broadcast

Chyron Appoints Gary Schutte as North American Director of Channel Sales

by on February 3, 2011

Schutte Brings Extensive Sales Management and Broadcast System Integration Experience to New Role

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Chyron Appoints Gary Schutte as North American Director of Channel Sales

American Internet Services (AIS) Bolsters Management Team With New Chief Financial Officer

by on January 20, 2011

SAN DIEGO, CA–(Marketwire – January 19, 2011) – American Internet Services (AIS), a leading provider of data center and connectivity services in the western United States, today announced the hiring of Kevin O’Hare as chief financial officer. O’Hare has a strong background in progressive businesses spanning the broadcast/online media, specialty communication, publishing and tech-driven information/data industries.

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American Internet Services (AIS) Bolsters Management Team With New Chief Financial Officer

Video: Adgate Calls TV Pact `Great Deal’ For ESPN and NFL

January 7, 2011

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — Brad Adgate, director of research at Horizon Media, discusses the outlook for Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN cable unit’s negotiations with the National Football League over the broadcast rights for Monday Night Football. Sports Business Daily reported that ESPN may pay nearly $2 billion to extend its rights for nine or 10 years. Adgate speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Terry Newell: "Good Enough for Government Work"

December 5, 2010

If you were seriously ill and could choose to go to a private hospital or a government-run veteran’s hospital, which would you pick? If you picked the former, you could have just bet your life on the wrong choice. The veteran’s health system outperformed all other sectors of the American health care system in 294 measures of quality in a 2004 RAND Corporation study. Last year, on the prestigious American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), run by the University of Michigan, the Veterans Health Administration civilian health and medical program got a score of 88 (out of 100), compared to the non-government hospital average of 73. An anomaly? Not to be found in any other sector of the economy? Consider the following ACSI scores – and before you do, note that the ACSI model considers a wide range of service quality factors, from the courtesy and professionalism of customer service to the clarity and accessibility of information, the ease and timeliness of work processes, and the ease and usefulness of online assistance. Remember, all these data are obtained by an independent (i.e. non-government) source talking directly to customers about how they rate their customer experience: • Mercedes-Benz (86) receives a lower score than the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (88) • Nordstrom (83) receives a lower score than the Railroad Retirement Board (88) • Nike (79) receives a lower score than the Federal Citizen Information Center (84) • GE (81) receives a lower score than the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “Welcome to the United States” guide (86) OK, but in the new online economy, government is way behind, right? Wrong. Here are some ACSI score comparisons for Websites: • Google.com (80) vs. the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (www.fafsa.ed.gov) (88) • Wikipedia.org (77) vs. the National Library of Medicine (http://MedlinePlus.gov) (86) • Facebook.com (64) vs. IRS E-file (79) • USAToday.com (82) vs. the Social Security Retirement Estimator (90) Naturally, not every government organization performs better than every private sector organization. Government does have its duds, and the government-wide average ACSI score is seven points lower than the private sector average (though when government is compared to just the service sector of the private economy, this difference mostly evaporates). But government has its stars too, and they rarely get attention on the front pages of magazines, newspapers, or in the broadcast media. It’s not surprising then, that in a Washington Post poll conducted in late September 2010, 36 percent responded that “the quality of employees in the federal government is generally lower than the quality of employees who work in the private sector.” In the same poll, 49 percent said federal employees “work less hard than employees with similar jobs in private business”. What citizens say about government in the abstract is often totally different than what customers say about government when they actually use its services. This may be worth remembering as the nation mounts a new attack on government and government workers. The epithet we are used to hearing – “good enough for government work” – will be heard again, and worse. It may also be worth remembering, then, that in World War II, when that phrase was created, it meant that a product met the highest standards of quality and would not be accepted by Uncle Sam if it did not. Yes, many say, but government is so big, unruly, and thus inherently incompetent. Sure, there may be a few good government programs out there, but overall, why can’t it be as service-oriented and as customer-friendly as our local WalMart? WalMart gets an ACSI score of 71, exactly the same score as the U.S. Postal Service. Come to think of it, most of us really don’t want to lose our local post office as we cut back government. There may be a message there.

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Jack Myers: Worlds of Difference Between Silicon Valley and Madison Avenue

November 30, 2010

Excerpted from Jack Myers Media Business Report new Top Ten Trends For Advertisers, Media Companies and Marketers 2010-2012 , being distributed this week to report subscribers. The underlying perceptions of both marketers’ and equity investors regarding the future of media value are very different from the value perceptions of most Silicon Valley companies and venture capitalists. A handful of digitally-founded companies, led by Google and Apple, are truly adding unique economic and marketing value to the media ecosystem. While VCs continue to pour endless amounts of money into myriad undifferentiated start-ups and also-rans, advertisers and Wall Street are cooling on the latest “new thing” while they focus on propping up their core media investments. Apple, Microsoft, Intel, H-P, Sony, Amazon and Google are introducing innovative new options for marketers, but their most successful advances are reinforcing the fundamental strengths and value of traditional content and distribution businesses. The advances in 3D and video-on-demand, for example, are reinforcing and supporting the traditional big screen, big budget content and distribution business. The industry’s beachfront properties, and the foundations that support these properties, are being reinforced after years of neglect. Traditional media assets are proving to be more risk free investments for both Madison Avenue and Wall Street. In this context, cost efficient mass media will continue to thrive as the bulwark of marketers’ media plans. There will be fewer and fewer media options that deliver advertiser-friendly content, cost efficiency and scale for marketers who require wide, synchronous and frequent exposure for their ad messages – which represents the majority of marketers. Those media companies that can deliver effective reach and frequency to target audiences on a relatively cost efficient basis and still be profitable, such as the broadcast and large cable networks, radio, selected newspapers and magazines, out-of-home, selected digital-only content providers and networks, will continue to grow. Technology-based players that build advanced tools, resources and services that provide more solid underpinnings for the traditional media businesses will achieve the greatest growth in the next decade. At the same time, content with strong and clearly identifiable brand equity will gain relevance for long-term multi-purpose partnerships between content developers and marketers. To comment, visit www.jackmyersthinktank.com . JackMyersThinkTank and MediaBizBloggers are free and underwritten as an industry service by corporate subscribers to Jack Myers Media Business Report . For subscription information, visit www.myersreport.com . Visit the archives of JackMyersThinkTank and MediaBizBloggers . Jack Myers can be contacted directly at jm@jackmyers.com . This post originally appeared at JackMyers.com.

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Tony Greenberg: Break Out the Buggy Whips: Is This the Tipping Point for Streaming Video?

November 17, 2010

Who’s in the buggy whip business in technology these days? By that, I mean, what companies are about to become obsolete thanks to major shifts in media delivery and consumption caused by the rise, the serious rise, of streaming? More than a dozen years after the launch of the Streaming Media conference, which is now filled with dozens of content-management systems and practically no CDNs (content distribution networks), the show is creeping back to success showing its best growth numbers in years. Meanwhile, the CDN business is still a rug-dealer’s market, facing a death spiral toward $0 bandwidth, with individual vendors providing widely varying price, quality and value. “We’ve seen this all before,” observes Steve Lerner, RampRate’s Media Technology Specialist, “by 2003 there were over 25 dead CDNs all who followed the same pattern of selling ‘cheaper’ rather than selling ‘better’. It is hard to make a living marking up bandwidth that has a continuously collapsing marginal cost.” Thankfully, there’s still a market, as my firm, RampRate, mediates deals in this space). Somehow, the CDNs continue to develop new tech to stay in business, but I have to think they’ll eventually bow to Google and Microsoft, the only firms with enough scale to survive in the long term. That said, there’s more happening in streaming than in a long time, with more mainstream content and more kinds of devices that can access it. My partner David Bloom has just published a piece in TheWrap.com listing some of his top candidates for Industries Soon To Be No Longer Needed. He writes: “What’s it all mean? To start, I’d sell off that optical-disc duping factory if I were you. And you may want to get out of the hard-drive and home networked-storage businesses, too. They’re on the way to buggy-whip status and fast.” Just to top it off, he throws in the makers of shelving for all the DVDs, CDs, books and more that we soon won’t be collecting to show visitors how cool our tastes are. Now we’ll have to do that by sharing our culture preferences online with friends through programs such as GetGlue and Apple’s Ping (well, maybe). Why are all these industries suddenly endangered? David rightly says it’ll be a while before things completely shake out, of course, but a series of recent announcements and developments are accelerating the long-bubbling transition to streaming for much of content that we consume. “The resulting shifts likely will change the kinds of entertainment we consume (it will be a while before that shakes out, I think), but those shifts definitely are already beginning to change the way we consume them.” Big companies such as Apple, Google and consumer electronics makers have made a series of recent announcements that will make it easier than ever to get brand-name content for a cheap price, stream it smoothly and at high quality on all kinds of devices and platforms, and not worry about keeping it on hand on some vast hard drive forever after. Mark Suster of GRP Ventures smartly asserts Hulu is the OPEC of the online Industry (though I wonder if they soon become yesterday’s fish wrapper as Skype becomes en vogue as their founders return to shake it up). Reversal of Fortune? There are some caveats: For instance, at least some people will need local hard drives and optical drives for the stuff they already have, like the CDs and DVDs they already own and the personal stuff they’re now creating by the boatloads. Will big content creators actually free up their good programming enough to avoid what I’ll call Chronic Consumer Frustration, a condition that drives tech-savvy audiences back to the latest illegal tools to access all that locked-away content. As an example: Look at the broadcast networks’ ban of their content from the much-ballyhooed Google TV service. That uniform opposition means Google TV users will only see some basic cable networks among the online offerings of the service. It doesn’t mean users won’t get that programming somewhere else (and Google TV’s Internet access and search capabilities may make it easy to find). Over at iTunes, only Disney/ABC and Fox are selling their TV shows at 99 cents a pop. That doesn’t mean people aren’t watching shows from CBS and NBC, et al. They’re just going to get it in other ways. But I digress. For tech companies, the string of recent announcements and developments show that cloud computing is rapidly becoming mainstream, undergirding the business plans and major new offerings of some of the biggest companies in media and entertainment. As David says, “It’s kinda already here”: We’re seeing significant changes in distribution through mainstream devices, for mainstream audiences, involving low-cost content that people won’t own, and won’t store on their own machines, but can access nearly anywhere, on a wide variety of devices, from cell phones to TVs to computers. The only question for you to consider is whether you’re suddenly in the buggy whip business, or transforming your company to leverage the opportunities that are quickly presenting themselves. So are you moving forward? Or looking back?

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Jack Myers: The Media Industry’s Greatest Failures of the Past Two Decades

September 21, 2010

In this week’s subscriber-only Jack Myers Media Business Report , I outlined the economic collapse of the newspaper industry that is leading its advertising revenues to decline from a 32% share of total ad spending in 2000 to only 7.5% in 2020. It may be too late for newspaper publishers to reinvent their collapsing media empires. And as we begin a new television season, it’s not unreasonable to ask if the broadcast television medium is at its peak both as a content producer and as a distribution system. Or is the industry reinventing itself as it has throughout its history? By 2020, thousands of media companies, including many of the largest and most prestigious, will have disappeared from the landscape or undergone radical changes to their core business models. We are now two decades into a 30-year transformation ( Mosaic was launched in 1993) away from the mass models of the Industrial Age and are accelerating into The Relationship Age

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Jack Myers: The Media Industry’s Greatest Failures of the Past Two Decades

September 21, 2010

In this week’s subscriber-only Jack Myers Media Business Report , I outlined the economic collapse of the newspaper industry that is leading its advertising revenues to decline from a 32% share of total ad spending in 2000 to only 7.5% in 2020. It may be too late for newspaper publishers to reinvent their collapsing media empires. And as we begin a new television season, it’s not unreasonable to ask if the broadcast television medium is at its peak both as a content producer and as a distribution system. Or is the industry reinventing itself as it has throughout its history? By 2020, thousands of media companies, including many of the largest and most prestigious, will have disappeared from the landscape or undergone radical changes to their core business models. We are now two decades into a 30-year transformation ( Mosaic was launched in 1993) away from the mass models of the Industrial Age and are accelerating into The Relationship Age

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Nelson Davis: Relationships and the N-Word

August 24, 2010

I’m feeling a bit sorry for Dr. Laura Schlessinger right now as I gaze at the wreckage left behind after an indulgent and misguided five minutes of spraying the N-Word across the airwaves. She obviously shattered some important relationships with her listeners, advertisers and radio stations. Every small business owners knows that relationships are the plasma in the lifeblood of business. No matter how smart, educated or accomplished you may be, nothing trumps the quality of your relationships with customers, vendors and employees. It is fascinating to think that one event or even just one word can completely stop the machinery. Dr. Laura has been more successful than most of us, earning a place as a national media figure and being rewarded with what I expect is several million dollars per year from her widely syndicated radio program, books, lectures and other business ventures. But, her professional life changed in just a few minutes in what I feel was a relationship altering lapse in judgment. The relationship that was battered was the one she had worked years to establish with sponsors, stations and listeners. Successful on-air personalities have climbed that mountain by building strong relationships over time with their listeners or viewers. As you probably know, in the business of broadcasting the audience is counted by a ratings service and the advertising time is sold accordingly. That is the relationship chain that leads to electronic media prosperity. I had a great lesson in media world relationships while working as the Broadcast Standards person for The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1981-82. One day I was called over to the Tonight Show offices because a young comedian named Eddie Murphy was making his first appearance on the program and wanted to do a piece in his routine which required the studio audience to collectively use the N-Word. I don’t even think that we had begun calling the word by that euphemism then. I walked to the studio from my office wondering what would I say to Murphy who was then a rising star on Saturday Night Live? When he answered the dressing room door, I was a bit nervous as a black person on a mission to tell the younger man why it would be a bad idea to get that derogatory term involved in his first appearance on The Tonight Show. The point I made to Eddie Murphy was one of how relationships were important even for a comedian. Johnny Carson could do many things on the show that guests couldn’t get away with because Mr. Carson had a multi-decade relationship with the viewers. Eddie Murphy didn’t have years on the air or a strong bond with Carson’s audience to allow him a broad latitude of behavior. To my surprise he listened politely and quickly decided to drop the potentially offensive part of his monologue. I’m sure there was a bit of self preservation involved; realizing that if he offended Carson there would not be an invitation to return. Though I don’t know the good doctor Laura, I have met her once in her early career and the exchange we had was an interesting moment of character revelation. Our meeting was back in 1978 when I was working my first job as a producer on a series at a Los Angeles PBS TV station. Ms. Schlessinger was on her way up as a local broadcast personality and was interested in appearing on our program which dealt with criminal behavior. I don’t remember the precise reason why, but I had to tell her that we couldn’t work with her in that particular instance. The look she gave me and the body language was pretty chilly and is memorable to me three decades later! When her use of the N-Word hit the fan a few days ago, I called a couple of radio people to inquire about her current reputation among broadcast professionals and employees. Gracious and warm were not terms that I heard. If she had to rely on the bank of warm fuzzy relationships, I have a feeling that the account balances would be pretty thin. So Eddie Murphy and Dr. Laura Schlessinger have briefly touched my world and left me with relationship lessons. Murphy got a career boost from wisely avoiding the N-Word in his maiden appearance on The Tonight Show and was gracious to me in the process. Dr. Laura took a bad turn from using it liberally in a listener call and gave me the impression of being rather brittle in our one encounter. I see irony in the fact that one of her points on the air had to do with African-American comedians freely spraying the word around on a regular basis. These two well known personalities have constructed major careers and businesses based on their own standards of talent and relationship building. Knowing the ultimate limits of our cherished relationships is what helps all of us stay in business. As we’ve just seen, one careless day can give us the “Humpty Dumpty” experience that changes everything.

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Google TV Plan Is Causing Jitters In Hollywood

August 17, 2010

Google revolutionized the way people access information. Now it wants to transform how people get entertainment. The search giant is touting an ambitious new technology, called Google TV, that would marry the Internet with traditional television, enabling viewers to watch TV shows and movies unshackled from the broadcast networks or cable channels on which they air. Users would need to buy a TV or set-top box with Google software that could connect to the Internet, along with a keyboard to type commands. Users could also use their iPhone or Android phone to operate Google TV.

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Video: NFL Players Hone TV Skills at Broadcast Boot Camp: Video

August 11, 2010

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) — Current and former National Football League players honed their television skills at the annual “NFL Broadcast Boot Camp” June 21-24 at NFL Films in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. Bloomberg’s Michele Steele reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Alex Nogales: Comcast’s Contract With Latinos: A Step in the Right Direction, Not a Solution to Media Consolidation

July 9, 2010

When Comcast announced last fall that it planned to merge with NBC Universal, few were more skeptical of the deal than I was. As I stated in my testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on June 7th, if this deal is approved, it will be the first time in history that a major cable company will control both the dissemination of content and the content of major film, cable, and television networks. Moreover, this merger could cause more consolidation by Comcast’s competitors, an unsettling idea for those of us who care about receiving diverse viewpoints from competing media sources. However, most troubling to me, as the leader of an organization focused on diversifying the media, was Comcast’s record with Latinos. In December of 2009, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility released a report on the diversity performance of thirty four Fortune 100 companies, including Comcast. The rankings were based on the diversity of Comcast’s employment, procurement, philanthropy, and governance. Comcast received only 50 out of 100 points. Only three companies scored worse, one of which was General Electric — NBC Universal’s parent company, which scored a pitiful 30 out of 100 points. For these reasons, I welcomed the invitation to discuss Comcast’s diversity efforts with its CEO and other executives. At that meeting I entered into a six member negotiating team of leaders from the Hispanic community, that included top representatives from the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), and the Cuban American National Council (CNC). And over the past few months we set forth in good faith to draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help Comcast improve its diversity efforts. On June 25th we came to an agreement with Comcast. I believe that this MOU is a positive first step towards diversification at Comcast and I look forward to working with Comcast to execute its many specific and general initiatives. This MOU is similar in some ways to the ones that the National Latino Media Council (NLMC), of which NHMC is secretariat, has with the broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. Through those MOUs we have seen incremental improvement at the networks, but of course, change does not happen overnight, and after ten years we continue to work with the networks to improve their employment and procurement efforts. I do not purport that this Comcast MOU is a silver bullet that will repair all of the ills that media consolidation brings to society. That is not the focus of the MOU, though there are several provisions in the agreement that will bring more independent programming and networks to Comcast’s cable systems, and will stifle some of the adverse effects of media consolidation. For instance, Comcast has agreed to add ten new independently-owned and operated programming services to its cable systems over the next eight years following the closing of the transaction. Four of these networks will go to Latinos. At least two of those will be American-Latino-operated, English-language channels and will be on the digital tier (D-1). One of those two will be added within 18 months, and the other within 36 months of the closing of the transaction. Comcast will add two additional networks in which American Latinos have a majority and/or substantial ownership interest within six years of closing of the transaction. In addition, Comcast has agreed to extend carriage of at least three of its existing programming services from independent entities that are American Latino owned or controlled or that target the Latino community with English or Spanish language programming. Comcast will fulfill this commitment within six months of closing of the joint venture. These services will be carried on the digital tier (D1) or better, and will reach at least 10 million new subscribers. NHMC insisted and Comcast agreed that it will increase investment for local newscasts and local public affairs programs at Telemundo stations. Comcast explicitly agreed not to cut any local Telemundo newscasts, and agreed to set about expanding those newscasts. NHMC will tirelessly monitor Comcast from here on out to ensure that it is keeping these, and all of the many other promises it made in the MOU, and not just those that relate to programming, but also those dealing with its employment, procurement, philanthropy and governance. Indeed, the MOU itself contains specific language about the monitoring process. Annually, Comcast will give NHMC its programming details and statistics. In turn, NHMC will issue a public report on Comcast’s progress, or lack thereof. NHMC and our sister organizations have fought hard for these and other provisions in the MOU. Could they have been stronger? Perhaps. Do they solve the problem of media consolidation? No. But it is my hope that this is the first in a great number of steps towards improving diversity at Comcast. And now I can rest easy at night knowing that even if this mega-merger gets approved by the FCC, that we have a mechanism in place to ensure that Comcast serves the Latino community even in the face of its recently-gained market power.

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Toyota Asks ABC News to Retract `Irresponsible’ Sudden-Acceleration Report

March 18, 2010

By Alan Ohnsman and Jeff Plungis March 19 (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp. asked U.S. broadcaster ABC News to retract and apologize for an “irresponsible” report it aired last month suggesting electronics as the cause of sudden acceleration in its cars. The world’s largest automaker is working to repair its reputation after recalling 8 million vehicles worldwide to fix defects linked to bursts of speed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said yesterday that evidence from a Toyota Prius involved in a Harrison, New York, crash tied to unintended acceleration found no sign the car’s brakes had been applied. Toyota has said accelerators that stick or snag on floor mats are at fault in sudden acceleration, with no evidence of failures in the electronic-control systems of its cars and trucks. An ABC News report on Feb. 22 challenged that assumption, and the network in a response to Toyota defended its right to air the report. The network owned by Walt Disney Co. “relentlessly promoted” a view that electronics in Toyota and Lexus models were a cause of sudden-acceleration complaints, without providing “credible scientific evidence,” Christopher Reynolds , Toyota’s U.S. general counsel, said in a March 11 letter to ABC News President David Westin . “Toyota deserves a public retraction and formal apology from ABC News for your irresponsible broadcast,” Reynolds said in the four-page letter, reported yesterday by the Web site gawker.com. ‘Legitimate, Newsworthy’ ABC News’s report on the design of Toyota electronic throttle controls was “legitimate and newsworthy,” John Zucker , ABC Inc. senior vice president of law & regulation, said yesterday in a three-page letter to Reynolds. Toyota was contacted on Feb. 22, before the broadcast for a response to be included in the report, and didn’t respond, Zucker said. ABC News had included a fabricated video image of a car tachometer in the broadcast “to create the false and misleading impression with viewers of a dangerous and uncontrolled acceleration,” Reynolds wrote. The original video image was deemed difficult for viewers to observe because of the car’s motion, Zucker responded. Using a different shot was an “editorial error,” and a re-edited video has been posted to the abcnews.com Web site, he said. “The larger point, however, is that the use of the video shot was not intended to, and did not, materially mislead the public,” Zucker said. “ABC News intends to continue to cover the issues surrounding reports of unintended acceleration by Toyota vehicles.” Harrison Accident Toyota City, Japan-based Toyota faces more than 100 class- action and individual lawsuits from customers related to vehicle defects. Toyota’s American depositary receipts, each equal to two ordinary shares, fell 49 cents to $78.81 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have lost $25.2 billion in market value since Toyota announced a recall on Jan. 21. In the suburban New York crash on March 9, a 2005 Prius sped out of control before hitting a stone wall. The Prius’s diagnostic recorder indicated the car’s accelerator was engaged, NHTSA said in the e-mailed statement. “Information retrieved from the vehicle’s onboard computer systems indicated there was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open,” the Washington-based auto safety agency said in the statement. “Any release of information regarding an investigation that’s not complete or without consulting local investigating authorities is irresponsible,” said Captain Anthony Marraccini, head of the Harrison police department. Gilbert’s Test The information mentioned by NHTSA is “just one snapshot,” Marraccini said. Harrison police are still meeting with Toyota to analyze the data and is using the Rockville, Maryland, office of RTI International, a forensic engineering company, to help assess the crash, he said. Toyota told reporters March 8 that Southern Illinois University professor David Gilbert ’s test, featured in the ABC broadcast, altered a circuit in a way that couldn’t occur in everyday driving, so it couldn’t be used as evidence of sudden acceleration. Toyota Motor Sales vice president of corporate communications, Mike Michels , said at the time that the company wasn’t planning legal action against ABC. Reynolds couldn’t be immediately reached for comment yesterday. The automaker “reserves the right to take any and every appropriate step to protect and defend the reputation of our company and its products from irresponsible and inaccurate claims,” Reynolds wrote in the letter, which was copied to Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger . Gilbert testified before a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on Feb. 23 that he had isolated weaknesses in Toyota’s electronic throttle system not found in units from other automakers. Toyota engineers and those from the firm it hired to assess its electronics, Exponent Inc., used Gilbert’s technique to induce engine-revving in vehicles from General Motors Co., Daimler AG and Chrysler Group LLC at the March 8 demonstration. To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net ; Jeff Plungis in Washington at jplungis@bloomberg.net

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Disney Profit Tops Analysts’ Estimates on Gain in Broadcast, Cable Revenue

February 9, 2010

By Andy Fixmer Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — Walt Disney Co. , the world’s biggest media company, reported fiscal first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as TV revenue rose and theme-park results stabilized. Net income totaled $844 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with $845 million, or 45 cents, a year earlier, when a gain on the sale of TV stations boosted results, Burbank, California-based Disney said today in a statement . Sales rose 1.5 percent to $9.74 billion, exceeding the $9.63 billion average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Theme-park revenue was flat, as Disney attracted visitors with discounts. Both the broadcast and cable divisions posted revenue increases. Excluding one-time items, earnings of 47 cents a share beat the 38-cent average of 18 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Disney rose 57 cents to $30.41 in extended trading. The shares added 36 cents to $29.84 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading and gained 42 percent in 2009. To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net

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ShopNBC Names Multichannel Retailing Veteran Bob Ayd as President

January 28, 2010

MINNEAPOLIS, MN–(Marketwire – January 28, 2010) – ShopNBC ( NASDAQ : VVTV ), the premium lifestyle brand in electronic retailing, today announced that Bob Ayd, a multichannel retailing veteran with more than 30 years of experience in the marketspace, has been named President of the company, reporting to Chief Executive Officer Keith Stewart. As part of his new role, Mr. Ayd will oversee Merchandising, Planning, Programming, Broadcast Operations, and On-Air Talent.

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Gay-Marriage Trial in California Can’t Be Broadcast, Supreme Court Rules

January 13, 2010

By Greg Stohr Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) — A divided U.S. Supreme Court blocked the planned public broadcast of the San Francisco trial on the constitutionality of California’s ban on gay marriage. The justices voted 5-4 to bar the broadcast. Supporters of the gay-marriage ban challenged a federal district judge’s plan to have video of the trial made available for use on Google Inc.’s YouTube network. The Supreme Court earlier this week issued a two-day halt to the plan. To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

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Fox, Time Warner Cable Continue Fee Negotiations Past Midnight Deadline

January 1, 2010

By Kelly Riddell Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) — News Corp. ’s Fox network kept its programming on Time Warner Cable Inc. as the companies worked to resolve a fee dispute, extending talks past a Dec. 31 deadline. The companies agreed to a “short extension,” Time Warner Cable spokesman Alex Dudley said today in a statement. Fox had threatened to turn off its signal if the two parties couldn’t reach a deal, which would prevent Time Warner Cable subscribers from watching some New Year’s Day football games. A blackout would affect about 6 million cable subscribers in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Orlando and Austin. Fox, whose profit declined 54 percent in its fiscal first quarter, loses advertising revenue if the programs go off the air, said Matthew Harrigan of Wunderlich Securities. “It’s mutually assured destruction if they don’t reach an agreement,” the Denver-based analyst said in an interview before the deadline. “The networks can’t really afford to pull their signal because then they shoot themselves with the advertising and conversely the other cable companies get hit by their customers.” Time Warner Cable also is negotiating on behalf of Bright House Networks, the seventh-largest U.S. cable operator. The closely held company, with two headquarters in Orlando and in Syracuse, New York, has more than 2 million subscribers, according to its Web site. Time Warner Cable dropped 44 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $41.39 on Dec. 31 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading . New York-based News Corp. fell 22 cents to $13.69 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Falling Revenue U.S. TV industry revenue may decline 22 percent this year, station consultant BIA/Kelsey said Dec. 22. Broadcast networks are asking cable and satellite systems to pay retransmission fees in markets where they own stations, saying programmers deserve compensation for supplying TV’s most-watched shows. In the past, the networks traded those rights to gain distribution for new cable channels. “We need to receive fair compensation from Time Warner Cable to go forward,” News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said in a memo to employees Dec. 30. Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt has said his company shouldn’t have to prop up broadcasters through rate increases that are higher than the rate of inflation. The cable operator had said it wanted to seek arbitration to resolve the dispute, and that it would agree to a 30-day cooling off period in negotiations if Fox would. Request Denied On Dec. 30, Carey rebuffed Britt’s request for arbitration and declined a proposed extension that would allow Time Warner Cable to air Fox programs while the parties negotiate. U.S. Senator John Kerry said in a letter to News Corp. dated Dec. 30 that he would ask the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to force Fox to keep its signal turned on if the issue wasn’t resolved. Programming cost disputes aren’t new to Time Warner Cable. A similar battle last year with Viacom Inc. was resolved before channels like MTV Network went black. In 2000, the cable operator pulled ABC-owned stations briefly from its lineup during a dispute with Walt Disney Co. over carriage of its cable networks. The FCC was last drawn into retransmission talks in 2007. The agency’s media bureau concluded it didn’t have the authority to require binding arbitration in the fee dispute between Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. and cable provider Mediacom Communications Corp. Sinclair, based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, pulled its signals from Mediacom systems for almost a month before the sides agreed on a new contract. About 700,000 subscribers were affected. Time Warner Cable markets that would be affected by an outage include Los Angeles, Austin, Texas; Detroit, New York City, Orlando and Tampa Bay, Florida. The following table shows the games that may be blacked out, the date and the cities affected: To contact the reporter on this story: Kelly Riddell in Washington at kriddell1@bloomberg.net

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Darling Considers Plans for Taxes on British Bankers, Wealthiest Families

December 6, 2009

By Gonzalo Vina Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) — Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling this week may reverse a tax reduction for Britain’s richest households and will consider a levy on bankers’ bonuses in efforts to win over voters before next year’s election. Darling said today that lowering the inheritance tax for the richest people is no longer a priority and didn’t dismiss an interviewer’s suggestion on BBC Television’s Sunday AM show that he is considering a one-time charge on bank bonuses. The chancellor is scheduled to publish a Pre-Budget Report with the tax plans on Dec. 9. “I really can’t believe it would be the first priority of any government, at this time, to give a tax cut to the top 2 percent of estates in this country,” Darling said in the broadcast. Darling and Prime Minister Gordon Brown are seeking to persuade voters that David Cameron ’s Conservative Party, which is sticking to a similar inheritance tax plan, is siding with the rich at a time when the country is recovering from the worst economic crisis since World War II. That strategy has helped Brown’s Labour Party erode Cameron’s lead in opinion polls. Darling said in 2007 that he would raise the inheritance tax threshold to 350,000 pounds ($578,000) from 325,000 pounds for single people and to 700,000 pounds from 650,000 for couples, starting April 2010. Cameron’s Conservatives want to abolish the tax for single people with estates below 1 million pounds and for couples with estates below 2 million pounds. ‘Lurch to Left’ “If the Labour Party wants to say don’t aspire to get on in life, then so be it,” George Osborne , the Conservative lawmaker who shadows Darling in Parliament, told the BBC program. “It’s part of their lurch to the left.” Darling said he will not be “held to ransom” by banks threatening staff defections if their bonuses are curtailed, indicating he is considering plans to levy a one-time charge on bankers if they exploit loopholes on current bonus rules. “We do have a veto over the package,” Darling said of government-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland Plc . “We are not going to be held to ransom by people who believe you can pay extremely large bonuses regardless of what’s going on.” Osborne said he “wouldn’t rule out” such a charge if his party defeats Labour in the election, which has to take place before June. An ICM Research poll for the Sunday Telegraph showed that the Conservatives are on course to obtain a majority of between 20 and 25 seats in the 646-seat House of Commons . A ComRes Ltd. survey Dec. 1 showed that the U.K. may be heading for a so- called hung Parliament, with Cameron leading Brown by 10 percentage points, down 3 points from October. ‘Party of Rich’ A YouGov Plc poll in today’s Sunday Times showed that more than half of the 2,000 people interviewed viewed the Conservatives as the party of the rich. Cameron said Brown had been “spiteful’ in his efforts to tell voters of his privileged upbringing and elite schooling. Darling today stepped up the attack, saying Osborne’s plea to voters to endure tougher times isn’t consistent with tax cuts for the rich. Darling said this week’s budget statement will spell out some detail on how he plans to implement his pledge to reduce the deficit by as much as half over four years. In April, the budget suggested the chancellor would have to find as much as 60 billion pounds to achieve this. Darling has already announced tax increases that will account for about one-quarter of that amount, and has earmarked about 9 billion pounds by cutting waste in government departments, leaving him the challenge of finding a further 40 billion pounds by reducing government spending. NHS Program Darling told the BBC today that he will scrap a 12.4 billion-pound computer program for the National Health Service that is being developed mainly by iSoft Plc . Similar reductions, rather than staff cuts in schools and hospitals, would indicate “the direction of travel” in this week’s report, he said. “The NHS had quite an expensive IT System and I don’t think we need to go ahead with it now,” he said. Brown said yesterday in his weekly podcast that a plan to move more government services online would save about 400 million pounds a year. Darling’s view is that the economy is too fragile to take more steps to repair the 175 billion-pound deficit this year, a Treasury official said this week. Darling will challenge the Labour government’s opponents to spell out their plans on what they plan to reduce, the official said. Pound Rebounds The pound snapped two weeks of declines against the euro last week as industry reports showed that U.K. services and manufacturing industries expanded in November, indicating that the recovery is taking hold. Darling’s approach, contrasting with Conservative Party calls to make deeper and faster cuts, won the support of two groups in London today. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research , a London-based research group that counts the Treasury and the Bank of England as clients, said Darling should keep stimulating the economy during the next few months before reducing the deficit. The British Chambers of Commerce said the government should refrain from cutting the fiscal deficit too quickly as the nation’s economic recovery faces “major risks,” Darling will lower his forecast for the U.K. economy this year, saying the financial crisis has inflicted far deeper pain than he predicted in April, a government official said Nov. 27. Gross domestic product will fall 4.75 percent in 2009, compared with the 3.5 percent drop forecast seven months ago, the official said. Darling said today that growth in 2010 will be “moderate.” Treasury officials said last week that Darling will scale back his estimate for the cost of bailing out Britain’s banks to no more than 10 billion pounds, from 50 billion pounds. The reduction in the sum set aside in the government’s accounts to pay for losses will shave about 40 billion pounds off the Treasury’s debt, now about 792 billion pounds, the officials said. To contact the reporter on this story: Gonzalo Vina in London at gvina@bloomberg.net

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GE’s Show Business Exit to Bring Company Net $8 Billion, Investor Scrutiny

December 3, 2009

By Rachel Layne (Corrects to say GE can exit stake in 3 1/2 years in eighth paragraph.) Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — General Electric Co. ’s plan to bow out of show business will leave Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt with $8 billion in net cash and an obligation to explain where he plans to steer the company, investors say. “We need to hear, ‘This is where we’re going to focus going forward,’” said Peter Sorrentino , who helps manage $13.8 billion including 2.28 million GE shares and bonds at Huntington Asset Management in Cincinnati. “It’s their game to lose.” GE is selling a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal, the TV, cable, film and theme-park operator, to Comcast Corp. in a deal that creates an entertainment company valued at about $37 billion, the companies said today in a statement. Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE will get a net of $8 billion in cash when the transaction is complete after merger costs and a buyout of partner Vivendi SA’s 20 percent stake. Selling NBC Universal lets Immelt, the ninth chairman in GE’s 117-year history, shift resources to the company’s main businesses and engines of future growth: power generation, aviation, rail and medical-imaging equipment, plus a finance arm — GE Capital — to serve them. By unloading NBC Universal, Immelt, 53, is shifting away from one of GE’s highest-margin businesses historically at a time when advertising revenue and profit from traditional media are under threat from new outlets such as the Internet. 11% Return NBC Universal has provided an average return of 11 percent, Immelt said in today’s statement. Last year, NBC Universal provided 9.3 percent of GE’s revenue and 12 percent of operating profit, according to Bloomberg data. The relatively stronger profit contribution reflected the larger impact of the financial crisis on GE’s finance unit and lower income from medical- imaging equipment. Vivendi, NBC Universal’s minority owner, agreed this week to sell its stake to GE for $5.8 billion, according to today’s statement. That will let GE proceed with plans to put NBC Universal into a joint venture controlled by Philadelphia-based Comcast , the largest U.S. cable-TV provider. If the Comcast transaction isn’t completed in September 2010, GE will buy 7.66 percent of Vivendi’s stake for $2 billion, according to the statement. Under the terms announced today, GE can exit half of its remaining interest in the new venture 3 1/2 years into Comcast’s ownership and the remaining stake in year 7. Welch Hallmark The 1986 purchase of NBC was one of GE’s hallmark acquisitions under Jack Welch , who led the company for two decades. Immelt, his successor, tripled the size of the entertainment division by assets before seeking a buyer. “I tried so hard to change the entire character of NBC over the years, to have a broad base of advertising and non- advertising revenue,” said Robert Wright , 66, who ran NBC during most of the Welch years and handed the reins to Jeffrey Zucker in 2007. “When I left, 50 percent of revenue came from consumers and theaters.” Today, the original NBC broadcast network amounts to less than 10 percent of entertainment revenue, the company says. Wright calls the sale of NBC Universal “very good for Comcast and very good for GE as well.” Handing Comcast control will end talk of NBC as an oddball inside GE, criticism that was exacerbated by the network’s fall from No. 1 in Nielsen Co. audience ratings in 2001-2002 to No. 4 and a drop in profit through nine months of this year. ‘Good Day’ “This is definitely for Jeff a very good day,” said Nicholas Heymann, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. who recommends selling GE shares. “This is something that has been a thorn in his side for a few years. He can certainly direct the organization to focus on its core industrial roots as they continue to shrink GE Capital.” Since taking over from Welch in 2001, Immelt has sold other units built during earlier GE regimes, including plastics and insurance, while expanding areas he’s labeled infrastructure. Not all of his moves succeeded: Immelt entered and left subprime lending, taking a loss, and agreed last month to sell a security business he built from scratch. “We believe the global infrastructure markets are very robust for us and offer lots of opportunities,” Immelt said today on CNBC. “Those are priority No. 1.” About $23 billion to $25 billion in cash will be available for him to spend, Immelt said. The company remains committed to owning a finance business, he said. “From a GE Capital standpoint, we’ve done a lot to strengthen the balance sheet,” he told CNBC. “Our ratios are on par with any bank.” Acquisitions Under Immelt, Wright and Zucker made more than $21 billion in acquisitions, including the combination with Paris-based Vivendi’s $14 billion in media assets. That deal created the current NBC Universal, which is owned 80 percent by GE and 20 percent by its French partner. Other purchases included the Bravo cable network, Telemundo Spanish-language TV and Oxygen. GE fell 10 cents to $16.07 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading . The shares are little changed this year after dropping 56 percent in 2008. “We have long argued that NBCU does not fit in the GE portfolio and therefore we see this move as an important step in portfolio streamlining,” Jeffrey Sprague , a Citigroup analyst, wrote in a note to clients Dec. 1. Sprague has a “hold” rating on the stock and estimates GE’s exit from NBC Universal will reduce earnings by 5 cents to 10 cents a share over several years. “The bigger question will be whether capital can be redeployed in the future in a successful value-creative manner,” Sprague wrote. Capital Needs NBC would have needed more capital to temper the decline of its once-reliable broadcast network, said Steven Winoker , an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “It makes more sense to put that money in technology infrastructure, energy infrastructure,” Winoker said in a Dec. 1 interview. He raised his rating on the stock to “outperform” from “market perform” last month, citing diminished risk at the finance unit and the performance at the industrial units. Through nine months of 2009, NBC’s sales and profit have declined 11 percent and 27 percent, respectively, and among peers the broadcast network has seen the largest loss of prime- time viewers in the 18-to-49 age group advertisers seek, down 8.2 percent in the current TV season, Nielsen data show. GE’s operating margin from NBC is projected at 16 percent this year, the lowest since 1997, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and research from Bernstein. In 2003, before the Vivendi combination was completed, GE reported a 29 percent operating margin on NBC revenue. On the Books GE valued NBC, then mainly a broadcast TV network, at $3.39 billion on its balance sheet following the purchase in 1986. By 2004, the year Immelt added Vivendi’s media and theme-park properties, NBC Universal was valued at $34.2 billion. That proved to be the peak valuation on GE books, according to GE regulatory filings. “NBC Universal had moved to being marginal from an industry structure point of view,” said Lawrence Haverty , a portfolio manager at Rye, New York-based Gamco Investors Inc., which owns 3.14 million GE shares, as well as stock in Vivendi and Comcast shares. “It wasn’t No. 1 or No. 2 in the space and wasn’t likely to get back there anytime soon.” Investors including Haverty and Sorrentino said they want GE to set aside at least some of the NBC Universal proceeds as a cushion for potential cash needs at GE Capital. “I want to hear that they are setting aside some kind of reserve or contingency,” said Huntington’s Sorrentino, adding another rough period on the financial markets may require GE to provide more capital to the finance unit. To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Layne in Boston at rlayne@bloomberg.net

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GE Exiting NBC Brings Immelt Cash, Scrutiny

December 3, 2009

By Rachel Layne (Corrects to say GE can exit stake in 3 1/2 years in eighth paragraph.) Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — General Electric Co. ’s plan to bow out of show business will leave Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt with $8 billion in net cash and an obligation to explain where he plans to steer the company, investors say. “We need to hear, ‘This is where we’re going to focus going forward,’” said Peter Sorrentino , who helps manage $13.8 billion including 2.28 million GE shares and bonds at Huntington Asset Management in Cincinnati. “It’s their game to lose.” GE is selling a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal, the TV, cable, film and theme-park operator, to Comcast Corp. in a deal that creates an entertainment company valued at about $37 billion, the companies said today in a statement. Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE will get a net of $8 billion in cash when the transaction is complete after merger costs and a buyout of partner Vivendi SA’s 20 percent stake. Selling NBC Universal lets Immelt, the ninth chairman in GE’s 117-year history, shift resources to the company’s main businesses and engines of future growth: power generation, aviation, rail and medical-imaging equipment, plus a finance arm — GE Capital — to serve them. By unloading NBC Universal, Immelt, 53, is shifting away from one of GE’s highest-margin businesses historically at a time when advertising revenue and profit from traditional media are under threat from new outlets such as the Internet. 11% Return NBC Universal has provided an average return of 11 percent, Immelt said in today’s statement. Last year, NBC Universal provided 9.3 percent of GE’s revenue and 12 percent of operating profit, according to Bloomberg data. The relatively stronger profit contribution reflected the larger impact of the financial crisis on GE’s finance unit and lower income from medical- imaging equipment. Vivendi, NBC Universal’s minority owner, agreed this week to sell its stake to GE for $5.8 billion, according to today’s statement. That will let GE proceed with plans to put NBC Universal into a joint venture controlled by Philadelphia-based Comcast , the largest U.S. cable-TV provider. If the Comcast transaction isn’t completed in September 2010, GE will buy 7.66 percent of Vivendi’s stake for $2 billion, according to the statement. Under the terms announced today, GE can exit half of its remaining interest in the new venture 3 1/2 years into Comcast’s ownership and the remaining stake in year 7. Welch Hallmark The 1986 purchase of NBC was one of GE’s hallmark acquisitions under Jack Welch , who led the company for two decades. Immelt, his successor, tripled the size of the entertainment division by assets before seeking a buyer. “I tried so hard to change the entire character of NBC over the years, to have a broad base of advertising and non- advertising revenue,” said Robert Wright , 66, who ran NBC during most of the Welch years and handed the reins to Jeffrey Zucker in 2007. “When I left, 50 percent of revenue came from consumers and theaters.” Today, the original NBC broadcast network amounts to less than 10 percent of entertainment revenue, the company says. Wright calls the sale of NBC Universal “very good for Comcast and very good for GE as well.” Handing Comcast control will end talk of NBC as an oddball inside GE, criticism that was exacerbated by the network’s fall from No. 1 in Nielsen Co. audience ratings in 2001-2002 to No. 4 and a drop in profit through nine months of this year. ‘Good Day’ “This is definitely for Jeff a very good day,” said Nicholas Heymann, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. who recommends selling GE shares. “This is something that has been a thorn in his side for a few years. He can certainly direct the organization to focus on its core industrial roots as they continue to shrink GE Capital.” Since taking over from Welch in 2001, Immelt has sold other units built during earlier GE regimes, including plastics and insurance, while expanding areas he’s labeled infrastructure. Not all of his moves succeeded: Immelt entered and left subprime lending, taking a loss, and agreed last month to sell a security business he built from scratch. “We believe the global infrastructure markets are very robust for us and offer lots of opportunities,” Immelt said today on CNBC. “Those are priority No. 1.” About $23 billion to $25 billion in cash will be available for him to spend, Immelt said. The company remains committed to owning a finance business, he said. “From a GE Capital standpoint, we’ve done a lot to strengthen the balance sheet,” he told CNBC. “Our ratios are on par with any bank.” Acquisitions Under Immelt, Wright and Zucker made more than $21 billion in acquisitions, including the combination with Paris-based Vivendi’s $14 billion in media assets. That deal created the current NBC Universal, which is owned 80 percent by GE and 20 percent by its French partner. Other purchases included the Bravo cable network, Telemundo Spanish-language TV and Oxygen. GE fell 10 cents to $16.07 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading . The shares are little changed this year after dropping 56 percent in 2008. “We have long argued that NBCU does not fit in the GE portfolio and therefore we see this move as an important step in portfolio streamlining,” Jeffrey Sprague , a Citigroup analyst, wrote in a note to clients Dec. 1. Sprague has a “hold” rating on the stock and estimates GE’s exit from NBC Universal will reduce earnings by 5 cents to 10 cents a share over several years. “The bigger question will be whether capital can be redeployed in the future in a successful value-creative manner,” Sprague wrote. Capital Needs NBC would have needed more capital to temper the decline of its once-reliable broadcast network, said Steven Winoker , an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “It makes more sense to put that money in technology infrastructure, energy infrastructure,” Winoker said in a Dec. 1 interview. He raised his rating on the stock to “outperform” from “market perform” last month, citing diminished risk at the finance unit and the performance at the industrial units. Through nine months of 2009, NBC’s sales and profit have declined 11 percent and 27 percent, respectively, and among peers the broadcast network has seen the largest loss of prime- time viewers in the 18-to-49 age group advertisers seek, down 8.2 percent in the current TV season, Nielsen data show. GE’s operating margin from NBC is projected at 16 percent this year, the lowest since 1997, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and research from Bernstein. In 2003, before the Vivendi combination was completed, GE reported a 29 percent operating margin on NBC revenue. On the Books GE valued NBC, then mainly a broadcast TV network, at $3.39 billion on its balance sheet following the purchase in 1986. By 2004, the year Immelt added Vivendi’s media and theme-park properties, NBC Universal was valued at $34.2 billion. That proved to be the peak valuation on GE books, according to GE regulatory filings. “NBC Universal had moved to being marginal from an industry structure point of view,” said Lawrence Haverty , a portfolio manager at Rye, New York-based Gamco Investors Inc., which owns 3.14 million GE shares, as well as stock in Vivendi and Comcast shares. “It wasn’t No. 1 or No. 2 in the space and wasn’t likely to get back there anytime soon.” Investors including Haverty and Sorrentino said they want GE to set aside at least some of the NBC Universal proceeds as a cushion for potential cash needs at GE Capital. “I want to hear that they are setting aside some kind of reserve or contingency,” said Huntington’s Sorrentino, adding another rough period on the financial markets may require GE to provide more capital to the finance unit. To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Layne in Boston at rlayne@bloomberg.net

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Yankees Open Stadium to Let Fans Watch Broadcast of Third Angels ALCS Game

October 18, 2009

By Dex McLuskey Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — New York Yankees fans will be able to watch the broadcast of the third game of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium tomorrow. Supporters will be able to gather in the Field Level or Great Hall at the stadium for the game against the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim, California. “We wanted to provide a place for our fans to come together to cheer for our team even if the game itself is taking place across the country,” Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said in an e-mailed statement from the team. Access will be available at turnstiles between gates four and six from 3:30 p.m. for the game, which begins at 4:13 p.m. local time. Food and concession stands will be open. The Yankees yesterday took a 2-0 lead in the series with a 4-3 win in 13 innings at Yankee Stadium. Since the best-of-seven playoff format was adopted by Major League Baseball in 1985, 17 of 20 teams to take a 2-0 lead in a league championship series have reached the World Series. To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net

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Vivendi Said to Be Ready to Sell NBC Stake, May Hold Out for Higher Price

October 6, 2009

By Matthew Campbell Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — Vivendi SA , the owner of the world’s largest music company, would like to sell its stake in NBC Universal, just not at any price, a person familiar with the discussions said. The Paris-based company is concerned it may not get the price it wants for the stake under a joint venture between Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co ., said the person, declining to be named because the talks aren’t public. Vivendi owns 20 percent of NBC Universal, with the rest held by GE. For Vivendi, “the alternative is to wait, turn it down, and force an IPO next year, which they don’t want to do,” said Conor O’Shea , an analyst at Kepler Capital Markets in Paris. “GE doing the negotiating for them is definitely an attractive proposition.” Comcast, the largest U.S. cable-television company, and GE are in talks to form a joint venture that would own NBC Universal, people with knowledge of the talks said Oct. 1. Comcast would own more than 50 percent of the film, broadcast and cable-television business, said two people, who sought anonymity because discussions are private. Philadelphia-based Comcast would contribute $4 billion to $6 billion plus cable channels including E! Entertainment, said one of the people. GE would contribute its 80 percent stake in NBC Universal and transfer $12 billion in debt, one person said. Vivendi spokesman Antoine Lefort , GE spokeswoman Anne Eisele , Allison Gollust , an NBC spokeswoman, and D’Arcy Rudnay , a Comcast spokeswoman, declined to comment. Vivendi Decision Vivendi may decide at an Oct. 14 board meeting to sell its stake in NBC Universal, a person with knowledge of the situation said Sept. 22. The French company has an option in November and December every year to either sell its stake to majority owner GE, or proceed with an initial public offering. The option extends to 2016. The stake is valued on Vivendi’s 2008 balance sheet at about 4.3 billion euros ($6.3 billion). On that basis, its current value may be about $7.6 billion, analysts at New York- based CreditSights Inc. wrote in an Oct. 4 report. Based on its “sum-of-the-parts” evaluation of NBC Universal, CreditSights sees the stake’s value at closer to $4.9 billion. Vivendi shares closed 0.2 percent lower to 20.96 euros in Paris, giving the company a market value of 25.8 billion euros. The Comcast-GE plan hinges on Vivendi deciding to sell its stake in NBC Universal, operator of the broadcast network, a film studio, theme parks, and cable channels including USA, CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo, according to two people. The venture would pay Vivendi over time, using cash generated from operations, one of the people said. Comcast values NBC Universal in the high $20 billion range, and could do the deal without jeopardizing its dividend or share repurchases, said the person. To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Campbell in London at mcampbell39@bloomberg.net .

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Comcast Is Said to Discuss NBC Universal Majority Stake Purchase With GE

October 1, 2009

By Rachel Layne and Kelly Riddell Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable-television company, and General Electric Co. are in talks to form a joint venture that would own GE’s NBC Universal, said a person with knowledge of the discussions. Comcast would own more than 50 percent, said two people, who sought anonymity because discussions are private. The Philadelphia-based company would contribute $4 billion to $6 billion plus cable channels including E! Entertainment, said one of the people. GE would contribute its 80 percent stake in NBC Universal, operator of the broadcast network, film studio, theme parks, and cable channels including USA, CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo, and would transfer $12 billion in debt, one of the people said. The plan hinges on a decision by Vivendi SA to sell its 20 percent stake in NBC Universal, according to both people. The venture would pay Vivendi over time with free cash flow, one of the people said. Comcast values NBC Universal in the high $20 billion range, one of the people said. Negotiations have been under way for at least two months, said one of the people. CNBC reported today that Comcast would contribute as much as $7 billion to the venture, plus assets including the E! channel. GE , based in Fairfield, Connecticut, fell 34 cents to $16.08 at 3:43 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Comcast lost $1.15 to $15.73 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. To contact the reporter on this story: Kelly Riddell in Washington at kriddell1@bloomberg.net ; Rachel Layne in Boston at rlayne@bloomberg.net ;

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Justine Henin Follows U.S. Open Winner Kim Clijsters in Return to Tennis

September 22, 2009

By Danielle Rossingh and James Neuger Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — Justine Henin will end her retirement from the women’s tennis tour after 16 months to try to win Wimbledon, the only major title the former No. 1 ranked player hasn’t won. “Once the flame is lit, it is never extinguished,” Henin, 27, said today on RTL television in her native Belgium. The seven-time Grand Slam champion plans to return to competition in January in Australia, where the 2010 Australian Open will start Jan. 18 in Melbourne. Henin quit the sport in May 2008 while ranked No. 1, saying she wanted “a new start” in life. Before her retirement, Henin won 41 career titles, including four French Opens, two U.S. Opens and one Australian Open. She was a two-time runner-up on Wimbledon’s grass courts, won the season-ending WTA Tour Championships back-to-back and clinched the singles gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics. “Justine is one of the great champions in the history of women’s tennis, and we, along with millions of her fans around the globe, are thrilled with her announcement today,” Stacey Allaster , chairman and chief executive officer of the WTA Tour, said in an e-mailed statement. Henin is following in the footsteps of Kim Clijsters . Clijsters, a former world No. 1 in the WTA rankings, made one of the sport’s greatest comebacks by winning the U.S. Open Sept. 13. That was a month after she ended a two-year retirement during which she got married and had a baby girl. Clijsters is the first mother to capture a major title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon in 1980. Henin wants to Wimbledon, the only major that’s eluded her, her long-time coach Carlos Rodriguez told RTL. Hunt for Wimbledon “One of the reasons she’s coming back is for the fourth title,” Rodriguez said. “I’ll do all I can to help her get there.” Rodriguez said he had initially been “surprised” Henin was contemplating a return to the women’s tour. “She made this decision after a lot of thinking,” he said. “We’ve been through difficult moments and happier moments.” Belgian media had been speculating for weeks that Henin would return. “Justine Henin Will Also Start a Second Career,” Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws headlined on its Web site earlier today. The newspaper also said Belgian tennis is once again living “a fairytale” after Clijsters won the U.S. Open while another Belgian, Yanina Wickmayer , made the semifinals of the year’s final major. Clijsters was received by thousands of fans at Brussels Airport last week. Belgian broadcaster RTBF reported last week that Henin had ordered 14 new rackets, the same number she used on the WTA Tour. Exhibition Matches The return of Clijsters and Henin is seen as positive news for the WTA Tour , which has been lacking strong rivalries and a dominant leader since Henin quit the sport. Since then, five women have held the top spot, while current No. 1 Dinara Safina of Russia has yet to win a major. Speculation about a possible return mounted after Henin announced she’d play two exhibition matches in Charleroi and Dubai in December against 10th-ranked Flavia Pennetta of Italy and two other Tour players. She also recently pulled out of a play she was supposed to perform in this fall, according to Belgian newspaper Vers L’Avenir . Henin refused to answer questions about her tennis career at a Unicef press conference in Brussels during the U.S. Open. As a Unicef ambassador, Henin visited Cambodia this summer to learn more about the organization’s infant-immunization program. Tennis Academies During her time away from the WTA Tour, Henin worked at her tennis academies, hosted a music show on Belgian television and starred in a reality show. She told reporters during a visit to Roland Garros in May that she had no plans to return to the tour. In May last year, Henin said walking away from the sport was “a relief, a new page is opening up.” She cited the physical and emotional demands of the tour’s 11-month season, the longest in professional sports. Henin retired after an emotional year and her most successful season. She won 10 of the 14 events she entered in 2007, including the French and U.S. Opens. Henin skipped the Australian Open that year after separating from her husband, Pierre-Yves Hardenne, and patched up her relationship with her estranged father, sister and two brothers. Henin was 12 when her mother died. “It’s the first time I’ve gone back on a major life decision,” she said in the broadcast interview. “I know myself better today and maybe that’s my strength.” In a sport increasingly dominated by tall power-hitters like Serena and Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova , the 5-foot-5 Belgian stood out with a game that was built around her backhand — a one-handed stroke that blistered opponents — and mental toughness. To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Rossingh at the London sports desk at drossingh@bloomberg.net ; James Neuger in Brussels

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2124-Fundraising Dubai Live Broadcast

August 10, 2009

You Are Invited To:   Fundraising Ideas & Clips From Dubai Live Broadcast Thursday, October 15, 2009 -  15-Oct-09     Distressed Asset Coalition’s Web-Event Platform transports traditional conferences to the internet for distressed asset professionals and investors. Unlike a standard Webinar, our Web-Events utilize vast content including Narrated PowerPoint Presentations, Interactive Panel Discussions, and Key Interviews.   Overview:     Web-Event / Webinar – Fundraising Ideas & Clips From Dubai Live Broadcast More Information Coming Soon Pricing Single Course (1 Hour) ($49.00) 1 Session – 1 DAS Credit – 90 Days Access to Program Full Web Event (3+ Hours) ($99.00) Full Event – 3 DAS Credit – 90 Days Access to Program Single Course & Full Web Event (4+ Hours) ($125.00) Full Event – 6 DAS Credit – 90 Days Access to Program 1 Month Pass– All DAC On-Line Events (Does Not Included Classes) ($250.00) 1 Month Unlimited Access To Web-Conferences – 12 DAS Credit – 90 Days Access to Program Distressed Asset Specialist Designation Package ($795.00) Includes: Candidate Fee ($150 Value), 24 Hours of on-line presentations ($1,176), Final Fee ($100) You save $631. – No JCR Capital Classes Included Our Platform: – Leading Industry Experts. - Unique topics! – 100% online and accessible from   anywhere, at anytime. – Unlimited access for 3-months. – Learn at your own speed system. – Printable file for review. Menu Distressed Asset Specialist Designation: 1 Hour = 1 DAS Credit  

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Jonathan Tisch: Beyond the Boardroom: 4 Lessons for Season 4

August 3, 2009

As a hotelier, I know a thing or two about having guests and one thing is generally true — they stay for a limited time. Well there was one occasion in my life when I was an invited guest…and I never left. In 2005, as I was finishing my first book tour for The Power of We , I got a phone call from the Plum TV network asking if I would be the guest on a pilot show they were developing where CEOs would be interviewed in a relaxed setting. “Sure, why not,” I answered, thinking additional exposure for my book’s message of succeeding through partnerships wouldn’t hurt

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Silverman Quits as NBC Universal Entertainment Co-Chief for Diller Venture

July 27, 2009

By Sarah Rabil July 27 (Bloomberg) — Ben Silverman , producer of “The Office” and “The Biggest Loser” television series, is leaving his position as NBC Universal’s co-chairman of entertainment to head a new venture with Barry Diller ’s IAC/InterActiveCorp . Silverman has led NBC’s TV division since 2007 and hasn’t been able to pull the broadcast network out of fourth place in TV ratings. Silverman’s venture with IAC will work with producers, creators, advertisers and distributors to develop content for TV, the Internet, mobile phones and digital-video recorders, IAC said in a statement today

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