January 2, 2008

360AM: Merger Watchers Zero In on Dish

EchoStar spin-off now official, WGA to picket returning writer-less talk shows and Time Warner Cable banks its 2008 on switched digital.

By Steve Goldstein

Cable360AM — News briefing for Wednesday, Jan. 2 »

Cable360 newsroom staffers are hungover from the Twilight Zone marathon, so please keep the noise down. Good morning.

The spin-off of EchoStar Communications from its Dish Network satellite TV business became effective on Jan. 1. An acquisition of Dish by either AT&T or DirecTV could soon follow, given that Democrats, who are less likely to give the green light to media mergers, may end up controlling both the White House and Congress in 2009. [Seeking Alpha]

The Late Show With David Letterman returns to CBS tonight with its writing staff. Letterman’s production company signed an independent agreement with the striking Writers Guild of America. That agreement included all of the proposals that the WGA submitted to production and media companies prior to the strike that began in early November. The guild will picket those late-night talk shows that are returning this week without their writing staffs, including The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night With Conan O’Brien. Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report are scheduled to return next week without their writers. It’s expected that top-line potential guests of these shows will not want to cross picket lines. [Los Angeles Times]

Time Warner Cable is spending $50 million on switched digital technology in North Carolina and South Carolina to bring its customers "an unlimited number of HD channels by the middle of this year," the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., reports. Current customers will receive all HD channels offered at no extra cost by mid-2008. [News & Observer]

A columnist for the Danbury News-Times test-drives Comcast’s HD service and likes it so much that he decides he might as well pay his overdue cable bill. [Danbury News-Times]

Advertising budgets will continue to tilt toward the Web in 2008. [Wall Street Journal]

Yesterday's 360AM.

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