Peter Litman has been a media consultant since 1998. He works in
the cable television and Internet industries, most often on projects that
involve licensing content and business planning. He has deep knowledge of
affiliation agreements and retransmission consent agreements. He is very
familiar with “most favored nation” provisions -- how the
terms are interpreted and analyzed.
He has a broad perspective on the issues, having worked and
negotiated extensively on both the programmer and distributor sides of the
cable television business.
In 2018 and 2019, he served as an expert witness for Comcast Cable in its defense of two related FCC Program Carriage Complaints filed by beIN Sports (first; second) His Declaration is available publicly (redacted) as part of Comcast’s Answer to the Complaint (first; second).
In 2018 and 2019, he served as an expert witness for Comcast Cable in its defense of two related FCC Program Carriage Complaints filed by beIN Sports (first; second) His Declaration is available publicly (redacted) as part of Comcast’s Answer to the Complaint (first; second).
Since 2009, he has been working with a major US cable television
sports service to develop its distribution and business development strategy
including authenticated broadband distribution (“TV Everywhere”). He has assisted
the service to negotiate agreements for its increased distribution on US cable,
DBS (direct broadcast satellite) and telco multichannel video systems. He has
also done the financial analysis of his client’s actual and potential deal
terms to ensure that it stays in compliance with its contractual commitments. He
has deep knowledge of affiliation agreements, retransmission consent
agreements, “most favored nation” provisions and their interpretation and
related analysis. He has a broad perspective on the issues, having negotiated
extensively on both the programmer and distributor sides of the cable
television business.
In 2014 and 2015 he worked with a major US broadcaster on its
distribution strategy. As part of this work, he has led and developed its
distribution analytics function – addressing questions about which parts of its
distribution (over-the-air, cable, telco, DBS) are most valuable and why. He
had also assisted two different independent cable programming services with
their analyses of their relationships with their distributors and has
recommended approaches to maintain and improve the value of those
relationships.
In 2012 he worked on behalf of an innovative, high profile
fiber-to-the-home service to secure retransmission consent agreements for
its deployment of its service in its first commercial market. The deals were
completed on time and on favorable terms.
In 2011 and 2012 he worked with a public interest programmer whose
service is distributed on both DirecTV and Dish
Network to extend its distribution on cable, telco and
over-the-top video platforms. He helped shepherd the programmer’s launch of its
channel on the Roku platform. In
this effort he has developed its sales presentation, set up and attended
meetings with distributors and provided feedback on the development of mobile
and other applications.
Previously, Peter worked with a top-five US cable operator to
secure retransmission consent agreements for major-network-affiliated
stations for the 2009-2011 cycle and also to analyze and suggest strategy for
its premium television business (e.g., HBO, Showtime, Starz).
In 2009, a major US sports programmer retained him as an expert
witness to assist with litigation with another top-five cable operator.
From 1999 to 2008 he worked with a major US cable programmer on
its agreements with cable and satellite operators, helping the company develop
its distribution strategy and negotiate the deals to successfully implement it.
In those agreements, the company gained and renewed carriage for the company’s
multiple linear and non-linear, standard and high definition services. As part
of that work, he was involved with the retransmission consent issues of a major
broadcast television group. He was actively involved in meetings with all major
US multichannel television distributors. He worked on business
development, including plans for additional linear channels, high definition
and video-on-demand services. He
analyzed deal terms and contract compliance, both on a day-to-day basis and as
part of litigation. He was also a long-term advisor to the general manager of
one of the channels, assisting on all elements of the service’s operation
including prioritizing programming investments to grow the business.
From 2000 to 2007, he assisted another major US cable television
network. He was integrally involved in developing its online business. That
project included writing the business plan to secure funding, acquiring
complementary web sites, negotiating a major distribution agreement and working
on operational issues like staffing and content strategy. For that company, he
also did business development work on both digital cable channels and
video-on-demand offerings.
Peter has assisted many other major cable television network
operators on strategies for their dealings with distributors and on the
business plans for new services. His previous clients have ranged from
blue-chip content providers to start-up companies.
Prior to consulting, he spent four years negotiating programming
agreements and overseeing investments in cable networks at the board level as
part of Rob Stengel’s group at the cable
operator Continental Cablevision/MediaOne (now part of Comcast Cable). During
that time MediaOne had investments in Turner Broadcasting (now a unit of
AT&T, parent of CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network), Food Network, Fox Sports 1 (then Speedvision), NBCSN (then Outdoor
Life Network), Golf Channel and E!. Litman
worked on MediaOne’s acquisition of a 50% interest in NBC
Sports Boston (then SportsChannel New England), which was acquired for a
fraction of the price at which Comcast subsequently acquired
the other 50%. As a cable operator, he negotiated affiliation agreements with
basic and premium cable program services and retransmission agreements with
broadcast television stations.
Earlier in his career, Peter worked in several financial roles for
NBC at both the network and individual station level. He began his career in
the media in radio programming at WBRU, in Providence,
Rhode Island, which was the largest student-run radio station in the country at
the time. Now, WBRU is a digital media company, still run by college students,
and he is on the Board of Directors of its parent company.
He earned his undergraduate degree at Brown
University where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honor societies. He earned his
master’s at the Kellogg School of Management at
Northwestern University where he was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma.
