Business News

• Program-access rules come to an end
  Federal rules prohibiting cable providers from having exclusive deals with networks they own ended Friday in favor of a system in which rivals will be able to submit an individual complaint if they believe they are being unfairly denied access to content. Satcasters, telecoms and Google wanted to keep the program-access rules, but major cable providers said they were no longer needed because of the high level of competition and their need to generate high viewership to maintain ad revenues and subscription fees. The Wall Street Journal (10/5)     

• FCC asks how repacking will impact cable, satellite companies
  The Federal Communications Commission's notice of proposed rulemaking for its incentive auctions of broadcast spectrum lists fees for compensating MPVDs for expenses generated by the repacking of broadcast stations. The FCC proposal also seeks input on a host of potential technical problems resulting from the repacking that seems at odds with the agency's "aggressive timetable" of holding the auctions in 2014, according to this article. Multichannel News/Gary Arlen's blog (10/5)     

• Other News

• Cox, Time Warner Cable extend joint marketing efforts with Verizon Wireless
  Multichannel News (10/5)     

• Bright House Networks will be first affiliate for new Time Warner Cable RSNs
  Rapid TV News (U.K.) (10/7)     

Programming News

• TBS scores big audience for wild-card round of baseball playoffs
  TBS tallied an average of 4.6 million viewers for Major League Baseball's inaugural wild-card round. Meanwhile, the first day of Division Series matchups Saturday generated an 8% increase in viewership. All told, TBS garnered an average of 3.9 million viewers for the first two days of baseball's postseason, a 29% jump over the same period in 2011. Broadcasting & Cable (10/7)     

• Other News

• "The Amazing World of Gumball" will come back for Season 3 on Cartoon Network
  The Hollywood Reporter (10/5)     

Eye on Video

• Google doubles down on YouTube channels strategy
  Google is pouring another $200 million into YouTube's themed channels, double last year's $100 million investment. It's hoped the availability of channels catering to niche interest groups, in conjunction with YouTube's well-developed ad-sales infrastructure, will turn the video site into a lucrative marketing space. "That's their secret sauce, a huge sales force all over the world," said Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3, which will run a tech channel on the site. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (10/7), The Wall Street Journal (10/8)     

Marketing Trends

• Lexus sponsors second-screen app for Discovery special
  Lexus sponsored Discovery television's free "Winged Planet Plus" second-screen application, which used audio syncing to allow interaction with the television special. A commercial for Lexus running on the show also coordinated with the app. MediaPost Communications/MediaDailyNews (10/5)     

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by CTAM SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Pay TV is more than holding its own against Internet TV (Mashable)

• Comcast's election site goes live (Broadcasting & Cable)

• Cable networks keep multiplatform in mind with original shows (Los Angeles Times)

• Nick aims to recover from slump with exec changes, new content (Variety.com (free content))

• Stamford, Conn., is site for Charter's New York corporate office (Multichannel News)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Advanced Products

• TBS' Social Dugout app is meant to be companion for TV watching
  TBS has created an iPhone application for the Major League Baseball postseason that allows fans to vie for credits that can be redeemed for discounted tickets to sporting events, merchandise and fan items. The Social Dugout app, which is meant to be used while watching a game on TV, features a series of questions tied to a particular game and rewards players with points for correct answers. Users also can post comments and photos via the app to share with others. TheNextWeb.com (10/5)     

Competitive Watch

• FreedomPop has home broadband in its sights
  Startup FreedomPop in the coming months is planning to unveil a home version of its wireless broadband service that is meant to compete with cable and telecom offerings. FreedomPop is conducting an open test of its service, which promises 500 megabytes of monthly data for free. The service has a presence in 72 markets via Clearwire's WiMax network and is planning an expansion using Sprint Nextel's 4G LTE network next year. Multichannel News (10/5)     

Association News

• Face Time sessions are filling up fast
  Cathy Hetzel, corporate president at Rentrak Corp., will cover unlocking the value of cross-platform entertainment in one of the twelve Face Time sessions offered at Summit. Face Times are a chance to interact with top industry execs during unscripted, off-the-record conversations at Summit in Orlando, Fla. RSVPs are required and spots are filling up fast.     

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SmartQuote

MacGruber: 'OK, so once we take out the guards, Vicki will walk in dressed as Hoss, and then we'll just, you know, see what happens. You ready?'  Lt. Dixon Piper: 'Wait. Wait, so we're just gonna wing it?' MacGruber: 'Piper, there's a big difference between winging it and seeing what happens. Now let's see what happens.' " --MacGruber (Will Forte) and Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe), "MacGruber"