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Today's Top Stories
1. Cablevision sheds 23,000 video customers in Q2, but sees revenue climb to $1.6B
2. Cable stocks rebound in morning trading
3. Dish loses 135,000 subscribers in Q2
4. Verizon alleges network sabotage as strike turns ugly
5. Cable pioneer Carolyn Chambers dies at 79 Also Noted: IBM
Spotlight On...  Charting 2011's Women in Wireline
Charter apologizes for billing homeless subscribers; Dish wins $20M judgment from pirates and much more... Special Report:
 Comcast-NBCUniversal: 6 months later
How is the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger going six months after the FCC gave the go-ahead for the first-ever union of a broadcaster and an MSO? FierceCable takes a look at how Comcast is meeting the concessions it made to the FCC. Read more... News From the Fierce Network:
1. Clearleap, LG partner on video delivery to smart TVs without a set-top box
2. Pay-TV operators see 193,000 subs bolt in Q2; will a stuttering economy make Q3 worse?
3. Stoke names former Comcast wireless exec Dave Williams CTO
More headlines...
Today's Top News 1. Cablevision sheds 23,000 video customers in Q2, but sees revenue climb to $1.6B
Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) lost 23,000 video customers during the second quarter, ending the period with 3.31 million video subscribers. Its total subscriber count, including high-speed data and phone subscribers, fell by 17,000 subscribers to 3.66 million customers. However, its consolidated net revenues climbed 9.1 percent to $1.68 billion. On an earnings call with analysts Tuesday morning, COO Tom Rutledge said a high vacancy rate in the housing market and Cablevision's high penetration rate has impacted its growth. But he said the company expects to post future growth in its residential business, as the economy recovers. "Our market share has remained consistent at about 75 percent," Rutledge said, referring to the MSO's share of the high-speed data business within its footprint. Cablevision's top rival in its New York, New Jersey and Connecticut footprint is Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and its FiOS services. Cablevision has been aggressive about rolling out advanced digital products, including a network DVR and its Optimum Link PC-to-TV media relay service. Asked if Cablevision expected new products to boost revenue, Rutledge said Cablevision's network DVR is more profitable for the company, since it can charge the same monthly fee as it does for a physical DVR, but with lower costs. Cablevision CFO Gregg Seibert said Cablevision is focused on growing revenue from its existing subscriber base, and that it isn't looking to buy additional cable systems following its acquisition of Bresnan Communications. He suggested that Cablevision won't bid on Insight Communications, which has been on the auction block. "We don't see anything on the immediate horizon," Seibert said. He also said the auction process makes it difficult to obtain financing. "In today's market there's a tremendous amount of market risk," he added. Cablevision also announced Tuesday that it launched apps for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch that can deliver 300 live channels and thousands of VoD programs to the devices. The move comes four months after it launched a similar app for the iPad. Viacom sued Cablevision in June, attempting to block it from delivering MTV, Comedy Central and other networks to the iPad. Viacom didn't respond to a request for comment about Cablevision's iPhone and iPod touch apps Tuesday morning. Rutledge said Cablevision is developing similar apps for devices based on Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android operating system, along with apps for PCs and Macs. For more:
- see Cablevision's earnings release (PDF) Related articles:
Mediacom, WideOpenWest drop out of Insight auction
Cablevision continues to see subscriber slide
Cable in the first quarter of 2011
Viacom sues Cablevision over iPad streaming app Read more about: Cablevision, Iphone, Ipad, Ipod Touch
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2. Cable stocks rebound in morning trading
Most cable stocks were trading higher Tuesday morning, the day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 634 points. By 11:00 a.m., Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) was trading at $20.12 per share, up 1.41 percent, while Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) was trading at $63.50, up 34 cents, or less than 1 percent. Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) stock was trading at $43.68, up 3.8 percent, DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) w as trading at $42.83, up 1.71 percent, and Shaw Communications (NYSE: SJR) was trading at $20.34, up 1.49 percent. Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) was one of the few cable companies trading lower Tuesday, following its release of second-quarter earnings. Cablevision stock had fallen more than 8 percent to $17.92 by 11:00 a.m. Cable programmers were also trading higher Tuesday morning. Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA) was trading at $36.55 at 11:00 a.m., up 5.2 percent, Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was trading at $33.61, up 1.8 percent, and News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) was trading at $14.55, up 3.6 percent. For more:
- see Bloomberg's story Related articles:
Wall Street pounds cable stocks
Cablevision sheds 23,000 video customers in Q2, but sees revenue climb to $1.6B Read more about: Cablevision, cable stocks, Wall Streeters
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3. Dish loses 135,000 subscribers in Q2
Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) said Tuesday that it lost 135,000 during the second quarter, which was worse than some analysts had projected. The satellite TV provider barely managed to remain above the 14 million subscriber mark, ending the quarter with 14.05 million customers. Dish's losses were more than double the 58,000 subscribers that Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet had projected that it would drop. While growth at Dish rival DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) has slowed, the company continues to add new customers, signing 26,000 U.S. subscribers during the second quarter. Dish generated $3.59 billion in revenue during the quarter, up 13.3 percent compared to this time last year. Net income increased 30.3 percent to $335 million. Revenue for the first half of 2011 increased 9.4 percent to $6.81 billion, while net income jumped 81.2 percent to $884 million. Dish CEO Charlie Ergen is scheduled to field questions from analysts at noon today during Dish's earnings call. For more:
- see Dish's earnings release
- and Bloomberg's coverage Related articles:
DirecTV subscriber growth slows in Q2
Dish wins TerreStar by default
Dish settlement pushes TiVo quarterly profit Read more about: Dish Network, second quarter earnings 2011
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4. Verizon alleges network sabotage as strike turns ugly
As 45,000 Verizon (NYSE: VZ) employees remain on strike, the company reported that it has seen at least 12 acts of sabotage to communications facilities in four states. Some of the damage to its network has resulted in outages for its FiOS TV, Internet and phone services. Verizon said it has seen 10 incidents of fiber-optic lines being cut in the Bronx, Pomona, Farmingdale and Guilderland in New York, in addition to incidents in Tewksbury, Mass., Bel Air, Md., and East Dover, Oakland, and Plainfield, N.J. The company blamed one outage on electronic equipment that was stolen from a Cedar Grove, N.J. facility, and it said the heating system at its central office in Manhattan was tampered with. Some violence has also been reported at the picket lines being organized by Verizon employee unions. Employees at a picket line in Amherst, N.Y., accused one replacement worker of driving his car through a picket line, resulting in injuries. For more:
- see story in The Buffalo News about the strike
- and Verizon's news release about alleged sabotage to its network Related articles:
Verizon calls police after striking workers block access to buildings
Verizon's wireline union workers officially go on strike Read more about: Communications Workers Of America, Verizon, strike, sabotage
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5. Cable pioneer Carolyn Chambers dies at 79
Cable pioneer Carolyn Chambers, the founder of Chambers Communications, died Monday at age 79.  |
| Carolyn Chambers was an integral part of the cable industry for over 50 years. (Image source: The Cable Center) |
Chambers entered the TV business in 1959, launching a TV station in Eugene, Ore., when she was 25. She later expanded into the cable TV business, founding Liberty Communications, which she sold to John Malone's Tele-Communications Inc. in 1983 for $186 million. "Carolyn was a cable industry pioneer whom we honor for a long life and career filled with great experiences and notable achievements running an independent cable company in Washington and California," American Cable Association (ACA) president Matt Polka said in a statement Tuesday. "We will always remember Carolyn not only as a loyal and dedicated ACA member but as a courageous and decisive leader who believed the health of the industry was just as important as her own success." A memorial service for Chambers is scheduled to be held at 2:00 p.m. today in Eugene, Ore. For more:
- see story in The Register-Guard (Oregon)
- and her biography in The Cable Center Hall of Fame Related articles:
Cable industry pioneer Bill Bresnan passes away
Plane crash claims life of GCI exec Dana Tindall Read more about: Chambers Communications, Carolyn Chambers, obituary
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SPOTLIGHT ON... Charting 2011's Women in Wireline In its second annual special report, FierceTelecom tracks some of the key women who are driving innovations in the telecom industry. The "2011 Women in Wireline" feature includes profiles of executives from Frontier Communications and Verizon. Check out the entire list here. Cable industry news from across the Web: @FierceCable RT @arstechnica: Not an option--time for companies to embrace security by default. Article | Follow @FierceCable > Charter is apologizing to subscribers in northern Michigan who received bills for up to $500 for damaged cable equipment after a fire destroyed their apartment building. Article > A federal judge in Nevada ordered two men to pay Dish Network $20 million for selling NFusion receivers that were used to pirate Dish content. Article > Panasonic, Samsung Electronics and X6D are teaming up to develop a technology standard for 3D glasses. Article > CableLabs picked Metaswitch Networks' Thrutu content sharing application as the best new idea at its summer conference. News release And finally... SyFy, the channel formerly known as SciFi Channel, is looking to boost revenue by expanding into online video games. Article News From the Fierce Network:
> Falcone claims AT&T, Verizon working to undermine LightSquared Post
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