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Cable World Staff and Wire Services
The first two quarters of 1999 generated $4 billion in advertising revenue for cable networks, a 29% jump compared to the first six months of 1998.
If numbers compiled by the Cable Television Advertising Bureau hold, cable channels could finish the year with $9 billion in ad revenue.
Total ad revenue for the big four nets broadcasters increased 6.8% to $16.27 billion last year and is expected to be the same this year.
Meanwhile, NCTA president Robert Sachs promoted Pamela Turner and Daniel Brenner to SVPs.
Also, in a new twist on the breakup fee scenario, last week Lenfest Communications, in which AT&T Corp. is buying the 50% it doesn't already own, filed a regulatory document with the SEC that stated that if its merger with Ma Bell is terminated, it may require AT&T to "contribute all cable television systems it owns which are located within 35 miles of Lenfest's cable television systems, subject to certain conditions."
For perhaps the first time, the FCC deregulated a video provider because it doesn't have any customers. The agency lifted rate regulations from two BellSouth Interactive Media Services systems in Florida, saying the company doesn't offer service to enough homes to qualify as having "effective competition."
Under the commission's effective competition regulations, operators that serve fewer than 30% of homes in an area can be deregulated.
The Odyssey Channel cut a corporate carriage deal with Time Warner Cable that will add 4 million subscribers. The deal will extend Time Warner's distribution of the channel from 4 million to 8 million homes through June 2004.
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