Time Warner, Dish Network, and DirecTv: the summer of their discontent

Several of us watching Jersey Shore reruns  last night suffered a rude shock when DirecTv rudely cut off our programming at midnight. Of course, we had been warned--a vague phone call earlier in the day, a hushed, automated voice telling us to call back our service provider, which we didn't because we thought they were going to try to upgrade us again-- but DirecTv's  inability to negotiate with Viacom portends a summer of bad news, television-wise.

No matter who you pick to serve up your TV, it looks like you'll be getting screwed. Here's how it breaks down.

1. DirecTv:  Because of Viacom's demands of a 30 percent increase from the provider, which would equal roughly a billion dollars, networks like Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon are currently unavailable for viewing. Viacom is hitting back hard with viral advertisements:

2. Time Warner: Well, at least you'll be able to watch the Olympics. Hearst-- which owns several local syndicate channels including six ABC affiliates, four NBC stations, one CW station, and a CBS affiliate--are duking it out over retransmission consent fees (Hearst is asking for a 300 percent increase). Monday morning, the stations switched to other local affiliates.

What does that mean for you? Well, if you're in the zones where these are affected (Honolulu, Portland, Kansas City, Lincoln, Neb., Boston, and Pittsburgh), you're going to have to with a lack of Telemundo (among other networks). Still, the Olympics will be covered...Time Warner promises.

3. Dish Networks: Due to expensive rates and low ratings, Dish dropped AMC Networks--which include IFC and Sundance--at the 11th hour like they've threatened to so many times before (sorry, fans of Breaking Bad!). But wait! Dish is offering a consolation prize to its subscribers...Free Rokus! Of course, that won't help us find out what Walt and Jesse are up to this Sunday, but you can always purchase the episode on Amazon Instant Video...though you'll have to eat that cost yourself.

The nightmare just won't end for 'Luck' (HBO)

No wonder HBO turned down The Corrections...they probably can't afford it! Yesterday, the news broke that Luck, the David Milch/Michael Mann show that was put out to pasture after suffering from low ratings and terrible P.R. due to multiple horse deaths, cost parent company Time Warner $35 million to cancel.

But it doesn't end there...the sinkhole of a show could continue to balloon in costs despite being off the air, thanks to a new filing by PETA to the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for an independent investigation of animal abuse.

Thanks to new evidence provided by a whistleblower who provided some explicit documents, PETA has a host of new complaints against the show. Their website lists the allegations against the program:

• To save money, horses were underfed. One horse was an alarming 300 pounds underweight. Trainer Matt Chew proposed to cover the protruding ribs of another horse with a blanket during filming.
• Horses who were sick were still used in filming.
• Some sick horses disappeared from the set without explanation, and the trainer was warned that he could be charged with neglect.
• Improperly trained, unprepared horses were used in racing sequences, endangering the horses and jockeys.
• Horses were regularly drugged, including being tranquilized in order to keep them docile.
• The trainer attempted to deceive humane officers by providing false names for horses, apparently to keep the humane officers from finding out that the horses were unfit for running the "races" required for filming.

PETA is also claiming that the American Humane Association did not do its duty with the 50 horses they were in charge of during the filming: that AHA-hired officers complained of the animals' treatment and called for trainer Matt Chew to be fired...a fact which was allegedly ignored by the AHA. They are asking the D.A. to investigate these charges, as well as the death of a fourth horse that may have died during hiatus.

In a Washington Post item about the filing, PETA claimed it "does not have any evidence to suggest that AHA shared its concerns about any potentially illegal behavior with [the DA’s] office or other law enforcement.”

According to executives who have been briefed on the offering, Mr. Al Fayed is aiming to negotiate a leasehold of the property in which he would continue to own the land under the 600,000-square-foot building and collect rent but put control of the asset in the hands of an investor.

75 Rockefeller Plaza.

Mr. Al Fayed, who sold the UK-based department store chain Harrods to Qatar Holding in 2010, has hired a team from the real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield, led by top executives at the firm including Arthur Mirante, Bruce Mosler and sales specialists Helen Hwang and Michael Rotchford, to market the building. According to those who have been informed about the sale, Mr. Al Fayed has asked that sales materials be sent to only a select group of buyers, a pool of 15-20 that includes top Manhattan real estate investment firms such as the Paramount Group, Vornado Realty Trust and Tishman Speyer, the investment company that controls the bulk of Rockefeller Center.

C&W couldn’t be reached for comment and a spokeswoman for Mr. Al Fayed did not return an email by press time.

The sale appears to be a way for Mr. Al Fayed to avoid the substantial capital infusion and expert management the property would appear to require in the coming years. The 33-story building is fully leased to Time Warner, but the company's commitment there expires in 2014. Though a spokeswoman for Time Warner said a final decision on the company’s future occupancy at the property will be decided by the end of February, brokers familiar with the building say it is unlikely the company, which currently subleases all of its space there, will renew.

Time Warner’s departure would leave behind a large vacancy that would likely take a significant marketing effort to fill. The building is also in need of capital improvements sources say, such as renovations of the property’s lobby and systems like the elevators, in order to draw tenants. It benefits from a prime location.

“I think that the building will generate a lot of interest,” said an executive at a firm that will bid on the property.

Though prime office buildings in midtown have been trading for as much as $1,000 a foot over the past year, experts say that 75 Rockefeller likely wouldn’t command prices that high, especially if it is structured as a leasehold interest, which are generally less valuable than an outright sale, and also considering its capital requirements.

Staff Writer Daniel Geiger is reachable at Dgeiger@observer.com

This time of year should be heaven on earth for New York sports fans. But thanks to a dispute over fees between the MSG networks and Time Warner, some 1.7 million New Yorkers—many of them in Manhattan—have been unable to watch the Knicks or Rangers (not to mention the Islanders and the Devils) on TV.

The dispute, of course, is over money. MSG wants to charge more; Time Warner doesn’t want to pay more. The conflict is so bitter that the two sides apparently can’t even agree on just how much more MSG wants to charge Time Warner. (The cable carrier says MSG asked for a 53 percent increase, but MSG vehemently denies it.)

While the two companies attack each other in newspaper ads, many fans in Manhattans find themselves staring at a blank screen on game nights. True, the Knicks haven’t been worth watching during their recent losing streak, but still, winter without the Knicks and Rangers? It’s unthinkable.

Time Warner and MSG need to figure this one out, fast.

Time Warner had been looking for a magazine chief since February,when Jack Griffin was fired after just five months on the job. Chairman Jeff Bewkes said that his management style "didn't mesh" with Time Inc. and Time Warner's corporate culture.

(via Mashable)

CNN has acquired San Francisco-based tech company Zite, CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton announced today. Zite is a free news app for iPads that collects user data to curate (or aggregate) a personalized variety of content from free sources accross the web in a magazine-style experience.

All of the Zite team is sticking around, though it will be a wholly owned subsidiary and stand-alone business of CNN.

Zite is a Flipboard competitor, and its curation practices have elicted a bunch of cease and desists from news producers like the Washington Post and the AP, according to TechCrunch.

CNN parent company Time Warner has enough homegrown news content to keep Zite out of legal trouble, and Zite's technology could be an easy and effective way to synthesize its disparate offerings for iPad users.

TechCrunch cited a Canadian news site Techvibes report that Zite would sell to CNN for between $20 and $25 million.

"News crews and paparazzi converged on the Tousignants' quiet Brea neighborhood," says the lawsuit. "They were inundated with phone calls and messages. They were forced to flee their house and stay at another location. Tanner was followed. Their online accounts were hacked into. They were and continue to be the subject of scorn and scrutiny in their own community. Their reputations have been permanently damaged."

The Hangover Part II, True Blood and Mortal Kombat 9, saved Time Warner, Jeff Bewkes told the The New York Times. On Wednesday the company, which owns Warner Brothers, Turner Broadcasting and Time Inc., reported a 10% increase in revenue this quarter, the highest growth since January.

At a party celebrating new Elle publisher Kevin O'Malley, David Carey updated WWD on the most important aspect of the Hearst-Hachette merger: seating arrangements.

“The real estate people are hard at work putting the puzzle together,” Carey said, insisting that floor selection won’t be political, with sexier titles on higher floors. “It may have been in the past when they had a brand new building,” he said. “In this case the floors get based on the least dislocation to the building. Now we’re thinking in terms of the path of least resistance because we don’t want to touch all 44 floors.”

Morgan Spurlock will launch a documentary series available only on Hulu beginning August 17, called "Day in the Life," according to the The Wrap. The show follows famous people like Richard Branson and will.i.am around for the day. Is this how Hulu plans on convincing us to pay for it?

Traditional media companies, the FCC's "Future of Media Report" has nothing to offer you. [WSJ]

Time Warner is in talks to buy the American version of OK! magazine, which is like a British version of People, from owner Richard Desmond. [BSkyB]

NBCUniversal will pay Blackstone $1 B for their stake in Universal Studios Florida, giving them full control of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, at last. [Los Angeles Times]

Watch Jon Stewart cut his wrist on set while taping a Weiner sketch. It'll make sense when you get to the part with the blender.  [Media Decoder]

Page One director Andrew Rossi says Bill Keller had the air of someone about to "throw in the towel." [Esquire]

kstoeffel@observer.com :: @kstoeffel

The media giant teamed up with Related over a decade ago to finally redevelop the old New York Coliseum on Columbus Circle, and The Journal now reports that Ross is trying to woo the company
away to be his anchor tenant at Hudson Yards.

Time Inc. and HBO, both divisions of Time Warner, lease more than two million square feet of space in Manhattan that expires in 2017 and 2018, according to research firm CoStar Group Inc. It is unclear if those divisions would be part of a move to Hudson Yards. But the timing of the lease expirations would allow for it. Related has said it could deliver the first phase of the development by 2017.

The paper points out that with rising rents in midtown, the 1 million-square-foot commercial condo Time Warner bought on the cheap at its eponymous development could be sold off for a nice profit. There is the fact, though, that the far West Side remains a veritable dead zone, though with Coach rumored to be interested in 600,000 square feet, as well, it could add a lot of cache to the project--or at least some cute neighbors.

And if that does not convince the suits at Columbus Circle, maybe a swanky new promo video will. Someone named MrSamuels posted this flythrough video of the planned project last week (Curbed spotted it Friday) with some downright awful midi music attached. It's like playing Sim City on your Super Nintendo. Silly soundtrack aside, it does offer the best  views yet of what Related has planned, and, with all those ghost buildings shown to the north and east, just what a big future the far West Side has in store.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

According to Peter Kafka at All Things D, it's part of a campaign by Facebook to woo big media and put itself in between consumers and the news and entertainment they're consuming.

One New York-based outlet has already partnered with Facebook: The Huffington Post, which uses Facebook Connect to give readers an identity while they browse and encourage them to easily share what they're reading with friends.

SLIDESHOW: Best of 2010: The Year's Most Scandalous Media Shakeups

Facebook also wants to do something similar with television and met with Time Warner executives last week as well, Kafka reports:

Facebook and Time Warner are now talking about using the social network's login system to "authenticate" cable subscribers who want to watch online video from cable channels like TBS and HBO.

Facebook has hired a former biz dev VPs, Andy Mitchell from the Daily Beast and Nick Grudin from Newsweek, to help make its case in New York.

Time Warner and other content producers are hoping that adding Facebook will make their content stickier and more popular. Facebook is interested in the data it will get on consumer interests and habits.

ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries