The new Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone or iPhones will be released early next month, according to hundreds of press accounts. The range of price points among the models will be substantial, which could make it hard, for the first time, for consumers to pick a phone and be happy with the choice.
In the past, a new edition of the iPhone usually was priced between $200 and $400, when married with a two-year 4G wireless subscription from AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) or Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S). Older versions of the phone dropped sharply in price and often fell as low as zero. People who had unusual technical skills and did not want to be tethered to one carrier could get an unlocked iPhone for as much as $849.
Presumably, the new high-end iPhone (probably called the iPhone 5S) will be priced according to the pattern of all new iPhone releases. The new 64 GB iPhone will retail for $399. This smartphone will get a better processor than past models had, a better camera and probably fingerprint-based security. Less potent versions of the iPhone 5S will be priced as low as $199. In the wake of the release of the new iPhone, prices on earlier versions will drop immediately.
Top 5 Regional Bank Stocks To Buy Right Now: Comcast Corporation(CMCSA)
Comcast Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides entertainment, information, and communications products and services in the United States and internationally. Its Cable Communications segment provides video, high-speed Internet, and phone services to residential and business customers. As of June 30, 2011, its cable systems served approximately 22.5 million video customers, 17.5 million high-speed Internet customers, and 9.1 million phone customers. The company?s Cable Networks segment operates cable entertainment networks, such as USA Network, Syfy, E!, Bravo, Oxygen, Style, G4, Chiller, Sleuth, and Universal HD; news and information networks, including CNBC, MSNBC, and CNBC World; cable sports networks comprising Golf Channel and VERSUS; regional sports and news networks; international entertainment, and news and information networks, such as CNBC Europe, CNBC Asia, and Universal Networks International portfolio of networks; cable television production oper ations; and digital media properties consisting primarily of brand-aligned Websites and other Websites, such as DailyCandy, Fandango, and iVillage. Its Broadcast Television segment operates the U.S. broadcast networks, NBC and Telemundo; 10 NBC and 15 Telemundo owned local television stations; broadcast television productions; and related digital media properties. The company?s Filmed Entertainment segment operates Universal Pictures, which produces, acquires, markets, and distributes filmed entertainment and stage plays worldwide in various media formats for theatrical, home entertainment, television, and other distribution platforms. Its Theme Parks segment operates Universal Studios Hollywood park and Wet ?n Wild water park, as well as licenses intellectual properties and provides services to third parties that own and operate Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Singapore. Comcast Corporation was founded in 1963 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Matt Thalman]
The first few of the companies are the major cable providers, such as Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA ) , Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH ) , and�DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV ) . For every new home built, one of the cable companies is going to receive a new customer. In Comcast's situation, the lines must be laid, but Dish and DirecTV only need to install a satellite in your yard. General Electric (NYSE: GE ) is another company that derives a decent portion of its revenue from appliances and lighting, and this unit should see increased revenues as new homes are built.
- [By Geoff Gannon]
路 Comcast (CMCSA)
Those are big companies. But, with the exception of Wal-Mart, those aren�� the biggest companies in the United States.
- [By DailyFinance Staff]
Alamy You may be able to watch newly released movies from the comfort of your home while they're still in the theaters. Traditionally, there's a three-month waiting period between when movies leave the theater and when they appear on-demand. But Comcast (CMCSA) wants to experiment with a new model that would allow movie buffs to catch first-run films from the living room couch, rather than the local cinema. Comcast could benefit on both ends. It owns the Universal movie studio, as well as one of the nation's largest cable systems. Company executives floated the idea this week at the annual CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas. And The Wall Street Journal reports that some movie theater operators were open to discussing the idea. Movie attendance is down 12 percent compared to a year ago, and DVD sales have declined, so everyone in the industry is scrambling for new ways to generate revenue. The heads of AMC and Carmike -- two of the nation's largest theater chains – said they are open to discussions about video-on-demand experiments, if they get a more generous split on box-office revenue. That's something the studios have been unwilling to do in the past. The Journal says participants at the CinemaCon meetings talked about a summit meeting between Hollywood studios and theater operators. For movie fans, the prospects are alluring, but there's always a catch. The cost of watching a first-run movie from home is likely to be high, and not all movies will be available. It's unlikely that blockbuster films will be put on-demand while they are still in the theaters. That's not the only controversy at CinemaCon this year. Walt Disney (DIS) has already secured better terms from some theater chains, but AMC is pushing back. It has halted advance ticket sales for Disney's upcoming film, "Iron Man 3," which is set to debut on May 3rd. The movie is expected to have one of the biggest opening weekends of the year. In general, studios take as much as 75 percent
- [By Doug Ehrman]
Never before has the catch phrase "there's an app for that" applied so broadly as to include nearly every major television channel available. From the familiar options from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX ) -- including HBO, TNT, and TBS -- to both the channels owned by Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA ) and Comcast itself, most of your favorite channels are now available on mobile devices as apps. Perhaps the purest form of this trend is Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX ) , which looks increasingly like a channel as it produces more of its own shows. As this phenomenon continues, your ability to pick and choose which channels you really want will only increase.
Top 10 Media Stocks To Watch For 2014: Cablevision Systems Corporation (CVC)
Cablevision Systems Corporation provides telecommunications and media services. It operates in two segments, Telecommunications Services and Other. The Telecommunications Services segment is involved in television business, including video, high-speed data, and VoIP operations, as well as the provision of commercial data and voice services. The Other segment offers Newsday, a daily newspaper; amNewYork, a free daily newspaper; and Star Community Publishing, a group of weekly shopper publications; and newsday.com and exploreLI.com. This segment also engages in motion picture theatre business, Clearview Cinemas; provision of the News 12 Networks, a regional news programming services; and the MSG Varsity network, a network covering high school sports and activities, and other local programs, as well as cable television advertising. Cablevision Systems Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Bethpage, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
The analysts sound as if they believe CBS got the better of the deal-and the market appears to agree. Shares of CBS have gained 3.7% to $53.00, while Time Warner has gained 1.1% to $61.19. Shares of Disney (DIS) are little changed at $60.81, while shares of Cablevision Systems (CVC) have dropped 0.3% to $17.69.
Top 10 Media Stocks To Watch For 2014: DIRECTV(DTV)
DIRECTV provides digital television entertainment in the United States and Latin America. The company provides direct-to-home (DTH) digital television services, as well as multi-channel video programming distribution services in the United States. It offers various channels of digital-quality video entertainment and CD-quality audio programming directly to subscribers' homes or businesses, as well as video-on-demand services; and approximately 160 national high-definition television channels and 4 3D channels. The company also provides premium professional and collegiate sports programming, such as the NFL SUNDAY TICKET package, which allows subscribers to view the NFL games. In addition, it offers DTH digital television services in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico. The company provides its local and international programming under the DIRECTV and SKY brand names. As of December 31, 2010, it served approximately 19.2 million subscribers in the United States; and 8.9 million subscribers in Latin America. The company was founded in 1990 and is based in El Segundo, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By James Miller Phd]
DirecTV (DTV) is engaged in providing digital television entertainment in the U.S. and Latin America. As of Dec. 31, 2012, the company operated two direct-to-home business units: DirecTV U.S. and DirecTV Latin America, which are differentiated by their geographic locations and are engaged in acquiring, promoting, selling and distributing digital entertainment programming primarily via satellite to residential and commercial subscribers.
- [By Holly LaFon]
Question: How do you think about DIRECTV (DTV) in terms of competitive advantage and valuation?
DIRECTV is the largest satellite broadcaster in the U.S. and has rapidly growing, dominant market share in Latin America. Domestically, the company offers better quality and programming to attract high-end customers that pay premium rates with little churn. Pricing power has driven rising ARPU (average revenue per user). Because viewers will ��nplug��for some of their viewing over time, we place a lower multiple on the U.S. than in the past. But live sports where DTV has unique offerings are much less vulnerable to delayed viewing. In Latin and South America, DTV has almost no competition in most countries because cable has not been and will not be installed in less developed places with minimal infrastructure. Although the stock is multiples above our cost in DTV, the price remains below our appraisal as value has grown steadily from management�� reinvestment of the cash coupon into high-returning Latin America and discounted shares.
Top 10 Media Stocks To Watch For 2014: Gannett Co. Inc. (GCI)
Gannett Co., Inc. operates as a media and marketing solutions company in the United States and internationally. Its Publishing segment publishes 83 U.S. daily newspapers with affiliated online sites, including USA TODAY, a national, general-interest daily newspaper; USATODAY.com; USA WEEKEND, a magazine supplement for newspapers; Clipper Magazine, a direct mail advertising magazine; bi-weekly Nursing Spectrum and NurseWeek periodicals; and military and defense newspapers. This segment also includes 17 paid-for daily newspapers; approximately 200 weekly newspapers, magazines, and trade publications; and approximately 600 non-daily publications, as well as involves in commercial printing, newswire, marketing, and data services operations. The company?s Digital segment owns and operates CareerBuilder, an employment Web site, which offers online recruitment and career advancement services for employers, employees, recruiters, and job seekers; ShopLocal, which provides multicha nnel shopping and advertising services; Planet Discover, which offers hosted search and advertising services; PointRoll, which provides digital marketing services and technology; and Schedule Star, which offers scheduling solution for high school athletic departments. Its Broadcasting segment operates 23 television stations and affiliated Web sites, which produce local programming, such as news, sports, and entertainment programming. This segment also includes Captivate Network, a national news and entertainment network that delivers programming and full-motion video advertising on video screens located in elevators of office towers and select hotel lobbies in North America. The company has strategic business relationships with online affiliates, including Classified Ventures, ShopLocal.com, Topix, and Metromix LLC, as well as strategic marketing agreement with Microsoft. Gannett Co., Inc. was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tiernan Ray]
FBR & Co.‘s�William Bird, who follows the shares of old media dinosaurs�Gannett (GCI), �Meredith�(MDP),�News�(NWSA), and�The New York Times�(NYT), today offers the findings of a survey of 2,041 adults in the U.S. from March 12th to March 17th.
Bird has an Outperform rating on shares of Gannett, and Market Perform ratings on the other three names.
The upshot of the survey is that a third of young readers don’t read print papers, and are more and more flocking to online news outlets.
The survey, conducted with the help of Clear Voice Research LLC, suggests to Bird a “steady structural pressure on print, a tip of the spear demographic problem for print circulation, and slow magazine tablet adoption�� negative as tablets offer a better business model for magazines.”
More specifically, there is “value destruction” as more and more people trade from print to digital editioins of publications:
The survey suggests that structural pressure on consumer newspaper readership is a touch above�that of magazines. Over the next year, print newspaper usage is expected to decline a net 5% (i.e.,�6% expect to use more versus 11% who expect to use less). A total of 11% of respondents said they plan to use print newspapers less and 10% said they plan to �use print magazines less. This was exactly offset by the percentage of respondents who said they�plan to consume online newspapers more (11%) and those who plan to consume online magazines�more (10%). With $1 of print ad spend translating to $0.25 in digital, these results are supportive of �continued print-to-digital value destruction.
Younger readers tend to be more inclined to dump print, says FBR:
According to our survey, intended print newspaper subscription cancellations total 9.8% over the next 12 months. Notable is that plans to cancel skew heavily toward the below 35 year old demographic. The 18 to 34 demographic reflects
Top 10 Media Stocks To Watch For 2014: Charter Communications Inc.(CHTR)
Charter Communications, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides entertainment, information, and communications solutions to residential and commercial customers in the United States. The company offers cable video programming services, such as basic and digital video, premium channels, OnDemand, pay-per-view, high definition television, digital video recorder, and online video services; Internet services; Charter.net, which provides multiple e-mail addresses, as well as various entertainment, games, news, and sports content; and telephone services. It also provides broadband communications solutions, such as Internet access, data networking, fiber connectivity to cellular towers and office buildings, video entertainment services, and business telephone services under the Charter Business brand name to business and carrier organizations. As of December 31, 2011, the company served approximately 4.1 million video customers; approximately 3.5 million Internet customers; appr oximately 1.7 million telephone customers; and approximately 476,200 commercial primary service units. Charter Communications, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Sean Williams]
Leading the charge is cable operator Cablevision (NYSE: CVC ) again found itself in the spotlight, up 9.6%, following the completion of its sale of Optimum West to Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR ) for $1.625 billion. While shareholders are likely to be pleased seeing this deal completed, shares are really ramping up in expectation that Charter may make a bid for Cablevision. Rumors have been circulating for a week based on a report from Bloomberg News that Charter may look to make a bid for Time Warner Cable�or Cablevision. My stance remains not to chase rumors higher, so I'd suggest watching Cablevision from the sidelines.
- [By CNBC]
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Time Warner Cable's flirtation with potential merger suitors may include Comcast, which is seeking advice on possible regulatory hurdles if it should pursue a bid, sources told CNBC on Friday. Comcast (CMCSA) (CMCSK), the parent company of CNBC, is not in active discussions on deal terms with Time Warner Cable (TWC), these sources say, but is asking for guidance on antitrust and telecommunications-related issues. According to people familiar with the matter, TWC has made it clear that if it should sell itself, Comcast would be its preferred buyer. These people add that Comcast has been quietly mulling a merger with TWC for some time. The cable operator is on the verge of a bid from Charter Communications (CHTR), according to The Wall Street Journal, which said Charter is near an agreement with banks for the funds to make that offer. Analysts, however, say Time Warner's needs may be better suited with Comcast. "The synergies are very real, and Comcast would be a better fit," said Craig Moffett, founder and senior analyst at MoffettNathanson. He said that while the Department of Justice's anti-trust requirements may not pose an insurmountable challenge, the more stringent litmus test might come from the Federal Communications Commission.
- [By Patricio Kehoe]
Although these efforts have given positive results, reducing customer losses and growing revenue per customer, the firm still operates at a disadvantage in relation to wireless and cable companies . Firms such as Comcast Corporation (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) and Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) have built superior platforms for Internet access, thus offering better data speeds as well as a full complement of services.
- [By Jonathan Berr]
Rumors that Malone will make a bid for Time Warner Cable by the end of the year caused shares of the New York-based company to jump about 3% in trading last Friday. It also rose briefly Monday after Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Russo raised his rating on the stock to a “buy,” saying a merger with Charter Communications (CHTR) is “more likely than not.” Time Warner has so far rebuffed Malone’s overtures, according to media reports.
Top 10 Media Stocks To Watch For 2014: DISH Network Corporation(DISH)
DISH Network Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides direct broadcast satellite (DBS) subscription television services in the United States. It offers programming that includes approximately 280 basic video channels, 60 Sirius satellite radio music channels, 30 premium movie channels, 35 regional and specialty sports channels, 2,800 local channels, 250 Latino and international channels, and 55 channels of pay-per-view content. The company also offers local HD channels in approximately 160 markets and 215 national HD channels; and receiver systems, including a small satellite dish, digital set-top receivers, and remote controls. In addition, it provides DISHOnline.com, which enables DISH Network subscribers to watch 150,000 movies, television shows, clips, and trailers; DISH Remote Access that enables subscribers to remotely manage their DVRs using compatible mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops through their broadband-connected receiver; and Go ogle TV that enables DISH Network subscribers to search the Internet, check email, interact with social media, and find additional online programming content while simultaneously watching television. As of March 31, 2011, the company had approximately 14.191 million customers. DISH Network provides receiver systems and programming through direct sales channels; and independent third parties, such as small satellite retailers, direct marketing groups, local and regional consumer electronics stores, nationwide retailers, and telecommunications companies. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Paul Ausick]
Charter was reported to have been talking with several banks about putting together a deal for the larger company and today�� reports may be the beginning of a serious round of bidding for Time Warner. Other bidders might include Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH), whose chairman Charlie Ergen has made no secret of his belief that the pay TV industry needs to consolidate but has so far been unable to strike a deal for wireless spectrum or a terrestrial based partner.
Top 10 Media Stocks To Watch For 2014: Liberty Global Inc.(LBTYA)
Liberty Global, Inc. provides video, broadband Internet, and telephony services primarily in Europe and Chile. The company offers broadband services over cable distribution systems, including video, broadband Internet, and telephony; and video services through direct-to-home satellite, or through multichannel multipoint distribution systems. Its analog video services comprise basic and expanded basic programming; and digital cable services include basic and premium programming, digital video recorders, and high definition programming, as well as pay-per-view programming, such as video-on-demand and near video-on-demand. In addition, the company offers voice-over-Internet-protocol and circuit-switched telephony services, as well as mobile telephony services using third-party networks. Further, it owns programming networks that provide video programming channels to multi-channel distribution systems owned by the company and the third parties. As of December 31, 2011, the com pany owned and operated networks that passed 33,262,100 homes; and served 18,405,500 video subscribers, 8,159,300 broadband Internet subscribers, and 6,225,300 telephony subscribers. Liberty Global, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is based in Englewood, Colorado.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Alex Webb]
Kabel Deutschland is a key part of Vodafone�� expansion strategy as the carrier looks for ways to boost revenue and lock in customers with Internet and television offers in addition to wireless service. Kabel Deutschland is the biggest cable company in Germany, Vodafone�� largest market, and had drawn a rival bid from John Malone�� Liberty Global Plc. (LBTYA)
- [By Amy Thomson]
Vodafone has already expanded beyond wireless service, and in June beat John Malone�� Liberty Global (LBTYA) Plc to take over Germany�� Kabel Deutschland Holding AG. (KD8) Vodafone and Verizon accelerated talks on the stake sale after the Kabel Deutschland offer, which put additional pressure on the British company�� finances, a person familiar with the matter said.
- [By Sam Robson]
LONDON -- In the latest edition of this long-running story, it has been suggested that�Vodafone� (LSE: VOD ) (NASDAQ: VOD ) could use a substantial amount of the money it would receive from selling its stake in Verizon Wireless to fund a takeover of�Liberty Global� (NASDAQ: LBTYA ) .
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