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THE FCC will relax local HD carriage requirements for DirecTV and DISH Network, making the terms less burdensome than those imposed on cable. The satellite operators will be allowed to down-sample local HD television signals to a lower quality, decreasing the bandwidth that the stations will occupy. Both companies claimed that they needed several years to increase capacity before they could carry all local stations in HD. They now have until 2013 before local HD requirements kick in.
NBCU will sell off O&O’s in both Miami and Hartford. The sales are part of an overall shift in NBC Local Media’s strategy towards becoming “local media production centers.” In related news, Jeff Zucker told an Ad Age conference that Hulu is a “work in progress.” Zucker praised the ability to run overlay ads without fully interrupting a show and said that usage has already exceeded expectations. He expressed concern over Antigua’s threat of legalizing piracy of U.S. content, calling the issue “troubling.”
VERIZON announced that it will certify devices for its new “open network” policy towards the end of this year. Any device meeting unrestrictive minimum network requirements will be allowed to connect without any service contract. Users will simply log on to Verizon’s site to setup an account. The move will represent a major shift in network policy for one of the top mobile operators and will be closely watched. In other Verizon news, FiOS has added a slew of VOD content from CBS, Discovery Channel and more. The service offers around 10,000 VOD titles each month.
VEOH claims that studio-produced content only accounts for 15% of the views on the video-sharing site with the rest going to indie content and user-generated clips. The site is able to sell ads against UGC content by carefully vetting it and removing overly risque material. Ad banners on Veoh go for around $10 CPMs while videos ads net $20 CPMs.
RENTRAK signed a new deal with TURNER to track on-demand viewing of TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network and more. The company now collects data representing 45 million set-top boxes on 23 cable operators. Rentrak stats are used by over 90 networks and studios.
ADOBE launched software that offers DRM protection for downloaded Flash files.
BLU-RAY has had its protection cracked by an Antigua-based software company.
AFTRA ratified a contract with NBC and ABC covering news anchors, correspondents and reporters.
CBS will allow users to create embeddable mash-ups of March Madness video highlights.