Dr. John Malone’s Liberty Media is moving to acquire the 48 percent of SiriusXM it does not already own in a $10 billion all-stock deal that could have future implications for Malone’s interest in merging Charter Communications with Time Warner Cable.

Malone’s company has effectively controlled the satellite radio venture since bailing the company out with a loan during the Great Recession. Since assuming control, SiriusXM has raised prices and is earning more revenue from its subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.

Malone’s initial $1 billion investment is already valued at more than $10 billion, but as full owner Liberty will control a company worth $21.5 billion.

Malone

Through a carefully constructed transaction, the deal will be entirely tax-free for both companies and their shareholders. When complete, Liberty will be able to free up additional capital and flexibility which could prove useful to its ongoing investment in Charter Communications.

Should Charter formally bid for a Time Warner Cable takeover, Liberty Media may be called on to help finance the transaction expected to be worth at least $40 billion.

But don’t expect Malone’s Liberty Media to keep ownership of SiriusXM forever. Malone has a long history of increasing the value of his media assets for shareholders, usually with rate increases and cost cutting, and then spins the companies off in tax-free transactions.

Liberty Media has done exactly that with its former properties, including Discovery Communications, Starz and DirecTV.

Two years after energy conservation groups revealed many television set-top boxes use almost as much electricity as a typical refrigerator, a voluntary agreement has been reached to cut the energy use of the devices 10-45 percent by 2017.

The Department of Energy, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, the Consumer Electronics Association, and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association agreed to new energy efficiency standards for cable boxes expected to save more than $1 billion in electricity annually, once the new equipment is widely deployed in American homes. That represents enough energy to power 700,000 homes and cut five million tons of CO2 emissions each year.

“These energy efficiency standards reflect a collaborative approach among the Energy Department, the pay-TV industry and energy efficiency groups – building on more than three decades of common-sense efficiency standards that are saving American families and businesses hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “The set-top box efficiency standards will save families money by saving energy, while delivering high quality appliances for consumers that keep pace with technological innovation.”

DVR boxes are the biggest culprits. American DVRs typically use up to 50W regardless of whether someone is watching the TV or not. Most contain hard drives that are either powered on continuously or are shifted into an idle state that does more to protect the life of the drive than cut a consumer’s energy bill. A combination of a DVR and an extra HD set-top box together consume more electricity than an ENERGY STAR-qualified refrigerator-freezer, even when using the remote control to switch the boxes off.

Manufacturers were never pressed to produce more energy-efficient equipment by the cable and satellite television industry. Current generation boxes often require lengthy start-up cycles to configure channel lineups, load channel listings, receive authorization data and update software. As a result, any overnight power-down would inconvenience customers the following morning — waiting up to five or more minutes to begin watching television as equipment was switched back on. As a compromise, many cable operators instruct their DVR boxes to power down internal hard drives when not recording or playing back programming, minimizing subscriber inconvenience, but also the possible power savings.

In Europe, many set-top boxes are configured with three levels of power consumption — 22.5W while in use, 13.2W while in standby, and 0.65W when in “Deep Sleep” mode. More data is stored in non-volatile memory within the box, meaning channel data, program listings, and authorization information need not be re-downloaded each time the box is powered on, resulting in much faster recovery from power-saving modes.

The new agreement, which runs through 2017, covers all types of set-top boxes from pay-TV providers, including cable, satellite and telephone companies. The agreement also requires the pay-TV industry to publicly report model-specific set-top box energy use and requires an annual audit of service providers by an independent auditor to make sure boxes are performing at the efficiency levels specified in the agreement. The Energy Department also retains its authority to test set-top boxes under the ENERGY STAR verification program, which provides another verification tool to measure the efficiency of set-top boxes.

Comcast, DirecTV, DISH Network, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Verizon, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision, Bright House Networks and CenturyLink will begin deploying new energy-efficient equipment during service calls. Some customers may be able to eventually swap equipment earlier, depending on the company.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WCCO Minneapolis Check Your Cable Box 6-27-11.mp4[/flv]

WCCO in Minneapolis reported in 2011 cable operators like Comcast may make subscribers wait 30 minutes or more for set-top box features to become fully available for use after plugging the box in. (1:50)

Time Warner Cable TV subscribers in Southern California can now access local over-the-air television signals on the company’s TWC TV app, expanding the lineup of hundreds of cable channels to now include the major network affiliates — a significant gap in the “TV Everywhere” app for most customers.

Residents in Los Angeles and San Diego join those in New York and Kansas City that can now receive local over the air programming on their home computer, tablet, game console, or Roku box. Time Warner Cable requires viewers to subscribe to both its television and broadband services to watch, and only from your home’s Wi-Fi network.

The service is designed to bring value to Time Warner’s cable TV package and offer subscribers the opportunity to watch cable programming without an additional set-top box. Current licensing restrictions keep Time Warner from offering most television programming while on the go, but the cable company is attempting to negotiate those rights when programming contracts come up for renewal.

The major networks are not waiting for cable operators to negotiate with them, however:

• ABC: The network’s Watch ABC app has been available since the spring and offers live streaming of the local ABC station in eight major markets including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Viewers must live within the viewing area to watch;
• CBS: The network has purchased part ownership in Syncbak which specializes in digital content delivery, but the network has not announced plans for a streaming app;
• FOX: In addition to Hulu/+, FOX wants to adopt mobile broadcast technology using the Dyle Mobile platform, which allows device owners to receive over the air television with the use of a special add-on antenna;
• NBC: NBC will follow ABC and offer live viewing of local affiliates over an app starting in large cities early next year.

Robocallers pitching extended auto warranties, home alarm systems, lowered interest rates on credit cards, and more are back in business, despite the “Do Not Call Registry” from the Federal Trade Commission designed to stop the junk phone calls.

Rogue telemarketing has gotten so out of hand, the very federal agency responsible to help stop the torrent of unwanted sales calls had to post a warning about telemarketers misrepresenting themselves as FTC agents on its own website.

The FTC acknowledges it has an uphill battle.

“Our law enforcement actions have already halted billions of robocalls, but with today’s technology, tens of millions can be blasted each day — at a per-minute calling cost of less than 1 cent,” said Federal Trade Commission official Lois Greisman, who oversees the National Do Not Call Registry.

Identifying violators has become increasingly difficult as scammers learn to fake (or ‘spoof’) call origination data that shows up on your Caller ID display.

“Dozens and dozens of spoofed numbers can be used per robocall campaign, and telemarketing scripts are shared as well,” says Greisman, explaining why you may get the same rip-off recording from different incoming numbers.

The most recent trick is to spoof a Caller ID number that appears local, increasing the odds you will pick up the phone. Instead of a family friend on the other end, it is a recorded pitch offering to refinance your mortgage.

A desperate FTC concluded it might be in over its head and launched a contest offering $50,000 and a trip to Washington, D.C. for anyone offering a better solution.

The winner: Nomorobo

Nomorobo is the idea of Steve Foss and it tied first place in the FTC Robocall Challenge.

The free service works with most Voice over IP phone lines (think Vonage or a phone line supplied by your cable operator), but has gotten a mixed reception from wireless carriers and landline giants Verizon and AT&T.

It works with a phone feature called “Simultaneous Ring,” which means when a person calls your number, Nomorobo’s “phone” is also ringing just long enough to collect Caller ID information to compare against its master-telemarketer list. If the number is a known phone spammer, Nomorobo intercepts the call and hangs up on the caller after the first ring. Your legitimate calls still arrive with no interference.

Some phone companies known to support Nomorobo, but not necessarily the only ones:

• AT&T U-verse
• Cablevision Optimum
• SureWest
• Time Warner Cable
• Verizon FiOS
• Vonage

Phone companies like AT&T and Verizon have so far refused to support the service for its landline and wireless customers.

After registering, Nomorobo will guide new users through the simple set up process step-by-step.

The system does not track your incoming calls nor does it monitor them. If an unwanted telemarketer does get through, a report option on the website will help get the unwanted caller’s number into the database.

Stop the Cap! has tested the service and found it effective in blocking about 75% of the unwanted calls that arrive in our office. Our phone rings just once — long enough for caller ID information to be passed — and when the system identifies a known phone spammer, it disconnects them. But the system is not perfect. Telemarketers can theoretically change their spoofed Caller ID number(s) to get around the call block, and we found Nomorobo’s database only as good as the crowdsourced data allows.

Nomorobo also won’t stop political or non-profit groups from calling, at least for now. Our second biggest problem — calls from collection agencies hounding the last owner of our phone number, also remain unaffected.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KNXV Phoenix Block robocalls for free with new website 10-15-13.mp4[/flv]

KNXV in Phoenix explains Nomorobo to its viewers. The service works mostly with Voice over IP providers, which leaves a lot of AT&T and Verizon customers unprotected. (2:04)

The incoming CEO of Time Warner Cable will walk away with more than $50 million just for getting out-of-the-way of a sale or breakup of the company.

Robert Marcus is scheduled to take over the CEO role Jan. 1 after Glenn Britt retires. But there is a good chance Marcus won’t have a cable company to run if executives decide to accept anticipated takeover offers due within weeks that could turn ownership of Time Warner over to Charter Communications or split up subscribers among several potential buyers including Comcast, Cox, and Charter.

Reuters reports Marcus will earn the most if he can hold off buyers for the next four weeks until he becomes CEO. Under his employment contract, Marcus would then qualify for a generous goodbye package:

• A compensation bonus amounting to three times his base salary of $1.5 million;
• A departure award amounting to three times his usual $5 million annual bonus;
• Permission to cash out the large amount of stock he has earned as part of his compensation, now valued at $37 million.

In total, Marcus could earn $56.5 million for just one day of work — long enough to shake the hands of the new buyer(s) and head for the elevators for the last time. If the company sells before Dec. 31, Marcus will still land on his feet, earning a severance package valued at $47.5 million.

In a separate move, Time Warner Cable executive vice president Peter Stern dumped 4,253 shares of his company’s stock at $130 a share, taking $552,890 in compensation.

While top managers are routinely offered generous departure packages more commonly known as “golden parachutes,” thousands of lower-level Time Warner Cable employees will likely face the ax within months of any sale, predicted one analyst. In similarly sized mergers and buyouts, the largest job losses will impact call center workers and middle management. Other employees will likely leave if asked to move to regional operations centers in other cities where the buyer(s) operate. At least one analyst said it was unusual for Time Warner Cable to proceed with a CEO switch while the company is in play.

Marcus understands how the business of mergers and acquisitions work; he started his career as an attorney specializing in the practice.