Liberty Global said it expects to receive insurance proceeds to cover the losses to operations in the Caribbean following in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, but, given the uncertainties linked to the recovery, it’s reviewing its previously-issued 2017 financial guidance for its Liberty Latin America and Caribbean (LiLAC) division, and plans to provide an update at the company’s Q3 call next month.

Liberty also announced that it has donated $1 million toward humanitarian relief efforts in the Caribbean, donating the sum to the Liberty Foundation in Puerto Rico and the Cable & Wireless Charitable Foundation.

Liberty Global noted that more than half its mobile sites of Cable & Wireless operations were affected in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Turks & Caicos, but are now online and that the company is making progress with further repairs.

The operator’s fixed networks also “suffered significant damage” in those markets, with work underway to reestablish connectivity as rapidly as possible, the company added.

Liberty Global said it also suffered some damage to its sub-sea systems, but that redundancy measures helped to maintain connectivity in all countries served, except for Dominica, which was temporarily offline but restored after the storms passed.

The areas hit hardest by the storms – Anguilla, BVI, Turks & Caicos and Dominica – represent about 4% of C&W’s Q2 2017 revenues.

The company is still assessing the impact that the hurricanes had on its Liberty Cablevision Puerto Rico operation and C&W in Puerto Rico are still being assessed, noting that business there continues to be challenged by water, fuel and food shortages and “severe damage to essential infrastructure.”

“We expect to receive insurance proceeds to cover the losses to our operations resulting from both Hurricanes Irma and Maria as part of our natural catastrophe risk management program,” Liberty Global said. “Because these hurricanes inflicted damage over a number of days and to a wide area, we are assessing the extent of damage and loss and the applicable terms of our insurance policy.”

Liberty Global said that, at this stage, it can’t provide assurances to the total amount and timing of the insurance proceeds that its operations will ultimately recover. 

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Televisión Dominicana, a network targeted to Americans with ties to that country, held a rally in New York Monday (Sept. 18) to try to get AT&T to put it back on its DirecTV and U-verse services.

A carriage impasse took the channel off DirecTV and U-verse as Hurricane Irma threatened that country, according to the channel's representatives, who made that point in calling for the channel's return.

"The channel has been dark on DirecTV and U-Verse for the past two weeks, which coincided with one of the worst hurricanes the Dominican Republic has ever seen, leaving people without a direct line to news about Irma," network officials said.

They also tied the impasse to AT&T's proposed purchase of Time Warner. Pending mergers are often used as leverage in carriage disputes, the point being that the merging companies want as few potential regulatory or public relations issues as they try to clear government antitrust, and in many cases FCC public-interest hurdles, though in this case the deal has been structured to avoid FCC review.

The protest was to have featured local Hispanic state and city public officials.

"Blatant disregard for the Dominican community that depends on Televisión Dominicana is at the root of DirecTV and AT&T’s decision-making, as the cost of the channel is a tiny fraction compared with the billions in profits the companies are set to make from the upcoming merger between AT&T and Time Warner," network officials said.

AT&T responded: "We strive to offer the most relevant and engaging content available, changing our offerings to meet our customers’ wishes. We had hoped to continue to offer some TV Dominicana programs, and remain committed to fostering diverse perspectives. DirecTV and U-verse each provide 65 Spanish-language channels, including many that originate in major Hispanic homelands."

An AT&T source called it a case of Televisión Dominicana walking away from the company's offers and noted that DirecTV carries a multitude of diverse channels and carried "pretty extensive" hurricane coverage via those.

"Despite our best efforts to negotiate continued distribution, AT&T's proposals made access to Televisión Dominicana limited and more expensive for the Dominican community," said a spokesman for the network following the protest. "There are 2.3 million Dominicans living in the United States, the fourth largest Spanish-speaking population, but AT&T and DirecTV carry other networks targeting smaller population groups. Among those are three channels from Spain provided by a company partnered with DirecTV, including the channel that replaced Televisión Dominicana. These actions highlight AT&T's disregard for the Dominican community and demonstrate the power AT&T has over independent networks serving underserved communities.  As the Dominican Republic prepares for what could be its second devastating hurricane in two weeks, AT&T and DirecTV consumers remain without access to any local information."

The return of college football on ESPN as well as The Weather Channel's live coverage of Hurricane Irma teamed to knock Fox News from its exclusive perch atop the weekly cable primetime and total day charts.

ESPN tied Fox News atop the primetime charts for the week of Sept. 4 to Sept. 10 with 2.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Fox News has now held or shared the top spot of the weekly primetime charts for 16 consecutive weeks.

The Weather Channel finished a close third with 2.2 million viewers, followed by MSNBC’s 1.9 million viewers and CNN’s 1.8 million watchers.

Rounding out the top 10 most watched networks in primetime for the week were USA (1.5 million), HGTV (1.3 million), TBS (1.1 million) and FX and Investigation Discovery (tied with 1 million).

The Weather Channel’s coverage of Hurricane Irma helped the network finish as the most watched cable network on a total day basis, ending Fox News’ streak of 35 consecutive weeks in the top spot. CNN, MSNBC and Nickelodeon rounded out the top five. 

TWC was also the most watched network among 18-49 year olds on a 24-hour basis, while ESPN was the top choice for viewers in the demo in primetime. 

ESPN’s Sept. 4 Tennessee/Georgia Tech college football telecast drew 5.1 million viewers to finish as the most watched cable show of the week, with The Weather Channel’s Hurricane Irma coverage dominating the rest of the top 10 list, according to Nielsen.

Responding to the telecom chaos from Hurricane Irma, the Federal Communications Commission, working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has expanded its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) data collection area to include 18 counties in Georgia and three counties in Alabama, in addition to its existing request for information from all of Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In a notice late Monday (Sept. 11), the FCC asked cable, broadcast, wireless and wireline providers to submit daily infrastructure status and situational awareness information until the DIRS is deactivated. Providers must send their information to the FCC's DIRS site, a voluntary, web-based system that collects status reports "during times of crisis."

Meanwhile, the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau moved ahead to gather data from communications providers in the affected areas. The Bureau suspended Network Outage Reporting System obligations in the affected counties where DIRS has been activated. The FCC has set a schedule for filing reports by 10 a.m. every day until DIRS is deactivated.

Senate Adopts SANDY Act
Separately, the Senate adopted the Securing Access to Networks in Disasters (SANDY) Act of 2017 on Monday night.

“In the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, this legislation comes not a moment too soon," newly reinstated Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

"We know that weather-related emergencies and other disasters can occur anywhere at any time," she said, adding that the legislation "promises to help speed restoration of essential communications in times of disaster."

The Senate's unanimous approval of the SANDY Act on Monday night followed House passage of the companion bill last week.

Pai Cites Disaster Response at Wireless Conference
FCC chair Ajit Pai, in a scheduled address to the first-ever Mobile World Congress Americas in San Francisco on Tuesday (Sept. 12), opened his remarks with an extensive explanation of the FCC's role as part of the federal government’s disaster response efforts. Pai said it will "be a long time before we’ll be able to calculate the total amount of damage inflicted by Harvey and Irma."

Then he complimented the wireless industry.

"We already know one thing: It would have been a lot worse if it weren’t for wireless communications," Pai said.

"We work closely with DHS, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state public safety officials and private communications providers ... [to] monitor the status of communications networks in affected areas," Pai said, emphasizing the government agencies' efforts to "assist with recovery and restoration efforts" and to "ensure that first responders on the ground can quickly get access to the spectrum they need to communicate."

Pai stressed the value of wireless connections throughout his opening remarks to the San Francisco Conference, the first North American version of the landmark World Mobile Congress held in Barcelona each February.

"In the case of Hurricane Harvey, the one bit of good news is that wireless networks were much more resilient than in some previous disasters," he said, calling it a "lifeline."

"In the initial phase of Harvey, Houston’s main 911 emergency response center received more than 96,000 calls, many of which were from wireless phones," Pai said, drawing on his visit to Texas last week. "Many of the more than 11,000 people rescued by the Coast Guard were found because of wireless calls. That includes one 14-year-old girl who was saved after telling Siri, 'Call the Coast Guard.'

"The past two weeks remind us that for public safety purposes alone, wireless communications during times of emergency are critical," Pai said.

He also acknowledged the launch of Apple's new iPhone 8, which was debuting at an event a few dozen miles away in the Bay Area simultaneously with his speech.

"To me, the more notable coincidence of timing and location is that it was 10 years ago, in this very building complex, that Steve Jobs debuted the very first iPhone," Pai said. He used that example to praise the wireless industry for continuing its innovation.

Related: Apple Intros Apple TV 4K

"We find ourselves nearing another possible hinge moment," he said, using his term for pivotal advances in telecom technology. "We’ve seen remarkable progress, but it feels like we’re still waiting for another huge breakthrough."

"5G could well be what we’re waiting for," he said. "Going from 2G to 3G was the mobile equivalent of switching from dial-up to broadband. Similarly, the transition from 4G to 5G promises to be more than just incremental change — we could see dramatic improvements in network speed, capacity and responsiveness that will make the impossible possible."

Related: Charter, Samsung Team on 5G, 4G LTE Trials

And he used the platform to fret again about the lack of rural wireless broadband capability.

"I personally experienced this last week while driving from Houston to Austin," Pai said. "The personal impact of the 'no service" display in that case was trivial. ... But the wireless aspect of the rural digital divide has serious costs for many people. ... The mobile marketplace is healthy, but we’ve got work to do to close the digital divide and boost network investment, which go hand in hand. And we need to tackle these issues with an eye toward revving the virtuous cycle of faster, better networks that unleash new innovations that drive additional consumer demand."

The FCC said more than a third (38.9%) of cell sites in Puerto Rico are out of service, according to its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) for Hurricane Irma in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The agency also said more than 50% of cell sites are out in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The agency had no direct comparisons to the day-before figures because the FCC extended the reporting area to the entirety of both.

The FCC triggered the status reports for Irma -- as it had for Hurricane Harvey -- on Sept. 6 and will certainly extend it to Florida soon.

DIRS is a voluntary web-based reporting system that communications outlets — broadcast, cable, wireless, wireline — use to keep the FCC apprised of the status of their communications infrastructure.

The FCC has limited information on cable and broadcast, but said that given widespread power outages, it has reports that large percentages of cable and wireline subs are without service. According to what it said was limited information, no broadcasters are off the air in the affected areas.