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SYDNEY —Apple® today announced iTunes Radio™ is now available to music fans in Australia. iTunes Radio is a free Internet radio service featuring over 100 stations and an incredible catalog of music from the iTunes Store®, combined with features only iTunes® can deliver. When you tune into iTunes Radio on your iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch®, Mac®, PC or Apple TV®, you’ll have access to stations inspired by the music you already listen to, Featured Stations curated by Apple and genre-focused stations that are personalized just for you. iTunes Radio evolves based on the music you play and download. The more you use iTunes Radio and iTunes, the more it knows what you like to listen to and the more personalized your experience becomes. iTunes Radio also gives you access to exclusive “First Play” premieres from top selling artists, plus the ability to tag or buy anything you hear with just one click.

iTunes Radio offers music fans access to thousands of new songs every week, as well as serving up exclusive music from new and popular artists before you hear them anywhere else. Whether it’s an exclusive single from an up-and-coming band or a pre-release stream of an entire album, iTunes Radio has it all. iTunes Radio is home to special events including live streams direct from the iTunes Festival in London and other exclusive iTunes Sessions.

iTunes Radio is ad-supported and free for everyone. iTunes Match® users get iTunes Radio ad-free, so instead of hearing the occasional ad on iTunes Radio, iTunes Match makes your listening completely ad-free. With iTunes Match, all your music—even songs you’ve imported from CDs—are stored in iCloud®. iTunes Radio can use information about your entire music collection to make your stations even more personalized. iTunes Match costs AU$34.99 for a year.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

This Press Release is courtesy of www.apple.com

PHILADELPHIA & NEW YORK–Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq:CMCSA)(Nasdaq:CMCSK) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) today announced that their Boards of Directors have approved a definitive agreement for Time Warner Cable to merge with Comcast. The agreement is a friendly, stock-for-stock transaction in which Comcast will acquire 100 percent of Time Warner Cable’s 284.9 million shares outstanding for shares of CMCSA amounting to approximately $45.2 billion in equity value. Each Time Warner Cable share will be exchanged for 2.875 shares of CMCSA, equal to Time Warner Cable shareholders owning approximately 23 percent of Comcast’s common stock, with a value to Time Warner Cable shareholders of approximately $158.82 per share based on the last closing price of Comcast shares. The transaction will generate approximately $1.5 billion in operating efficiencies and will be accretive to Comcast’s free cash flow per share while preserving balance sheet strength. The merger will also be tax free to Time Warner Cable shareholders.

This transaction will create a leading technology and innovation company, differentiated by its ability to deliver ground-breaking products on a superior network while leveraging a national platform to create operating efficiencies and economies of scale.

“The combination of Time Warner Cable and Comcast creates an exciting opportunity for our company, for our customers, and for our shareholders,” said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Comcast Corporation. “In addition to creating a world-class company, this is a compelling financial and strategic transaction for our shareholders. Also, it is our intention to expand our buyback program by an additional $10 billion at the close of the transaction. We believe there are meaningful operational efficiencies and the adjusted purchase multiple is approximately 6.7x Operating Cash Flow. This transaction will be accretive and will yield many synergies and benefits in the years ahead. Rob Marcus and his team have created a pure-play cable company that, combined with Comcast, has the foundation for future growth. We are looking forward to working with his team as we bring our companies together to deliver the most innovative products and services and a superior customer experience within the highly competitive and dynamic marketplace in which we operate.”

“This combination creates a company that delivers maximum value for our shareholders, enormous opportunities for our employees and a superior experience for our customers,” said Robert D. Marcus, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable. “Comcast and Time Warner Cable have been the leaders in all of the industry’s most important innovations of the last 25 years and this merger will accelerate the pace of that innovation. Brian Roberts, Neil Smit, Michael Angelakis and the Comcast management team have built an industry-leading platform and innovative products and services, and we’re excited to be part of delivering all of the possibilities of cable’s superior broadband networks to more American consumers.”

The new cable company, which will be led by President and CEO Neil Smit, will generate multiple pro-consumer and pro-competitive benefits, including an accelerated deployment of existing and new innovative products and services for millions of customers. Comcast’s subscribers today have access to the most comprehensive video experience, including the cloud-based X1 Entertainment Operating System, plus 50,000 video on demand choices on television, 300,000 plus streaming choices on XfinityTV.com, Xfinity TV mobile apps that offer 35 live streaming channels plus the ability to download to watch offline later, and the newly launched X1 cloud DVR. Comcast is also a technology leader in broadband and has increased Internet speeds 12 times in the past 12 years across its entire footprint.

Time Warner Cable owns cable systems located in key geographic areas, including New York City, Southern California, Texas, the Carolinas, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Time Warner Cable will combine its unique products and services with Comcast’s, including StartOver, which allows customers to restart a live program in progress to the beginning, and LookBack, which allows customers to watch programs up to three days after they air live, all without a DVR. Time Warner Cable also has been a leader in the deployment of community Wi-Fi, and will combine its more than 30,000 hotspots, primarily in Los Angeles and New York City, and its in-home management system, IntelligentHome, with Comcast’s offerings.

Through this merger, more American consumers will benefit from technological innovations, including a superior video experience, higher broadband speeds, and the fastest in-home Wi-Fi. The transaction also will generate significant cost savings and other efficiencies. American businesses will benefit from a broader platform, and the Company will be better able to offer advanced services like high-performance point-to-point and multi-point Ethernet services and cloud-based managed services to enterprises. Additionally, the transaction will combine complementary advertising platforms and channels and allow Comcast to offer broader and more valuable packages to national advertisers.

Through the merger, Comcast will acquire Time Warner Cable’s approximately 11 million managed subscribers. In order to reduce competitive concerns, Comcast is prepared to divest systems serving approximately 3 million managed subscribers. As such, Comcast will, through the acquisition and management of Time Warner Cable systems, net approximately 8 million managed subscribers in this transaction. This will bring Comcast’s managed subscriber total to approximately 30 million. Following the transaction, Comcast’s share of managed subscribers will remain below 30 percent of the total number of MVPD subscribers in the U.S. and will be essentially equivalent to Comcast Cable’s subscriber share after its completion of both the 2002 AT&T Broadband transaction and the 2006 Adelphia transaction.

The companies said the merger agreement between Comcast and Time Warner Cable is subject to shareholder approval at both companies and regulatory review and other customary conditions and is expected to close by the end of 2014.

This Press Release is courtesy of www.timewarnercable.com

Comcast has announced that it has signed an agreement with Warner Bros. to start selling the studio’s titles through the Xfinity On Demand digital store. Beginning today, Xfinity TV customers will be able to purchase Warner Bros. movies and TV shows to own and access anytime, anywhere, on any device, often several weeks ahead of DVD release.

Comcast Becomes Nation’s Top Seller of ‘Despicable Me 2’ Days After Launching Digital Store
“We are thrilled to add the Warner Bros.’ hit films and television shows to our rapidly expanding offering of titles available for purchase,” said Michael Schreiber, Senior Vice President of Content Acquisition at Comcast. “Our Xfinity On Demand platform provides customers with the most current content, where and when they want it, and the incredible success of our digital store and cloud-based digital locker will only continue to grow as we expand the platform.”

Gravity, one of the top-grossing movies of 2013, earned 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Actress, Best Director and Best Picture and will be among the first titles for purchase, beginning February 11. Additional Warner Bros. titles that will become available for purchase include: 42, Argo, The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, Prisoners, We’re the Millers, The Conjuring, The Following, Getaway, The Hangover Part III, and Veronica Mars.

“Comcast is an excellent partner and its Xfinity TV digital storefront is a terrific outlet for Warner Bros.’ great slate of films and TV shows,” said Jim Wuthrich, president of the Americas, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. “We’re very pleased to see Comcast move into digital sales and we look forward to helping them further expand their digital store.”

In November 2013, Comcast became the first pay-television provider in the country to sell Digital HD content for download and streaming. The company’s Xfinity TV customers quickly embraced the new feature and, according to Universal Pictures, helped make Comcast the nation’s top digital seller of Despicable Me 2 for the week ending December 3.

Comcast customers have the ability to purchase movies and television shows – often weeks before they are available to rent or purchase on Blu-ray and DVD – and store them, seamlessly, in the cloud. Their content can be enjoyed anywhere, anytime, on their TV, PC or mobile devices, without the hassle of managing discs or remembering passwords. Purchased titles are added to the customer’s On Demand menu which is easily accessible on the TV, online at XfinityTV.com or via the Xfinity On Demand Purchases App.

This Press Release is courtesy of www.comcast.com

CULVER CITY, Calif., – getTV, Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks’ new U.S. digital broadcast television network, showcasing Hollywood’s most memorable films from the 1930s through the 1960s, is launching today in more than 44 percent of the U.S. television households.

Carried as a digital subchannel on Univision Television Group-owned stations and others, getTV is launching in 24 markets, representing 17 of the top 20 DMAs. getTV is available across the country, from Los Angeles to New York on cable and free-to-air. The network will announce additional affiliates shortly.

“getTV is bringing the brightest stars and most unforgettable films from classic Hollywood into the living rooms of television viewers across the U.S. Our programming showcases the epic stories, legendary characters and glamour of the golden age of film. We believe that getTV will become a favorite network for movie fans looking for strong stories and rich characters,” said Superna Kalle, senior vice president, U.S. networks, SPT and general manager, Sony Movie Channel, Cine Sony Television and getTV, who manages the network.

The network officially kicks off at 4 p.m. (ET)/1 p.m. (PT) with a month long salute to two-time Academy Award® winner Jack Lemmon, beginning with the 1957 military comedy classic OPERATION MAD BALL, starring Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, and Mickey Rooney.

At launch, getTV’s 24/7 schedule features some of the best of Hollywood’s movies chosen primarily from the Sony Pictures library with titles ranging from Academy Award®-winning films to Westerns and comedies.

The network offers weekly ‘get’ themes and programming blocks that represent different genres and generations. On Saturdays at ‘high noon’ viewers can ‘get out of town’ when getTV presents a full day and night of classic Westerns. On Sunday evenings the network highlights silver screen favorites and Tuesday’s primetime schedule ‘gets groovy,’ as getTV romps through the campy, comedic movies of the late 1950s and 1960s with its ‘Groovy Tuesdays’ block. Thursday and Friday nights, getTV features the work of iconic Hollywood stars. And, each weekday at 1 p.m. (ET)/10 a.m. (PT), the network showcases legendary film actresses with its ‘Afternoon Delight’ block.

In addition to its 24/7 schedule, getTV is launching the companion site get.tv, to provide viewers programming information, channel availability and an image-rich look at featured content. Film fans can also “get” social with the network, participate in upcoming sweepstakes and discover trivia by visiting getTV’s Facebook page.

Starting today, getTV can be seen on the following channels in these respective markets. In addition to the channel positions noted below, viewers are encouraged to consult their cable or pay TV service provider for additional location options or visit get.tv for channel numbers in their respective areas.

Market
Station, (Channel #)
Atlanta
WUVG-DT, Athens (34.3)
Austin
KAKW-DT, Killeen (62.3)
Bakersfield
TBD
Boston
WUTF-DT, Marlborough (66.3)
Chicago
WGBO-DT, Joliet (66.2)
Cleveland
WQHS-DT (61.3)
Dallas
KSTR-DT, Irving (49.2)
Denver
KTFD-DT, Boulder (14.3)
Fresno
KFTV-DT, Hanford (21.2)
Houston
KFTH-DT, Alvin (67.2)
Los Angeles
KFTR-DT, Ontario (46.2)
Miami
WAMI-DT, Hollywood (69.3)
New York
WFUT-DT, Newark (68.3)
Orlando
WOTF-DT, Melbourne (43.2)
Philadelphia
WUVP-DT, Vineland (65.3)
Phoenix
KFPH-DT, Flagstaff (13.3)
Raleigh
WUVC-DT, Fayetteville (40.4)
Sacramento
KTFK, Stockton (64.3)
Salt Lake City
KUTH-DT, Provo (32.3)
San Antonio
KWEX-DT, San Antonio (41.2)
San Francisco
KDTV-DT, San Francisco (14.3)
Tampa
WFTT-DT, Tampa (50.3)
Tucson
KUVE-DT, Green Valley (46.3)
Washington, D.C.
WFDC-DT, Arlington (14.3)

This Press Release is courtesy of www.sony.com

Mountain View, CA and Washington, DC; – The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Google today announced a settlement agreement that will provide access to publishers’ in-copyright books and journals digitized by Google for its Google Library Project. The dismissal of the lawsuit will end seven years of litigation.

The agreement settles a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Google on October 19, 2005 by five AAP member publishers. As the settlement is between the parties to the litigation, the court is not required to approve its terms.

The settlement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright-holders. US publishers can choose to make available or choose to remove their books and journals digitized by Google for its Library Project. Those deciding not to remove their works will have the option to receive a digital copy for their use.

Apart from the settlement, US publishers can continue to make individual agreements with Google for use of their other digitally-scanned works.

“We are pleased that this settlement addresses the issues that led to the litigation,” said Tom Allen, President and CEO, AAP. “It shows that digital services can provide innovative means to discover content while still respecting the rights of copyright-holders.”

“Google is a company that puts innovation front and center with all that it does,” said David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, Google. “By putting this litigation with the publishers behind us, we can stay focused on our core mission and work to increase the number of books available to educate, excite and entertain our users via Google Play.”

Google Books allows users to browse up to 20% of books and then purchase digital versions through Google Play. Under the agreement, books scanned by Google in the Library Project can now be included by publishers.

Further terms of the agreement are confidential.

This settlement does not affect Google’s current litigation with the Authors Guild or otherwise address the underlying questions in that suit.

The publisher plaintiffs are The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.; Pearson Education, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; and Simon & Schuster, Inc. part of CBS Corporation.

This Press Release is courtesy of www.google.com

New York, NY – Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCO) and Polaris Project today announced a new campaign designed to shine a spotlight on the serious issue of human trafficking. Human trafficking is modern-day slavery where profits are derived from the organized control and exploitation of women, children and men for various purposes including labor and sex acts. Launching today on strategically located billboards in New York and New Jersey, the campaign educates the public on the true scale and diverse victims of human trafficking under the banner “Traffic Report.”

The “Traffic Report” campaign launched today in New Jersey and New York in order to reach the local public and the more than 500,000 football fans descending on the region for the biggest football game of the year. This campaign builds on Clear Channel Outdoor’s broader efforts to highlight the issue of human trafficking with Polaris Project and other partners in a variety of markets since 2012, including Baltimore, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Seattle.

“Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business that impacts all of us at the community and national levels and demands greater public awareness and action to help victims,” said Suzanne Grimes, president and chief operating officer, Clear Channel Outdoor – North America. “Polaris Project’s data on the size and scope of the human trafficking industry is sobering, and we felt compelled to use our power to connect to people to develop a strong campaign that would help draw attention to the issue in the biggest way possible — both to affect change and to send a ray of hope to those who are being exploited.”

“Despite the enormity of the problem, most people don’t even realize that human trafficking is happening in their own back yards, and those being exploited are largely unaware that help is available,” said Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris Project. “This form of modern slavery occurs at large sporting events, in suburban brothels, and in farms and factories across America. We want people to understand that sex and labor trafficking is a huge problem across the country that demands our attention and resources – 365 days a year.”

Over the next two weeks, the campaign will make more than 11 million impressions via 26 strategically located digital billboards in New Jersey and New York. In Manhattan, the campaign will run at marquee locations including the Port Authority (625 8th Avenue, between 41st and 42nd Streets), Penn Plaza (425/427 7th Avenue, between 33rd and 34th Streets), and Times Square (1560 Broadway, between 46th and 47th Streets). Additionally, 23 Clear Channel Outdoor digital billboards along the I-95 corridor in New Jersey and Westchester County, New York will run the campaign which will raise the visibility of the issue and engage the public to learn more at www.polarisproject.org/365days.

“I applaud Polaris Project and Clear Channel Outdoor for this tremendous campaign to bring national attention to the atrocities of human trafficking that remain so hidden from our society,” said New York City Council Member Laurie A. Cumbo, who represents District 35 in Brooklyn and chairs the Committee on Women’s Issues for the City Council. “It’s unacceptable that in today’s world, human trafficking still exists. It is my hope that this campaign will inform victims of trafficking that there is real help available while simultaneously encouraging others to work collaboratively to end this form of modern day slavery.”

This Press Release is courtesy of www.clearchannel.com

Today we are announcing a unified approach to digital advertising that only Yahoo can deliver – across premium and audience-focused display, native and search advertising.

The online advertising world today is fragmented, difficult to navigate, and not always customer-friendly. For advertisers to get the reach, targeting, and ad effectiveness they want, they have to work with multiple publishers, ad networks and exchanges, demand-side platforms, and analytics vendors, among others. And still, advertisers are left with limited ability to measure and optimize the performance of their campaigns.

We think there is a better way. The new Yahoo Advertising includes a comprehensive suite of web, mobile, and video ad products across native, audience, and premium display, which are accessible through a new buying platform. These products are supported by Yahoo’s data and analytical tools, with insights into the daily digital habits of more than 800 million people worldwide.

What’s New:

Tumblr Sponsored Posts now powered by Yahoo Advertising
Yahoo Audience Ads — a better way to buy ads targeted to specific audiences
Yahoo Ad Manager and Ad Manager Plus — a new buying platform that gives advertisers direct, hands-on access to Yahoo’s advertising products
Yahoo Ad Exchange — a new global ad marketplace that provides premium publishers with more visibility and control over advertising on their sites.

Yahoo Stream Ads and Yahoo Image Ads offer native ads that are organic and as engaging as the stories around them. Today, we are excited to announce that Tumblr Sponsored Posts are now powered by Yahoo Advertising. The ads are a more natural, seamless part of the reader’s experience, leading to higher impact for advertisers.

We’re introducing the new Yahoo Audience Ads, a better way to buy ads targeted to specific audiences. Yahoo Audience Ads deliver the right messages to the right users across Yahoo and other high-quality sites with the scale and targeting precision of real-time programmatic buying. Expanding the services previously available as Genome, Yahoo Audience Ads offer optimized, data-driven ad buying with enhanced analytics. Advertisers have access to a comprehensive set of audience data, combining Yahoo data with advertiser data and third-party data, all usable on an extended pool of high-quality inventory.

Yahoo Audience Ads complement our existing premium display offering, Yahoo Premium Ads. Yahoo Premium Ads offer the largest digital advertising canvas for brand and performance advertisers on the web. Run a brand campaign on the Yahoo homepage, sponsor March Madness on Yahoo Sports, or run premium video ads on Yahoo Screen. Yahoo Premium Ads ensure the right audiences are reached on brand-safe and contextually relevant sites.

These new native and display ads are now available to large and small advertisers through a new simplified platform, Yahoo Ad Manager. Yahoo Ad Manager gives advertisers direct, hands-on access to Yahoo’s advertising products. Yahoo Stream Ads, Yahoo Image Ads and Tumblr Sponsored Posts powered by Yahoo Advertising are available today through a simple user interface that helps advertisers get ads online in a matter of minutes, with insights and analytics built in.

Yahoo Ad Manager Plus is an extension of Yahoo Ad Manager for larger advertisers to plan, execute and optimize complex display ad campaigns directly, giving them greater control over the performance of their ads on Yahoo and third-party programmatic inventory. Many features of Yahoo Audience Ads and Premium Ads can be accessed through Yahoo Ad Manager Plus, available later in Q1. Yahoo offers managed services through Yahoo Audience Ads and Yahoo Premium Ads for advertisers who want custom audience definition, richer campaign measurement and insights, access to exclusive inventory, varied pricing options, and full-service optimization.

Yahoo Ad Exchange is a new global ad marketplace launching in Q1 that provides premium publishers with more visibility and control over advertising on their sites. Continuing the evolution of programmatic advertising, the Yahoo Ad Exchange upgrades the powerful services that our partners know from Right Media with a higher-quality marketplace and an enhanced platform featuring payment clearing, advanced inventory and demand controls, and flexible private marketplaces.

These new Yahoo Advertising products offer brands and advertisers the most comprehensive ways in the market to accurately target campaigns, utilize dTata and insights from Yahoo, advertisers, and third parties. Because Yahoo is at the center of people’s daily habits across search, communications, media, and video, we can offer uniquely powerful insights on consumer behavior.

We are committed to driving innovation in ad technology across the industry. Yahoo Advertising is our investment in building better advertising tools to create engaging experiences that users enjoy and advertisers embrace.

This Press Release is courtesy YAHOO.COM

Hearst achieved record revenue and profit in 2013, and recorded its fourth consecutive year of revenue and profit growth since the recession of 2008–2009.

Strong year-over-year performances came from our cable networks, A+E Networks and ESPN; Fitch Ratings; healthcare businesses First Databank and MCG, formerly Milliman Care Guidelines, acquired last December; and the newspaper group. Our U.S. magazines grew profit in 2013, and our television stations exceeded expectations and are poised for a strong 2014 with the return of the Olympics and congressional and gubernatorial elections. Our ventures team scored a very strong return on its investment in digital marketing company HootSuite.

Hearst’s outstanding performance reflects the quality of what our talented colleagues create every day for the screen and the page, and the strong and innovative partnerships we forge with our clients around the world. Our profit achievement also reflects the hard work of so many who constantly look for more efficient ways to do business without compromising the quality of what we offer customers.

Our business mix continues to evolve. Today, roughly 60 percent of our revenue comes from sources other than advertising revenue, including carriage fees for our cable networks and television stations, business-to-business and consumer subscription revenues, and marketing services fees. More than 20 percent of our revenue is derived from outside the U.S.
On June 1, our executive vice chairman, Frank Bennack, ended his second tour of duty as our chief executive. A few weeks later, he and I spoke with our chairman, Will Hearst, and the rest of our board members about the fundamental principles of Frank’s highly successful 30-year run and how they form the basis of the company’s future growth strategy.

We boiled them down to four, not necessarily in order of importance:
I. Continue Remaking Our Business Mix for Growth
II. Strengthen Our Core Portfolio
III. Become a More Digital Company
IV. Secure and Retain Top Talent
I’m going to discuss each of these in the context of what we accomplished in 2013 and what we will continue to do in the years ahead.

I. Continue Remaking Our Business Mix for Growth
A hallmark of Frank’s tenure has been the continued allocation of capital to the sectors of the media and information landscape that have offered the best prospects for growth. While this is of course harder than it sounds, we are confident that there are two areas where we have shown particular skill and where the underlying growth prospects are quite strong: business media and entertainment.

Hearst Business Media, led by Rich Malloch, was active in 2013. In December, we announced the acquisition of 85 percent of Homecare Homebase, a leader in the field of providing software, data and analytics to the fast-growing homecare and hospice industries. Homecare Homebase, founded and led by CEO April Anthony, becomes the fourth significant company in the Hearst healthcare portfolio, along with First Databank, Zynx Health and MCG. In its first full year under our ownership, MCG, led by President and CEO Jon Shreve, outperformed our optimistic expectations and finished the year with profits up more than 25 percent. First Databank acquired Design Clinicals, a company that helps hospitals reconcile the drugs a new patient is already taking with those the hospital seeks to prescribe. Under President and CEO Paul Taylor, our 50 percent–owned Fitch Ratings business acquired 7city Learning, a financial services industry training company based in London that we’ve renamed Fitch Learning. Meanwhile, our two principal automotive businesses kept their amazing profit-growth streaks alive: For National Auto Research/Black Book, headed by Tom Cross, it was its 22nd straight year of profit growth and for Motor Information Systems, under Kevin Carr, its 20th straight year.
At our cable networks, A+E
Networks announced that it will turn its BIO channel into a new lifestyle channel called FYI, bringing A+E’s singular reputation for creativity to such lifestyle subjects as food, home and travel. ESPN, led by President John Skipper, announced the creation of a new cable channel with the hugely successful SEC sports conference, featuring such powerhouse college sports teams as Alabama, Auburn and Missouri. And ESPN has secured exclusive coverage of the US Open starting in 2015, further enhancing its continuing coverage of the four major professional tennis tournaments.
Our partnership with prolific television producer Mark Burnett, ONE THREE MEDIA, also had a great 2013 on the strength of its productions The Voice on NBC and Shark Tank on ABC, as well as the success of VIMBY, a 50 percent–owned ONE THREE venture that makes commercial video for key partner companies such as Wal-Mart. Mark and his wife, Roma Downey, also partnered with us to produce HISTORY’s hugely successful series The Bible.

II. Strengthen Our Core Portfolio
We continue to invest in our longtime franchise businesses of local television, magazines and newspapers. We supported our highly successful Omaha television station KETV by acquiring the iconic downtown train station in Omaha and beginning the process of turning it into KETV’s new home. We also became the first TV station group to partner with its network to launch TV Everywhere streaming applications when we announced our partnership with Disney’s ABC network in May.
Our magazine group under David Carey launched an ambitious upgrade of all our Web and mobile products, beginning with leaders Cosmopolitan.com and ELLE.com, that will be fully unveiled in early 2014. Cosmopolitan continued to develop its branded products with the announcement of a conference business in partnership with the William Morris Endeavor agency. And Seventeen announced an exciting partnership in the fast growing world of streaming video by teaming with Dreamworks’ AwesomenessTV venture on a new streaming network for the teen market.
And Hearst Newspapers President Mark Aldam’s investment in the group’s LocalEdge suite of digital marketing services products for small business customers around the country continues to bear fruit as the initiative turned solidly profitable in 2013 with revenue more than doubling. More than 40 other media entities have also signed on to sell the LocalEdge product suite in their markets, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, New York Daily News and Newsday. And LocalEdge just signed its first international customer, Australia’s Fairfax newspaper group.

III. Become a More Digital Company
To truly succeed we can’t just offer our customers digital products; we have to become a more digital company in the way we operate our businesses every day. Under the leadership of Chief Technology Officer Phil Wiser, we launched an audience exchange to connect, for the first time, our clients to the more than 100 million unique users who visit Hearst digital products every month. We created Digital Studios to allow for fast prototyping, building and testing of new digital products. We introduced a new video platform that allows any of our journalists around the world to shoot and edit on their mobile phones. And we convened hackathons in our New York headquarters for our fashion magazine brands and on the campus of the University of Michigan for our automotive brands.

IV. Secure and Retain Top Talent
We are dedicated to developing and promoting our key talent from within the organization wherever possible. But as the world changes at such a rapid pace, it is also incumbent upon us to reach out to new sources of talent to gain new perspectives and new skills. We executed on both of those efforts in 2013.
Beginning with internal promotions, David Barrett completed at year-end an outstanding 15-year run as CEO of Hearst Television and handed over leadership to his deputy, Jordan Wertlieb, president, and himself a 20-year veteran of the group. David will remain very active as a Hearst trustee and board member. Mike Hayes, general manager at our Pittsburgh station, WTAE-TV, came to New York as an SVP and group head.

At our A+E Networks, CEO Abbe Raven became chairman after eight incredibly strong years as CEO and having run the A&E, HISTORY and BIO channels prior to becoming CEO in 2005. Nancy Dubuc, a 15-year veteran of A+E, became CEO. Nancy also named four people as general managers of our principal networks: David McKillop at A&E, Dirk Hoogstra at HISTORY, Rob Sharenow at Lifetime and Jana Bennett at the forthcoming FYI and Lifetime Movie Network.

New leadership at our Entertainment & Syndication group also came from within, as the deputy in that group, George Kliavkoff, partnered with the company’s chief creative officer, Neeraj Khemlani, himself a former deputy head of E&S, to become new co-presidents.

Dr. Greg Dorn, a 14-year veteran of our medical businesses, became executive vice president and deputy group head of Hearst Business Media, with primary responsibility for our healthcare businesses under Rich Malloch. Two top executives at our First Databank became executive vice presidents there, Bob Katter and Chuck Tuchinda.
We also successfully went outside of the company for top talent. Hearst Magazines remade its digital leadership team with three major new hires: Troy Young, former president of Say Media, as president of digital; Todd Haskell, former head of digital advertising at The New York Times, as head of digital advertising; and Mike Smith, former president of Forbes.com, to lead our innovation efforts marrying technology and advertising sales.

Private equity executive Jeff Johnson, a former publisher of the Los Angeles Times, became publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Nancy Barnes, who led the Minneapolis Star Tribune to a Pulitzer Prize last year, became editor of the Houston Chronicle. Mike DeLuca, a Groupon sales leader, became president of LocalEdge.

Dr. Justin Graham, formerly chief medical information officer at NorthBay Healthcare in California, became head of innovation for our healthcare operations, and David Vogler left digital ad agency The Wonderfactory to become executive creative director of Hearst Digital Studios.

All our operating groups benefit from the great support provided by our corporate teams: finance, led by Chief Financial Officer Mitch Scherzer; legal, led by Chief Legal and Development Officer Jim Asher and General Counsel Eve Burton; and communications, headed by Chief Communications Officer Debra Shriver.

We head into 2014 with a great deal of optimism due in no small measure to the innovation and dedication each of you show to Hearst each day. On behalf of our chairman, Will Hearst, and executive vice chairman, Frank Bennack, I want to thank you for all you do to make this the great company that we are all so fortunate to serve.

This Press Release is courtesy of Hearst.com

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Energy Department, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) announced non-regulatory energy efficiency standards for pay-TV set-top boxes that will result in significant energy savings for more than 90 million U.S. homes. These new standards – developed through a non-regulatory agreement between the pay-TV industry, the consumer electronics industry and energy efficiency advocates – will improve set-top box efficiency by 10 to 45 percent (depending on box type) by 2017, and are expected to save more than $1 billion on consumer energy bills annually.

The set-top box efficiency standards announced today will ultimately save enough electricity each year to power 700,000 homes. The standards will also avoid more than five million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. As consumer demand for digital video recorders and high-definition set-top boxes grows, actual consumer savings are likely to be even greater. The introduction of whole-home devices will also further reduce the overall energy footprint.

“These energy efficiency standards reflect a collaborative approach among the Energy Department, the pay-TV industry and energy efficiency groups – building on more than three decades of common-sense efficiency standards that are saving American families and businesses hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “The set-top box efficiency standards will save families money by saving energy, while delivering high quality appliances for consumers that keep pace with technological innovation.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said: “In 2011, I urged the CEOs of every major television service provider to work together to introduce more energy efficient set-top boxes. At the time, set-top boxes were costing Americans $3 billion in electricity charges each year—with $2 billion wasted when televisions were not being used. Today’s voluntary announcement demonstrates the television industry took this matter seriously, and I commend industry and efficiency advocates for agreeing to make 90 percent of all set-top boxes as efficient as today’s most energy efficient boxes by 2017. This will cut box energy consumption by 10-45 percent and save consumers $1 billion per year. To put that in perspective, this amount of energy savings would eliminate the need for three power plants and prevent 5 million tons of C02 emissions per year. This is a big win for nearly every American who pays a monthly television bill because experts tell me that federal standards could not have produced this much financial and energy savings by 2017. This agreement lasts until 2017, and I intend to monitor the situation carefully to ensure the industry remains committed to building on today’s substantial progress in future years.”

“This historic agreement promises to put $1 billion back in the pockets of U.S. consumers every year because the new set-top boxes will use less energy,” according to Noah Horowitz, Senior Scientist at the NRDC. “We appreciate the industry’s renewed commitment toward making the devices that bring pay TV into 90 million-plus U.S. homes more efficient and look forward to working together to reduce their future energy use.”

A set-top box is a device combining hardware components with software programming to receive television and related services from cable, satellite, broadband or local networks. The non-regulatory agreement provides a framework for the Energy Department, pay-TV industry and energy efficiency advocates to work together on efficient, high-performing set-top boxes that keep pace with technological improvements, achieving what would otherwise be done through regulatory standards and test procedures.

“As Americans increasingly rely on more electronic devices and gadgets, managing energy consumption is both an environmental and economic priority for consumers and industry alike,” said Michael Powell, President and CEO of NCTA. “The cable industry is working hard to improve the overall consumer experience and we are proud to develop solutions that will reduce our energy footprint and result in real energy savings for millions of consumers.”

“The set-top box is an integral part of the broad, diverse, and often-changing entertainment experience in most American households,” said Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of CEA. “The expanded voluntary set-top box energy conservation agreement accommodates both rapid evolution and energy efficiency for this product category and demonstrates our industry’s commitment in leading the way to provide consumers with products that reduce energy consumption and save money.”

The agreement, which runs through 2017, covers all types of set-top boxes from pay-TV providers, including cable, satellite and telephone companies. The agreement also requires the pay-TV industry to publicly report model-specific set-top box energy use and requires an annual audit of service providers by an independent auditor to ensure boxes are performing at the efficiency levels specified in the agreement. The Energy Department also retains its authority to test set-top boxes under the ENERGY STAR ® verification program, which provides another verification tool to measure the efficiency of set-top boxes.

Agreement signatories include pay-TV providers (listed according to number of customers) Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Verizon, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision Systems Corp., Bright House Networks and CenturyLink; and manufacturers Cisco, ARRIS (including Motorola), and EchoStar Technologies. Energy efficiency advocates Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP) are also signatories to the agreement.

This non-regulatory agreement between the pay-TV industry and energy efficiency advocates supports the Energy Department’s broader efforts to help families save money by increasing the energy efficiency of residential and commercial appliances and products. Under the Obama Administration, the Department has finalized new efficiency standards for more than 30 household and commercial products, which are estimated to save consumers a total of more than $400 billion through 2030.

To build on this progress, the Administration has set a new goal: Efficiency standards for appliances and federal buildings set in the first and second terms combined will reduce carbon pollution by at least three billion metric tons cumulatively by 2030 – equivalent to nearly one-half of the carbon pollution from the entire U.S. energy sector for one year.

This Press Release is courtesy of US Department of Energy www.energy.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission today adopted rules to help ensure that Americans’ phone calls to 911 are delivered during disasters. The rules are designed to improve 911 communications networks nationwide by requiring 911 service providers – generally, the wireline phone companies that route both wireline and wireless calls to 911 call centers – to take reasonable measures to provide reliable and resilient 911 service, as evidenced by an annual certification. The FCC also strengthened its rules to ensure that 911 service providers give 911 call centers timely and useful notification of 911 network outages.

Today’s action is the culmination of work that began after a derecho storm hit portions of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic in June 2012, bringing widespread 911 disruptions. From isolated breakdowns in Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, and Indiana to systemic failures in northern Virginia and West Virginia, a significant number of 911 systems and services were partially or completely down for up to several days. Across the storm’s path, at least 77 911 call centers serving more than 3.6 million people in these six states lost some degree of network connectivity, including vital information on the location of 911 callers. At least 17 of these 911 call centers, mostly in northern Virginia and West Virginia, lost service completely, leaving more than 2 million residents unable to reach emergency services.

The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau conducted an inquiry into the 911 outages, finding that many could have been avoided if 911 service providers had fully implemented well-established network reliability best practices – which were developed with and backed by industry – and other sound engineering principles. The FCC said today that a purely voluntary approach to 911 reliability has not been sufficient.

The new rules are designed to maximize flexibility for 911 service providers and account for differences in network architecture without sacrificing reliability. Accordingly, the rules require service providers to certify annually that they have either implemented industry-backed best practices or acceptable alternative measures that are reasonably sufficient in light of their particular circumstances, so long as they briefly explain those measures. The best practices cover three core areas: auditing 911 circuits for physical diversity, maintaining central office backup power, and maintaining reliable and resilient network monitoring systems. If needed, the Bureau may follow up with service providers to address deficiencies revealed by the certification process. The FCC will review these rules in five years to determine whether they are still technologically appropriate, adequate, and necessary.

In addition, the FCC amended its rules to now give 911 service providers deadlines and other more specific requirements for notifying 911 call centers of outages.

This Press Release is courtesy of FCC.gov

The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Gannett Co. Inc., Belo Corp. and Sander Media LLC to divest their interests in KMOV‑TV, a CBS affiliate in St. Louis, in order to proceed with Gannett’s acquisition of Belo, and Sander’s related acquisition of six Belo television stations that Gannett cannot hold under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. The department said that, without the required divestiture, Gannett would have gained a dominant position in broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis area, resulting in higher prices advertisers.

In addition to acquiring the six stations from Belo, Sander will enter into several agreements with Gannett in order to both finance purchasing the stations and facilitate operating the stations. KMOV-TV is one of the six stations Sander would acquire from Belo and would be subject to agreements between Sander and Gannett. These agreements, however, do not include any joint negotiation of retransmission rights in St. Louis. The Gannett-Belo acquisition is valued at approximately $2.2 billion.

The department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed acquisition and related agreements between Gannett and Sander, including an option for Gannett to assign or acquire the Belo stations sold to Sander, a financing guarantee and a long-term shared services agreement. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive concerns alleged in the lawsuit.

“Gannett’s KSDK‑TV and Belo’s KMOV‑TV compete head-to-head in the sale of broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis area, and this rivalry constrains advertising rates,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The full divestiture required by the department will ensure that KMOV-TV will remain a vigorous competitor in St. Louis.”

The department’s complaint alleges that the proposed acquisition would lessen competition in broadcast television spot advertising in the St. Louis Designated Market Area (DMA). Even though the two stations would maintain separate sales forces, the various agreements between Gannett and Sander, KMOV‑TV’s new owner, would align the incentives of the two stations. To remedy this harm, the proposed settlement requires Gannett, Belo and Sander to divest all assets primarily used in the operation of KMOV‑TV to an independent purchaser to be approved by the United States. That purchaser will not be permitted to have any agreements with Gannett concerning KMOV-TV that could limit competition with KSDK-TV, including options to acquire or assign, financing agreements and shared services or joint sales agreements.

Gannett, a Delaware corporation with headquarters in McLean, Va., owns and operates 23 broadcast television stations nationwide, 12 of which are in the top 25 markets, as well as numerous newspapers. Gannett’s KSDK‑TV is the NBC affiliate in St. Louis.

Belo, a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Dallas, owns and operates 20 broadcast television stations nationwide, nine of which are in the top 25 markets. Belo’s KMOV‑TV is the CBS affiliate in St. Louis.

Sander, a Delaware limited liability company with headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz., has no current business activity other than preparing to acquire six Belo stations, including KMOV‑TV in St. Louis, as part of the transactions between Gannett, Belo and Sander.

As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement during a 60‑day comment period to Scott A. Scheele, Chief, Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 7000, Washington, D.C. 20530. At the conclusion of the 60‑day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may approve the proposed settlement upon finding that it is in the public interest.

This Press Release is courtesy of USDOJ

Washington, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission today adopted rules that will enable people who are blind or visually impaired to have easier access to digital video programming on a wide range of electronic devices. The rules will also enable consumers who are deaf or hard of hearing to activate closed captioning on their devices with greater ease.

This action represents the final major step in the FCC’s implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA), enacted in 2010 to bring people with disabilities access to the modern and innovative communications technologies of the twenty-first century. The CVAA is the most significant accessibility legislation since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). As a result of the FCC’s implementation of the CVAA, more than 50 million Americans will have greater access to advanced communications.

Devices covered under the rules adopted today include navigation devices – devices used to access cable or satellite services, such as set-top boxes and TiVos – as well as other devices used to receive or play back digital video, ranging from televisions and computers to tablets and smartphones. All covered devices are required to provide on-screen text menus and guides that are audibly accessible, as well as a mechanism that is comparable to a button, key or icon for activating certain accessibility features, such as closed captioning. Devices other than navigation devices are also required to make their other built-in functions accessible.

The Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking implements Sections 204 and 205 of the CVAA. Its provisions include flexibility for small entities through extended compliance deadlines, outreach requirements to inform the public about the availability of accessibility options, and a procedure for complaints. The Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks comment on a number of areas where the current record is insufficient.

The CVAA has helped ensure that people with disabilities are not left out of the digital revolution by requiring design features that improve accessibility in telephones and television, as well as on the Internet and in new devices, applications, and services. The FCC has played a key role in implementing the Act through initiatives that have already provided enormous benefits to consumers, including the following:

• More than 50 million Americans with disabilities have greater access to advanced communications services, such as text messaging, e-mail, and distant messaging and the equipment used with these services, such as smartphones, personal computers, laptops, and tablets.
• 36 million Americans who are deaf or have hearing loss can watch television programs with closed captions when those programs are re-shown over the Internet, and soon they will be able to use their cell phones, tablets and other portable wireless devices to watch these programs with captions.
• 25 million Americans who are blind or visually impaired can enjoy TV programs with video description and send an email or instant message on a smart phone.
• Thousands of people who are deaf-blind can receive accessible communication devices so they can make telephone calls and access the Internet, to work, learn, and shop, like everyone else.
• Americans with disabilities are able to locate accessible communication products and services through the Commission’s new accessibility clearinghouse at http://apps.fcc.gov/accessibilityclearinghouse/.
• And, as a result of today’s actions, 25 million Americans who are blind or visually impaired will be able to navigate menus on a range of devices that show video programming, with access to captioning facilitated for an additional 36 million Americans.
COURTESY FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

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