Steve Donohue

January 8, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I really want to believe Brian Roberts and the hype from Comcast and CableLabs about the potential of interactive TV and open standards. But after watching the industry’s OpenCable project fail to deliver tangible results – more than 10 years after it was formed -- I’ve become a skeptic.

Roberts drew some buzz at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Monday, when he unveiled plans to work with Panasonic to sell portable video players next year, allowing Comcast subscribers to take shows they record on a digital video recorder on the road. There were no major OpenCable accomplishments touted at CES, other than a new name for the platform -- tru2way.

The Comcast chief spoke again Tuesday morning at CES about working with Panasonic and other CE manuf...Read More

December 5, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

We dig Keith Olbermann’s daily “Worst Person in The World” segment, which closes his 8 p.m. program on MSNBC. Since NBC News fired Don Imus in April, it’s the best thing going on MSNBC.

Case in point – Tuesday’s clip exposing CNN anti-immigration apostle Lou Dobbs, who Olbermann calls a hypocrite since the “elitist” horse show jumping industry – supported by Dobbs and his two equestrian daughters – e...Read More

December 3, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Don Imus pledged to never again use racist language as he returned to the air Monday morning for the first time since he was fired in April for insulting the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

But the shock jock, whose Imus In The Morning program is broadcast nationwide on ABC Radio and simulcast on RFD-TV, also pledged that his radio show wouldn’t see big changes.

“No much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal. Hillary Clinton is still Satan, and I’m back on the radio,” Imus said Monday morning, drawing applause from a live audience at The Town Hall Theater in New York.

Imus spent the first half hour of his pro...Read More

November 5, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Flying 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean Sunday, dozens of TV screens installed on the back of the seats of the Jetblue Flight 76 were tuned to the New England Patriots – Indianapolis Colts game on CBS. The game, featuring two undefeated NFL teams, had been touted all week as a showdown of Super Bowl caliber, and passengers on the flight from West Palm Beach, Fla., to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport barely missed a minute of it.

When I booked my flight a few weeks ago to attend the baptism for my two-month-old cousin Erin (my goddaughter), Jetblue’s 36 channels of broadcast and cable network programming – d...Read More

October 29, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

For months, NBC and Fox have teased Hulu, their joint Web venture that promised to deliver both full length episodes and clips from top TV series. But Web surfers that were looking forward to watching full-length episodes of 24 and other Fox and NBC hits may be disappointed with Hulu, which launched its public beta test Monday.

24, arguably the best series from either Fox or NBC, could have been an anchor draw for Hulu. The ad-supported site could have become an instant hit with legions of 24 fans by offering every episode from the first six seasons for free.

Instead, Hulu chose to offer just three episodes from 100-plus shows in the ...Read More