Subscribers

DISH subscribers could lose access to WBFF and WNUV (Channels 45 and 54) at midnight Wednesday in a disagreement over retransmission fees. "Based on current state of negotiations, there's a risk DISH won't be carrying us after midnight Wednesday," Barry Faber, executive vice president for Sinclair Broadcast Group,  said this morning. WBFF is owned and WNUV is managed by Sinclair, which is based in Hunt Valley. "We're hopeful, we'll get a deal, but we're also realistic," he added, saying that Sinclair wants to keep viewers informed.

The Broadway phenomenon known as “The Book of Mormon,” a musical from the creators of “South Park” that became a runaway hit two years ago and shows no signs of flagging, will reach Baltimore next season as part of the Hippodrome's 10th anniversary. Joining “Mormon,” which took the Tony Award for best musical in 2011, will be the Tony winner for best play that year, “War Horse,” a show celebrated for its inventive use of life-sized puppetry. One of last year's big Tony accumulators, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” a play with music based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, is also on the Hippodrome lineup.

In a move that most saw coming, BioWare will open up its “Star Wars” MMO, “The Old Republic” for free play this fall. Reports over the last six months of the game losing subscribers have been steady, with the company confirming Tuesday that the amount of paying customers has “dipped below one million.” BioWare has tried to bolster interest in the midst of the falling subscription numbers by offering free trial weekends to new players...

On Thursday, Netflix announced a Feb. 1 release date for "House of Cards," the Baltimore-made political drama starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. All 13 episodes of the first season will be available to subscribers on that date. The whole project is a huge risk with a new business model, and it will be fascinating to see how it works out for Netflix with this distribution formula. Here's the release: The Netflix original series, from Media Rights Capital, “House of Cards,” starring Academy Award ® winner Kevin Spacey (“Horrible Bosses,” “American Beauty”)

A 17-month-old class action lawsuit filed by subscribers of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland came to an end yesterday when the state's highest court ruled they have no standing to sue the insurer for mismanagement.In a 35-page ruling, the Maryland Court of Appeals dismissed the subscribers' argument that they should have the same right to sue as do stockholders in a corporation or members of a co-operative. The subscribers had argued that because the not-for-profit Blue Cross has no shareholders and that its board had presided while former executives mismanaged the company, they were the only independent parties who could sue to recover the losses that resulted.

Five subscribers of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland sued 18 of the insurance company's present and former executives and directors yesterday, saying they "recklessly wasted" millions of dollars and seeking $145 million in damages to restore the company's financial health.The lawsuit, filed in Circuit Court for Baltimore County, names several prominent Baltimore business leaders, as well as ousted president Carl J. Sardegna and his former top managers. It charges them with gross negligence and mismanagement, misuse of corporate assets for personal benefit and breach of fiduciary duty, actions which cost "massive losses of subscriber money."

I understand the decision you have taken to charge for access to the digital content at The Sun, and frankly I'm glad you've done it. We face a very simple problem: News is expensive to produce. If readers don't pay for the news, it cannot be produced. And of course, without an active, critical, independent press, democracy cannot succeed. I therefore value the service you provide highly, and I'm willing to pay for it. In fact, I already do pay for it: I have subscribed to home delivery service of The Sun for years.

BALTIMORE -- Amid sharp criticism of cable service in Baltimore, the city's Board of Estimates approved a proposal Wednesday that would compensate subscribers by at least $13 each for overcharges from Sept. 1, 1993 through July 14.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and Council President Mary Pat Clarke raised concerns about service provided by United Artists Cable, including the company's failure to connect 48 schools and the fact that subscribers must go to the headquarters to have their service turned back on."

Subscribers of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland sought to convince the state's highest court yesterday that they are not ordinary customers and should be allowed to sue the directors and executives they claim nearly ran the insurer into the ground.In a bid to reactivate a March 1993 class-action suit, attorney Abraham Dash likened the subscribers to shareholders in a co-operative rather than customers of a corporation. Under state corporate law, customers don't have the right to sue directors -- but shareholders do."

Verizon Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. phone company, was accused in a lawsuit filed yesterday of setting inflated prices for advertising by exaggerating the number of subscribers to its FiOS fiber-optic cable service. Verizon overstates subscribers by including prospective customers, not just actual ones, advertiser Digital Art Services said in a complaint in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. "Verizon's internal documents show, and Verizon has now admitted, that Verizon has a policy of inflating the number of its reported FiOS subscribers," Digital Art said in the complaint.

Saturday night's football game between No. 1 Gilman and New Jersey power Don Bosco Prep, last year's No. 1 team in USA Today's Super 25 national rankings, will be streamed live on www.msgvarsity.com/livecast . The game will be available to subscribers and non-subscribers when it kicks off at 7:45 p.m. You can also see the earlier game between Good Counsel and another New Jersey team, St. Joseph's Regional, at 4:30 p.m.

DISH subscribers could lose access to WBFF and WNUV (Channels 45 and 54) at midnight Wednesday in a disagreement over retransmission fees. "Based on current state of negotiations, there's a risk DISH won't be carrying us after midnight Wednesday," Barry Faber, executive vice president for Sinclair Broadcast Group,  said this morning. WBFF is owned and WNUV is managed by Sinclair, which is based in Hunt Valley. "We're hopeful, we'll get a deal, but we're also realistic," he added, saying that Sinclair wants to keep viewers informed.

Here we go again: BGE, which has a miserable reputation for maintaining its distribution grid, is seeking yet another rate increase ("BGE requests rate increase for electric, gas distribution," July 27). Subscribers are ever more susceptible to power outages because BGE has cut its operating costs at consumers' expense. BGE reduced its operating costs (and its ability to provide consistently available power) by reducing its maintenance and service capabilities. Now it wants the under-serviced subscribers to once again underwrite its managerial failures.

In a move that most saw coming, BioWare will open up its “Star Wars” MMO, “The Old Republic” for free play this fall. Reports over the last six months of the game losing subscribers have been steady, with the company confirming Tuesday that the amount of paying customers has “dipped below one million.” BioWare has tried to bolster interest in the midst of the falling subscription numbers by offering free trial weekends to new players...

DirecTV subscribers have lost"SpongeBob SquarePants," "The Daily Show" and "Mob Wives. " Unable to reach a deal with Viacom, parent of several popular cable channels, including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and VH1, DirecTV is no longer carrying the media giant's networks. DirecTV has almost 20 million subscribers around the nation. Both sides blamed each other for the channels coming off of the satellite broadcaster on Tuesday evening. Viacom said DirecTV dropped the channels without warning.

Dear Diary, Today, I unsubscribed from Groupon. I don't even remember the deal that popped into my email inbox that turned me off, and made me ask the metaphysical question to end all questions: Why, again, am I getting this? Truth be told, I think I've bought one Groupon in my life. And that was to support a friend's restaurant business. But I never used the Groupon because I didn't want to take advantage of his attempts to rope in new customers. I was a loyal fan. And here's where Groupon just didn't work for me. I like word-of-mouth when I look for goods and services I want to spend my money on. I don't like being pitched cut-rate deals -- it makes me skeptical.

Adelphia Communications overstated both the number of its cable subscribers and its cash flow for 2001, people close to the company said yesterday. The number of cable subscribers has been overstated by at least 4.3 percent and perhaps as much as 10 percent, these people said, although the exact figure is still being determined. The company inflated its estimated $1.55 billion in 2001 cash flow by tens of millions of dollars and possibly by more, they said. The company also overstated its estimated 2001 cash flow - or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization - by tens of millions through a complex swap transaction on the purchase of digital set-top boxes from Motorola Inc. and Scientific Atlanta Inc., these people said.

LONDON - The Vodafone Group, a wireless favorite among investors, has lost a bit of its luster of late. Yesterday, its shares fell nearly 4 percent, adding to a 12 percent slide this week, as analysts expressed concerns about disappointing growth of subscribers in the United States and the uncertain introduction of new wireless services in Europe. Vodafone shares have now given back nearly all the gains accrued in a rally that began last fall. The shares closed yesterday in London down 3.7 percent, at 164.5 pence.

Verizon and Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached an agreement, according to Bill Fanshawe, general manager of Baltimore's WBFF and WNUV television stations. WBFF is owned and WNUV is managed by the Hunt Valley based broadcaster. "We have settled," Fanshawe said late Thursday. "So, we are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreemnent in principle for a new deal that will provide for continued carriage of our stations on the FiOS systems after December 31st, 2011. " What that means immediately is that the crawls across the bottom of the screen warning FiOS viewers that they might not be able to see "Glee" and NFL football games after Dec. 31, are history.

I understand the decision you have taken to charge for access to the digital content at The Sun, and frankly I'm glad you've done it. We face a very simple problem: News is expensive to produce. If readers don't pay for the news, it cannot be produced. And of course, without an active, critical, independent press, democracy cannot succeed. I therefore value the service you provide highly, and I'm willing to pay for it. In fact, I already do pay for it: I have subscribed to home delivery service of The Sun for years.