allow its network service provider customers to deploy additional home entertainment services.
tags: Acquires | Siemens | Set-top Box Software Developer | Myrio |