AT&T, Verizon at odds over DTV delay : MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer January 13, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama's plan to delay the DTV transition may postpone the switch 90 days. Currently, Senator Jay Rockefeller is preparing the legislation, which AT&T, one of the telco's who purchased spectrum to be available February 17th, endorses. However, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is worried that "a delay would undermine the DTV transition by causing significant disruption and consumer confusion." Neither Verizon nor AT&T will have access to the 700MHz spectrum they purchased until the transition is complete.

Sling Media founders Blake and Jason Krikorian (CEO and SVP of Biz Dev), along with the Chief Creative Officer and VP of sales, have all left the tech company. The executives each stayed at Sling for one year after selling the company to EchoStar for $380 million.

NBC is hoping to sell the remaining Super Bowl ad spots to a Hollywood Studio. While the network has sold approximately 90% of its ad spots for the event, the Peacock has had trouble unloading the last 8-10 spots, which it hopes to sell to Fox and other studios. Regardless, Dean DeBiase, CEO of TNS Media Intelligence, says that even if they don't sell out, they are likely to break Fox's ad record of $186.5 million from the Super Bowl. "They still have some time on their hands. NBC could come away with more than $200 million."

Sources say CBS is close to reaching a retransmission deal with Verizon FioS. If completed, it will be the second deal in as many weeks, as CBS reached a similar agreement with Time Warner Cable last week. CBS CEO Les Moonves believes the retrans deals could inject as much as $250 million into CBS's income.

Plus, today's consulting question, "Vivendi is writing down half of its stake in NBCU. What does that mean?" Shelly has the answer on today's MediaBytes.

Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at [e-mail]