NEW ORLEANS - "Fragmentation is a fact of life," in the words of Peter Chernin. More pointedly, "it's going to increase exponentially" over the next three, five and ten years, the president and CEO of News Corporation said at the opening session of the 2008 Cable Show on Sunday.

Is this news?

Not so much. Not in this industry.

The last quarter-century has been almost all about creating that fact of life. In 1984, there were three widely distributed broadcast networks. And six upstart widely distributed cable networks: TBS, CNN, Nashville Network, USA Network, ESPN and The Weather Channel, as Sean Cunningham, president and CEO of the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, noted in his introductory remarks at the Multichannel News breakfast panel on “Multicultural Television” on Tuesday morning.

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NEW ORLEANS – On stage Sunday at the 2008 Cable Show here,  Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said he was having “good conversations” with cable operators about carrying the as-yet unnamed premium entertainment channel and online service being put together by Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate Entertainment and MGM. On Monday morning, the venture named former Showtime executive Mark Greenberg to lead it into competition with HBO, Showtime and Starz.

About the same time, Starz LLC chairman Robert Clasen was making an interesting comment over at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, where he is staying at the show. Starz (and presumably parent Liberty Media) would be interested in owning a basic cable channe...Read More

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On July 10, the “Reality Binge” will debut on the three-year-old Fox Reality Channel.

This one-hour show will highlight and comment on the best (and worst) of reality shows from every network televised across the United States.  The focus will be on outrageous characters and moments and the intent is to be humorous.

That contrasts with the dose of reality that attendees of the 2008 Cable Show got Sunday morning, here in New Orleans.

Two busloads of convention-goers got to see first-hand the state of the Crescent City, as it nears the third anniversary of its own outrageous moment: the inundation that followed the arrival of Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005 and the slow, inept response by local, state and fede...Read More

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This is the year of high-definition television.

The Weather Channel has constructed a spanking new HD studio, so you can see any calamity as if it were in your face. DirecTV is going all-out to create a competitive advantage over Dish Network, cable system operators and telephone companies in offering the most HD channels, anywhere. Broadcasters are launching HD services. ABC is even streaming HD-quality video online. Cablevision is offering HD service at no charge; and Comcast is tryin to make sure its on-demand offerings give it a leg up with the most choices of HD programming, in its markets.

Picture quality is what competition now centers on.

And it’s the subject of fierce debate, ranging from claims from all sides in commercials about who has the best, to Multichannel News technology editor Todd Spangler’s analysis going into thi...Read More

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So now comes Cablevision as the latest outfit trying to save a major metropolitan newspaper from the furnace of Internet competition.

Hope Tom Rutledge has his fire-proof skivvies on.

The handwriting is on the advertising checks: a 24x7 interactive text medium is drumming the once-a-day, one-way text medium. Classified ads are fleeing. Real estate ads shrinking. Department stores disappearing.

Heck, Sam Zell, a real estate tycoon his ownself, thought he could turn around his hometown newspaper operation, the Tribune Co.  But there, classified revenues in the first quarter were off a punishing 27%.

To help save his investment in the Chicago Tribune, he is tossing off Newsday, on Long Island. He picks up ...Read More

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This time, it's not the local government that's pledging to put WiFi Internet access across every square inch of public space. It's a cable operator.

It's Cablevision, which operates in the New York metropolitan area. And, of course, its model is not quite what the original promise of what a wireless network in a municipality was supposed to be.

The idea fomented by the city of Philadelphia (home of the nation's largest cable operator, aka Comcast) was that it would construct a wireless network that would give every  citizen low-cost access to the Internet. This would be less than $20 a month. And, the benefit would be a more educated, more desirable and more productive work force. 

But municip...Read More

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Yikes. Digital advertising will eclipse traditional advertising within five years, according to 100 senior executives in the media and entertainment industry polled by Accenture, the consulting firm that once  used Andersen in its name.

More than two thirds (68 percent) of these executives saw social media and user-generated content as big growth opportunities, in Accenture’s 2008 Global Content Survey.

Yet roughly the same amount of these unidentified folks (about 66 percent) said their companies were not ready to capitalize on these opportunities. By their estimation, their own organizations only had 40 percent of the “required capabilities&rdqu...Read More

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Comcast announces that its number of basic cable subscribers is down (again). Its net income has dropped, from $837 million to $732 million. But investors push its stock up $1.18 to $21.73, by 11 a.m. on May 1, the morning of the announcement.

What do they see?

They see some other key indicators of health going up.

Free cash flow: $702 million, up from $442 million a year ago.

Cable revenue: $7.9 billion, from $7.2 billion.

Business services: $120 million, from $87 million.

Monthly average total revenue per basic subscriber: $106.74, from $96.30.

And,

Total revenue generating units: 59.9 million, from 54.1 mi...Read More

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So the sale of TV Guide assets went through. Macrovision is buying Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. for $2.3 billion.

But the only real question there is when does the magazine die. And when will a real guide to TV emerge on the TV itself.

Finding what’s available on TV is still far too difficult. Technology consultant Paul Strassmann, a contributor to Multichannel News, figures there are 200,000 hours of programming available to him from Cablevision, his multichannel service provider in New Canaan, CT.

But, he finds using cable, in its current configuration, not easy.

His remote control has 37 buttons for basic functions and 12 buttons to work digital video recording functions....Read More

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Comcast’s shares have picked up a bit this year, from $17.70 on Jan. 2 to 19.78 as April 24 wound down.

But cable stocks, overall, are still trading at near all-time lows. So, now may be the time to buy in, indicates BernsteinResearch analyst Craig Moffett,. He says he expects Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Cablevision to all “outperform” the general market.

THE CASE: The “familiar litany of concerns” about telco and Internet competition, possible price wars, wireless substitution and the impact of recession have already “played their parts” in the drop in prices. The second half of the year offers “more reason for optimism, however.” Prime reason: He conservatively estimates that cable will pick up 10% -- or 1.4 million – of the 14 million households who discover they wi...Read More

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Perhaps Philippe Dauman should be taken at his word. And the word to take just may be …. “directly.”

The president and chief executive officer of Viacom Inc.'s key comment in announcing the new "premium entertainment service" from Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Lionsgate was this:

"We are building an innovative service that will use traditional and new digital distribution technologies to bring great film and television entertainment directly to the consumer."

To me, "directly" means just that: Directly to the consumer.

That would, in today's digital world, entail marketing movies and other content on one's own and distributing it directly to the consumer over the Web. This is, now, the entertainment equivalent of the Dell direct model in...Read More

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Could it really be possible  ...

... that NBC Universal would not insist on having an iron-clad legal contract regarding renewal of a breakthrough reality show that put Bravo? Or any other hit show?

... Or any show?

... That it won't do that for every show from now on?

... That big cable operators, just like small ones, secretly hope the Federal Communications Commission succeeds with its efforts at breaking up tying and bundling arrangements in the sale of programming networks?

-.... That those operators actually would love to have more buying power than their suppliers have sales power?

... That one big-name cable system operator did once sell program networks one at a time, for $1.95 each?

... That it was done to roll out a service known then and now as Optimum TV?...Read More

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