Customers give dismal scores to TV providers
By Brian Stelter, CNN
Note to Comcast and AT&T executives: you've got your work cut out for you.
Subscriber satisfaction with cable and satellite TV providers has slumped across the board, according to a new American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey of tens of thousands of people.
Of the eight providers studied, the worst performer is Time Warner Cable, the cable company that's merging with Comcast. The second worst is Comcast. They were in the same order last year — but this year, their scores are weaker.
Time Warner Cable has a score of 56 and Comcast has a score of 60. The industry average is 65.
The data was released in a report Tuesday, two days after AT&T announced a plan to acquire the biggest satellite provider in the country, DirecTV.
FULL STORY...
Money and power
Senator Al Franken discusses his opposition to the proposed merger between Comcast Time Warner and the influence that lobbyist money might have on the senators' scrutiny of the deal.
Apple eyes partnerships in bid to reinvent TV
By Brian Stelter, CNN
The computing giant's next foray into TV could come in partnership with Comcast, the largest television and broadband provider in the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night.
The Journal said that the two companies are holding talks that could result in Comcast delivering an Apple-branded TV service the same way it delivers phone calls and cable video-on-demand. These are called "managed services," and are set apart from the broadband connections that bring Netflix (NFLX), YouTube and other websites to customers. The arrangement would allow Apple to be confident that its video offerings won't sputter the way some other streams do.
Read more of Brian's article online here.
The monster Comcast deal
Brian Stelter and Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron analyze Comcast’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable; will it benefit or hurt consumers?
Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable
By Brian Stelter, CNN Senior Media Correspondent
Comcast on Thursday will announce its intent to acquire Time Warner Cable in a $45 billion deal that will combine the two biggest cable companies in the United States.
Comcast (CCV) has agreed to pay $158.82 per share of Time Warner Cable (TWC,Fortune 500) stock, according to two people with direct knowledge of the transaction who insisted on anonymity because the deal will not be publicly announced until Thursday morning.
The two companies expect the merger to receive government approval and take effect by the end of the year, but regulators are likely to take a close look at the potential impact on consumers.
Read more of Brian's CNNMoney piece here.
“See It” for yourself
Comcast’s Sam Schwartz tells Brian Stelter about new “SEEiT” technology that allows for increased connection between Tweets and television.
TV blackout wars in a quiet period
By Brian Stelter, CNN
The TV industry has a holiday tradition straight out of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas:" End of year feuds that lead to channel blackouts for viewers.
But this year, everybody is playing nice. (It's almost as if the hearts of television executives have collectively grown three sizes.)
At issue are the carriage fees that distributors like Comcast and DirecTV (the biggest cable and satellite providers in the United States, respectively) have to pay to carry cable channels. They regularly have to re-negotiate fees with programmers like The Walt Disney Company, which controls ESPN and ABC Family, and Viacom, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.
Talks tend to get heated toward the end of the year - but evidently not this year. On Tuesday, Time Warner Cable and Viacom announced a deal a full week before the Jan. 1 deadline.
A number of other high-stakes negotiations have also been completed in recent weeks. An informal survey of industry representatives indicated that last-minute blackout threats were unlikely this New Year's Eve.
Distributors and programmers tend to keep their deals a secret - for competitive reasons and to cultivate a "no drama" perception in the industry.
Read more of Brian's article online here.
Sneak peek at this Sunday's show...
Tune in to "Reliable Sources" this Sunday at 11 a.m. Eastern! Here's a preview from the program's host Brian Stelter:
In 2010 the Associated Press reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman learned that the United States government had been lying about Robert Levinson, an American who had disappeared in Iran three years earlier. Levinson was not, as government officials claimed, a private investigator who had been in Iran on business. He was a contractor for the C.I.A. The Associated Press and several other news organizations refrained from reporting what they knew about Levinson's identity until this week. Why now?
That's where we will begin "Reliable Sources" this Sunday. The White House says that the publication of stories about Levinson has been "highly irresponsible." The A.P. obviously disagrees. Apuzzo will be on set with me in Washington to discuss.
Before the show, I'd like to know what you think about the C.I.A. spy stories - add a comment at the bottom of this blog post.
Then we'll pivot to this week's Santa controversy. (What an odd thing to write.) Aisha Harris, a culture blogger for Slate magazine, wrote a blog post on Tuesday titled "Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore." By now you've probably heard about the Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly's reaction — "Santa just is white" — and the reactions to her reaction, etcetera.
But someone was missing from Kelly's much-talked-about segment on Wednesday: the blogger who started it all. Harris says "Fox didn't bother reaching out to me personally to debate the issue at hand." Maybe Fox reached out to someone else at Slate; I don't know. But when a CNN producer emailed Harris on Friday morning, she replied right away; she'll join me live from New York. (For what it's worth, Fox also apparently tried to book her on Friday; Kelly said on Friday night that Slate "denied our request.")
Later on in the show, we'll look at the recently reignited debate between the White House and the press corps over access with CNN’s national political reporter Peter Hamby, Roll Call's new editor-in-chief Christina Bellantoni and The Blaze's "Hot List" host Amy Holmes. The political panel will also discuss Hamby's exclusive report on Republican plans to overhaul the 2016 primary process.
Republicans are quietly advancing a new set of rules to condense and reform the 2016 primary calendar http://t.co/uDrJBL7NfD
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHambyCNN) December 11, 2013
Here's a segment we have been planning for weeks: the "Anchorman 2" marketing assault. Some analysts have said that Ron Burgundy is showing us the future of movie marketing. I'll ask Adweek's Sam Thielman if he agrees.
[Post-show update: I'd mentioned a segment here about Comcast and a new technology that lets Twitter users tune their TV sets and start watching shows on their mobile devices straight from Twitter. We held the segment for time constraints, so look for it on a future edition of the program.]
See you Sunday!
–Brian
About "Reliable Sources"
Now more than ever, the press is a part of every story it covers. And CNN's "Reliable Sources" is one of television's only regular programs to examine how journalists do their jobs and how the media affect the stories they cover.
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About the host
Brian Stelter is the host of "Reliable Sources" and the senior media correspondent for CNN Worldwide. Before he joined CNN in November 2013, Stelter was a media reporter for The New York Times. He is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Top of the Morning."
Here's his biography. You can read his stories on this blog and at CNNMoney.com/Media/.
@cnnreliable on Twitter
