Policy: Technology Policy Institute VP Scott Wallsten says the purchase of spectrum proposed in the Verizon Wireless/Spectrum Co. deal "should benefit consumers and does not in itself raise antitrust concerns" as the spectrum isn't currently being used. "The proposed transaction would accomplish precisely what the FCC envisioned when it began promoting secondary markets: quickly moving spectrum to more productive uses without the need for a long, complicated process of reclaiming and re-auctioning the spectrum," he said. Wallsten's full comments can be found at the TPI's website.

Strategy: Monday we reported that Cisco was considering selling the STB business it bought from Scientific-Atlanta. Tuesday the company said 'not true.' On its blog, the company said the demise of its set-top arm were greatly exaggerated. Read it. --- 'It's cool to have rabbit ears again...' So starts a story at the WSJ about how OTAs are coming back.

OTT: Nintendo saw what Microsoft did to its Xbox 360 and wants in on the action. Reports say execs at Nintendo have been negotiating with "several major media companies" to turn its Wii U video game console into a complete OTT media hub. As reported in yesterday's (early arriving) Morning BRIDGE, Nintendo recently landed Hulu Plus for the Wii for $8/month.

Programming: NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson is launching ASPIRE, a new network designed for African-Americans. ASPIRE, one of several new and minority o&o indie nets from Comcast (as part of its diversity promise to the FCC upon acquiring NBCU), is set to go live in June. --- Another of Comcast's minority indie nets is Sean (P-Diddy) Combs' music channel Revolt. --- NBC News and RLTV are premiering a new live consumer finance show for baby-boomers and seniors called "Cash Call with Jean Chatzky." The show will air Feb. 28 at 8pm ET exclusively on RLTV. --- Logo said it is "evolving" its programming with new content that will reflect the GLBT community's "increasing integration into mainstream culture." The push includes a handful of new series, information about which can be found here.

Deals: Super Channel, Canada's national English pay-TV network, signed a multi-year licensing and programming distribution agreement with Starz Media Worldwide for the upcoming Starz original series "Magic City" and several other feature films. --- Verizon Wireless said it has agreed to buy wireless assets of Plateau Wireless, a subsidiary of NM-based ENMR-Plateau. Terms were not disclosed. Details here. --- Gas station network Outcast inked a partnership with FOX News Channel for daily news updates at the pump. Outcast will deliver FOX News content to ~13K screens nationwide. --- BlueHighways TV reached a carriage agreement with the NCTC to distribute the network to the co-op's 1K member cable operators.

Data: Rentrak signed a TV measurement contract with News Corp. Star U.S. for its South Asian market StarTV network. --- Social advertising analytics firm Visible Measures said the Media Rating Council (MRC) voted to grant accreditation to a range of VM's metrics for digital video performance online, including paid, owned, earned media, and other products.  

SkyREPORT: Inmarsat issued a notice this week to LightSquared saying that the 4G LTE start-up defaulted on a $56M payment due for the companies' cooperative spectrum agreement. LightSquared quickly responded by saying the payment isn't even due. Speaking of LightSquared, ars technica has a story examining why the company's plans failed. Hint: 'It was science, not politics.' --- The International Telecommunications Union has enabled member states to take greater actions to combat satellite signal interference. BroadbandTV News has details. --- EWTN Global Catholic Network will begin to transition its three North American cable networks to Galaxy 15, Transponder 5, beginning March 1.

Service: WOW! is launching ARRIS's whole-home solution which includes a Moxi Gateway, 6-tuner HD DVR, DOCSIS 3.0 data service, VoIP, and optional in-home WiFi routing. --- The Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN) announced a partnership with Connect to Compete (C2C), a private and nonprofit organization to promote broadband adoption and improve digital literacy in disadvantaged communities.

$$$: CenturyLink said its board of directors voted to declare a quarterly cash dividend of $.725 per share, payable on March 16, 2012, to shareholders of record on March 6, 2012.

Over, Up & Under: An international court rejected claims by Mediaset that Sky Italia's purchase of 2010 FIFA World Cup rights violated a previous ruling by the EU. Mediaset wanted to the opportunity to air the games but eventually failed to secure bidding rights. The broadcaster was seeking compensation because it couldn't include the event it its lineup.
 

WebTV: CBS is reportedly in talks with Netflix about producing some original content for the streaming video service. Bloomberg has details. --- Which companies are having early success as YouTube rolls out its 100-channel video service? AdWeek has this story. --- Could Politico be eying a new web-TV channel? The political newspaper made a video run back in 2008, but the project failed to take hold. Now, reports show the pub filed a trademark application for "PoliticoTV," and questions loom as to where such a product would thrive.

QRs: DIRECTV's 4Q11 in the U.S. showed an unmistakable slowing, notes Bernstein Research's Craig Moffett. The company's Latin American business, however, continued to fire on all metrics. Among the key numbers in today's report: U.S. subscribers grew by 125K, below Street consensus and less than half of 4Q10 numbers. ARPU broke through the $100 mark (at $101.38) but programming costs jumped by 13% per subscriber. In contrast, DIRECTV Latin America showed revenues of $1.37B up 33% y/y with net sub additions of 590K, well ahead of consensus and a 56% jump y/y. Overall revenues were $7.5B with U.S. numbers "stronger than expected," according to ISI's Vijay Jayant. --- Discovery reported a strong 2011 with revenues up 12% to $4.235B and free cash flow soaring 68% to $1.042B. For the fourth quarter, revenues increased 11% y/y to $1.122B with U.S. nets up 11% and international nets up 12%. And, no way is CEO Zaslav backing off support for Oprah. (So, ya'll, give it time.) --- Knology saw 4Q revenues increase 4.6% y/y to $129.3M. Across the full year, the company added 1,262 video connections 8,292 voice connections, and 19,434 data connections; these include 9,000 connections acquired in its 2Q11 Fort Gordon transaction. --- EarthLink reported Q4 net income of $4.2M ($.04 per share) with non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $81.6M. The ISP posted revenue of $350.2M during the period and $1.31B for the full year 2011, "more than doubling" from both Q410 and FY10 due to the acquisitions of ITC^Deltacom, One Communications and five IT services companies since December 2010.

Disputes: There's no way you don't know who New York Knick Jeremy Lin is by now. A side note to his inspiring rise to fame is that his performance on the court has forced execs from MSG and Time Warner Cable to resume negotiations over the two sides' contract dispute... the first time since December. NYP has details.

Rules & Regs: The FCC approved new regs that requires companies get written consent from users before making any unsolicited "robocalls." However, automated calls from political campaigns or debt collectors (among some others) are still permitted.

Advertising: CBS Chief Les Moonves has big plans for his network's Super Bowl coverage next year ... to the tune of "a potential $4M per (ad) spot." If his vision materializes, it would be a 14% increase from NBC's jaw-dropping $3.5M price tag for this year's game (which, in itself, was a 17% increase from Fox's rate of $3M in 2010). --- On a similar tip, ABC has reportedly sold out of its 30-sec. spots for the Academy Awards this year (Feb. 26) selling each for an estimated $1.7M per (as compared to $1.55M in 2010).

Scandals: The "civil war" brewing at News Corp.'s the Sun newspaper has reached new levels. Now, the UK's National Union of Journalists is calling on employees of the pub to organize against News International and Rupert Murdoch. The NUJ's General Secretary had this to say. --- The Fair Labor Association began its investigation into the working conditions at Foxconn's factory in Shenzen, China, where many Apple products are made. The initial report says that working conditions are way above average. The kicker? What’s considered "average." Reuters has the story.

Research: SNL Kagan says between Q309 and Q311, retrans fees increased 46.8% across the board. The firm says retrans fees now average about $.33 per subscriber per month, up from $.23 in Q309. The nets who earn the most (per sub)? Kagan says 1) Univision ($.61), 2) Sinclair ($.49), 3) Newport and LIN ($.48 each) and 4) CBS ($.45). --- Parks Associates says nearly 1/3 (31%) of all U.S. broadband HHs regularly watch OTT content on TV sets. The research firm also says during the 2011 holiday season, 4% of HHs bought some kind of OTT console, leading to an overall penetration rate of 12% among broadband homes. --- Although soaring sales of Amazon's Kindle Fire and other low-priced tablets trimmed Apple's market share during Q4, it was Apple's own newly-intro'd iPhone 4S that proved to be the strongest competitor for the iPad during the final three months of 2011. According to iHS, Apple shipped 15.4M iPads during the period (up 39% from Q3), but the company's share of the global media tablet market slipped to 57%, down from 64% in the previous quarter.

Programming: The Travel Channel is launching three new unscripted series: "Baggage Battles" is about people who bid on unclaimed luggage; "Toy Hunters" about some guy who collects and sells vintage, rare toys; and "Hotel Impossible" about a fix & flip hotelier in Florida. --- Fox Deportes is premiering two new Spanish-language shows: "Central Fox" is a daily sports newsshow airing at noon, 3pm and 11pm; and "La Ultima Palabra" (The Last Word) featuring former ESPN Deportes sports talker Andre Marin.

SkyREPORT: The Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) announced the recipients of its 2012 Industry Innovators Awards. Here are the results. Innovation in Ka-Band: Eutelsat and ViaSat. Innovation in Mitigation of Galaxy-15: Intelsat and SES. Innovation in Industry Collaboration/Safe Use of Space: Space Data Association (SDA). Innovation in Interference Identification: Comtech EF Data. Here's more info. --- SES said it will relocate AMC-3 from 87 degrees West to 67 degrees West to better optimize coverage of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Over, Up & Under: Chinese PPV & VOD platform You On Demand inked a deal with Lionsgate for film titles on its subscription VOD service in China. --- The BBC said it will air the following events from the London 2012 Olympics in 3D: The opening and closing ceremonies, men's 100M final, and a "daily highlights" reel. The BBC had previously stated that it will offer coverage of the event on (up to) 24 live video streams at any given moment during the games. --- Russian reports say the Disney Channel is doing quite well in Russia averaging a daily audience share of 3.6% in January. The ratings are about 2.5xs that of Seven, the channel in which Disney bought a 49% stake, then rebranded as Disney Channel.

Promos: Verizon is sending a FiOS sub+1 to Madison Square Garden in NYC to watch the World Championship Boxing match between Sergio Martinez v. Matthew Macklin as part of a bilingual sweepstakes. Details are being hosted at Verizon's "bicultural" Facebook page.

People: FCC Chair Julius Genachowski will speak with ACA President & CEO Matt Polka at this year's ACA Summit 2012 on March 14. Details here. --- Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) promised to block FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel over the way the White House handled its conditional waiver with LightSquared. Now that the FCC all but squashed LightSquared's plans, all should be good with the nominees, right? Nope. Grassley is digging in. Read more. --- Myspace Entertainment hired former Fox Entertainment SVP Roger Mincheff as president.

Rules & Regs: Two sides to the sports blackout debate: A group of Senators (in response to the Sports Fans Coalition's own request) wrote to the FCC in favor of ending the policy. Signatories include: Tom Harkin (D-IA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CN) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). On the flip side, the NAB says it favors the rules. At issue for broadcasters is that cable and satellite companies may start "importing" games from other markets that could hurt their bottom lines. Said the group: "Market exclusivity agreements facilitate our system of local broadcasting and allow (us) to better serve local viewers." --- A group of Senate Committee leaders introduced the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 this week to protect the nation's "essential cyber systems." Representatives pushing the legislation say the bill reflects recommendations from private companies and trade associations (among others) and "in no way" resembles the controversial SOPA or PIPA. (Editor's note: Cybersecurity Act doesn't even involve copyright. The reference to SOPA/PIPA could be an effort to ensure no public confusion between the two.) The bill would, among other things, require the Dept. of Homeland Security to assess infrastructure risks and develop a set of "security standards." Read more here. --- For the record, a total of 7 Congressional leaders have filed with the FCC in favor of allowing LightSquared to build its wireless network... the latest coming from Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).

Research: Parks Associates says sales of digital video consoles - including Apple TV and Roku - during the holiday season has created a 13% penetration rate of OTT devices among U.S. broadband HHs. The firms says more than 14M units will sell this year "increasing consumer interest in nontraditional approaches to video access." In its latest report, Parks says 31% of U.S. broadband HHs "regularly watch TV or movies" accessed from the interwebs on a TV set. --- Broadband providers will be happy to note that ABI says smart home appliance shipments will exceed 24M units by 2017.

Disputes: THR has an exclusive story on a "legal tornado" brewing between Time Warner and Disney over the "Wizard of Oz." Trademarks, copyrights, public domain... Oh my!

Media: Twitter tops Fast Company's "World's 50 Most Innovative Companies" list in the 'media' category. Other notables from the overall list: 1) Apple, 2) Facebook, 3) Google, 4) Amazon... 11) HBO... 22) Dropbox... 41) Kickstarter. Check both lists, (media) here and (overall) here.

Scandals: News broke Tuesday that News Corp.-owned newspaper The Times has given authorities the names of its journalists' anonymous sources to police. Insiders say the move spurred a mutiny against Rupert and has launched an internal "civil war." HuffPost has details. In related news, News is reportedly consolidating its global gov't affairs division and bringing it to the U.S.

Carriage: DISH Network re-upped its affiliation agreement with Crown Media Family Networks. The multi-year deal will keep Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel on DISH's new Heartland TV package while adding the movie channel to DISH's new Blockbuster @Home service. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

SkyREPORT: NSR says satellite broadband access will dominate the use of capacity on High Throughput Satellites (HTS) in the coming years and account for ~90% of leased capacity through 2020. Interestingly enough, the 10% not used for broadband will account for 40%-50% of revenues generated via HTS capacity. Get details here.

Programming: We love dogs... but DogTV may be a little much. Dog lovers would surely enjoy a net aimed at them, but the new DogTV is actually for the dogs. Like... to get dogs to watch TV. Seems TWC and Cox are testing it on VOD first. Advertisers must love the idea.

Mobile: AT&T says its wireless data traffic has grown 20,000% over the last 5 years. According to company EVP of tech John Donovan, AT&T's wireless data traffic has doubled every year since 2007 "driven primarily by smartphones."

Tech: Word is that Apple's latest iPad will have 4G LTE capabilities. (Does that mean independent deals with AT&T and Verizon?) WSJ has the story. --- CNET is reporting that Samsung will launch its 55" OLED TV in the UK sometime this spring. No clues about when it will be available Stateside.

Online: ABCNews.com and CNBC.com are now using tech solutions provider RAMP for internet-based closed captioning services.

Over, Up & Under: OTT services have officially gone global. According to French research firm Idate, the global OTT market will generate €3.4B ($4.5B) in 2015 with the U.S contributing the most (40%), Europe (24%) and the rest of the world (36%). "The development of connected TV solutions is spurring the trend," Idate said. "...Big internet companies will throw themselves in and surely have an impact on the video distribution chain." --- Research firm GfK says popularity with LCDs is pinching out plasma TV technology around the globe. The firm says emerging markets in Asia and Latin America yielded 34% growth last year in LCD sales with demand growing another 7% (to 225M units) in 2012. --- Al Jazeera Sport is launching two channels in France this summer and is seeking rights to Euro 2012. BroadbandTV News has details of the network's football strategy, here.

Events: The Aspen Institute, along with Grupo Salinas, will host the inaugural Forum on Freedom to Communicate in Mexico City. Speakers include Reed Hundt, Walter Isaacson and more. The event will also be streamed on the web. More info.

People: Time Warner Cable EVP & CTO Mike LaJoie will be the keynote speaker at SCTE Canadian Summit 2012.

Ha!: Check out SNL's skit poking fun at consumers' overall confusion when it comes to understanding just what are 4G and LTE. "Verizon: An Old Person's Nightmare!"

WebTV: Over the weekend Google announced it would soon make some major upgrades to YouTube and its plans for GoogleTV. Details at the company blog. Soon after, reports suggested the company is in the middle of a $120M construction project for a new testing facility. Read about the "Google Experience Center." --- AllThingsD says Amazon is recruiting execs to head up its original content arm: People's Production Company. According to posted job descriptions, the company wants help developing content for "online and traditional distribution." Traditional? Hmmm...

Strategy: "As much as 10% growth in subscription fees over the next five years will be fueled by significant renewal increases at ESPN, Turner and Discovery in 2013," says MediaPost. Citing research from Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne, the pub says sports nets and retrans will account for almost 1/2 of all industry subscription fees in 2015 (up from 27% in 2000). Read more. --- Comcast opened a new Xfinity retail store in Houston and some say it looks like an Apple store. Local reports from Texas shed some light. --- In other news from the Lone Star state, Suddenlink started notifying subscribers of looming broadband usage caps. Reports say customers will have to pay $10 for every 50-gigs over the limit.

M&A: U.S. regulators approved Google's $12.5B bid for Motorola Mobility just hours after the search giant won clearance in Europe. (Google still needs approval from China, Taiwan and Israel before the deal becomes complete.) --- Insight Communications renewed its franchise agreement with the City of Louisville for $3.5M. The new contract would clear the way for its $3B sale to Time Warner Cable sometime during the next couple months. Reports say TWC will have to negotiate its own franchise with the city, but Insight's deal was integral to completing the proposed sale and transfer of Insight systems. --- Vodafone is said to be considering a potential bid for British fiber operator Cable & Wireless World. Bloomberg has more.

In Court: Apple added a handful of new devices to its patent infringement claims against Samsung. The company said despite its initial lawsuit, "Samsung continues to flood the market with copycat products." Bloomberg has the story. --- According to SEC documents, Netflix paid $9M to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of violating the federal Video Privacy Protection Act. Details here.

Deals: AT&T and Starz Entertainment renewed their multiplatform U-verse TV affiliation agreement. The extension covers Starz Entertainment's premium channels, HD, on-demand, and authenticated online services. --- AT&T Adworks signed a licensing agreement with TiVo for the set-top maker to incorporate anonymous data from U-verse subs into its audience measurement and research services. The deal enables TiVo to factor non-DVR homes into its data for the first time.

Footprint: Verizon launched FiOS TV in Medford, MA.

Sports: NYP has an interesting story about how President Richard Nixon told the NFL that he would block any legislation that would have lifted regular-season game blackouts if the league would allow playoff games to be aired locally. Read more.

Online: Myspace says since launching its new music player, 1M new users have signed up for accounts... averaging 40K daily? --- Songs from NBC's new series "Smash" are now available on iTunes.

Mobile: Comcast added text messaging to its Xfinity mobile app for iOS and Android devices. --- AT&T seems to have found a couple new ways to irk its customers this week. First came reports that the telco giant is employing data caps to its network's top data users (aka the dreaded 'throttling.') Read that story here. Then, the company followed up that news with an "effective immediately" doubling of handset upgrade charges. --- 2012 is going to be the year of location-based services... Or, mobile advertising stemming from such services, that is. AdWeek has the story.

Programming: What does programming have to do with broadband adoption? More than you may think... especially if you're talking about 'public purpose content.' What's that? Read more at MMTC's Broadband Social Justice. --- Veria Living is debuting a new exercise program "BollyFit" mixing cardio workouts with Bollywood dance moves. --- DIRECTV is celebrating Black History month with the premiere of "More Than A Dream," an original documentary about the civil rights movement and the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The documentary is narrated by Martin Sheen and features General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) and sportscaster James Brown. --- Disney Junior ordered a 3rd season of "Jake and the Never Land Pirates."

Over, Up & Under: The EU granted Google unconditional regulatory approval of its planned $12.5B buy of Motorola Mobility. --- Thanks to a late-season surge of sales, the number of Freeview HD consoles in the U.K. has reached 4.4M. Research firm Barb says more than 2M HHs are using the device regularly, and 90% of all connected TVs sold in the UK are Freeview HD sets. --- The Iranian gov't has started restricting internet access to its citizens including personal email accounts and search sites like el Google. Read more. --- Penthouse Digital Media expanded its HD footprint in Europe with the launch of PenthouseHD on Deutsche Telekom's IPTV platform Entertain.

Labor: Time Warner Cable is said to be cutting as many as 155 jobs by May when it closes a call center in Albany, NY.

People: Veteran NFL analyst Pat Kirwan has joined CBSSports.com.

Events: The Hollywood Radio and Television Society (HRTS) will present the Cable Programming Summit (March 7) focusing on "current and future trends in cable programming." The event features David Janollari, Head of Programming, MTV; Kate Juergens, EVP, Programming & Development, ABC Family; Joel Stillerman, EVP, Original Programming, Production and Digital Content, AMC; Michael Wright, EVP, Head of Programming, TNT, TBS, TCM; and Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director, Starz Media. Billy Bush, Anchor of "Access Hollywood" and Co-Host of "Access Hollywood Live," will moderate. --- SCTE Canadian Summit 2012 will be March 27-28 in Toronto, ON. This year’s event "examines the impact of integrating new technologies into existing cable infrastructures." Also, the SCTE Wireless Symposium on (3/26) is a pre-conference event covering wireless topics such as LTE, WiFi 101, backhaul, Canadian regulatory environment, and wireline convergence.

Ha!: A new survey, as part of a promo for NatGeo's new series "Doomsday Preppers" (Tuesday, 9pm ET), asked what would you most likely do if you thought the world would end tomorrow? Answer: 27% said they would "resolve feuds with loved ones." 24% said "have sex." --- And in true Valentine's Day fashion, a new Asurion survey says 30% of Americans believe their cell phone "is more helpful to them than their significant other." Reasons given? Cell phones are "more entertaining," "have an 'off button'," and "never talk back."

Ooops!: In yesterday's Evening BRIDGE we wrote about a Cablevision promotion for subscribers in the New York area. An editing error cut out the fact that the promotion ran only through January (and, according to the folks at Cablevision the offer, available only to new subscribers, "is not likely to return."). Our sincere apologies!