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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will visit the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., on the afternoon of Monday, March 17, for demonstrations of and briefings on select aeronautics and space research activities performed at the center.

Media are invited to attend Boldens tour of the laboratory used for research on volleyball-sized free-flying satellites called Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES, which are currently aboard the International Space Station. SPHERES are used on the space station to conduct experiments in space robotics, as well as spacecraft guidance navigation, control and docking. The satellites provide opportunities to affordably test a wide range of hardware and software.

Interested media may also attend Boldens tour of the center's high-fidelity airport control tower simulator, dubbed Future Flight Central, where the administrator will be briefed on research underway in support of next-generation air traffic management. NASA is collaborating with the Federal Aviation Administration and industry partners to develop several advanced automation tools that provide air traffic controllers, pilots, and other airspace users with more accurate real-time information about the nations air traffic flow, weather and routing.

Following the tours and briefings, Bolden will be available for a question-and-answer session with attending media. News media interested in attending should contact Sharon Lozano atsharon.k.lozano@nasa.govor 650-604-4789 by 9 a.m. PDT Monday, March 17, to register.

Registered news media may arrive as early as 11:45 a.m. March 17 at the Visitor Badging Office located at the main gate. Government-issued photo ID is required to obtain a visitor badge. News media will be escorted to and from the event Media arriving early will have an opportunity to interview SPHERES experts before Boldens arrival. All media must be at the main gate by 12:30 p.m.

For more information about Ames, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ames

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Media Invited to Tour Ames Research Center with NASA Administrator

Media companies plan to press Comcast Corp for higher fees in the coming year, seeing an opportunity to squeeze better terms from the U.S. cable company as regulators review its planned takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable paid nearly $14 billion to content companies last year for rights to distribute their films, television shows and sporting events.

Broadcasters and cable television networks have "assignment clauses" in their contracts with Time Warner Cable that require the networks to sign off before Comcast can merge the two cable operators' agreements, according to people who have negotiated agreements in the past.

Media executives say most programmers will push for higher rates in return for expanding their deals to cover digital distribution of their content. They declined to give specifics, citing confidential contracts.

"Media companies selling programming can be expected to leverage the policy and politics surrounding the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger to extract sizeable and unusual concessions," said Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman of pay TV consultant firm The Carmel Group.

Comcast is expected in March to formally request a Federal Communications Commission review of the $45.2 billion Time Warner Cable deal. The combined company will control almost 30 percent of the U.S. pay television video market and about a third of the high-speed Internet market.

While content providers are broadly concerned about the long-term negotiating clout of the new company, many of them are looking for immediate ways to benefit from the merger, according to media executives who requested anonymity because their negotiations with Comcast will be private.

Media companies see increased value for their content following a recent deal by satellite operator Dish Network Corp to pay Walt Disney Co for the rights to stream ESPN, ABC and other programs over the Internet.

Analysts say Disney likely pocketed higher subscriber fees from Dish for channels such as ESPN and Disney Channel. In 2013, ESPN was paid an industry average fee of $5.54 per subscriber per month while Disney Channel received $1.15 per subscriber per month, according to SNL Kagan.

CBS Corp CEO Leslie Moonves hinted at an investor conference this week that he would push for better terms from Comcast.

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Media Companies Could Leverage Comcast Deal

Liberty Media Corp. ( LMCA ), which owns 53% of Sirius XM Holdings Inc. ( SIRI ), has called off its plan to buy the rest of the shares of the satellite-radio provider. Meanwhile, Liberty Media announced the formation of two tracking stocks, one to be named as Liberty Media Group while the other will be Liberty Broadband Group.

In Jan 2014, the Liberty Media expressed its desire to take full control of SIRIUS XM Radio, in a deal worth more than $10 billion.

Liberty Media's tracking stock group, Liberty Broadband Group, will comprise the company's 27% stake in Charter Communications, Inc. ( CHTR ), 1% stake in Time Warner Cable Inc. ( TWC ), its subsidiary TruePosition and other investments. The second tracking stock group will consist of the SIRIUS XM stake and interests in other media and entertainment businesses.The present Liberty Media stockholders will gain one Liberty Media Group share and four shares of Liberty Broadband Group along with the right to more cable stocks.

Liberty Media is aggressively pursuing the idea of Charter Communications acquiring Time Warner Cable, the second largest cable MSO (multi service operator) in the U.S. However, Charter Communications has lost to Comcast Corp. in its bid to acquire Time Warner Cable.

In the recently concluded quarter, Liberty Media reported mixed financial results. Earnings came in above the Zacks Consensus Estimate whereas revenues lagged the same. Liberty Media generated $358.6 million of cash from operations compared with $293.2 million in the prior-year quarter. Free cash flow in the reported quarter was $303.27 million against $269.5 million in the year-ago quarter.

Liberty Media currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

CHARTER COMM-A (CHTR): Free Stock Analysis Report

LIBERTY MEDIA-A (LMCA): Free Stock Analysis Report

SIRIUS XM HLDGS (SIRI): Free Stock Analysis Report

TIME WARNER CAB (TWC): Free Stock Analysis Report

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Liberty Media Quits SIRIUS XM Buyout Plan - Analyst Blog

TEHRAN A long-smoldering battle over government control of media and culture in Iran is heating up, as opposing political forces fight over where the limits should be drawn on access to information.

Irans president, Hassan Rouhani, and his supporters argue that press restrictions should be reduced and that the public should be trusted with greater access to the Internet and television.

Hard-line conservatives, meanwhile, believe that such freedom would undermine the countrys Islamic rule.

The debate intensified last week when Ali Jannati, the minister of culture and Islamic guidance under Rouhani, described as ridiculous many of the policies that Iran has adopted since the revolution of 1979 to control the flow of information, including filters on the Internet.

We cannot restrict the advance of [such technology] under the pretext of protecting Islamic values, Jannati said in a meeting with Irans chamber of commerce.

His ministry oversees the licensing of nearly all forms of media in Iran, including newspapers, films and books, and is also in charge of reviewing, and potentially censoring, content before it is made available to the public.

Jannati, whose father is one of Irans most powerful and conservative clerics, is considered a reformist, and many here have interpreted his appointment as a sign of Rouhanis commitment to public demands for a freer media environment.

Some have called for him to go further. In an open letter, more than 400 Iranian journalists recently protested plans that would require individual reporters to be licensed by the ministry based on periodic evaluations of their work by the ministry.

The journalists acknowledged in the letter that some restrictions had been loosened since Rouhani took office. But it said that the licensing process, if implemented, would be an obstacle to any attempts to promote freedom of speech in Iran.

Since Rouhani entered office, gradual improvements in the media landscape are being felt, but there have also been setbacks.

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In Iran, a battle over control of media and culture is heating up

Media Control Systems specializes in television automation products and systems for program recording, playback, and ad insertion. Media Control Systems (MCS)manufactures its own brand of products and also resells and integrates other TV automation related products.

MCS was founded in 2000 andis located in San Diego County, California. The company's market is not limited tothe West Coast, but distributes its products and services both nationally and internationally.

Media Control System's master control automation products are targeted toward lower priced systems used for program originationof cable access, internet TV, and low power broadcast applications.

The company manufactures DTMF cue tone generators and decoders used for cueing ad insertion

systems from satellite programming. These products are sold to all major satellite program providers worldwide. Broadcast networks such as NBCuse cue tone products for ad insertion control for secondary channels.

Media Control Systems developed a cost effectiveTV Program signal failure detection product for unattended TV Channel operations such as public, educational and government channels. The Spyglass TV Channel Failure Detector product keeps your channel from being stuck on snow, black, blue, or a frozen picture.

Featured MCS Manufactured Products

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Media Control Systems