Although the audience was very small, the picture quality poor, and production techniques quite limited, the Sept. 11, 1928 airing of the drama “The Queen’s Messenger” marks the introduction of television as an entertainment medium.     

While test images, static and moving, had previously been transmitted via television, the one-act drama, staged under the auspices of the General Electric Company and its television project leader, Ernst Alexanderson, marked the first-ever broadcast of a television program intended for entertainment.

The 40 minute-long production began at promptly at 1:30 p.m. eastern time, and as it unfolded in one of the research buildings on GE’s Schenectady campus, the action was captured by three fixed flying spot “mechanical” cameras operating at 24 lines and an unspecified frame rate.

The program was transmitted on three transmitters, with images sent at 379.5 and 31.4 meters (798 kHz and 9.55 MHz respectively) and audio on 21.96 meters (13.65 MHz). Due to the shortwave portion of the spectrum used for audio and one of the video transmissions, reports of reception came from as far away as the west coast. Unlike some 21st century television, it was reported that “voice and action came together through space in perfect synchronization.”  

OTHER NEWS FROM TV’S PAST:

90 Years Ago – September 1932 – As the 1930s unfolded, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), under the leadership of David Sarnoff, was doing its best to move television out of the laboratory and into consumers’ homes. Sarnoff anticipated a bright future for the new medium, and was plowing a very substantial amount of Depression-era stockholder money into TV R&D. It seems, though, that one RCA executive somehow hadn’t gotten the message.

Broadcasting magazine (now TV Tech sister brand Broadcasting & Cable), reported in its Sept. 15, 1932 issue that the vice president in charge of RCA’s NBC network Pacific division, Don E. Gilman, had painted a rather dismal picture of television’s future during a “radio day” luncheon address at the recent Western Retailers Conference in San Francisco.

"The best radio sets now on the market will be obsolete before television is ready for general use," said Gilman. "My business obliges me to follow the progress of television closely, but I am personally so little impressed with it except for laboratory experiment that I would not be bothered having a television set in my home. Any radio dealer who is holding [radio] sales ideas in abeyance while awaiting the arrival of television is pursuing a short-sighted policy.”

There was no reporting of Sarnoff’s reaction to Gilman’s address. (For the record, RCA had set up shop in New York City’s Empire State Building the previous year and was busy conducting transmission field tests of the new medium throughout the greater Manhattan area. 

Four years later, in 1936, the BBC began airing scheduled television broadcasts, and was followed by NBC less than three years after that. It is to be imagined that 1932 model radios still had plenty of life left in them then when the “Auntie Beeb” TV service launched, and not all had yet been relegated to the junk pile even at the time of NBC’s television startup.)

71 Years Ago – September 1951: The long-promised coast-to-coast video linkage became a reality on Sept. 4, with AT&T Long Lines opening their transcontinental television service in time for President Truman’s address at the San Francisco Japanese peace treaty conference to be seen live across the nation. 

The 2,750-mile $40 million (almost half–a-billion in today’s money) microwave system required the construction of some 107 relay facilities.

50 Years Ago – September 1972: The FCC is hard at work on its latest TV spectrum grab; this time it’s Channels 70 to 83. The NAB has joined the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters in opposing the surrender of TV spectrum for land-mobile radio use, as it would require some 800 TV translators operating in this 800 to 890 MHz region to go dark or relocate. 

In other industry news, ABTO (a partnership between ABC TV and Technical Operations, Inc.) now has its first customer for the technology it developed that allows black and white motion picture film stock to capture events in full color. Metromedia’s NYC outlet, WNEW-TV, announced that by mid-month it would be using the ABTO process—which involves lenticular filter encoding—for filming one-third of its news stories. 

ABTO color had previously been tested at several stations including Boston’s WNAC-TV and New Haven’s WNHC-TV. (The ABTO color-from-B&W scheme did work, but was not a commercial success, as by the time it was “ready for prime time,” most stations had already pumped up their news budgets to include purchase of color film stock and color film processors.) 

25 Years Ago – September 1997: Broadcasters are still reeling from the recent stroke of the pen that set the gears in motion for auctioning off several chunks of the 1,710 to 2,150 microwave band, including 50 MHz of the current BAS (Broadcast Auxiliary Service) spectrum used to relay programming and news from the field to the studio, as well as for long-haul intercity relay. 

The legislation requires the FCC to reallocate 100 MHz of the 410 MHz spectrum chunk, with the existing 120 MHz BAS allocation shrinking to just 70 MHz. In other FCC news, the Commission is considering using its powers to pre-empt local zoning ordinances that are delaying the construction of new towers needed for the on-going digital TV transition. 

WASHINGTON—The FCC this week introduced new regulations designed to improve the reliability and resiliency of mobile wireless networks during times of disasters and other emergencies. Spurred on by recent events in the past year such as Hurricane Ida, the earthquakes in Puerto Rico and winter storms in Texas and the ongoing wildfires in the West, the new rules leverage the industry-developed Wireless Network Resiliency Cooperative Framework as a starting point for introducing the commission’s "Mandatory Disaster Response Initiative". 

The commission’s actions effectively codify the Framework’s five substantive provisions as mandatory, extends the reach of the provisions to all facilities-based mobile wireless providers, expands the real-world criteria that trigger activation of the MDRI and introduces new provisions requiring providers to test their roaming capabilities and report on the performance of their implementation of the MDRI to the commission after disaster events. 

“The action we take today breaks new ground in ways that will further improve the resiliency of our communications networks in response to the record received on the Resilient Networks Notice and in light of the need to achieve near-term benefits in anticipation of future disaster events,” the FCC said in its Report and Order. “At the same time, much remains to be done to ensure that our communications networks achieve their full potential as critical lifelines for those in need during times of emergency.” 

When the Framework—which is a voluntary agreement among the nation’s largest wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile—was announced in 2016, the FCC endorsed the move in lieu of a mandatory regulatory regime at the time. It commits its participants to a five-pronged approach to enhance coordination during an emergency by:

• Providing for reasonable roaming under disaster arrangements (RuDs) when technically feasible;
• Fostering mutual aid among wireless providers during emergencies;
• Enhancing municipal preparedness and restoration by convening with local government public safety representatives to develop best practices, and establishing a provider/PSAP contact database;
• Increasing consumer readiness and preparation through development and dissemination with consumer groups of a Consumer Readiness Checklist; and
• Improving public awareness and stakeholder communications on service and restoration status, through Commission posting of data on cell site outages on an aggregated, county-by-county basis in the relevant area through its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS).

This week’s announcement extends the Framework to all mobile wireless providers and rejects suggestions that smaller facilities be exempted. “We recognize the merits of the current Framework and agree with the commenters who argue that its provisions would be more effective if they were expanded to include entities beyond the Framework’s current signatories,” the FCC said. “We reject the views of the CCA and NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association (NTCA) that smaller providers should be excepted from today’s rules because they need to prioritize work on their own networks or lack the resources required for compliance in the midst of emergencies.  We find that, as a practical matter, such concerns can be mitigated.”

The new rules will also require each facilities-based mobile wireless provider to enter into bilateral roaming agreements with all other facilities-based mobile wireless providers from which it may expect to request roaming privileges and that such agreements be executed and in place no later than the compliance date for the MDRI.

“This advance planning will allow, for example, time for the providers subject to the agreement to undertake initial testing and confirm that the roaming functionality works as intended and/or take remediation steps to address technical issues prior to the actual onset of a disaster or emergency event, as well as to swiftly implement roaming when the MDRI is triggered,” the commission said.

The commission also agreed with NCTA and Verizon for the need for continuous testing to ensure disaster preparedness, including testing of bilateral roaming capabilities.  “We find that bilateral testing will ensure that providers spend time optimizing, debugging and diagnosing their networks well in advance of emergencies, ensuring that these networks roam as effectively as possible when a disaster strikes, ultimately saving lives and property,” the commission said.

In determining when the MDRI is to be triggered during an emergency, the FCC acknowledged the Public Safety and Homeland Security’s role in responding to state requests. 

“We find that the public interest supports a rule that the MDRI is triggered when either ESF-2 or DIRS is activated, or when the Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announces that the MDRI is activated in response to a request received from a state in conjunction with the state activating its Emergency Operations Center, activating mutual aid, or proclaiming a local state of emergency,” the FCC said. “As such, we delegate to the Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau the authority to issue a public notice effectuating the MDRI under these circumstances, and to prescribe any mechanisms for receiving such a request.” 

In terms of the financial burdens on mobile wireless carriers, the commission noted that many of the costs associated with upgrading facilities have already been undertaken and in the end, will be worth it. “We find that the incremental costs to the nation’s facilities-based mobile wireless providers for codifying the Framework in today’s MDRI rules will be minimal in many cases and, even when significant, will be far outweighed by nationwide benefits,” the commission said.  

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Aviation Administration has announced that key players in the aviation and wireless industries have laid out a plan that will protect commercial air travel from disruption by 5G C-band interference while also enabling Verizon and AT&T to enhance service around certain airports.

“We believe we have identified a path that will continue to enable aviation and 5G C-band wireless to safely co-exist,” said Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen. “We appreciate the willingness of Verizon and AT&T to continue this important and productive collaboration with the aviation industry.”

The phased approach requires operators of regional aircraft with radio altimeters most susceptible to interference to retrofit them with radio frequency filters by the end of 2022. This work has already begun and will continue on an expedited basis.

At the same time, the FAA said it has been working with the wireless companies to identify airports around which their service can be enhanced with the least risk of disrupting flight schedules.

During initial negotiations in January, the wireless companies offered to keep mitigations in place until July 5, 2022, while they worked with the FAA to better understand the effects of 5G C-band signals on sensitive aviation instruments.

Based on progress achieved during a series of meetings, the wireless companies have offered to continue with some level of voluntary mitigations for another year, the FAA said. 

“We all agreed when we began these meetings that our goal was to make July 5, 2022, just another date on the calendar, and this plan makes that possible,” Nolen said.

Airlines and other operators of aircraft equipped with the affected radio altimeters must install filters or other enhancements as soon as possible, the FAA said. 

Filters and replacement units for the mainline commercial fleet should be available on a schedule that would permit the work to be largely completed by July 2023. After that time, the wireless companies expect to operate their networks in urban areas with minimal restrictions.

The FAA noted that radio-altimeter manufacturers are working with Embraer, Boeing, Airbus and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to develop and test filters and installation kits for these aircraft. Customers are receiving the first kits now. In most cases, the kits can be installed in a few hours at airline maintenance facilities.

Throughout this process, the FAA said it will work with both industries to track the pace of the radio altimeter retrofits while also working with the wireless companies to relax mitigations around key airports in carefully considered phases.

DALLAS—AT&T and Dish have announced an internet distribution agreement that will allow Dish to offer AT&T Internet services, including AT&T Fiber with Hyper-Gig speeds, to prospective, new and existing Dish customers.

“At AT&T, we’re constantly thinking of ways we can better serve and provide for our customers. Through this new arrangement with DISH, we’re able to do just that by seamlessly offering our super-fast broadband services to more customers across the nation,” said Jenifer Robertson, executive vice president and general manager, Mass Markets, AT&T Communications. “This is another step towards our goal of becoming the best broadband provider in America.”

“DISH is always looking for ways to improve the overall customer experience,” said Amir Ahmed, executive vice president of Dish TV. “Adding AT&T Internet to our robust lineup of TV and home integration services enhances our ability to provide better overall service, technology and value to our customers.”

NEW YORK & DALLAS—Discovery, Inc. and AT&T Inc. announced on April 8 that they have closed their transaction to combine the WarnerMedia business with Discovery. The combination creates Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., which will begin trading on the Nasdaq with the start of trading on Monday, April 11, under the new ticker symbol “WBD.” 

Discovery announced the new executive leadership team for the company earlier in the week prior to closing the deal. 

The new company combines WarnerMedia’s premium entertainment, sports and news assets with Discovery’s leading non-fiction and international entertainment and sports businesses, including Discovery Channel, discovery+, Warner Bros. Entertainment, CNN, CNN+, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HBO Max, HGTV, Food Network, Investigation Discovery, TLC, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies and others. 

“Today’s announcement marks an exciting milestone not just for Warner Bros. Discovery but for our shareholders, our distributors, our advertisers, our creative partners and, most importantly, consumers globally,” said David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive officer. “With our collective assets and diversified business model, Warner Bros. Discovery offers the most differentiated and complete portfolio of content across film, television and streaming. We are confident that we can bring more choice to consumers around the globe while fostering creativity and creating value for shareholders. I can’t wait for both teams to come together to make Warner Bros. Discovery the best place for impactful storytelling.”

“We are at the dawn of a new age of connectivity, and today marks the beginning of a new era for AT&T,” said John Stankey, AT&T chief executive officer. “With the close of this transaction, we expect to invest at record levels in our growth areas of 5G and fiber, where we have strong momentum, while we work to become America’s best broadband company.”

Under terms of the agreement, which was structured as a Reverse Morris Trust transaction, at close AT&T received $40.4 billion in cash and WarnerMedia’s retention of certain debt. 

Additionally, shareholders of AT&T received 0.241917 shares of WBD for each share of AT&T common stock they held at close. As a result, AT&T shareholders received 1.7 billion shares of WBD, representing 71% of WBD shares on a fully diluted basis. 

Discovery’s existing shareholders own the remainder of the new company. In addition to their new shares of WBD common stock, AT&T shareholders continue to hold the same number of shares of AT&T common stock they held immediately prior to close.

Discovery announced the new executive leadership team for the company earlier this week. 

DALLAS & NEW YORK—WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T, and Discovery Inc. have reached an agreement to form a standalone global entertainment company that will combine WarnerMedia’s entertainment, sports and news assets with Discovery’s nonfiction and international entertainment and sports business.

With the deal, WarnerMedia and Discovery will merge its leadership teams, content creators and content libraries, with nearly 200,000 hours of programming from brands like HBO, Warner Bros., Discovery, HGTV and more, the announcement detailed. It is also poised to help accelerate both companies’ plans for direct-to-consumer streaming services, which already are available via HBO Max and Discovery+.

“The new company will be able to invest in more original content for its streaming services, enhance the programming options across its global linear pay-TV and broadcast channels and offer more innovative video experiences and consumer choices,” the official press release said.

Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav has been tapped to lead the new company. Zaslav will also serve on the new company’s board of directors, which will consist of 13 members in total—seven appointed by AT&T, including the chairperson, and six, including Zaslav, from Discovery.

“This agreement unites two entertainment leaders with complementary content strengths and positions the new company to be one of the leading global direct-to-consumer streaming platforms,” said John Stankey, CEO of AT&T. “It will support the fantastic growth and international launch of HBO Max with Discovery’s global footprint and create efficiencies, which can be re-invested in producing more great content to give consumers what they want. For AT&T shareholders, this is an opportunity to unlock value and be one of the best capitalized broadband companies, focused on investing in 5G and fiber to meet substantial, long-term demand for connectivity. AT&T shareholders will retain their stake in our leading communications company that comes with an attractive dividend. Plus, they will get a stake in the new company, a global media leader that can build one of the top streaming platforms in the world.”

The deal has already been approved by AT&T’s and Discovery’s Board of Directors. Per the terms of the agreement, AT&T will receive $43 billion in a combination of cash, debt securities and WarnerMedia’s retention of certain debt. AT&T’s shareholders would receive stock representing 71% of the new company, while Discovery shareholders would own 29%.

AT&T and Discovery expect the deal to close in mid-2022, subject to approval by Discovery shareholders (no vote is required by AT&T shareholders) and other customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

Despite a recent projection that cord cutting will accelerate significantly over the next 24 months, the top five publicly traded pay-TV companies lost 22.3% fewer video customers in Q1 than they did in the first three months of 2020. 

Comcast, Charter Communications, AT&T, Dish Network and Verizon combined to lose 1,561,000 video customers in Q1 vs. 2,011,000 in the same period of 2020. 

For the most part, video losses for each of these companies were worse, or largely the same, save for one operator, AT&T. That telecom lost 897,000 customers across its DirecTV satellite and U-verse “premium” platforms in the first quarter of last year, and another 138,000 from virtual MVPD AT&T TV Now. Most of the losses came in satellite TV.

In January, February and March of 2021, AT&T lost a combined 620,000 across DirecTV, U-verse and AT&T TV—the latter service, launched in April of last year, having subsumed AT&T TV Now. AT&T is in the process of spinning off a portion of its pay-TV assets to private equity firm TPG. 

Among cable operators, Comcast saw its Xfinity TV losses accelerate to 491,000 vs. 409,000 in the first quarter of 2020, while Charter Communications saw losses expand from 70,000 to 138,000, first quarter vs. first quarter. 

In satellite, Dish Network saw flat linear customer recession of 132,000 users, but experienced improved subscriber losses for its Sling TV vMVPD, which lost only 100,000 customers vs. 280,000 in Q1 2021. 

Among telcos, Verizon’s 82,000 lost Fios TV souls were largely flat with the 84,000 shed in Q1 2020, but the company retracted to overall customer levels (3.7 million) not seen in 10 years.

This analysis leaves out a range of smaller cable companies, Altice USA, Mediacom and Cable One.  Also not included are major virtual MVPD operators Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV. 

LONDON—2020 saw an significant increase in the revenues and market capitalization of the world’s top media companies, as consumers were forced to quarantine at home amid the pandemic, leading to more content consumption. Per StockApps.com, the combined market cap of the top five media companies—Walt Disney, Comcast, Netflix, AT&T and Charter Communications—increased $330 billion year-over-year.

One of the biggest trends in 2020 was the increase in streaming, which was beneficial for Disney, which launched its Disney+ streaming service in the months prior to the pandemic. Disney+ has already surpassed 100 million global subscribers, helping Disney experience the largest market cap increase among the top five companies.

In April 2020, Disney’s combined value of its shares was $179.8 billion. By the end of 2020 that number had increased to $309 billion. Disney’s market cap peaked in March 2021 at $350 billion, but actually dipped in recent weeks to $332 billion, though that still represents an 85% year-over-year increase.

Also riding the streaming wave was Netflix. The world’s largest streaming provider (and fourth-largest media company overall) surpassed 207 million global subscribers in March, a 25% increase since the start of the pandemic. Financially, Netflix’s market cap pre-pandemic was at $185.3 billion and then reached $233 billion by the end of 2020. The number has come down a little, now at $223.2 billion, but it still represents a $38 billion increase in the last year.

Comcast saw its market cap increase 52% over the last year, going from $163 billion to $248 billion. AT&T rose from $210.2 billion in April 2020 to $225.6 billion, a 15% increase. Charter Communications went from $102.4 billion to $141.1 billion, a 38% market cap increase.

For more information, visit StockApps.com.  

DALLAS—HBO Max is finding its footing in the streaming marketplace, as the streaming platform had 44.2 million domestic subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2021, up from 41.5 million to end 2020, according to AT&T’s latest financial report.

The total subscription numbers for HBO Max include subscribers who have just signed up for the SVOD service and HBO, whose subscribers get HBO Max included. In Q1 2021, AT&T reports that there were 2.7 million subscriber net adds.

These numbers are prior to HBO Max rolling out internationally and its announced launch of an ad-supported version of the streaming platform, both of which are expected in June. Globally, HBO now has nearly 64 million subscribers, per AT&T.

AT&T says that domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers have increased by more than 11 million year-over-year, primarily driven by HBO Max.

In financial terms, HBO Max and HBO had an average return per user (ARPU) of $11.72. Direct-to-consumer subscription revenues were up about 35%. WarnerMedia, which operates HBO Max, saw its total revenues rise 9.8% to $8.5 billion.

After a slower start, HBO Max is gaining its footing in the streaming market. Kantar has reported that HBO Max has netted the most subscribers among the major streaming platforms the last two quarters, in large part because of its pandemic strategy to release Warner Bros. movies on the streaming service the same day as theaters.

AT&T also reported that it lost 620,000 subscribers for its pay-TV business, as DirecTV is being spun off into its own standalone company. AT&T has 15,885 of what it is calling "premium TV connections."

The full AT&T Q1 2012 financial report is available online.

DALLAS—HBO Max is expanding its subscription possibilities, officially announcing that it will launch an ad-supported (AVOD) version of the streaming service to U.S. subscribers in June. This is just one component of AT&T’s HBO Max plans and why the company has upped its projection for global subscriptions in the next few years.

It had previously been announced that HBO Max would be getting an AVOD version at some point in 2021, but there wasn’t a clear timeframe. U.S. consumers can now expect an alternative to HBO Max’s current $14.99/month subscription plan in June, though no official date was provided in AT&T’s press release. 

During a virtual investor meeting, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said that the only difference between the current premium service and the AVOD version of HBO Max will be that day-and-date releases of Warner Bros. movies will not be available. He also confirmed that advertising would not be placed in HBO original series.  

AT&T also said that it expects to launch HBO Max in 60 markets outside the U.S. in 2021. This includes 39 territories in Latin America and the Caribbean in late June and 21 territories in Europe in the second half of 2021.

All of this has contributed to new projects for HBO Max’s global subscriber growth. In October 2019, AT&T projected HBO Max to have a global subscription base between 75-90 million HBO Max/HBO subscribers by the end of 2025. It is now upping that to a range of 120-150 million.

By the end of 2021, AT&T projects HBO Max/HBO to have a subscriber base of 67-70 million. When the fourth quarter of 2020 ended, the combined subscriptions were around 41 million, with HBO Max accounting for 17.2 million of those.

These projections come on the heels of Disney having recently announced that its streaming service, Disney+, just passed the 100 million global subscriber mark, four years ahead of schedule.

The HBO Max projections were part of an updated strategy and financial outlook from AT&T. Also included in the announcement was AT&T’s plans for the 80 MHz of C-band it acquired in the FCC’s C-band auction. AT&T plans to start deploying 40 MHz of this spectrum by the end of 2021.

DALLAS—AT&T TV has announced new features that will expand its users' capability to watch content—increasing the number of possible simultaneous streams to 20 and offering an option for unlimited hours of cloud DVR.

AT&T TV had previously allowed customers to have three simultaneous streams. Based on customer feedback, AT&T TV will now allow customers to have as many as 20 simultaneous streams going at no additional cost and no action required. 

There are some restrictions to the increase in simultaneous streams—some networks are excluded, like Fox networks, Starz, NHL Network, Showtime and PBS; and customers can still only stream on three devices out-of-home.

The now unlimited cloud DVR will be available to subscribers of the 500 hours of cloud DVR package automatically. Customers that do not have an annual contract get 20 hours of storage included, with the option to upgrade to unlimited storage capacity for $10/month. Recordings can also be accessed from outside the home via the AT&T TV app.

Recordings in the unlimited DVR storage do expire after 90 days. In a series recording, a max of 30 episodes can be stored (oldest deleted first).

For more information, visit www.att.com. 

ATLANTA & DALLAS—With the clock ticking toward the kickoff of Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7, Cox Media Group and AT&T announced that they had reached a new multi-year retransmission deal that would return Cox stations in 20 markets to AT&T/DirecTV customers.

The blackout of these stations began in the early hours of Feb. 2, impacting 26 stations in total. In five markets the impacted stations were the local CBS affiliate, which would have made Super Bowl LV unavailable to watch over traditional broadcast for AT&T customers in those markets.

The American Television Alliance (ATVA) had been extremely critical of the timing of the blackout, claiming that Cox has used the prospect of withholding the Super Bowl as a tactic in other retransmission negotiations.

Terms of the new agreement were not disclosed.

Here are the markets that had their CMG stations returned on Feb. 7:

• Alexandria, La. 
• Atlanta 
• Binghamton, N.Y. 
• Boston
• Charlotte, N.C. 
• Dayton, Ohio
• Eureka, Calif. 
• Greenville-Greenwood, Miss. 
• Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho 
• Jacksonville, Fla. 
• Medford, Ore. 
• Memphis, Tenn. 
• Orlando, Fla.
• Pittsburgh 
• Seattle
• Spokane, Wash. 
• Syracuse, N.Y. 
• Tulsa, Okla.
• Yakima-Tri Cities, Wash. 
• Yuma, Ariz. 

WASHINGTON—The American Television Alliance (ATVA) is displeased that Cox Media Group has once again gone to what it believes is a staple of their playbook - threatening or withdrawing stations carrying the Super Bowl as part of retransmission negotiations.

Stations in 20 markets went dark on Feb. 2 as CMG and AT&T/DirecTV failed to reach a retransmission deal. Among the stations impacted are a few CBS affiliates, which means that unless a deal is struck before 6:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 7, DirecTV customers in those markets will not be able to watch Super Bowl LV.

ATVA supports AT&T’s claim that CMG is the one causing the blackout. However, for its part, CMG cites AT&T’s reluctance to accept its offers.

Per ATVA, this tactic is a familiar one for CMG, as it is reportedly the fifth time they have threatened or withdrawn stations that are broadcasting the Super Bowl. Past instances involved Charter Spectrum, Dish Network, Verizon Fios and CableOne, ATVA details.

“This latest contrived blackout holding such an important national event like the Super Bowl hostage demonstrates how broadcasters like Cox Media Group intentionally cause maximum disruption and harm for consumers in order to extract exorbitant fees,” said ATVA spokeswoman Jessica Kendust. “The price-gouging behavior of broadcasters like Cox has become increasingly shameless and exploitative and demands action from policymakers in Washington.”

Kendust says that there is a correlation between the rise in the number of broadcast blackouts in the past decade and the “more than seven-fold” increase in station fees. The number of blackouts have risen to new heights in the last couple of years, particularly, with 278 in 2019 and 342 in 2020, according to ATVA.

ATVA wants policymakers to update retransmission consent laws so as to prevent broadcastings from weaponizing stations licenses and government-granted exclusivities.

DALLAS—HBO Max ended 2020 on a high note, as AT&T shares that the streaming service doubled its activations between the end of the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2020 to a total of 17.2 million. However, that was not enough to prevent AT&T from experiencing a loss in total revenue for the final quarter of 2020, per the company’s full Q4 financial report.

HBO Max, which launched in May of 2020, has been struggling to make a dent in the streaming market, particularly compared to the rapid growth of Disney+. In an effort to boost subscriber numbers, WarnerMedia announced that it would release the anticipated “Wonder Woman 1984” on HBO Max the same day as in theaters, Dec. 25, 2020. It was later announced that all of Warner Bros. 2021 movies would follow the same strategy.

This announcement helped fuel a fourth quarter surge in active subscribers, totaling 17.2 million for HBO Max. At the end of 2020, total domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers were at 41 million, a level that AT&T CEO John Stankey said was two years ahead of schedule.

However, those 17.2 million active subscribers to HBO Max still trail the major streaming players, including Netflix, which hit 203 million subscribers at the end of 2020, and Disney+, which in little more than a year has surpassed 86 million subscribers.

TV Tech's sister publication Next|TV reported that Stankey said that a reduced price, AVOD version of HBO Max is being eyed for a second quarter 2021 launch.

Elsewhere in AT&T’s video offerings, the company reports that it lost 617,000 TV subscribers, but that AT&T TV gains helped mitigate the loss.

In terms of dollars and cents, AT&T has reported a net loss of $13.9 billion. It’s overall revenue dropped 2.4% from $46.8 billion in Q4 2019 to $45.7 billion in Q4 2020.

Looking closely at individual sectors, HBO revenue rose 11.7% to $1.9 billion, but expenses were also up $18 billion (48.6%). HBO’s operating income fell to $86 billion from $481 million year-over-year, as the company invested in HBO Max.

Turner’s revenue for Q4 2020 was flat, with subscription revenue rising but advertising dropping, in large part because of the delayed start to the NBA season. In addition, lower ad revenue on TNT and TBS were partially offset by higher ratings on CNN, due in large part to the election.

Video subscribers revenue was down 11.2%, totaling $7.2 billion. 

Warner Bros. operating income fell 17% to $791 million, with revenue also dipping to $3.2 billion (down 21.2%). This was a result of delayed theatrical releases and lack of a box office, as well as delayed TV productions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The full AT&T Q4 2020 financial results are available online. 

BRISTOL, Conn.—ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso appeared during Monday night’s College Football Playoff Championship game via a hologram in commercials from sponsor AT&T.

Corso visits with ESPN college football analyst David Pollack in two spots highlighting AT&T 5G HoloVision.

In one, Pollack dons the oversize headgear Corso usually wears to indicate who he thinks will be a game’s winner. In the spot, Pollack wears a Corso head.

AT&T has been the presenting sponsor of the College Football National Championship for seven straight years. 

ESPN showed Alabama play Ohio State for the title using a MegaCast format incorporating 14 total presentations across ESPN Networks.

DALLAS—AT&T's DirecTV and U-Verse have sent letters to the general managers of Tegna stations for permission to show subscribers college and NFL football games this weekend that would otherwise be blacked out in the companies’ retransmission fee dispute.

Tegna’s stations in 115 markets have been dark on DirecTV and U-Verse since Tuesday night.

AT&T is offering to pay the station a full-day’s retransmission fee in exchange for showing the three-hour game. The fee would be the higher fee agreed to when a new distribution deal is reached, according to the letter.

It is unlikely Tegna or its stations have the right to selectively cherry pick programming from a network feed and let a distributor carry it.

One of the letters, obtained by the Houston Chronicle, seeks permission from KHOU-TV in Houston to show Sunday’s Houston Texans game against the Indianapolis Colts broadcast over CBS.

The letter, from Rob Thun, executive VP and chief content officer at AT&T Communications, is addressed to KHOU GM Robert Springer. “While you may be relatively new to the region, you have no doubt witnessed firsthand the deep passion local Texans fans and the team’s many sponsors have invested firsthand, so would hopefully join us in allowing families already hard hit by the pandemic the simple pleasure of watching their favorite team, if only for a few hours.”

The letter also notes that the set top box used by many AT&T subscribers enables them to watch the station via Locast, which streams local station signals. AT&T has made financial contributions to Locast.

“We remain hopeful that we can maintain a productive, professional business relationship with Tegna in common service of the local Houston community and look forward to your immediate and affirmative response,” Thun says in concluding his letter.

In a statement, Tegna said: “We are eager for AT&T U-verse and DirecTV to return our stations to its systems, which is why we have been and remain dedicated to working around-the-clock to reach a fair, market-based agreement. We have made clear that we are prepared to reach a deal at rates that are competitive with the rates that we have agreed to with operators of all sizes over the past fourteen months. We are responding directly to the letter AT&T has sent to our stations, consistent with our efforts to engage throughout this negotiation. If AT&T is now willing to begin good faith discussions, we are confident we can get a deal done quickly.” 

AT&T said it sent similar letters to the GMs of Tegna’s stations in New Orleans, Indianapolis, Tampa, Columbus, Denver and St. Louis.

The letter to Michael Brouder, president and general manager of WTHR-TV, Indianapolis, AT&T seeks the rights to show Saturday’s game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Syracuse Orange. 

“We believe there is absolutely no public interest served by WTHR and its Virginia-based owner Tegna Inc. deliberately blacking out WTHR and intentionally inconveniencing thousands of Indianapolis homes that are ardent supporters of one of Indiana’s most prestigious universities,” AT&T’s Thun wrote. “As a longtime resident and adjunct faculty member at two competing Indiana universities, you have no doubt witnessed firsthand the deep passion local Irish fans and the team’s many sponsors have invested firsthand, so would hopefully join us in allowing families already hard hit by the pandemic the simple pleasure of watching their favorite team, if only for a few hours.”

In a press release, AT&T said it was offering Tegna a chance to give consumers their channels back and that AT&T stands ready to turn programming back on--Tegna just needs to give permission.

“Fans should not be used as pawns in a business negotiation,” said Celeste Boyd-Spear, VP and General Manager – AT&T Heartland States. “Tegna should set aside their differences for a single afternoon and allow everyone to enjoy this game.”

TYSONS CORNER, Va. & DALLAS—Tegna stations in 51 markets have gone dark for AT&T DirecTV and U-Verse customers, as the two sides were unable to reach a retransmission agreement. The blackout officially began at 7 p.m. ET on Dec. 1.

Tegna has 64 stations in the 51 markets impacted by this blackout, which reach 41.7 million TV households.

“Unfortunately, DirecTV AT&T U-Verse have not come to an agreement with Tegna to keep our stations on the air,” Tegna said via a statement on Twitter. The statement also instructed customers can still watch its stations on other local providers or streaming services, as well as for free over-the-air.

“We’re working to return the Tegna stations to our lineups as soon as possible, but by law, Tegna has exclusive control over which homes are allowed to receive either ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox or CW in certain cities, regardless of what provider they choose,” AT&T said in a posting about the blackout to customers.

AT&T says that Tegna is asking for “unwarranted increases over their already high fees” and accused the network of taking advantage of its viewers during a pandemic.

Tegna, inversely, says that it has been able to strike deals with other cable and satellite providers without disruption of services.

This is not the only retransmission dispute in danger of blacking out stations; Nexstar and Dish are currently on the brink of a blackout as well. 

WASHINGTON—The FCC’s C-band auction is less than a month away, and the full list of qualified bidders has been announced. Among the 57 companies set to take part in the auction are big names like AT&T, Cox and T-Mobile.

The C-band auction, taking place on Dec. 8, will see the sale of spectrum in the lower 3.7-3.98 GHz band to be used for the development of 5G. The current occupants of the C-band, which includes satellite operators, are going to transition to the upper 200 GHz of the C-band.

To qualify for the C-band auction, the companies’ short-form applications were deemed complete and in compliance. As a result, they are now automatically registered for the auction. The FCC says that 17 applicants did not qualify to bid.

Of the 57 companies, 22 applied and were approved for rural building credits, while 18 were granted small business credits.

The full list of 57 qualifiers is available online. 

DALLAS—AT&T is reportedly fielding offers for what is being described as “a significant minority stake” in its pay-TV operations, which include DirecTV, AT&T and U-Verse. CNBC was the first to report the news, citing sources familiar with the matter.

AT&T is already in discussions with private equity firms, per CNBC, including Apollo Management. AT&T is looking to keep majority economic ownership of its pay-TV business and ownership of the U-Verse infrastructure, but the buyer would control pay-TV distribution operations and consolidate the business on its books. According to sources, the deal could be from anywhere between 30%-49% of AT&T’s pay-TV operations, CNBC reports.

Final deals are said to be due in early December.

At the end of the third quarter of 2020, AT&T reported that it had about 17 million legacy TV subscribers (DirecTV and U-Verse) and about 683,000 AT&T Now customers.

AT&T acquired DirecTV in 2015 for $67 billion. CNBC estimates that a deal for a minority stake could value DirecTV at less than $15 billion, including debt.

For more information, read CNBC’s full coverage. 

DALLAS—Streaming can now be a road trip activity, as AT&T and WarnerMedia have announced a deal that will bring the WarnerMedia Ride in-car streaming service to General Motors vehicles, including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.

WarnerMedia Ride is a streaming platform that offers video content on personal smartphones or tablets connected to in-car Wi-Fi hotspots. Available content includes news, sports and entertainment programming from brands like Bleacher Report, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, TNT and more.

AT&T has also announced that starting in 2021, it will offer its HBO Max streaming service as a premium bundle for AT&T connected car data plan subscribers.

“We’ve long been committed to ensuring our customers can be connected and entertained just about anywhere,” said Sarita Rao, senior vice president, AT&T Business Marketing. “Bringing content from the WarnerMedia library across GM vehicle brands is another step toward keeping customers connected to the world around them and the content they love.”

WarnerMedia Ride will be available with AT&T unlimited data plans in connected cars at no additional cost across U.S. domestic brands. The WarnerMedia Ride app can be downloaded on the Apple App Store for iOS11+ devices and Google Play for Android 9+ devices. Users will be able to access content when the app senses the vehicle’s Wi-Fi hotspot.

COSTA MESA, Calif.—AT&T/DirecTV and Dish Networks have come out on top when it comes to consumer satisfaction for TV providers, according to the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction Study. 

Surveying more than 20,000 consumers, the TV Service Provider study evaluated cable/satellite TV providers from October 2019 to July 2020.

AT&T/DirecTV and Dish Network tied nationally with a score of 763. AT&T/DirecTV ranked highest in the East region (793), while Dish was highest in North Central (749) and South (781); the two providers tied in the West (752). J.D. Power says this is the third year in a row that Dish Network ranked the highest nationally.

Xfinity and Spectrum were the two providers directly behind AT&T/DirecTV and Dish, earning national scores of 733 and 716, respectively.

J.D. Power also did a survey for Residential Internet Service Providers. There was no national study, but Verizon came out on top in the East (769), while AT&T/DirecTV ranked highest in North Central (742), South (769) and West (742).

“With the country quarantining at home, internet and television services were under enormous pressure to continue performing reliably,” said Ian Greenblatt, managing director at J.D. Power. “True to form, providers did not succumb to the additional demand. Instead, they kept Americas connected: working, informed and entertained, thereby retaining their customers’ satisfaction.”

For more information on the satisfaction surveys, visit J.D. Power’s website. 

WASHINGTON—The FCC has voted to deny an appeal of its decision that eight station groups failed to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith and has further decided to propose each of the 18 stations at issue over $500,000 apiece. It is the first time the FCC has ever issued a forfeiture order for a failure to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith, as its rules require.

The vote was unanimous, with one partial concurrence by commissioner Michael O'Rielly.

The complaint was filed by AT&T in June 2019 against Deerfield Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, HSH, Mercury Broadcasting, MPS Media, KMTR Television, Second Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting, all of which the FCC says failed to meet its standard for good faith negotiation. All the groups were represented by Duane Lammers of Max Retrans. AT&T sued Lammers, though that suit was thrown out.

In December 2019, the FCC's Media Bureau found that the stations had failed to negotiate in good faith with DirecTV and U-Verse (AT&T). The FCC said in granting the complaint that the stations had unreasonably delayed negotiations, including by not responding to AT&T proposals.

AT&T pointed out in its complaint that all the stations involved were "managed and controlled by Sinclair Broadcast Group through some type of shared services agreement." AT&T asked the FCC to 1) find that each station had violated the good faith negotiation requirement, 2) compel the stations still not negotiating in good faith to do so, and fine them.

The FCC this week denied the station challenge and granted the AT&T complaint in full, which included the proposed fines of $512,228 apiece for each station, the "statutory maximum for a single act or failure to act."

"The Bureau made factual findings that Defendants failed to negotiate carriage, unreasonably delayed negotiations and refused to respond to proposals. Upon review of the record, we affirm these findings."

Rather than fine Lammers or the station groups, the FCC said it was appropriate to fine each station, saying " the harm to viewers is multiplied with each station that goes dark, regardless of the number of corporate parents involved in a carriage dispute, underscoring the importance of our focus on individual stations." 

Good faith negotiation complaints are not unusual, but the FCC granting them is. They are generally dismissed for lack of a showing that the negotiations were not in good faith, or dropped after the two sides reach an agreement.

Commissioner O'Rielly only concurred in the amount of the fine, which is short of outright approval, saying: "Even during better days, when our country is not facing the challenges of a global pandemic, imposing the statutory maximum on individual stations by way of a novel, first-time application of the rules could be disproportionately punitive and significantly threaten the operations of these stations."

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said he fully supported the maximum fine, saying: "Going forward, Negotiating Entities should be on notice that similar instances of apparent failure to negotiate for retransmission in good faith, especially when resulting in blackouts and other harms to consumers, could result in similar proposed penalties."

“ATVA applauds the FCC’s recognition of the need for serious reform regarding the retransmission negotiations process," said the American Television Alliance, which comprises cable and satellite operators and others seeking retrans reform. "We are pleased to see retransmission consent taken seriously in this case,” said ATVA spokesperson Jessica Kendust. “The flagrant abuse and misconduct described in this order are not only typical, but unfortunately, increasingly common by broadcasters during retrans negotiations. Broadcasters’ weaponization of station blackouts during negotiations is costing consumers billions every year. We hope that this decision and these fines totaling more than $9 million represent the first step of a broader reexamination of the broken retransmission consent marketplace.”

"Retrans negotiations are a give-and-take proposition and have been that way for a long time," said Adonis Hoffman, CEO of The Advisory Council and former chief of staff to then FCC commissioners Mignon Clyburn. "The FCC's maximum fine in this instance seems heavy-handed, especially at a time when the media economy is in flux and the rules are not well-established."

DALLAS—AT&T is reportedly exploring options, including a possible sale, for its DirecTV satellite TV unit, according to the Wall Street Journal.

AT&T and its advisers—led by Goldman Sachs—are apparently in early exploratory talks with private equity investors like Apollo Global Management and Platinum Equity, the Journal story said. While no deal is imminent, unloading the troubled satellite unit would remove some heavy burdens for the telco.

AT&T decline comment.

Investors responded tepidly to the news—AT&T stock was up about 2% to $30.62 each in after-hours trading Aug. 28. 

AT&T purchased DirecTV in 2015 for $48.5 billion and the satellite company has been on a steady decline almost from the beginning. Once the largest pay-TV service provider in the country with more than 25 million satellite and IPTV subscribers, DirecTV has been bleeding customers for years—it lost nearly 1 million satellite TV customers in Q2, finishing that period with about 17.7 million pay TV customers.

AT&T’s patience with DirecTV quickly waned, especially as the company launched a streaming service—DirecTV Now, now called AT&T Now, in 2016, which seemed to be a direct competitor to its satellite service. In the meantime, AT&T paid more than $100 billion for programmer Time Warner in 2019, launching yet another streaming service in May—HBO Max—and seems to have put most of its faith in the streaming content business. 

According to the Journal, AT&T could fetch about $20 billion for DirecTV, less than half what it paid, but enough to help pay down some of the debt associated with the Time Warner buy. 

Another possible buyer could be satellite TV rival Dish Network, which has about 9 million satellite TV subscribers. Dish chairman Charlie Ergen has said he believes a DirecTV merger could work,  especially with the current presidential administration, but there is still some doubt regulators would approve a deal. 

DALLAS—The launch of HBO Max appears to be helping with total HBO subscription numbers, according to AT&T. One of the few positives highlighted in the company’s second quarter financial report, as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted its button line.

In its first official report since the launch of HBO Max in May, AT&T says that it had 36.3 million U.S. subscribers total for HBO Max and HBO as of June 30. This is up from 34.6 million on Dec. 31, 2019. Specifically, HBO Max attracted 4.1 million overall subscribers, according to AT&T CEO John Stankey.

The rise is in contrast to AT&T’s overall premium TV subscribers, which fell 886,000 to 17.7 million; the company says that 91,000 of that was attributed to Keep America Connected programs.

In addition, while the company added 225,000 AT&T Fiber broadband subscribers, it still had an overall loss of 102,000 broadband subscribers.

Overall, the Q2 net income for AT&T was $1.2 billion, down from $3.7 billion in Q2 2019. Revenues fell $8.9 to $41 billion.

During a conference call on its report, AT&T said that it expects COVID-19 to continue to adversely impact its operating results and cash flows for as long as it is present.

“We expect our third-quarter results to be impacted by the shift in timing of advertising revenues from the postponement, restarting or cancellation of sporting events and the related timing of the sports costs,” AT&T said; “lower revenues from the closure of movie theaters and postponement of theatrical releases, partially offset by lower production and other programming expenses; higher expenses to protect front-line employees, contractors and customers; and the continued transition of customers to our fiber broadband services and the acceleration of the disconnection of linear TV services due to the pandemic.”

For more information, visit AT&T’s investor website. 

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have all signed a letter that criticizes AT&T for a practice that they allege blatantly favors HBO Max over other streaming services and would have constituted a violation of previous net neutrality rules.

According to a report by The Verge, AT&T is excluding the HBO Max streaming service, which AT&T owns, from traditional data caps and the soft data caps on unlimited plans. Other streaming services, like Netflix and Disney+, are still subject to these data caps.

AT&T says that HBO Max is benefiting from the company’s “sponsored data” system, which enables content companies to pay AT&T for the right to be exempt from data caps. However, the senators note that since HBO Max is owned by AT&T, the company is “essentially paying itself.”

“Although your company has repeatedly stated publicly that it supports legally binding net neutrality rules, this policy appears to run contrary to the essential principle that in a free and open internet, service providers may not favor content in which they have a financial interest over competitor’s content,” the letter reads.

The senators believe that this practice from AT&T would be considered “zero-rating,” which allows end users to access content without the required data usage counting toward the caps on the users’ plans. Prior to what the trio says was efforts to “eviscerate critical rules” by the current FCC, such practices were deemed harmful conduct and discrimination of competitors in favor of their own affiliates.

“Zero-rating carries a risk of manipulating the content marketplace in ways that ultimately harm internet users,” the letter argues.

“The Trump FCC may have gutted critical net neutrality protections, but AT&T nonetheless has a responsibility to avoid any policies or practices that harm consumers and stifle competition,” the letter reads.

The senators ask that AT&T provide an explanation for these actions by June 25.

The full letter is available online. 

DALLAS—AT&T has shared with TVT’s sister publication B+C that it has reached deals with all of the major broadcast networks, except for ABC, so that DirecTV can continue to deliver distant network affiliated TV signals to truckers, RVs and markets without a viewable signal.

The news comes after AT&T had previously announced a deal with Fox and as the blanket license for DirecTV to deliver those signals without individual carriage deals expired on June 1. This stemmed from Congress’ decision to not renew STELAR.

AT&T told B+C that it was still in negotiations with ABC, as it has a goal of “providing network content to as many homes as possible.”

There was an option for AT&T to retain the license and not have to individually negotiate with broadcasters. To do so they would have had to put TV station signals in about a dozen of the smallest DirecTV markets that did not previously carry them.

DALLAS—AT&T has announced a new multi-year carriage agreement with Fox that will continue to provide the network’s content to DirecTV subscribers after the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR) ends on June 1.

STELAR allowed providers like AT&T to deliver signals of out-of-market broadcast network stations to specific groups of customers, including truckers, RVs and others at a blanket license rate. That ability will stop as of June 1, requiring individual deals with each network. AT&T has been pushing for an extension of the deadline to Jan. 1, 2021, so signals are not lost during the coronavirus pandemic. 

AT&T said in a press release that it is currently in discussions with each major national broadcast network to continue to provide their signals. Fox is the only deal at this time.

“It is critical for our customers to be able to access network TV programming, especially during this global pandemic,” said Tim McKone, AT&T executive vice president of Federal Relations. “With this agreement, essential workers, like those on oil rigs and long-haul truckers, can stay connected with news and information. We appreciate Fox for putting the interests of consumers first and we hope the other networks follow suit.”

AT&T could have preserved its blanket license from STELAR by agreeing to deliver local signals to a dozen small markets, something that competitor Dish did. 

DALLAS—AT&T is pushing for the STELAR rules to get some extra time before they lapse because of the current coronavirus pandemic, citing that people could lose access to critical information when STELAR licenses expire on June 1. It requests that deadline be extended until Jan. 1, 2021.

AT&T shared this in a letter to Congress, a copy of which was obtained by TVT’s sister publication Multichannel News. 

STELAR (Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization) allowed satellite operators to import distant network TV signals to viewers that did not have them. Those signals were available at a blanket license rate that did not have to be negotiated on with TV stations. Congress did not renew STELAR last year, bringing an end to this practice and requiring satellite operators to negotiate with stations.

AT&T said that it has been negotiating on carriage license with networks, but have not reached agreements that would preserve all the current programming that some of its subscribers receive.

DirecTV subscribers will start being notified this week that they will lose access to network channels on June 1, AT&T said in its letter. The company says that it will impact tens of thousands of subscribers who live either in rural markets that are missing a local network channel or commercial truckers and RVs. “These unique subscribers presently have no other way to obtain this network programming except through distant signals.”

“Unfortunately, this means disrupting these customers’ service and access to important news and entertainment during this time of emergency,” AT&T said.

AT&T also said it would accept a temporary extension from networks to continue to provide key programming to subscribers, but that has not yet occurred.

Congress did create a way for a permanent license that covers these markets, but DirecTV would have to deliver local TV signals to the 12 unserved rural markets.

The copy of the full letter is available on Multichannel News. 

WASHINGTON—Whether or not broadcast television has been given too much spectrum is a key issue that Jim Ciconni, senior executive vice president of AT&T, asked policymakers to consider at the Telecom Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Free State Foundation. Ciconni claimed that broadcasters are not fulfilling their obligations of their licenses.

Ciconni, who is currently serving as AT&T’s D.C. lobbyist on an interim basis, said that broadcasters’ amount of spectrum has created an “unlevel playing field” and argued that channel blackouts are key part of broadcasters failing “the social contract” that was part of their local license agreements.

“The status quo is not sustainable,” Ciconni said.

TVT’s sister publication Multichannel News asked a question about how NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) could potentially impact the spectrum issue, Ciconni said “I don’t really know."

More coverage on the Telecom Policy Conference is available on B&C. 

DALLAS—AT&T TV is now available nationwide, the new video streaming service with live TV capabilities from AT&T.

AT&T TV had been running as a pilot service in 13 markets prior to this nationwide launch. The service, which is powered by Android TV, includes live TV packages and streaming apps, which will include HBO Max when it launches this May.

Other features of the streaming service include a voice remote with Google Assistant that can be accessed both on and off-screen. The service also has a cloud DVR with 500 hours of storage. An app is available for smartphones and tablets to be able to stream AT&T TV anywhere, the company says.

Per TVT’s sister publication B&C, AT&T TV is designed to replace AT&T’s satellite-based service DirecTV, which has been losing subscribers.

AT&T is offering AT&T TV bundled with 1 GB of AT&T internet for $39.99/month for video and $39.99/month for internet for 12 months, and in some markets 24 months. AT&T TV’s basic Entertainment package unbundled with AT&T internet is $49.99/month for 12 months of a 24-month agreement, with prices increasing in subsequent years.

There are additional packages that offer more channels as well. The Choice package, at $54.99/month for 12 months, features all of the Entertainment packages channels plus more than 20 additional channels and an option to access regional sports networks. The Xtra package, with another additional 20 or so channels, starts at $64.99/month.

“Our customers told us what they want from their TV service and we built AT&T TV around that,” said Thaddeus Arroyo, CEO of AT&T Consumer. “AT&T TV is live TV made easy and when you add AT&T TV to our amazing 1 gigabit AT&T internet you can’t go wrong.”

More information on the AT&T TV service is available on att.com/tv. 

WASHINGTON—While AT&T generally approves of the FCC’s proposed plan for making C-band spectrum previously used for fixed satellite service available for 5G development, it does have a few tweaks that it sees as beneficial to the transition process.

At the top of the list is the proposal of payouts to satellite operators who accept an accelerated relocation from their current position on the C-band spectrum to the upper 200 MHz. The FCC says it plans to provide incentive payments to those operators who take on an accelerated relocation that could eventually total billions of dollars of reimbursements, which service licensees would be required to pay a portion of, AT&T says. AT&T poses the question then, what would service licensees receive in return?

With 3.7 GHz service licensees potentially paying up $10 billion for accelerate clearing, AT&T makes the case that they should then be “permitted to use their 3.7 GHz service licenses by the Phase I and Phase II deadlines without having to protect Earth stations from interference in the cleared spectrum allocated for terrestrial mobile use.”

“This would ensure that 3.7 GHz service licensees who pay satellite companies billions for early clearing are able to use their spectrum, free from any ill effects of holdouts among satellite companies or earth owner stations,” AT&T wrote.

Among the other points that AT&T brought up in its comments was the need for C-band FSS customers, including Earth station owners, programmers and other users, for a guarantee “turnkey migration,” that will help assure that services will not be impaired as a result of the transition.

Other points brought up in A&T’s comments included:

•  Multistakholder Technical Working group should be required to complete its work in a timely fashion; 
•  The Draft Auction Procedures Notice should promote spectrum contiguity by  implementing a single assignment auction for permanent spectrum positions; 
•  The Draft R&O should at least adopt partial measures to provide for continued occasional use; 
•  The Draft R&O should correct the apparent discrepancy to require clearing costs and acceleration payments only from benefitting licensees; and 
•  The Phase I PEA markets should be defined with reference to the TT&C locations ultimately approved by the commission 

 Read AT&T’s complete filing on the FCC website. 

DALLAS—The AT&T TV launch is expected in the near future, just when that will be though is still unclear.

News site Cord Cutters News initially reported, citing unnamed sources, that a national rollout for AT&T TV was set for Feb. 11, but then followed up with an update that it had been moved back to Feb. 27. However, an official statement from AT&T on Thursday, Feb. 13, refuted that claim.

“We have not yet announced a national launch date for AT&T TV and any report suggesting otherwise is inaccurate,” said PR firm Fleishman in a statement.

However, TV Techcnology’s sister publication Next|TV says that during a fourth quarter earning call, the telecom revealed that AT&T TV would be “hitting its stride in the second quarter,” leading to expectation that a launch is likely to be happening in the near future.

For more information, read Next|TV’s coverage. 

WASHINGTON—AT&T was correct in a complaint it filed arguing that nine station groups were not negotiating a new retransmission agreement in good faith, according to the FCC.

The complaint, filed in June, said that the stations failed to negotiated in good father for consent to carry the signals of 20 broadcast TV stations. As a result, the stations have been blacked out for AT&T video subscribers since the final extensions to the previous retransmission agreement ended, which to date has been five months.

“[W]e find that Defendants’ violated the per se good father negotiation standards,” the FCC’s opinion reads. “We therefore grant AT&T’s Complaint, and direct the parties to commence good faith negotiations.”

The licensees listed in the complaint are Deerfield Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, HSH, Mercury Broadcasting, MPS Media, KMTR Television, Secont Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting. AT&T stated in its complaint that all of these station groups were “managed and controlled by Sinclair Broadcast Group through some type of shared services agreement.”

The FCC said that the defendants showed a persistent refusal to negotiate, caused unreasonable delays in negotiations and failed to respond to AT&T’s proposals. While broadcasters do not have a legal obligation to come to terms on a deal, they are required by the FCC and the STELAR Act to negotiate in good faith.

The station groups argued that they were negotiating jointly with AT&T and that their common agent for the negotiations, in this case Max Retrans, was responsible and as long as it was engaged they were in compliance with their good faith negotiation obligations.

The commission disagrees.

“[I]t is not impermissible for Defendant Stations to participate in joint negotiations with AT&T. … However, stations in different markets that choose to negotiate jointly do not gain any special status under the good faith rules; each such station remains ultimately responsible for its own compliance.”

The FCC chose not to fine any of the stations at this time, but said that it reserves the right to return to these issues.

According to AT&T, as of Thursday, Nov. 7, it has reached a retransmission agreement with three of the nine broadcasters involved in the complaint (Deerfield, GoCom and Second Generation of Iowa) and “continue to push for progress with the others.”

TVT’s sister publication, B&C, provides some additional details on how the two sides view this ruling as it relates to STELAR.

WASHINGTON—AT&T is writing a check for $60 million to the FTC to settle litigation over allegations that it misled its smartphone customers with what it called “unlimited” data plans, but that instead would often reduce customers’ data speeds for things like video streaming and web browsing.

The allegations stem from a 2014 complaint that said AT&T did not adequately disclose to customers signed up for its unlimited data plan that AT&T would reduce their data speeds if they reached a certain amount of data use in a given billing cycle; according to the claim, that data point was 2 GB. This “throttling” would impact things like streaming video through the phones or web browsing. As of October 2014, an alleged 3.5 million customers were impacted by this practice.

“AT&T promised unlimited data—without qualification—and failed to deliver on that promise,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “While it seems obvious, it bears repeating that internet providers must tell people about any restrictions on the speed or amount of data promised.”

In addition to the monetary portion, the settlement prohibits AT&T from making any representation about the speed or amount of mobile data without disclosing any material restrictions. The FTC says the disclosures must be prominent and not hidden in fine print or behind hyperlinks.

The $60 million will be used to help provide partial refunds to current and former customers that signed up for unlimited plans but experienced throttling issues. Customers will not need to file claims for a refund.

NEW YORK—The story of the ugly duckling is not currently applicable to the pay-TV market based on recent numbers detailing the loss of subscribers—rather than turning into a beautiful swan, the pay-TV market is getting uglier and uglier.

This is based on the third quarter 2019 report from MoffettNathanson on media earnings. Having described the second quarter of the year as “freaking ugly” at the time, the latest results have the analysts taking a deep dive into the dictionary to find a more accurate descriptor.

With the four video distributors that reported as part of MoffettNathanson’s research—AT&T, Charter, Comcast and Verizon—it was revealed that 1.74 million video subscribers left their services in the third quarter, more than 240,000 than was originally estimated. Of the four, AT&T saw the largest exodus, as the company reported that it lost 1.1 million premium video subscribers and an additional 200,000 for its AT&T TV Now service (formerly DirecTV Now). That represents 80% of the departing video subscribers.

As a result, the rate of traditional cord-cutting has hit a new low of -6.2% over the last year. Even the cushion of cord-cutting helping to build the virtual MVPD market has become less certain, with MoffettNathanson believing that price hikes for these services will keep them from stemming the bleeding as the overall cord-cutting rate has also reached a new low of -3.8%. Just 15 months ago that rate was under -1%, per MoffettNathanson.

For cable affiliate fees, this will all contribute to a growth of 3% in the third quarter, -300 basis points slower than the same period last year. That rate is expected to continue to decelerate in Q4.

Things aren’t looking to much better for advertising. With NBCU and Turner Networks reporting, the domestic national is in the negative for Q3. MoffettNathanson expects that to hold true when other companies report in the coming weeks.

“Since AT&T provided initial guidance of massive subscriber losses in early September, media investors have been bracing for an even uglier quarter than 2Q, which we labelled “freaking ugly,” MoffettNathanson wrote in its report. “Well, with earnings now in the books for Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Charter, we can definitively say that the early read on traditional cord-cutting is uglier than ever before.”

DALLAS—The trend of major broadcasters and cable providers losing subscribers continued for AT&T in the third quarter of 2019, with the company announcing it lost more than 1.35 million subscribers between its premium TV and AT&T Now services.

Per AT&T’s Q3 2019 financial report, the company currently has 20.4 million premium TV subscribers, a net loss of 1.163 million. AT&T Now, meanwhile, has 1.1 million subscribers, a net loss of 195,000. AT&T said that its video subs were impacted by the company’s focus on long-term value customer base and carriage disputes.

AT&T has been involved in multiple carriage disputes in 2019 that led to blackouts of certain channels for its subscribers. A dispute with Nexstar led to a blackout of two months over the summer, while one with CBS lasted three weeks. At a conference in September, AT&T CFO John Stephens said he believed that these blackouts could contribute to 300,000 to 350,000 subscribers leaving their services.

Despite the drop in subscribers, AT&T reported that its entertainment group saw growth in many areas. It reported that its operating income grew 4.8% from the same time last year; that it saw broadband ARPU gains; there was a 2.3% year-to-year EBITDA growth; and its IP broadband revenue grew 3.5%.

WarnerMedia, which is a subsidiary of AT&T, reported a stable quarter, with HBO earning increased revenues of 10.6% on higher content sales and stable subscription revenues, while Turner revenues overall remained stable.

The company is bullish of its upcoming HBOMax streaming service, which will be one of the stars of WarnerMedia Day on Oct. 29, where it is expected to have its price and release date announced. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson claims that HBOMax has a domestic subscriber forecast of 50 million by 2025.

As part of AT&T’s financial report, it also shared its three-year outlook. The full report can be read here.

WASHINGTON—AT&T TV Now and Charter Communications are officially competitors in the FCC’s eye, and as a result is prompting the deregulation of cable rates for Charter Communications in certain areas of Hawaii and Massachusetts and setting a precedence for deregulation of cable rates as a whole.

This stance comes as the commission sided with Charter’s petition that the OTT streaming service AT&T TV Now qualifies as a local exchange carrier, a key benchmark in determining that a cable entity has sufficient competition to allow for deregulation of cable rates. With the prevalence of services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, as well as soon to be launched streaming services from Disney, Apple and more, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said it couldn’t be argued that cable wasn’t subject to effective competition “across the nation.”

“In granting this petition,” wrote John Eggerton for TVT’s sister publication Multichannel News, “the FCC is effectively ending basic rate deregulation of cable as well as signaling that if traditional satellite delivering sunsets in favor of streaming, cable rates won’t be returning.”

The regulation of cable rates was set up as part of the Communications Act for basic cable service tier and equipment if cable systems were not subject to effective competition. However, four benchmarks were put in place to determine if new competition was added in the case of innovative video programming. Satellite services, like DirecTV, which is owned by AT&T, were already deemed effective competition. This determination for AT&T TV Now marks the first time an OTT service has been deemed as such.

Some of the key criteria in determining AT&T TV Now as effective competition included comparable services, being offered direct to home and is marketed by AT&T.

As a result, local franchise authorities in Kauai, Hawaii, and 32 communities in Massachusetts may no longer regulation basic-tier cable rates.

Along with Pai, fellow Republican commissioners Michael O’Rielly and Brendan Carr approved of the decision, while Democratic commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks concurred, which falls short of giving their full support as some reservations remain.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) expressed such misgivings about the FCC’s decision in a letter he sent to Pai on Thursday, Oct. 24. His letter asked the FCC to deny the petition, worrying that such a decision could lead to increased prices, noting that rates are higher in unregulated markets compared to regulated ones.

NCTA—The Internet & Television Association released a statement supporting the decision: “We commend the commission’s effective competition ruling, which recognizes that today’s video marketplace is vibrant and competitive with a multitude of choices and services for consumers to enjoy.”

BALTIMORE—Following an extension last month that avoided a blackout of Sinclair stations for AT&T customers, the two sides have announced that they have reached a multi-year retransmission consent agreement for DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-Verse subscribers.

The deal covers Sinclair’s owned local broadcast stations, the Tennis Channel, the 21 regional sports networks that Sinclair acquired, the YES Network and the upcoming Marquee Sports Network that will carry Chicago Cubs games.

Financial terms for the deal were not disclosed.

AT&T may be thinking to itself right now, to paraphrase from “The Sound of Music,” “how do you solve a problem like DirecTV?” According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, AT&T is currently “exploring” ways to divest DirecTV, which could include selling the satellite company, spinning it off or keeping it.

AT&T bought DirecTV in 2015 for a price tag of $48.5 billion when it was the no. 1 pay-TV distributor in the country and had more than 20 million subscribers. Since then, with streaming and OTT options on the rise, DirecTV now sits behind Comcast in the second position for pay-TV distributors and has lost more than 2 million customers in the past two years.

The Wall Street Journal received no comment from AT&T.

If selling DirecTV was the choice, many speculate that Dish could be a suitor. The companies had previously attempted to merge in 2001, but federal regulators rejected the deal.

This isn’t the only issue AT&T has had regarding DirecTV recently. Last week, a class action lawsuit was levied against the telecom provider claiming it inflated subscriber numbers for the DirecTV Now vMVPD service.

UPDATE: CNBC is reporting that AT&T is not looking to sell DirecTV.

NEW YORK—A class action lawsuit filed late last week alleges AT&T and a group of its senior executives fraudulently inflated subscriber numbers for its DirecTV Now virtual MVPD service in an effort to bolster the company’s case that Time Warner shareholders should accept its acquisition offer.

The suit, filed Sept. 13 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, names AT&T and 18 executives, including retiring AT&T CEO of Communications John Donovan and Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc., as defendants.

The plaintiffs, including union pension funds and individuals, say the executive defendants “were motivated to heavily promote DirecTV Now until the Time Warner Acquisition closed.” Bringing together the telecom giant’s video distribution assets and Time Warner’s content library and production capabilities was promoted as a major reason the deal should go forward.

“The launch of DirecTV Now was an important test of the viability of AT&T’s side of that bargain,” the suit alleges. The new service’s success gave Time Warner shareholders a good reason to trade their stock shares for those of AT&T, it says.

However, the suit alleges DirecTV Now wasn’t “a viable product.” Commercialized before it was ready, DirecTV Now experienced “severe service issues” including “frequent interruptions, service freezing and buffering, app crashes, being automatically logged out, missing features and billing issues,” according to the suit.

The suit alleges AT&T encouraged employees to create fake customer accounts to build the illusion of robust DirecTV Now subscriber growth. The company used “highly discounted promotions” that resulted in high customer churn once promotional pricing ended and promoted “unreasonable and extremely aggressive sales quotas” for employees that pressured them into using “unnatural sales or flat-out fraudulent” sales tactics, according to the suit.

The company “taught and actively encouraged” employees to convert phone upgrade activation fees into subscriptions to the service “by waiving the fee, but charging the customer anyway, and applying the payment to up to three DirecTV Now accounts using fake email addresses without telling the customer they had been signed up for the subscription,” the suit alleges.

Sizable churn began to appear in early 2018, and by the summer of 2018 monthly reports and weekly analysis revealed that “more than 40-50%” of subscribers were cancelling once promotions ended, it says. The suit references a former AT&T employee who saw “a 35% ‘take rate’ (or, 65% churn rate) for DirecTV Now.”

According to the suit, AT&T disclosed on Jan. 30 that virtually none of the 500,000 “heavily discounted” subscribers remained with the service. AT&T also said “that DirecTV Now subscriptions in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 had declined by 267,000 subscribers—a stark reversal of supposed net adds in 4Q17 through 2Q18.”

The lawsuit, filed by Pomerantz LLP and Labaton Sucharow LLP, seeks a trial. The firms are seeking compensatory damages, costs and interest from AT&T if the company is found guilty of violating security laws.

According to an AT&T spokesperson, the company “plan[s] to fight these baseless claims in court.”

DALLAS—At a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference, AT&T CFO John Stephens said that recent blackouts with Nexstar and CBS are likely to lead to an additional 300,000 to 350,000 subscribers dropping AT&T in the third quarter of 2019. Price increases were also noted as reasons for the loss of subscribers.

AT&T could be faced with another blackout situation, as Disney announced earlier this week that its deal with the provider is close to coming to an end with no new deal in place.

In addition, Stephens also spoke on AT&T's outlook, the possibility of selling DirecTV or regional sport networks and updates on its HBO Max streaming service.

TV Technology sister publication B&C has the full story.

BURBANK, Calif.—2019’s record-setting blackout trend could continue, as the Walt Disney Co. has issued a warning to AT&T video services subscribers that local ABC channels, ESPN, Disney networks and Freeform could soon be taken off the air unless the two sides reach a new distribution agreement.

Disney’s contract covering these networks is set to expire soon and if it does would result in a blackout for viewers of ABC stations WABC, KABC, WTVD, KGO, KTRK, KFSN, WLS, WPVI and all markets for ESPN, Freeform and Disney networks.

Disney said in a statement that it is committed to reaching a deal and is hopeful that one can get done, but it has created a website to provide information to subscribers about the impact of the blackout.

“Over the past few years we reached dozens of multi-year deals with cable, satellite, telco and streaming service companies all across the country …” Disney wrote on the website. “Inf fact, we have had only ONE service disruption in our recent history due to a contract dispute. The terms we are discussing with AT&T are in line with recent marketplace deals we have reached with other distributors. So it has been disappointing that so far AT&T has refused to reach an agreement.”

The website also informs AT&T subscribers that these channels are available via other video service providers like Comcast, Verizon and streaming services like YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue and Hulu + Live TV.

AT&T issued its own statement in regard to the negotiations: “We’re disappointed to see The Walt Disney Co. put their viewers into the middle of negotiations. We are on the side of consumer choice and value, and want to keep Disney channels and owned-and-operated local ABC stations in eight cities in our customers’ lineups. We hope to avoid any interruption to the services some of our customers care about. Our goal is always to deliver the content our customers want at a value that also makes sense to them. We’ll continue to fight for that here and appreciate their patience while we work out this matter.”

This is not the first distribution issue AT&T has dealt with in 2019, as it recently ended a nearly two-month blackout of CBS and TV stations owned by Nexstar.

Some of the programs that would be unavailable to AT&T customers if a blackout were to occur would include local news, “Jeopardy,” “Modern Family,” and NFL and college football.

IRVING, TEXAS & EL SEGUNDO, CA.–Nexstar Media Group and AT&T have ended a two month-blackout, agreeing to return all 97 Nexstar-owned stations to AT&T’s video platforms in a mult-year retransmission consent agreement. Nexstar local stations are now returning to any impacted DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-verse platforms.

“Our customers want more choice and value and we are pleased to deliver that through this new agreement with Nexstar and its many local stations,” said Rob Thun, senior vice president of content and programming, AT&T Communications.

“Nexstar’s long-standing commitment is to provide exceptional programming and service to the local communities we serve across the United States and this new multi-year agreement will allow us to continue delivering our stations’ leading network and sports content as well as local news and other programming to AT&T subscribers in our markets,” stated Keith Hopkins, senior vice president, distribution, Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Both companies said they “regret the inconvenience incurred by customers, viewers and advertisers, and we thank them for their patience, as the new agreement was being finalized.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

A new report from Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts shows that U.S. wireless carriers are throttling online video traffic “24/7,” with AT&T and T-Mobile the biggest offenders. The claims come a little more than a year after the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules—that were designed to avoid such instances—went into effect.

Based on 650,000 tests from early 2018 to early 2019, the researchers found that AT&T throttled Netflix 70% of the time and Youtube 74% of the time. AT&T left Amazon’s Prime Video alone, however. T-Mobile U.S. throttled Amazon Prime 51% of the time but left Skype alone.

“They are doing it all the time, 24/7 and it’s not based on networks being overloaded,” David Choffnes, associate professor at Northeastern University, and one of the authors of the report, told Bloomberg.

[Read more: The Battle Over Net Neutrality]

The FCC repealed net neutrality rules in December 2017. At the time, critics warned that a repeal could lead to ISPs downgrading internet speeds that could favor their own content, a concern frequently raised in the AT&T-Time Warner merger. Attorneys General in 22 states have filed a protective petition for review against the FCC in the U.S. District Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

AT&T denied the claims.

“We don’t throttle, discriminate or degrade network performance based on content,” said AT&T spokesman Jim Greer in a statement. “We offer customers choice, including speeds and features to manage their data.”

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a proponent of net neutrality, issued a stern warning about what could happen when the commission voted to repeal the rules in 2017.

“As a result of today’s misguided action, our broadband providers will get extraordinary new power from this agency,” Rosenworcel said at the time. “They will have the power to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content. They will have the right to discriminate and favor the internet traffic of those companies with whom they have pay-for-play arrangements and the right to consign all others to a slow and bumpy road.”

DALLAS—AT&T TV is live for some customers in California, Florida, Kansas, Missouri and Texas. The company’s IP-based streaming version of a traditional pay-TV bundle can be purchased by those living in Orange County or Riverside, Calif.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Topeka and Wichita, Kan.; St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.; and Corpus Christ, El Paso and Odessa, Texas.

Customers can choose between multiple packages that offer a different combination of channels, “Entertainment,” “Choice” and “Xtra.” “Entertainment” is available as a standalone service for $59.99 for the first year of a two-year service, or $89.99 for the first year with internet (prices rise in the second year.) “Choice” and “Xtra” each add 20 additional channels of lifestyle, sports and movie content; they are priced $64.99/$94.99 (Choice) and $74.99/$104.99 (Xtra) in the first year of two-year contracts.

AT&T does charge early termination fees for breaking contracts. TVT’s sister publication Multichannel News has also found some additional hidden fees for the service, though does note that there aren’t many hidden payments, and service is generally cheaper than traditional DirecTV satellite services.

AT&T TV is also an Android TV-bases service, providing full access to Google Play Store features, which means that OTT apps like Netflix and YouTube are already integrated.

AT&T executives have reportedly said that this new IP-based service is more sustainable with today’s high program costs, as AT&T TV doesn’t need satellites or trucks to operate.

NEW YORK & EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—Ending a blackout that lasted a little more than three weeks, CBS and AT&T have reached an agreement on a multi-year content carriage agreement to provide CBS-owned local broadcast stations and national channels, including CBS Sports Network and the Smithsonian Channel, to AT&T’s video platforms.

CBS stations went dark for AT&T’s DirecTV, DirecTV Now and U-Verse customers in 14 markets on July 20 after negotiations stalled between the two companies over retransmission fees. As a result of this new deal, the stations will return to all AT&T homes, including having local affiliates available for streaming on DirecTV Now, CBS Sports Network returning to DirecTV and DirecTV Now, and the Smithsonian Channel once again on DirecTV.

The new agreement covers 26 CBS stations in 17 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

In a joint statement announcing the deal read: “CBS and AT&T regret any inconvenience to their customers and viewers and thank them for their patience.”

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This resolves one of the high profile retransmission disputes that AT&T was involved in. As of the time of publication, AT&T is still involved in negotiations with a group of Nexstar stations over carriage.

DALLAS—The era of DirecTV Now is over, as AT&T has announced that when it launches its new premium IP-delivered pay-TV service AT&T TV the service will have a new moniker, AT&T TV Now. This new service will be immediately available to DirecTV Now customers, as they will just need to re-accept the terms of service to continue to streaming content.

AT&T customers signed up for either AT&T TV or AT&T TV Now will be able to access the experiences through the same AT&T TV app through mobile or TVs.

The new service will be rolled out to select markets over the next few weeks; the AT&T TV app can then be downloaded through various app stores.

AT&T acquired DirecTV for $67.1 billion in 2015, but following a reported one million loss in pay TV customers in the second quarter of 2019, it appears that AT&T may be distancing itself from the satellite company.

WASHINGTON—Speaking today during The Media Institute’s Communications Forum luncheon, NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith took aim at AT&T and DISH, suggesting they and other pay-TV providers may be “purposefully withholding” local TV signals from customers to create a crisis and goad Congress into reforming retrans consent.

“Is their goal to manufacture the appearance of a ‘broken system’ to encourage Congress to intervene just as it deliberates the upcoming STELAR [Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization] expiration? If so, that is a dangerous game, and one that hurts viewers—their customers—the most,” said Smith.

Smith framed his argument in the context of the importance of local TV news to democracy, particularly in a time when social media is transforming political discourse. While the number of social media users continues to grow, it is becoming harder for them to sort fact from fiction on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, he said.

“Though the rise of social media can be seen as democratizing, giving a greater number of people the opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions in an open forum, I believe it has also been a destabilizing force that has impacted our society in troubling ways. The paradox of social media—democratizing, yet destabilizing,” said Smith.

The antidote is the coherence local broadcasters give their communities, he explained, pointing to surveys that find local residents trust their stations to provide accurate news without bias.

“Local stations’ investigations protect consumers from scams, and their reporting of local elections help voters make informed decisions,” he said. Smith also gave a hat tip to broadcast network news shows, such as “60 Minutes,” “Meet the Press” and “This Week” as well as presidential debates that inform citizens and keep officeholders accountable.

“It’s unfortunate that at a time when this trusted information is so critical to our communities, some of our pay-TV partners, like AT&T and Dish, seem to be purposefully withholding broadcast signals from viewers—making them pawns in a political game that aims to upend the retransmission consent system,” he said.

Without the compensation broadcasters receive for retrans from AT&T, DISH and others, it would be impossible for stations to pay for “investigative journalism and expensive sports coverage and invest in sophisticated weather operations that save lives and provide in-depth local news coverage,” he said.

Turning to Next-Gen TV, Smith said ATSC 3.0 will converge over-the-air and over-the-top to enhance the viewing experience. Developing Next-Gen TV and other platforms will give broadcasters more outlets “to deliver the stories our communities rely on every day for free,” he said.

To enable new platforms to thrive, broadcasters need the ability to develop new products and services quickly without “unnecessary regulations,” Smith said.

“Lawmakers can enable broadcasters to better compete and to support journalism in this challenging landscape by modernizing outdated broadcast regulations that prevent us from competing on a level playing field with these behemoth tech and pay-TV companies,” said Smith.

While the technology of broadcasting will change over the years, one thing will remain the same: “Our communities will always turn to their local TV and radio stations to follow the inspiring events that have shaped our nation,” said Smith.

“They will always count on us to be their eyes and ears … to guide them to safety during times of crisis … to share life’s greatest moments … and to connect to families, friends and neighbors.

“They will always count on us to be the megaphones for freedom and democracy,” said Smith.

NEW YORK & DALLAS—Warnings of a blackout of CBS stations for AT&T/DirecTV customers came to fruition over the weekend, as at 2 a.m. ET on July 20 CBS-owned television stations in 14 markets went dark following the two companies inability to reach a retransmission consent deal.

DirecTV, DirecTV Now and AT&T U-Verse customers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore lost access to CBS-owned television stations, while another 117 CBS stations and affiliates were blacked out on DirecTV Now. The CBS Sports Network was also dropped nationally on DirecTV and DirecTV Now; the Smithsonian Channel was removed from DirecTV. In addition, AT&T Now customers nationwide can’t watch CBS.

The two sides are pointing blame at the other for the failed negotiations.

“Please know that we had no wish to see any local CBS stations removed from our service and had asked CBS to keep them available while we continue to negotiate,” AT&T told customers on its website. “CBS removed them instead. This is completely CBS’s decision.” AT&T also claims that it offered CBS the highest fee it offers to any major broadcast group.

CBS countered in a statement of its own, saying: “After months of negotiations, CBS is simply looking for fair value for its programming and is proposing economic terms similar to those that AT&T’s competitors have accepted in our recent distribution agreements. The DirecTV deal expiring [Saturday] was signed in 2012 and is nowhere close to today’s fair market terms for CBS content—to which AT&T’s competitors have repeatedly agreed.”

CBS and AT&T had already agreed to an extension earlier in July to continue negotiations. Similar to AT&T’s claim that it offered to keep CBS stations on-air, CBS said it offered an additional 30-day extension for negotiations, but AT&T declined.

This is another retransmission fight for AT&T, which is currently in the midst of ones with Nexstar and a group of smaller stations. With the CBS blackout, there are now 162 stations dark to AT&T video customers.

AT&T, however, is instructing its customers on how it can still access CBS content despite the blackout. In some cities, viewers can watch their local CBS stations through the Locast app; CBS stations can also be viewed through the CBS All Access platform or local stations can be viewed over the air, on stations websites or via cbs.com.

Blackouts have unfortunately common in 2019, as there have already been 213 instances of channels going off the air through the first seven months, tying the record for the entirety of 2017.

NEW YORK—As the AT&T-Nexstar dispute continues into its third week, CBS is warning its viewers that it could be the next broadcaster in the DirecTV owner’s crosshairs.

On July 3, more than 120 Nexstar Media Group TV stations went dark for AT&T/DirecTV customers throughout the country as a result of failed retransmission negotiations. Stations in 97 markets were impacted by the blackout and the impasse continues.

Now CBS claims AT&T is not proposing a “fair market value agreement” to continue carrying its TV stations and says that CBS-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore could be pulled at 11:00 PM, PT on July 19. DirecTV NOW customers nationwide would lose the CBS Television Network’s hit programming as well.

“CBS has reached timely, fair agreements with hundreds of other cable, satellite, telco and internet providers to carry our industry-leading, fan-favorite programming,” the network said in a statement. “AT&T, however, continues to propose unfair terms well below those agreed to by its competitors and may drop CBS unless we agree to those terms.”

“CBS would like to avoid being dropped, but unless an agreement is reached, our viewers should be prepared,” the statement said, adding that “AT&T’s willingness to deprive its customers of valuable content has become routine over the last few weeks and months.”

AT&T responded by saying that “Broadcast stations are the incumbents to our industry, and many feel they deserve certain entitlements. They continue to give their signals away for free but also demand unsustainably growing fees for allowing customers the convenience of receiving their channels in a usual program guide or without switching an input.”

AT&T also accused broadcasters of failing to “evolve” in the new media landscape.

“The best producers have moved aggressively into the multichannel environment and streaming to escape broadcast network and local station restrictions,” AT&T said. “And even programmers like CBS are moving their most anticipated content off the national broadcast channel and into other alternatives.

“The talent goes elsewhere, the audiences follow, and yet stations refuse to evolve, shutting off the same communities they are licensed to serve. This year, broadcasters have caused more than 200 blackouts industry-wide, which is on a record one-year pace. That’s already a more than 20 percent jump over the 165 in 2018.”

The company also called for new regulations.

“There are ways to try to eliminate these blackouts, including new legislation, and fortunately Congress has taken more interest. But the best option is to create mutually beneficial relationships with broadcasters like CBS and Nexstar through good faith negotiations.”