Say goodbye to another household name, Westinghouse Electric became CBS Corp., a standalone company reflecting its sole media strategy.
Westinghouse Electric's stock will transform into CBS at the beginning of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol CBS.
Since buying CBS, Westinghouse has sought to rebuild the company. Since then, CBS bought The Nashville Network and Country Music Television cable networks, the Telenoticias Spanishlanguage chan nel and launched Eye on People.
This month, the National Football League is expected to conduct talks with networks on future coverage, and should come up with a rights deal far greater in value than what the league has secured in the past.
In 1993, FOX stole NFL coverage away from CBS, and the network paid $1.6 billion for its fouryear deal. Annual media revenues for the NFL hover around $1.2 billion, based on the $43 million each franchise gets in the revenue sharing league.
According to press reports, the NFL is expected to talk with CBS about the network regaining profes sional football. After speaking with the network, the league will make an offer to incumbent broadcasters, which are FOX, ABC and its ESPN unit, NBC and Turner.
As the National Football League conducts these talks with networks on future coverage this month, a picture has emerged of what all professional sports leagues make in television revenues.
The NFL earned $4.4 billion between 1994 and 1997 from cable channels and TV networks NBC, ABC, Fox, Turner and ESPN. Fox itself paid $1.6 billion for its fouryear deal.
The National Basketball Association, which recently won a $2.64 billion deal from NBC and TNT for coverage through 2002, collected $1.1 billion in TV revenues between 1994 and 1997.
Major League Baseball is expected to collect $1.7 billion in TV money between 1996 and 2000.
Observers said the networks will take whatever offer the league presents, even if there is a significant jump in price. Agreements should cover four years.
The National Football League is suing 12 southern Florida establishments for allegedly broadcasting NFL game telecasts without authorization.
The NFL is charging ten of the restaurants and bars with showing blacked out home matches of the Miami Dolphins, and two with carrying unauthorized NFL Sunday Ticket games. The football package is satelliteexclusive, available only to DirecTV and CBand customers.
DirecTV itself has been aggressive in pursuing unauthorized broadcasts of its programming in bars, restaurants and other commercial establishments.
New subscribers who activate any DirecTV programming package between Dec. 5, 1997 and Jan. 26, 1998, will receive 18 certificates worth $3 each, a value of more than $50.
The certificates are redeemable toward DirecTV programming or can be used to upgrade to a greater value programming package such as Total Choice Platinum, Gold or Silver.
During the month of December, this holiday promotion can be used along with DirecTV's offer of $100 off the cost of professional DSS system installation or a free selfinstallation kit.
According to a new study by SRI Consulting, most of the 12 million consumers worldwide who will watch digital terrestrial television in the next ten years will use a digital converter box rather than a digital TV set.
The study predicts that less than a third of these households will own a digital standarddefinition TV (SDTV) set, and a mere 8 percent or 1 million households worldwide will have a digital highdefinition TV (HDTV) set.
The report noted that firstgeneration digital HDTV sets will retail for some $6,000, while early digital SDTV sets will cost at least $1,000 more than similarsize analog receivers. The prices of these digital TV sets will decline over time, but not enough to generate significant sales in the next five years.
Digital terrestrial television uses digital compression to squeeze more bandwidth out of existing VHF/UHF spectrum now used to transmit analog TV channels. The extra bandwidth can be used to send a single highdefnition video image over each analog channel or five to six channels of standarddefinition images.
Consumers who choose to use a digital converter box will not be able to receive programs in the HDTV format, but will be able to receive packages of SDTV channels.
In addition to delaying the arrival of HDTV, the trend toward digital converters also points toward longterm changes that digital broadcasting will bring to TV system design and marketing, the study found. Since the introduction of color, analog TV design has mostly consisted of refinements.
The Western Cable Show kicked off on Dec. 10th in Anaheim, Calif., with a general session featuring some of the top industry leaders in the cable and broadcasting business.
Barry Diller of the Home Shopping Network and recentlyacquired USA Networks, Tele Communications Inc. President Leo Hindery and Time Warner Vice Chairman Ted Turner will be joined by moderator Tom Brokaw, anchor and managing editor with NBC Nightly News for the opening session at the Anaheim Hilton.
The rise of alternative providers, the introduction of new broadband applications, the continuing consolidation of cable operations will be discussed by panelists at the event.
TCI Communications, Inc. and Liberty Media Corporation plan to launch a package of twelve digital, Spanishlanguage cable television networks in the spring of 1998.
With the expansion of programming choices allowed by digital compression, the companies plan to build a tier of digital programming services for the U.S. Hispanic market, to include Spanish language program offerings in general entertainment, sports, children's programming, news, shopping and movies.
Robert R. Bennett, President and CEO of Liberty, said that the lineup will not be finalized until January, but listed several Spanish services in the developmental stage, including two new general entertainment channels, one actionthemed channel and one comedythemed channel which Liberty is creating with Sony; a new motor sports channel, being created by TeleCommunications International and Canal+; and a global, 24houraday soccer channel which is planned for a late 1998 debut.
The package is expected to be initially introduced on select TCIC systems in the spring of 1998, for an expected cost of less than ten dollars a month.
DirecTV has signed a production agreement with Warner Bros. Domestic PayTV, Cable & Network Features to create music programming to air on its satellite television service beginning in February 1998.
The first Warner Bros. PayTV project to be developed for DirecTV is a weekly music magazine show designed to deliver uptotheminute news on popular music genres including rock, pop and country. The weekly music magazine show will take viewers behindthescenes of the music world and feature concert footage, summaries of new CDs and interviews with a variety of emerging and established musical talent. DirecTV subscribers will receive the weekly music magazine show free of charge.
In addition to the weekly music magazine show, Warner Bros. PayTV will create two live payperview concert events in 1998 for broadcast to DirecTV subscribers. The first concert is scheduled to air next summer.
NextLevel's board of directors voted by telephone Wednesday to change the name of the company back to what everyone calls it: General Instruments, Inc. Details will be announced soon.
Two of Japan's leading broadcasters publiclyfunded NHK and commercial service Nippon Tele vision Network plan to deliver separate, 24hour satellite feeds across Asia beginning in April 1998.
The Asia satellite uplink is the first step towards worldwide distribution of the networks, both companies said.
Nippon will deliver a newsoriented network in Japanese and English aimed at tourists. It also may offer sports coverage, including Japanese baseball.
NHK already provides a limited satellite service across Asia for 18 hours a day, but hopes to expand the service full time with PanAmSat's satellite covering the region.
PRIMESTAR Partners has announced the locations of 59 local offices that will provide sales fulfillment and customer service support to the company after it is restructured as publiclytraded PRIMESTAR, Inc. in early 1998. An extension of PRIMESTAR, Inc.'s five regional offices (in Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia, Dallas and St. Louis), these offices will provide a critical competitive advantage through their ability to serve customers at a local level.
The local offices, which are scheduled to be fully operational by the spring of 1998, were selected through assessment and analysis of PRIMESTAR market potential throughout the country. The mission was to capitalize on PRIMESTAR Partner's resources and infrastructure, while eliminating duplication.
DirecTV has signed an agreement with American Telecasting, Inc. (ATI) to distribute DirecTV programming to ATI customers in its 33 operating markets in 16 states.
The ATI pact provides DirecTV with a key local sales and service presence, as well as local broadcast channel access in multiplefamily dwelling unit (MDU) markets across the United States. The combined DirecTV/ATI service will initially roll out in the Rocky Mountain and Midwest regions beginning early next year.
Under the agreement, ATI will also provide its customers with access to the U.S. Satellite Broadcasting premium movie service. All new and existing DirecTV system operators are authorized to represent both DirecTV and USSB in the MDU market through a joint marketing agreement between the two companies.
DirecTV's policy of signing these pacts is a sore point with many subscribers, as customer service is part of the pact. Many subscribers complain that they get poor response from the local package provider on customer service problems, with no way to circumvent them and deal directly with DirecTV/USSB.
Kelly Broadcasting Systems formally gave up on its effort to obtain AlphaStar's assets, but now is contracting for transponder space previously used by AlphaStar before it filed for bankruptcy.
Kelly announced Monday it has entered into a long term satellite transponder agreement with Space Systems Loral to acquire high power KuBand satellite capacity on the Telstar 5 satellite. The T5 capacity became available in early August 1997, when Alphastar died.
Kelly said it intends to use transponders aboard Telstar 5 for Arabic language international pro gramming available through a 24inch satellite dish antenna. The proposed service will be offered throughout North America, Central America, the Caribbean, Alaska and Hawaii.
Kelly lost the bidding war to Champion Holding at a November auction. The company submitted a $4.625 million bid for the assets but came up short in the sale.
Hughes Space and Communications will close out 1997 with the launch of AsiaSat 3, a highpower satellite built for Asia Satellite Telecommunications. The satellite will carry 28 active CBand trans ponders and 16 active KuBand transponders
The launch is scheduled for Dec. 23, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
It is the second spacecraft supplied by Hughes to Hong Kongbased AsiaSat. The launch is the ninth and last for Hughes this year, and is the company's fourth launch in the month of December.
DISH Network is negotiating with about 20 different programmers to bring more international programming. Most of the international programming will be assigned to E3. ART and RAI will most likely stay on E2. Other international programming will be moved to E3: The Spanish language package, Antenna (Greek), and a new French channel called TV5. TV5 will be priced at $9.99.
Echostar is negotiating with about 6 more Spanish channels to add more packages, but Galavision and Univision will not be available.
Starz & Encore will be available on DISH Network on 12/31, which will bring up the number of available movie channels to about 30. This package will be $9.00 a month.
The NASA channel is coming, and will be on E3. There will be a nominal charge for this service.
Local programming for the network channels will be available on E3 in the first week of January. Initially this programming will be available in New York City, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Houston, Miami, Cleveland, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Denver, Sacramento, Portland, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Anchorage and Honolulu. A few channels will be introduced on January 8th, with more cities added every 2 to 3 weeks. This programming will be about $5 per month.
Outofmarket sports programming is here! You can now select any Regional Sports Network you wish, as long as you have AT50CD programming. This option will cost $4.99 a month.
Holiday music is available with all programming packages.
AC3 is coming. A new receiver will be required to work with this.
HDTV will probably be on DISH sometime in '98. This will be a trickle at first, however.
The Customer Education Channel has been launched on Channel 100.
The next consumer Charlie Chat is on January 5, at 8 P.M. (Eastern)
United Video Satellite Group, through its DirectCom division, is poised to enter the KaBand satellite scene through an agreement the company has announced with KaStar Satellite Communications.
United Video has purchased a 42 percent stake in KaStar with the option to own up to 49 percent. The company hopes to eventually use its Kaband investment to develop two way transmissions, data routing and spot beaming services.