While we are modestly raising our 2009 EPS estimate for Viacom to $2.06 from $2.00 due to several below the line items (EBITDA is actually coming down slightly to $2.925 bn), we are significantly reducing our 2010 EBITDA and EPS estimates. Click here
When EPIX announced last month that it had reached a distribution deal with Verizon (see our 7/30 blog post, click here), it indicated that it would make EPIX available as a free preview in the coming weeks. EPIX Free Preview appeared in the “On-Demand” portion of the FIOS TV programming guide this morning, within the premium…
Yesterday evening, Delaware District Court Judge Robert Kugler finally got around to ruling on Universal’s motion to dismiss (case had been in limbo for over 5 months). Judge Kugler granted Universal’s motion to dismiss on two of Redbox’s three main claims, while enabling one of the three to proceed to trial. Click here to…
While the cable industry struggles (and fails) to maintain its video subscriber base, DirecTV continues to significantly outperform with net subscriber additions in the US expected to be around 1.1 mm in 2009 compared to 860K net adds in 2008. The combination of a weak economy (pressuring premium channels penetration) and increasing competition is taking…
When DirecTV renewed its agreement with the NFL to carry the Sunday Ticket through 2014, it gained incremental rights such as mobile products (see our July 13th blog post, click here) and the ability to offer the Sunday Ticket via broadband to multichannel video subscribers, who did not have access to DirecTV (inability to mount…
Time Warner’s studio division, Warner Bros. issued a press release (click here), indicating that starting in October it will only sell DVDs to kiosk vendors (such as Redbox) that agree to wait 28-days before renting movies (following the DVD’s “street date,” similar to Fox’s 30-day window (click here: 8/12 blog post) and Universal’s 45-day window (click…
Redbox, earlier today, announced that it has sued News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox (click here for a copy of the lawsuit). We expected a lawsuit from Redbox following Fox’s decision last week instructing its DVD distributors (VPD and Ingram) to stop selling DVDs to Redbox (as of October 27th; which is just before Ice Age…
Clearwire is already a challenging company to evaluate given its recent rally and technology choice. Q2 results, that were reported last night, do not help in that analysis given the soft subscriber growth and network expansion plan that was more conservative than we expected. We would have liked to see the company put up at…
In the first half of 2009, Cablevision’s free cash flow increased 24% to $402 mm ($1.35/CVC share) with MSG generating a negative $8 mm of free cash flow during that period. MSG’s Form 10, filed last week as part of CVC’s plan for a tax-free spin before year-end, provided the first-ever detailed disclosure of MSG’s…
We upgraded Leap Wireless to Neutral from Sell because the stock is within 15% of our $16 price target. We did not upgrade to Buy because we believe our 2010 EBITDA estimate of $598 million will likely remain below consensus and we do not find the current valuation compelling enough on our estimates. Our concerns…
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