Multichannel News Blogs
Boxee CEO: The Cable Industry Is Lying About Encryption
Avner Ronen had a bone to pick with me. A couple, actually. The CEO of scrappy Internet-video startup Boxee tweeted about my blog post (”Boxee: Who Needs Cable? Actually, We Do“) yesterday, “you get so many things wrong in your piece. may be a good idea to practice this thing call journalism and give us a call…” Boxee is asking the FCC to preserve “clear Q ... More
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Covering cable TV, broadband and Internet video technologies
Intensifying the Spectrum War
As if the battle for wireless bandwidth isn’t volatile enough already, would-be participants keep finding new ways to ratchet up the confrontation. Even the most well-intentioned suggestions are likely to delay any decision-making, as policy hounds try to calculate the consequences of spectrum reallocation. For cable operators and content suppliers, the battle for wireless broadband bandwid ... More
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Technology, content and policy in the evolving multi-platform ecosystem. Veteran media/telecom analyst Gary Arlen delivers competitive outlooks and insights.
With A Little Help From My Friends
At the 2011 CES in Las Vegas, I wrote for Multichannel News about four Ts: tablets, talks, travel, and thin TVs. The tablets and thin TVs topic was the obvious burgeoning development of these set of stunning new contraptions that bring dreams to life. Travel was a frustration with the difficulty getting from A to B in Sin City, and all the time wasted doing that. And the talks were a reminder of w ... More
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Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman and CSO of The Carmel Group, writes about the convergence of pay television and other industry developments.
NBC's "Smash" Is Terrific Fun (With One Caveat)
NBC’s much-hyped Smash premieres tonight, February 6 at 10p, although one wonders if there’s anyone left who hasn’t already seen this show. On January 9th, NBC hosted screenings of the pilot in 10 local markets - Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, L.A., Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Oregon and San Francisco. On January 16, the pilot started streaming on all NBC ... More
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Mary McNamara focuses on TV programming and new media. Follow her on Twitter as @marymcnamara
Inside a Comcast 'AnyPlay' Installation
Last Monday, a new gadget arrived here in the over-the-top video lab: Comcast’s “AnyPlay” streamer, which makes it possible for tripleplay customers to stream live and linear TV to an iPad.What lab, you say? It all started last summer. The point of it is to see, firsthand, how and why everyday consumers visit the “connected” side of connected TVs, and whether the ... More
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Stumped by tech gibberish? Veteran technology analyst Leslie Ellis translates the latest in broadband gadgetry, services, bandwidth, and gear.
Business, as Usual, at the Super Bowl
The NFL is the model pro sports league. Its weighted/revolving schedule presents many teams with a chance to elevate to the playoffs from the basement the season year before, while its billions in varied revenue sources, TV chief among them, seemingly flow unabated. Super Bowl XLVI is looking to extend the NFL Championship audience for a seventh consecutive year, which would make Comcast’s ... More
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In Demand, UFC To Bring 3D PPV Event To Cable
It was a matter of time before the pay-per-view event category moved into the 3D space. This Saturday In Demand and the UFC will team to distribute the UFC 143 PPV event in 3D to cable subscribers with 3D-ready television sets, according to In Demand officials. Many ring sports observers have speculated that mixed martial arts and boxing events would play very well in 3D. Now consumers with 3D TV ... More
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Tom Umstead focuses on TV programming in his column.
Gergen Keeps Me Coming Back to CNN
Essentially wedded to CNN coverage of the Iowa caucuses Tuesday night by reception troubles on other cable news channels on my cable system and pixelated coverage of the Sugar Bowl, I was reminded why I often gravitate to that channel anyway come election night. No, it is not political, or even my fondness for the fleet fingers of John King and his magic graphics manipulation. It is instead for th ... More
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Multichannel News Bureau Chief John Eggerton weighs in on Washington
Gone Fishin' (for Subs)
Norwalk Islands, Conn. - In a driving rain, my kidneys are getting pounded with each slam of the 24-foot Skeeter boat on the waves as we make our way across the Long Island Sound, one of the richest saltwater fishing grounds in the United States. Bouncing alongside me is Gavin Harvey, the CEO of Sportsman Channel, who decided the salt water and fresh air would be more conducive to discussing the c ... More
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Views on Industry developments from the editor in chief of Multichannel News
Movies On Demand: Breaking Through
By Char Beales As cable’s Movies on Demand integrated marketing campaign completes its sophomore year amidst the implosion of brick and mortar rental stores and competition from streaming, mail and vending machine services, it’s apropos that we take stock of its accomplishments. It all began with studios and cable companies coming together in an unprecedented partnership in 2010. The ... More
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Just another NWP - Blogs weblog
Keeping the Customer Happy
Could personalized video billing help cable operators make their customers happy? That’s one of the things vendor Amdocs is looking into in relation to its sponsorship of the Cable Center Customer Care Committee (C5 for short). Lisa Modisette, a vice president in the Amdocs Consulting Division, and Jana Henthorn, senior vice president of academic and industry outreach at the nonprofit educa ... More
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Multichannel News editor Kent Gibbons covers issues impacting pay TV providers, programmers and technology suppliers in his regular column.
Honoring Bill Bresnan
Finding a way to honor a person like Bill Bresnan is not an easy thing to do. But I think The Cable Center got this one right. To anyone who knew him - and that list is a long, long, long one - Bresnan was a wildly successful businessman, mentor, sage, friend and a man with an encyclopedic knowledge of Irish humor. So coming up with another run-of-the-mill [Insert Name Here] Outstanding Achievemen ... More
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Meeting Expectations
Free Press and Public Knowledge have been hopping mad over what they view as secret meetings between FCC Chairman Julius Genachwoski’s chief of staff and industry players over network neutrality legislation that could clarifying the FCC’s regulatory authority over broadband.Free Press even took out a full-page ad in the Washington post to rip into cable and telcos, comparing them to ... More
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Just another NWP - Blogs weblog
ESPN's Fantasy Film is More Silly Than Reality
ESPN is in the middle of a series of documentaries looking at events and issues in sports that have arisen over the networks 30-year history. Most have been fascinating. A new documentary, Silly Little Game, makes its debut Tuesday and it illustrates the difficulty in illustrating fantasy sports—games played on paper by people studying statistics, arguing about trades at tables in restauran ... 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.
Is DISH Network Buying TiVo?
Things are getting interesting in the rumor department, as Barrons is reporting a rumor which has DISH Network looking to buy TIVO. (http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2010/03/24/tivo-rallies-on-dish-bid-rumor/) Shares of TIVO shot up almost fifty cents when news of the rumor broke this morning. If the rumor is true (and I hope it is) then I applaud the move. This is something that they sho ... More
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The Consumer Satellite Industry through the eyes of WWW.SatelliteGuys.US Founder Scott Greczkowski
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