Today's Top Stories The NFL may explore the possibility of letting an online video distributor carry a new slate of Thursday night games, the Wall Street Journal reported. The league is reportedly considering adding more Thursday night games and licensing them to a new distribution partner. Its current lineup of nationally-televised games on Thursday nights, which it carries on its NFL Network, has failed to attract enough viewers to satisfy the league, which believes adding another game could create more interest, the Journal reported. The story in the Journal follows a report this summer in AllThingsD (which like the Journal is owned by News Corp.) that the NFL had met with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) CEO Larry Page and a top YouTube executive for a discussion that included the NFL's package of out-of-market games currently licensed by DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV). It's not clear how interested in this deal online distributors would be. On one hand, there's arguably no programming more valuable than a live NFL game--just look at the Super Bowl. But the NFL Network's struggles to build an audience of its own suggest NFL games are not necessarily "can't fail" material. Moreover, not all of the league's potential partners online sell advertising. A distributor such as Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) may not want to bid against pay-TV networks and online distributors that could tap marketers to cover the programming's cost. For more:
- the Wall Street Journal had this report (sub. req.)
- in August, AllThingsD had this report Related articles:
Premium online video content could siphon TV ad money, analysts say
Google, NFL reportedly discuss Sunday Ticket package
YouTube revenue projected to surge to $20B by 2020 Read more about: sports, GOOG
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Aereo could be going to the Supreme Court. TV broadcasters have asked the high court to review a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that lets Aereo continue operating while a trial over its legality plays out. The broadcasters wanted the appeals court--and has now asked the Supreme Court--to block Aereo from delivering its services during the trial. It's not clear whether the Supreme Court will take the case. Though litigation between Aereo and broadcasters is playing out in several courthouses around the country--as are lawsuits between broadcasters and FilmOn X, an Aereo competitor with similar technology--the Supreme Court typically waits until cases are further along before stepping in. "All things being equal, the Supreme Court prefers to take cases where the factual and legal arguments have been fully fleshed out below to avoid needing to hear the case a second time to fully resolve it," Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant wrote in a note to investors last week. Still, Gallant suggested the high court could deem the injunction appeal "ripe" for review based on the different ways lower courts have come down on whether Aereo's service constitutes an unlawful public performance of copyrighted material. Broadcasters hit on that point in their petition to the Supreme Court. "The issue here is simply too consequential to allow the Second Circuit to operate with a different set of copyright rules from those envisioned by Congress and operative in the rest of the Nation," the petition said. "This Court's review is needed now." For more:
- read a copy of the broadcasters' petition
- the Los Angeles Times had this report Related articles:
Aereo sets Android launch as another injunction request is denied
Aereo sued in Utah
FilmOn X blocked again, muddying Aereo's legal waters Read more about: copyright, Aereo
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In the United States, just about any device a consumer can buy at a store and connect to both the Internet and a TV set offers the ability watch Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX). Game consoles, streaming devices and Blu-ray players all include Netflix apps. But the company has so far left one huge universe of devices untapped--the pay-TV operator-leased set-top box. For years, the cable boxes leased by operators like Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and others have been off limits for Netflix. Now reports suggest that could change. Netflix has held discussions with Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, and the much smaller Suddenlink Communications, about including Netflix software in some of the boxes they lease to subscribers, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. A sticking point in the negotiations is reportedly Netflix's insistence that cable operators which integrate its software also participate in its Open Connect content delivery network, the Journal reported. Access to cable set-top boxes could make it easier for Netflix to attract and keep customers in the United States. According to the cable trade association NCTA, cable operators have deployed more than 42 million set-top boxes since 2010, when the government began requiring those boxes include a CableCARD. Not all of them are capable of running a Netflix app. But adding Netflix integration to cable devices could tempt some new users to sign up for Netflix's offerings and make it easier for existing customers to watch it on more TV sets in their homes. The reports follow announcements by two cable operators overseas that they would begin leasing TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) boxes that include Netflix apps. For more:
- the Wall Street Journal had this report (sub. req.) Related articles:
Netflix boosts resolution for non-Open Connect customers
Netflix app comes to Virgin Media-leased TiVo boxes
Netflix says Open Connect partner RCN delivers Netflix best in Boston Read more about: Comcast, Netflix
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Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) has made its next bet on exclusive programming. The company said it ordered 13 episodes of a new TV series from Sony Pictures Television and the team that created the show "Damages." The move is Netflix's latest in commissioning exclusive, first-run TV programming and follows a string of recent successes with "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black." The difference this time is the studio. Netflix's previous partners on new, exclusive series have been smaller independent studios. Sony Pictures Television is one of Hollywood's largest and considered a "major" studio along with the likes of Warner Bros., NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS. But within that group, Sony stands out as well: It's not owned by a major U.S. media conglomerate. "We're willing to do different things and bet on the future," Steve Mosko, president of Sony Pictures Television, told the Wall Street Journal. "We're pumped up--it's a challenge to show a major studio can be in business with one of these services." Sony is also the studio that made "Breaking Bad" for AMC, a show whose audience on the cable network grew after Netflix began carrying its prior seasons. The new series, which does not have name yet, will be a psychological thriller about "a family of siblings whose secrets and scars are revealed when their black-sheep brother returns home," Netflix said. Production is scheduled to start early next year. For more:
- the Wall Street Journal had this report
- read the Netflix press release Related articles:
Netflix to boost spending on originals, updates 'Long Term View'
Netflix licenses Weinstein Company movies for 2016
Netflix adds 'Marco Polo' to original series pipeline Read more about: Sony, Netflix
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Aereo said it will introduce an app for Android devices Oct. 22 that lets subscribers watch local TV stations online in some markets. The app will be compatible with devices running Android version 4.2 or higher, it said. Additionally, Aereo subscribers will also be able to access their recordings through a Roku box, Aereo said. The announcement came as a federal judge in Boston denied a request by Hearst Television to block Aereo from including Hearst's local programming in its service while Hearst sues Aereo over alleged copyright violations. Judge Nathaniel Gorton wrote that Aereo's interpretation of the "Transmit Clause" of the Copyright Act--that its service transmits private performances rather than public performances--was "a better reading of the statute" than Hearst's. Gorton also seemed persuaded by Aereo's arguments that it can't be held liable for infringing local TV stations' copyright because its subscribers initiate each recording. But Gorton also rejected a request by Aereo to move Hearst's lawsuit to New York, where Aereo has already won a series of legal rulings and appeals in a similar case. Aereo had asked the judge to move the case because the two are so similar and to prevent Hearst from "forum shopping" by filing the action in Boston rather than New York, where both companies are based. Aereo seemed content with that outcome. "Today's decision... shows that when you comply not only with the letter, but the spirit of the law, justice will prevail," Aereo's CEO Chet Kanojia said in a press release. Meanwhile, broadcasters plan to appeal ask the Supreme Court to review those New York court rulings before an Oct. 15 deadline, Variety reported. But it's unclear whether the court will take up the case. Typically the high court accepts such challenges when there are splits between various U.S. Appeals Court circuits on a matter. So far, the 2nd Circuit is the only appeals court to rule on Aereo's case, though the 9th Circuit may rule any day on a related case in California involving FilmOn X. Even if the 9th Circuit sides with FilmOn X, a circuit split could still eventually materialize. If Hearst appeals the Boston ruling--as it has reportedly said it would do--to the 1st Circuit, it's possible judges there could reverse Gorton's decision and side with the broadcasters. "It's worth noting that the case that underlies the Aereo legal decisions in the 2nd Circuit was appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court," BTIG Analyst Richard Greenfield wrote on the bank's blog. That case involved Cablevision's (NYSE: CVC) remote DVR technology and the Supreme Court declined to hear the TV networks' appeal at the time. "Anything can obviously happen," Greenfield wrote. "It appears to be quite a stretch to see the Supreme Court taking the case, let alone for broadcasters to win." For more:
- Aereo issued this press release on the Android app
- Aereo issued this press release on the Boston judge's ruling
- read BTIG's blog (reg. req.)
- Variety had this report
- CNET had this report Related articles:
Aereo sued in Utah
Aereo CEO Kanojia: Priority for company is 'wide-based deployment approach'
FilmOn X blocked again, muddying Aereo's legal waters Read more about: copyright, Aereo
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Netflix, the cable box and the cable bill
AT&T's $14 billion Project Velocity IP (or VIP) is one of the telco's most ambitious network buildout initiatives to date. Over the past year, it has been making continual progress in expanding both its U-verse and fiber to the building (FTTB) footprint. In our special report, we're tracking the investments it has made throughout its service territories through this program. 
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