MCN Guest Blog
Just another NWP - Blogs weblog
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 ...... Read More
Comments (0)Staying Ahead As 'Last-Mile' Advantage Wanes
By Judy Shapiro In the 1990s, when I was at AT&T, owning “the last mile” - the pipe into the home - was the most valuable and monetizable place to be. As the competition began to chip away at the edges, our defensive strategy was to offer more services as a way to bind the customer to the AT&T franchise and - voila - bundled services were born. We offered a wide variety of co ...... Read More
Comments (0)Communicating Cable's Future, FORUM 2011
By Jim Maiella When my kids ask me to tell them again what I do to for a living, I say that when the company I work for needs to say something, I help decide what the words should be and how they should be delivered to the people we’re trying to reach. I’m a communicator. It’s a simple articulation of an expertise that is becoming more complicated every day, and more important ...... Read More
Comments (2)Art of the Deal, Brodsky-Style
Julian Brodsky, the legendary Comcast co-founder and deal-maker, was strolling through CableNet, the Cable Show exhibit area that showcases emerging technology firms. A familiar face (a retired executive from a top equipment vendor) flagged him down to take a look at a new Internet Protocol system in which the veteran vendor has invested. The young company’s marketing executive stepped forw ...... Read More
Comments (0)Eyeing Ergen's Next Competitive Empire
EchoStar would like the cable industry to focus on its new “Aria” service, a content/technology package for small/medium operators that will debut at Cable Show 2011. But most of the components in Aria are also the building blocks for a competitive consumer service that Chairman Charlie Ergen has assembled which could provide data and video broadband directly to homes nationwid ...... Read More
Comments (0)Microsoft TV Returns via Rug-top Box with Live TV
By Gary Arlen Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will become the rug-top box receiver for a new live television service, making Microsoft a “virtual cable operator.” At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) videogaming conference in Los Angeles this week, Microsoft described plans for its new “Live Diamond” service - an extension of the Xbox Live function that has been availa ...... Read More
Comments (0)Determining the Value of Multicultural Cable TV Customers Today
I have played a role in the “multicultural cable TV marketplace” for more than two decades. From my perspective, in some years, the industry’s focus on multicultural markets has received more emphasis than in other years. This year, the focus on servicing multicultural consumers is more enhanced than ever before. It is reflected in new programming tiers, marketing commitments ...... Read More
Comments (0)Retransmission Review's Time Is Due
The following is a Feb. 23 letter from Full Channel TV vice president Levi Maaia to Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski: Full Channel strongly agrees that the time has come for the commission to review retransmission- consent rules in light of recent disputes affecting millions of consumers, many of whom were unprepared for the sudden loss of broadcast-network content pr ...... Read More
Comments (0)Building Momentum for USF Reform
The Federal Communications Commission has at long last begun action to transform the existing inefficient and outdated system of universal service subsidies. For too long, consumers have borne the increasing burdens of a system that is riddled with inefficiency and waste, that ignores modern-day competitive realities, that misallocates scarce funds and that is ill-suited to meet the challenge of e ...... Read More
Comments (0)Genachowski Approaches the Rubicon
By Randolph May A few days ago, after attending the NARUC Convention, I wrote this blog piece, “Genachowski at NARUC.” Based on the fact that Chairman Genachowski at NARUC emphasized an FCC mission focusing on catalyzing private investment, creating jobs, and competing globally - and did not even mention net neutrality regulation - I stated my hope that he had abandoned his campaign ...... Read More
Comments (0)Why Net Neutrality (Again)?
By Jimmy Schaeffler At a recent meeting with a top-level executive from one of America’s foremost multichannel video providers (MCVPs), our dialogue involved a rather in-depth discussion about net neutrality and its importance to the future development of telecommunications in the U.S. The MCVP in this case is one of a handful of relatively new entrants that was able to take best advantage ...... Read More
Comments (3)Post Cable Show Reflections
By Jimmy Schaeffler Some three weeks after NCTA’s Cable Show 2010 in L.A., I find myself (and my contributing colleagues from the Wall Street, software, consultant, and trade group sides of the U.S. pay TV industry), still thinking about several notable challenges, promises, and universal truths that immersed the convention’s 13,000 attendees. Those key challenges involved net neutra ...... Read More
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