There aren’t many things that can unite News Corp., Turner Broadcasting, NBC, CBS and Disney, but stopping this legislation is sure to be one of them.

In a nutshell, McCain’s legislation would allow cable, satellite and telco companies to unbundle TV channels, either selling them “a la carte” or in smaller bundles (think a “sports” bundle). It would also prohibit media conglomerates from shifting popular programming from free over the air networks to cable channels (think the NCAA basketball championship being shared between CBS, which is free, and Turner Sports, which is on cable).

McCain, speaking on the Senate floor, noted that the cost of cable has gone up 4X more than the purchasing power of U.S. consumers, thanks largely to the ever-increasing bundles which force cable companies to carry “Nat Geo Wild” if they want Fox News, or “Cloo” if they want USA Network.

“It is unfair and wrong, especially when you consider how the regulatory deck is stacked in favor of the industry, and against the consumer,” McCain said.

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The total purchase price for Microsoft’s stake was $195 million, “net of $100 million of cash and cash equivalents held at MSNBC.com that were acquired in the transaction,” according to the SEC filing.

The deal, which was signed last July, saw NBCU take control of the site and its employees, and redirected visitors to a new site called NBCNews.com. MSNBC.com is in the process of being transformed into a site dedicated to the politics-centric cable news outlet.

It is a fascinating deal because websites tied to TV operations are rarely if ever broken out financially. The purchase price means that Microsoft and NBCU valued MSNBC.com at around ~$500 million. It is not a perfect science, but general traffic stats have MSNBC.com slightly behind CNN’s digital properties, and almost double that of Fox News Channel’s digital properties. Obviously advertising sales and revenue models can vary from company to company, but it at least gives a ballpark estimate of the value of some of these digital properties.

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Obviously news events that happen on a schedule, like an election or royal wedding, are the easiest sells.

“Some of the news events that occur are tough because of how graphic they can be and how life-changing they become,” D’Alba said. After all, you can’t exactly pitch Nokia on a spot about the death of Muammar Gaddafi, even though cellphones were directly involved. But D’Alba said that CNN doesn’t just sell on royal weddings and elections. “We have a good track record,” he said. “That makes it easier for our guys to represent the brand and the product in the marketplace.”

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In Session currently airs from 9AM-3PM every weekday, but will shift to 9AM-11AM on March 4th. In Session anchor Vinnie Politan will anchor the new two-hour format. A handful of production positions have been eliminated.

In place of In Session, truTV will air replays of its primetime programs, along with acquired programming. The new lineup “is designed to provide a better flow into truTV’s early fringe and primetime lineup,” according to the spokesperson.

In Session is the last vestige of Court TV, which truTV replaced in 2008. In 2009 In Session shifted its production from New York to Atlanta, with HLN taking over programming responsibility for the block.

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By acquiring the property, it is likely that the GE logo that has adorned the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza since 1988 will be replaced. Before being called the GE Building, it was known as the RCA building. According to CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla, Comcast will be getting the naming rights to the building in the deal.

“The management team at GE has been has been a wonderful partner during the past two years and their support has been very valuable,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts in a statement. “Our decision to acquire GE’s ownership is driven by our sense of optimism for the future prospects of NBCUniversal and our desire to capture future value that we hope to create for our shareholders.”

Comcast was expected to acquire full control of NBCU eventually, though the process was originally slated to begin in 2014. Now it appears the deal will be done in March.

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The new channel will not be Al Jazeera English, the company’s English-language news outlet, but rather a new, U.S.-based network. The channel is tentatively being called Al Jazeera America, but a source close to the company says that it isn’t wedded to the name, and may try to create a new brand. One of the options being considered, according to our source, is calling the channel “beIN,” or “beIN News,” to make it mesh with Al Jazeera’s beIN Sport network, which already has some U.S. distribution.

The impetus for the fresh name would stem from Al Jazeera’s brand in the U.S., which, while strong with journalists in New York and DC, is decidedly mixed across the rest of the country.

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The company’s newspaper and publishing businesses will become their own company, retaining the News Corp. name. Dow Jones editor in chief Robert Thomson will become CEO of the new News Corp. January 1. The company is also shutting down The Daily, its iPad-only newspaper.

News Corp.’s TV and film businesses, which include Fox News Channel, Fox Broadcasting and 20th Century Fox, will become part of what is now called “The Fox Group.” The Fox Group will be led by Rupert Murdoch as CEO, and Chase Carey as president and COO.

“At Fox Group, what began with the acquisition of a modest film studio over 25 years ago has grown into one of the world’s most successful media companies of all times, defying conventional wisdom at every turn by pursuing excellence in creativity and innovation,” said Murdoch in a statement. “Fox Group is perfectly positioned to deliver even more inspiring stories that engage audiences through film, television, sports and digital platforms, driving not only financial results but a lasting imprint on the millions of people who enjoy our various services, in every corner of the world.”

After the jump, Murdoch’s note to staff explaining the moves.

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Under the role being discussed between News Corp and Mr Murdoch, Peter Rice, the Los Angeles-based head of News Corp’s Fox Networks Group, will report directly to Mr Murdoch, currently the deputy chief operating officer at the company…

Mr Murdoch had pressed for his expanded role to be announced in July, when Mr Rice was promoted to run Fox Networks, according to several people close to the situation. But Rupert Murdoch – his father and News Corp’s chairman – and Chase Carey, the company’s chief operating officer, resisted.

The hiring would generate substantial controversy, given the younger Murdoch’s role in the UK hacking scandal. He was overseeing the UK newspaper businesses when the scandal exploded, and he was one of the high-profile witnesses called before Parliament to explain what happened.

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“We aim to take that business closer to what we think reflects the value of that channel,” Carey said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Carey has been speaking about how FNC is undervalued for years.

He  also addressed the long-rumored Fox Sports channel. Carey said coyly  ”We obviously haven’t announced anything,” according to B&C.

One source at News Corp. tells me that Fox is planning to move forward with the channel, which is being referred to internally as “Fox Sports 1″ or “The 1″ for short. A check of the US Patent & Trademark Office files show that Fox Sports filed for trademarks on “Fox Sports 1,” Fox Sports The 1″ and “The 1″ on September 14. Those filings do not prove that News Corp. plans to move forward with the project, but indicates that it is progressing to the point where the company wants to protect potential names for the channel.

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David Frum

CNN contributor David Frum writes an in-depth piece looking at the challenges facing cable news… on CNN.com. It is a pretty reasonable take, with some arguments that may be familiar to longtime media watchers. Nonetheless, his advice may be worth heeding for cable news executives, particularly at CNN, which published the piece.

What cable news does do, unrivaled, is broadcast images of events to a large global audience. When there’s a crowd protesting in Tahrir Square — or a wildfire raging in southern California — viewers still turn to cable. Yet how often do such events occur? And how much longer will even that advantage hold?

As for advice, Frum has a few ideas:

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Only in the media business can two enterprises that, combined, funnel somewhere near $1 billion in profits to their corporate parents, be regarded as sinking ships, failures, and debacles.

Elsewhere, the always acerbic Michael Wolff writes about CNN for The Guardian:
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Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes

“To be clear, we are not satisfied with CNN’s ratings performance, and we are focused on fixing it,” Bewkes added. CNN announced late last week that the longtime president of CNN International, Jim Walton, would be leaving the company at the end of the year.

In the question and answer portion of the call, Bewkes was asked what the company was planning to do to raise CNN’s ratings.

“I think as we all know, it is a great brand,” Bewkes said, touting the channel’s domestic cume numbers (still number one in cable news), as well as its international and digital performance.

“We are going to do a better job putting on programming that will hold viewers,” Bewkes said. “We believe there is very strong demand for objective, comprehensive, non-partisan coverage, but we need to do it in a very compelling, more engaging way than we have been doing of late. That is what we are going to focus on next.”
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That does not mean that the lawsuit is any less serious, however. The complainant is New Delhi Television Limited, India’s largest TV network, and it sounds as though Nielsen at one point acknowledged the problem.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s THR Esq. column has details:

According to NDTV, rampant manipulation of viewership data has been going on for eight years, and when presented with evidence earlier this year, top executives at Nielsen pledged to make changes. But the Indian news giant says these promises have been false ones.

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It isn’t clear what Microsoft has in store for the company, which has built up an impressive client list of media companies, defense companies and government agencies. Microsoft says it wants to run its Windows 8 operating system on PPI screens, and it isn’t clear whether the existing software–such as its election tracker program–will follow. PPI also has a number of very important patents in the touchscreen space, which would help bolster Microsoft’s portfolio.

Perceptive Pixel produced the “Magic Wall” that started the whole cable news touchscreen craze on CNN back in 2008. ABC, Bloomberg, ESPN, Fox News, Univision and The Weather Channel also use displays from the company. Ironically, MSNBC originally used the “surface” touchscreen from its then-partner Microsoft, rather than a Perceptive Pixel display.

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He gave the first interview to Fox News and Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto, around 11 AM. The interview was simulcast on both networks. Murdoch talked about the Supreme Court healthcare decision, as well as the move:

Underscoring the significance of the move, Murdoch did something else he rarely does: he went on networks owned by his competition. CNBC and Bloomberg each secured an interview with him after his Fox appearance (watch them after the jump). Why? Fox Business is still far behind CNBC during the daytime hours ratings-wise, and Murdoch likely wanted to get his message across to as many investors and traders as possible. Bloomberg TV isn’t rated by Nielsen, but it does have a following among the C-level set. Murdoch even made some news on CNBC, saying the Wall Street Journal could be renamed “WSJ.”

WATCH:

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