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Mike Reynolds
While News Corp. has signed a long-term retransmission consent deal with Time Warner Cable for its owned-and-operated stations, tying in digital carriage for Fox Sports World and FXM, the company faced the loss of its signal with Cox Communications at year'send.
Facing a cut-off at midnight Dec. 31, Cox and News Corp remained at loggerheads at press time about carriage commitments for Fox Sports World and FXM tied to retransmission consent for FOX O&O stations in Fairfax, Va. (Washington D.C.), Cleveland, Houston, Dallas and Austin, Texas, impacting some 440,000 subscribers.
Meanwhile, Discovery Health Channel announced a number of deals that will push its carriage to some 40 million, largely by late 2003 and into early 2004. Launched in August, Discovery Health will close 1999 in about 10 million homes via contracts with AT&T Broadband & Internet Services, DirecTV, Cox and a number of smaller systems. Additionally, Discovery Health has agreements, encompassing both analog and digital, with Time Warner Cable, Adelphia Communications and the National Cable Television Cooperative.
A Cox spokeswoman said the MSO was forwarding a letter Dec. 29 to Lindsay Gardner, EVP-affiliate sales and distribution for Fox Channels Group, seeking an extension through the end of January. She said that while Cox is open to systems making decisions locally about whether to carry FXM and Fox Sports World, it opposes the MSO-wide commitment Fox is seeking for the two services. Gardner said the "dispute stems from Cox's refusal to ascribe value to retransmission consent,' adding that no new negotiations were planned at press time.
Under the retransmission deal with Time Warner Cable, the analog and digital signals for all of FOX's 22 O&Os will continue on all the MSO's applicable systems through 2005. In return, FXM and Fox Sports World, featuring such international sports as soccer and rugby, will be rolled out on Time Warner Cable's digital tiers.
OPENCABLE STAGES INTEROPERABILITY FEST Some 14 companies were able to make their gear work to OpenCable standards during a recent interoperability test in Los Angeles. Sponsored by CableLabs Inc. at a MediaOne Group facility, the event had nine consumer electronics manufacturers and five conditional access suppliers test their equipment for security operations. In particular, schemes involving the multiple point-of-deployment (POD) security modules were tested. The modules, which are included in set-top boxes, PC card receivers and integrated television/set-top boxes, are considered a crucial component if the industry is to produce retail OpenCable products by the FCC's July 2000 deadline. It was the second such test of the POD modules. Participating vendors included set-top makers General Instrument, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Matsushita (Panasonic), Samsung, Philips Electronics, Scientific-Atlanta, Thomson Consumer Electronics and Zenith Electronics; headend makers Divicom, GI and S-A; and POD module makers GI, Mindport, SCM Microsystems Inc., Nagra, S-A and NDS Limited.
ANTEC TROUBLES Higher research and development costs and a drop in infrastructure orders are among the reasons fourth-quarter revenues for hybrid fiber/coax broadband systems manufacturer Antec Corp. won't meet projections, the company announced last week. Antec is expecting per-share earnings will be 10 cents to 15 cents below the projected 30 cents mark for the final quarter of 1999. The company attributed the drop to a $16 million restructuring charge, research costs in its power supply unit and AT&T Corp.'s shift to purchases of lower-profit voice ports and software.
NGC PACT National Geographic Channel has inked distribution pacts with AT&T BIS and DirecTV. With those deals in place, NGC United States, a joint venture of National Geographic Television, NBC and FOX, is expected to debut in the second half of 2000 with a minimum of 7.5 million subscribers.
CHARTER DEBT OFFERING Two subsidiaries of Charter Communications announced debt offerings totaling $900 million. The proceeds from the offerings due in 2008, 2010, and 2012, will be used to repay debt and working capital.
AOL TO BUY MAPQUEST In a deal worth a reported $1.1 billion, America Online Inc. will buy MapQuest.com Inc., the top supplier of online maps. Not only will the acquisition bolster AOL's content offerings to its 20 million subscribers, it may also open the door for the ISP giant to provide services to the portable Web device market, including Internet-capable cellular phones and pagers.
The deal is expected to close in the spring.
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