Multichannel News Blogs
Let the Speculation Begin
Well now that it’s official and DirecTV has been spun off from Liberty Media as Liberty Entertainment my mailbox has filled up with people asking me what’s going to happen to DirecTV. Judging from what I have been reading lately it appears that indeed the for sale sign is out, but now the question I have is, is it just DirecTV that’s for sale or is it the entire Liberty Entert ... More
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The Consumer Satellite Industry through the eyes of WWW.SatelliteGuys.US Founder Scott Greczkowski
Calling the Broadband Bluff
Here’s another way to frame the debate over usage-based billing: After years of broadband providers marketing super-fast, unlimited Internet access at a fixed monthly price, customers are calling their bluff. Broadband networks were originally designed with oversubscription ratios (the total theoretical peak capacity available to all subscribers vs. the actual amount of bandwidth available) ... More
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Covering cable TV, broadband and Internet video technologies
Another Look at the JFK Assasination: Did the Mob Do It?
Discovery Channel is taking a new look at the granddaddy of all conspiracy cases. On the anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy, Discovery is airing a special that claims that organized crime took out a hit on president—and managed to get away with it. The documentary, “Did the Mob Kill JFK,” airs Sunday, Nov. 22, and bases its theory on an interview with a secret FBI inf ... More
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Jon Lafayette, the longtime, perceptive TV scribe for such publications as Television Week, Cable World and Advertising Age, is back in the game, blogging for Multichannel.com on anything and everything TV related. Reach him at jon.lafayette@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter: @jlafayette.
Nielsen Dawg
If there was ever a night to tune out Tirico, Jaws and the contract-extended Jon “Chucky” Gruden, it was Monday night. ESPN was saddled with a MNF clunker on Nov. 16: the now 1-8 Manginiuses hosting the underachieving Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland’s Dawg Pound. And let’s be fair, there wasn’t anything to miss during the lackluster contest. The Brady Quinn Brownou ... More
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Yes, But Does It Scale?
In combing through pages of notes from CTAM Summit and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, one word popped up over and over (and over). Scale. Examples: “What EBIF will give us is scale.” “We have to scale and get more and more DVRs out there.” “Part of my job is, I’m supposed to make it scale.” And, my personal favorite, “Even if you dual stack or single s ... More
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Stumped by tech gibberish? Veteran technology analyst Leslie Ellis translates the latest in broadband gadgetry, services, bandwidth, and gear.
Adieu, Equalizer
Edward Woodward is dead at age 79 and I have three things to praise him for. The first is ‘Breaker Morant,’ a film that isn’t even mentioned in the obits I’ve seen this morning, including one on the BBC site. It’s about Aussies fighting for the Brits in the Boer War and becoming “scapegoats for the bloody empire,” if dialogue memory serves and ... More
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Multichannel News editor Kent Gibbons covers issues impacting pay TV providers, programmers and technology suppliers in his regular column.
Pacquiao Win Sets Up Potential Mayweather Matchup
Now that Manny Pacquiao has disposed of former welterweight champ Miquel Cotto, the drumbeat has already begun for a 2010 showdown between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. At the end of Pacquiao’s 12-round decisive TKO of Cotto last night, which gave Pacquiao an unprecedented seventh title in seven different weight classes, much of the sold out crowd at the MGM Grand Arena at Las Vegas beg ... More
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Tom Umstead focuses on TV programming in his column.
Making A Statement, Making A Difference
By DAVID PORTER “Make a Statement. Make a Difference” is not only the theme of this year’s Walter Kaitz Foundation’s Annual Fund-Raising Dinner, but is also a call for the cable industry to collectively move forward and engender change. Change requires hard work, and we have lots more work to do on diversity. At its core, the foundation has always been committed to incr ... More
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Just another NWP - Blogs weblog
Well, THAT's Fun (Moody Blues in Visa Ad)
I’m sitting here watching and tweeting American Idol when this cool Visa ad pops up on my television screen in big, bright psychedelic colors. The music is Moody Blues’ “Tuesday Afternoon.” Fun In fact, Visa recently released another inspiring ad called “Let’s Go.” (That’s Morgan Freeman in the voice over set to Smashing Pumpkins’ ... More
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May McNamara focuses on TV programming in her column, which is updated at least three times weekly.
Goings and Goings -- Manny, A-Rod and T.O.
This has been a week of goings and goings and goings. I’m talking A-Rod, Manny and T.O. As a Mets fan, I wanted Manny Ramirez on the team. I even thought a simple contract of $25 million a year for two years and a $10 million buyout would work. If Manny wasn’t happy in New York, he gets 10 mill to go away. If the Mets weren’t happy with Manny, they cut him a 10 mill check and ... More
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Kiss the Beijing Olympics Goodbye When the 2008 Summer Olympic Games start this August in that wonderfully polluted Chinese capitol of Beijing, you can bet NBC will cover it in all its glory from the opening ceremonies to the close. I’m sure it will be breathtaking and memorable, especially if the US dominates the medal count and no one flunks the drug tests. With NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen and the Weather Channel carrying the Games (only kidding about Weather Channel, I think – the bids for the Landmark Communications property have not been revealed yet), there will be enough TV platforms covering the Games to give even the sorry sport of boxing a shot – even if it may be at 3 a.m. With all the hoopla and money to be made pimping, I mean exploiting, I mean shilling, I mean broadcasting the Games, I for one hope to avoid as much of the Olympics as possible. I don’t know, maybe, it has a tad to do with how the Chinese government dictates to its people how to live – or not. Remember, China is a one baby per family utopia. The little issue of Tibetan independence and the Chinese government’s crackdown on its people leaves me feeling uncomfortable to say the least. I know the American Revolution does not compare with Tibet’s attempt at self-governing, but will it take a monk or three igniting themselves to bring attention to what the Chinese government is doing? I know, in the eyes of the Chinese government, the Dali Lama is akin to Osama Bin Laden, and yet, even President Bush has met the Dali Lama, but he needs to go much further. He needs to avoid attending the Beijing Games just like he did the Hurricane Katrina games. Just give it time and the whole ugly mess will be forgotten – or at least he’ll be out of office. I know my job is to watch at least some of the Summer Games and maybe interview a writer or two, but it’s hard to watch an event like the Beijing Olympics when you need the roar of the crowd to drown out a cry for help from its people. U-S-A! ... U-S-A! ... U-S-A! ... just might do the trick especially if the Chinese government can fool, I mean hire, I mean use Stevie Wonder to lead the cheers.
A Rise From 'Ashes'
I’ve seen the future, and it’s set in 1981. That’s the year that modern-day policewoman Alex Drake is transported back to in the new BBC America series Ashes to Ashes. Ironically, the show’s Stateside debut on March 7 comes just days after ABC announced that it was canceling its Americanized version of another U.K. import, Life On Mars - the original time-travel-meets-p ... More
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George Vernadakis writes about pay TV programming and other issues impacting the industry.
Cabler Demands Note from Man in Coma
Is your name on YOUR cable account? You better make sure it is, because if your spouse it injured and in a coma, your cable company may lock you out of your account. My family found this out the hard way, and it could happen to you. Service providers only want to deal with an “authorized user” when it comes to changes ... More
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Memo To Mr. Charles Dolan
Memo to: Cablevision chairman Charles F. Dolan Re: FCC chairman Martin’s War On ESPN Date: Dec. 8, 2008 From: MCN Washington News Editor Mr. Dolan, The rumors are that FCC chairman Kevin Martin will take up residence in Silicon Valley when the clock runs out on the Bush administration in January. That’s a not a bad location for him, actually, in that Martin has clearly been fu ... More
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Ted Hearn writes about moves by the pay TV industry inside the Beltway.
Maybe Sterling Cooper Should Do An Ad Campaign For 'Mad Men'
This past weekend Mad Men lead Jon Hamm did a stint hosting Saturday Night Live, and his intro poked funat the conundrum of the AMC show: It’s critically revered, the first basic-cable series to win an Emmy as best drama, yet relatively few people have seen it. In his SNL intro, Hamm alluded to Mad Men’s relative obscurity. The dark, handsome actor also said that when he tells people ... More
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Brian Besieged
You wanna know how tough it’s gotten out there for cable stocks? So bad that one institutional investor, one that doesn’t normally do things like this, is calling for the ouster of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. Brian Roberts. The guy who a couple of years ago was being hailed as the smartest guy in cable. The guy who grew his father’s company from a 3-million subscriber regional ... More
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