Ownership

Rivada Networks might have lost the FirstNet contract to AT&T, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still in the game. Led by co-CEOs Declan Ganley and former Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer, Rivada Networks continues to respond to states that issue RFPs seeking input from vendors willing to build and maintain a statewide public safety LTE radio access network (RAN) that would be interoperable with FirstNet’s network. While FirstNet as an organization wants to see all the states opt in to the network it’s creating with AT&T, the law said states must be given the option to opt out. According to Ganley, that’s an important piece of the entire FirstNet endeavor. Spectrum was specifically allocated to FirstNet in part because public safety wanted to move away from the “stove piping” of the past where one vendor dominated. Moving to the inherently open LTE standard provided a way to do that.

This is the sixth of nine installments for 2017 in a series of reports developed from Radio Television Digital News Association's (RTDNA) annual survey of newsrooms across the United States.

The number of TV stations originating local news accelerated its generally steady slide… dropping nine from 2016. The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey shows the number of TV stations originating local news is down to 705 from last year’s 714. There were 717 two years ago. Those 705 TV stations run news on those and another 357 stations. The latter number is another new, all-time high – up 18 from last year's 339. That puts the total number of stations running local news at a record 1,062 – up nine from a year ago. The total keeps going up, but it’s doing so because a smaller number of newsrooms are running news on more and more outlets.

[Bob Papper is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Journalism at Hofstra University and has worked extensively in radio and TV news.]

A complaint filed with the Pennsylvania public utilities commission has driven a Verizon-Communications Workers of America copper settlement involving maintenance of the company’s traditional landline network infrastructure. Verizon union workers represented by the CWA argued that the company was in violation of statutory obligations to provide adequate service to customers and that public and worker safety were endangered.

CWA filed the complaint in October 2015 and the PUC opened a proceeding to investigate the complaint in April 2016, according to a CWA press release. CWA said it submitted “exhaustive testimony” documenting inadequate maintenance on Verizon’s part. “For nearly two years, CWA documented Verizon’s failure to repair the copper network and equipment in areas where Verizon has chosen not to build out its FiOS fiber network,” said a CWA district vice president said.The Pennsylvania PUC action suggests, however, that some of the biggest challenges in phasing out copper may be more on the policy side than the regulatory side.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold the Federal Communications Commission’s plans to restore a key media ownership rule that allowed major station groups to expand through mergers and acquisitions. The ruling could prove to be a roadblock to Sinclair Broadcast Group’s pending $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media TV stations.

The court issued a stay to the FCC’s decision in April to restore the so-called UHF discount, which has allowed major media companies to exceed restrictions on the number of stations that they can own. The court said that the stay will give them an opportunity to review the merits of the case. Apparently, the temporary stay granted on June 1 extends through June 7, and the real test will come next week after the review is completed by a three-judge panel.

Federal Communications Commission lawyers have told a DC federal court that opponents of the April 20 decision to reinstate the UHF discount have not met the high bar for an emergency stay of that decision. The discount means that UHF TV station ownership only counts for half of their audience reach toward the 39% national ownership cap. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has granted an administrative stay of the June 5 effective date of the return of the discount but only so it can review the FCC's defense to an emergency stay request sought by opponents of the decision and the response from those opponents, which include Free Press and Prometheus. In opposing the emergency stay, the FCC says the commission simply concluded the agency had erred in a previous order—under then-chairman Tom Wheeler—that repealed the discount without also adjusting the cap. It did grandfather ownership groups for which the change would have pushed them over the 39% limit, though that grandfathering would not extend to sales of those stations.

Following 2016’s presidential election, some major US newspapers reported a sharp jump in digital subscriptions, giving a boost to their overall circulation totals. The newspaper industry as a whole, however, faced ongoing challenges in 2016, according to new Pew Research Center analysis.

Total weekday circulation for US daily newspapers – both print and digital – fell 8 percent in 2016, marking the 28th consecutive year of declines. (Sunday circulation also fell 8 percent.) The overall decline includes a 10 percent decrease in weekday print circulation (9 percent for Sundays) and a 1 percent decline in weekday digital circulation (1 percent rise for Sundays). Total weekday circulation for US daily newspapers fell to 35 million, while total Sunday circulation declined to 38 million – the lowest levels since 1945.

Cable TV is home to a set of news channels that have become a destination for political news. In fact in 2016, cable news topped Americans’ list of most helpful source types for news and information about the presidential election. Financially, these channels have generally set themselves apart from other news media by their comparatively robust business model. In prime time, combined average viewership for the three major news channels (CNN, Fox News and MSNBC) increased by 55% percent to 4.8 million viewers. Total revenue across the three channels was projected to increase by 19 percent in 2016, to a total of nearly $5 billion

Apparently, Verizon boss Lowell McAdam, his company facing slowing sales of mobile phones, made a proposal to acquire cable TV giant Charter Communications in recent months. The offer — valued at between $350 and $400 a share, and well over $100 billion, apparently— was rejected by Charter because it was too low — and because Charter and its largest shareholder, Liberty Media, weren’t ready to sell. Verizon, whose archrival AT&T has moved to expand beyond the wireless world by buying DirecTV and Time Warner, also recently expressed interest in another Liberty Media property, Sirius XM Holdings, apparently. Verizon’s interest in SiriusXM didn’t get as far as a bid.

President Donald Trump has swatted away swirling questions over his associates' contact with Russian officials by questioning the legitimacy -- if not the existence -- of unnamed sources cited in stories about the ongoing investigation into the Kremlin's interference with the election. But on May 30, the president promoted a Fox News report that was centered around claims from a single anonymous source. A day later, President Trump leaned on his favorite cable news program, "Fox & Friends," to support his insistence that the investigation is nothing more than a "witch hunt." The sequence provided a vivid reminder that at perhaps the most dire moment of his young presidency, with reporters and lawmakers alike raising questions that could have political and legal ramifications for the White House, President Trump has found refuge in the typically friendly coverage of Fox News.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker is delivering her annual rapid-fire internet trends report. Here’s a first look at the most highly anticipated slide deck in Silicon Valley:
Global smartphone growth is slowing: Smartphone shipments grew 3 percent year over year last year, versus 10 percent the year before. This is in addition to continued slowing internet growth, which Meeker discussed last year.
Voice is beginning to replace typing in online queries. Twenty percent of mobile queries were made via voice in 2016, while accuracy is now about 95 percent.
In 10 years, Netflix went from 0 to more than 30 percent of home entertainment revenue in the U.S. This is happening while TV viewership continues to decline.