360AM: Cablevision Sets Sale Vote, Flunks Diversity Test
Cable360AM — News briefing for Friday, Sept. 14 »
Cablevision shareholders will vote on Oct. 24 whether to accept Charles and Jim Dolan’s $10.6 billion buyout offer. The Dolans may need to sell assets, seek partners or close businesses in order to cut debt before the deal closes, the company disclosed in an SEC filing yesterday. [Release | Bloomberg | Newsday]
On the eve of next week’s cable diversity week events in New York, Cablevision flunked the NAACP‘s 2007 diversity report card released yesterday, which graded 51 companies with annual revenue of $5 billion or more. Cablevision received an F (as did T-Mobile) for not filling out the NAACP diversity survey. Telecommunications companies that did respond averaged a C, ranging from a B (for Alltel) to a D for Qwest. In between, Comcast and AT&T received a B-, Cox and Verizon got a C+, Time Warner Cable earned a C while Charter and Sprint received a C-. The NAACP’s resulting diversity best practices guide can be downloaded here (scroll down).
EchoStar touts its 70 HD channels (if you count its nine HD PPV channels) to TV Predictions, ahead of DirecTV‘s 100 HD Channels or Bust expansion.
Don’t miss Seth Arenstein’s reviews of Mary-Kate Olsen’s debut on Showtime‘s Weeds, and other upcoming cable TV highlights.
Alyssa Milano will star in Lifetime‘s 1st quarter movie, Wisegal, and as herself in TBS‘s baseball broadband channel on MLB.com. TBS signed up Charter St. Louis, Comcast Seattle, Time Warner Cable Cleveland and Cablevision to participate in its inaugural MLB postseason affiliate marketing campaign.
Comcast launched English on Demand, a free VOD channel offering ESL and literacy lessons, in New England.
In a first for E!, the Comcast-owned channel will simulcast its two-hour Live From the Red Carpet pre-Emmy Award telecast Sunday night to mobile users on Sprint TV — covering cable customers with Pivot wireless phone service — and on its own broadband channel, The Vine.
MTV Networks is launching a social networking site, Flux.com, that extends to Viacom‘s network of websites and external sites such as Sk8site.com and the Pussycat Dolls’ official site. [Fortune]
Verizon Wireless is suing the FCC over its rules for the upcoming auction of wireless spectrum, filing an appeal Sept. 10 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. [Wall Street Journal | RCR News]
Google will propose that governments and technology firms unite to create a global standard on piracy today at a UNESCO meeting in France, reports MacWorld — and is involved in a legal spat with Prince over unauthorized videos posted on YouTube, according to this report in the Times of London. • Catching up? Here’s Thursday’s Cable360AM briefing.
• Enter here for our free Starbucks coffee card contest!
• Got a tip? Send an email to [email protected].
