The controversial Church of Scientology is going direct-to-home with its message to the masses with the launch of its new television network, Scientology TV, which begins regular programming tonight at 8pm EDT.

Although the Church was allegedly negotiating with Charter Communications to pick up the new network for its Spectrum TV subscribers, for now, it is confirmed the new network will launch on the DirecTV platform (channel 320), and for those owning Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and Roku devices. An app version of the network is also available for iOS and Android.

A countdown timer is currently running on the network with its tag, “Curious?,” which is a question/theme regularly seen in Scientology advertisements.

Over the weekend, Scientology leader David Miscavige appeared at Flag Land Base, the Church of Scientology’s spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Fla., to announce the imminent launch of the network. In Los Angeles, L. Ron Hubbard Way has been blocked off at the southern end for a celebration when the network goes live.

The launch of the new network was a surprise for many, despite the fact the Church acquired the multimillion dollar production studios of public TV station KCET in Los Angeles in 2011. The Church said it intended to use the studios for programming production and satellite distribution of HD content.

Although the network has promoted “full episodes of your favorite shows,” the initial schedule is limited to in-house produced Scientology programs that promote the Church’s agenda. “The Truth About Drugs” is a documentary complaining about psychiatric medications, something the Church opposes. Other shows include, “Inside Scientology,” “The Way to Happiness,” and the teachings of Church founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Whether the network also intends to air mainstream television programming to attract viewers to its Scientology message is unclear at press time.

Church critics contend Scientology TV is the Church’s response to a devastating series of exposé documentaries and ex-Church member Leah Remini’s popular A&E series “Scientology and the Aftermath.”

“Scientology TV will be little more than ‘mystery sandwich’ propaganda which we’re already quite used to from the church and its YouTube channel, the kind of stuff it’s been airing during Super Bowls the past five years, for example,” wrote Tony Ortega, who writes The Underground Bunker, an authoritative blog about the Church and its dissident ex-members. “Those slick ads are designed to make viewers curious about Scientology without actually telling them anything concrete about it. And we have grave doubts that Scientology TV, the cable channel, will itself go anywhere near explaining what really happens in the Church of Scientology.”

Ironically, at the same time Scientology TV is launching, the ID network will be airing a Vanity Fair Confidential special about the “strange disappearance” of Shelly Miscavige, the wife of the current head of Scientology.

Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son

Japan’s SoftBank “has laid the groundwork” for a $100 billion bid to acquire Charter Communications, better known to its customers as Spectrum, and merge it with Sprint, the American wireless company it controls, according to a report this morning in the Times of London.

London financial district sources leaked information early Monday morning that SoftBank’s billionaire CEO Masayoshi Son has already quietly purchased nearly 5% of Charter Communications stock, a prerequisite for launching a takeover bid. By purchasing a solid stake in Charter, the company hopes to be to taken more seriously about its proposition to combine America’s second largest cable company with the country’s fourth largest wireless carrier.

This isn’t the first time SoftBank has expressed an interest in a merger with Charter. Late in 2017, Masayoshi approached both Charter and its largest shareholder, Dr. John Malone, about the prospect of a merger. Malone was reportedly lukewarm about the deal, while Charter CEO Thomas Rutledge and the rest of his management team opposed the deal. But apart from Malone and Rutledge, many of Charter’s top shareholders were in favor of a merger — particularly the Newhouse family, which sold its interests in Bright House Networks, a mid-sized cable operator, to Charter in 2016.

Masayoshi has been a strong advocate of consolidation in the wireless industry, and has repeatedly lobbied for permission to acquire T-Mobile USA to combine it with Sprint. But regulator concerns during the Obama Administration made such a deal impossible. By targeting the acquisition of a cable operator, SoftBank can argue the transaction will have no material impact on competition because Sprint and Charter Communications operate different businesses.

Cheyenne Mayor Marion Orr

An effort to pass legislation that would award state grants to help rural Wyoming communities get high-speed internet was dead on arrival as far as telecom industry lobbyists were concerned.

So they “fixed it” with a secret substitute bill quietly written by the state’s telecom companies.

The replacement legislation effectively turns the state grant program into a fund for the state’s dominant telecom companies — CenturyLink and Charter Communications.

Stop the Cap! has learned the replacement bill gives high priority to eliminating potential competition by blocking funding for communities to establish their own public broadband alternatives to the phone and cable company if those companies already offer service anywhere inside the community.

The bill also seeks to define the Wyoming government’s involvement in broadband as a non-adversarial partnership with the telecom industry, according to Wyoming Senate Minority Leader Chris Rothfuss (D-District 9).

Under the substitute bill, Rothfuss said the telecom industry will now have a say over how the state awards grant funds. The industry is concerned tax dollars could be given to their competitors to offer service in communities where CenturyLink and Charter already provide modest service. But nothing in the bill would keep either company from collecting state funds for themselves, to expand broadband into unserved areas.

The attempt to switch the bills during a state senate committee meeting was met with surprise and outrage by Cheyenne Mayor Marion Orr.

“I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn industry completely re-wrote proposed broadband legislation to their favor as a ‘substitute bill’ in legislative committee today,” Orr wrote on her Facebook page on Feb. 19. “The substitute bill is substantially different than the original bill. And it wasn’t posted online or anywhere for anyone except insiders to have access to. CenturyLink and Spectrum are bullies. It’s wrong, and they are hurting Cheyenne and other Wyoming communities from gaining affordable access.”

The committee working on the bill may have hoped to switch the bills without notice, but Orr was having none of that.

“As soon as I realized the committee was working a different version that none of us had access to – I spoke up,” she said. “The committee set it aside and will hear it again tomorrow night. This is NOT good governance and the committee realized it. I will stay on this. Guaranteed.”

The substitute bill appears to have subsequently passed and is still facing review by the state legislature.

Orr remains furious Wyoming’s telecom companies that have not delivered on ubiquitous, affordable broadband will now have more power than ever to determine who gets service, who pays to extend service, and what companies can provide it.

“It’s as important as turning on electricity, it’s as important as turning on a tap and having water, it’s an absolute must if we’re going to grow,” Orr said.

Spectrum workers on strike march in the 2017 Labor Day parade in New York City. (Image courtesy: IBEW/Local 3)

Charter Communications’ list of addresses of some of its “locally based contractors” turned out to be self-storage locations, leading to accusations the company could potentially be in default of its franchise agreement with New York City.

Charter agreed to use city-based contractors wherever possible to maintain and upgrade its expansive cable system in the Big Apple. But an audit by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications found only seven of 26 vendors Charter uses are in the city, despite claims by Charter that 77% of its vendors are NYC-based.

On its own, the violation might seem minor, except for the fact Charter Communications has left 1,800 of its best-trained workers in New York and New Jersey out on strike for 11 months, the longest unresolved labor action of 2017.

Workers’ demands, presented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3, have been largely ignored by Charter, in part because the company can find replacement workers outside of the area.

Charter’s denial of the accusation it was in violation of its agreement to use local labor included an attempt to broaden the definition of “located,” followed by an effort to change the subject to what the company alleges are more than 100 acts of vandalism committed by striking workers or those sympathizing with them.

“We continue to meet our franchise obligations, and our response to their findings is included in the report,” a Charter spokesman told the New York Daily News over the weekend.

Although union resources supporting the striking workers have been tested to their limits, the union and most of its members persevere. But it remains a difficult struggle, with some members on the verge of losing their apartments, and many more now relying on food banks and public assistance.

The dispute began after the former Time Warner Cable employees were transitioned to Charter Communications. Charter announced it wanted to pull out of the union’s pension and healthcare plans and replace them with a company-sponsored healthcare offer and a 401(k) retirement plan.

“They basically said that until we agree that they don’t have to contribute to our pension and health plan, they won’t talk about anything else,” Chris Erikson, business manager of Local 3, told the Daily News last fall. “That’s a gun to our head, they said ‘Take it or leave it.’ And our membership understands the value of what’s at stake here, and they decided to leave it.”

Efforts by large corporations to abandon employee care and retirement plans administered by the unions themselves is part of a broader national attack to make unions irrelevant, argue union defenders. The replacement plans offered by Charter are greatly reduced from what Local 3 fought for and won from Time Warner Cable.

“The practical side of the medical plan that the members have is: my son had a kidney transplant and I got the bill from Columbia Presbyterian hospital and it was $96,000. My share of that was 200 bucks. If I was in Charter’s medical plan I’d probably have to take a loan to pay the hospital bill – that’s with coverage,” Erikson told The Guardian.

Charter can certainly afford to cover its workers’ needs. The company’s CEO was the highest paid in the country in 2016, earning $98 million. The impact of the Trump tax cuts also delivered soaring profits for Charter Communications as a whole.

Profits for the fourth quarter of 2017 hit $9.6 billion, compared with $454 million during the same period in 2016. Profits for the year reached $9.9 billion, compared with $3.5 billion in 2016. Charter earned $41.6 billion in revenue in 2017.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio thinks the strike has gone on for too long.

“It’s been almost a year that Local 3 workers have been on strike. It’s far past time for management to come to the table with a fair deal,” he said.

Charter Communications has introduced internet-delivered cable television packages that its cable TV subscribers have requested for years, including one offering a true a-la-carte lineup of network TV channels and the customer’s choice of 10 cable channels for $25 a month.

Spectrum Choice was soft-launched this week and is a companion to a larger internet-delivered package of TV services targeting cord-cutters called Spectrum Stream, which is also available in many areas.

Although Spectrum customers can visit the order page to sign up for Spectrum Choice immediately, when we tested it this afternoon we found the website was not able to complete an order. It turns out Spectrum is initially “hand-selecting” about 100,000 customers in selected areas for Spectrum Choice, but won’t disclose exactly where those areas are. We know from some reviews, it is available in parts of Ohio.

For now, would-be customers can try building their own package from at least 65 cable networks, including several networks Spectrum usually bundles into higher cost Silver and Gold packages. For example, Turner Classic Movies, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, and FX Movie Channel are all available to choose. Spectrum Choice also offers all three major cable news networks as well as Spectrum News (where available). ESPN, ESPN II, FOX Sports, NBC Sports Network, and NFL Network are also available for sports fans. Even Music Choice is included.

Spectrum Choice customers are not tied down with a bloated package of channels, except for the included large bundle of local stations, which includes ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW, MyNetworkTV, PBS, and independent/foreign language over the air stations. The availability of public television is a rarity among online cable TV alternatives. In most areas, digital subchannels like Grit and MeTV are also included, depending on what networks are provided by stations in your area. You will also get several shopping channels, C-SPAN I, II, and III, and local Public, Educational, and Government Access channels as seen on your local cable system.

If you visit their website can complete an order online, you are qualified to receive their service. If there is no option to move forward to complete an order, you are not qualified to sign up at this time, but check back later or call Spectrum and ask.

The service relies on the Spectrum TV app (available on iOS, Android, Roku, and Xbox One) and the Spectrum website to stream video programming to customers, and no set-top box is required. DVR service is not worth the effort or cost. It requires a traditional DVR set top box and you can only watch recorded shows on the television connected to the DVR. Be aware there are also restrictions viewing some channels outside of the home, just as Spectrum’s cable TV customers already understand:

Linear OOH: Watching a live channel while away from home
VOD OOH: Watching on-demand content while away from home
TVE App Name: TV Everywhere App Name – Independent apps used by programmers or viewing on their websites
VOD Parity: Cable TV and Spectrum Choice customers get access to the same on-demand programming options.

Details (click the name of the package for more information):

Spectrum Choice TV

If you don’t mind Charter/Spectrum choosing your channel lineup, a second option offers more channels for about the same price.

• 7-day money back guarantee/trial, then $15 for the first month
• To get the service, you must have an internet-only plan or an internet + voice plan from Spectrum. You cannot be a current traditional cable TV subscriber
• After the first month, the service costs $25 per month for the first two years, including the Broadcast TV Surcharge, but excluding tax
• After 24 months, price increases to $30 a month
• Your assigned Spectrum TV username and password will also work on websites that authenticate you as a qualified cable TV customer
• Premium channels are $7.50 each for HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Starz, and Starz Encore or bundle all-five for $15 a month for two years. Epix is also available a-la-carte.

Spectrum Stream TV

• $21.99 a month (not including $3 Broadcast TV Surcharge) for 25+ pre-selected channels including local stations and major basic cable networks
• All features included with Choice TV work similarly except the lineup is not a-la-carte. But you may get more channels at a comparable price.
• After two years, the price increases to $26.99. Starting in year three, the price rises again to $34.99.
• The same $15 promotion for five premium movie networks noted above applies, if interested.

Spectrum’s promotion of Stream TV. (1:00)