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Linda Haugsted |
May 1, 2008
Raging Over a Condo Cut-Off Paul Redzimski’s condo neighbors hate him right now, and it’s all because he wanted better Internet connectivity. Instead, he’...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
BIT RATE
Todd Spangler |
May 16, 2008
Pace Talkin' DTAs With Comcast Does Pace Micro Technology have the inside track on Comcast's digital-to-analog converter project? The U.K. set-top manufacturer has made headwa...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Capital Ideas
Ted Hearn |
April 11, 2008
2008 Not So Great For NAB's Rehr David Rehr, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, must be unlucky. After a string of NAB policy defeats in Washington, D.C., the ...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGTed Hearn writes about moves by the pay TV industry inside the Beltway. |
Char Beales
Char Beales |
April 19, 2007
Where Does Cable Stand on Customer Care? I just returned from a meeting with cable’s customer care leaders and I’m optimistic that the building blocks, resources and support ar...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGCable marketing strategies and industry issues such as customer service are the focus of Char Beales’ column. |
Christian Lewis
Christian Lewis |
July 27, 2007
Everybody (Could) Know Your Name At this past week’s CTAM Summit in Washington, D.C., Multichannel News asked first-time attendee – news assistant Christian Lewis, 30 &...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
DaveSpin
Dave Cohen |
July 25, 2007
Downwardly Mobile Tuesday was a pretty bloody day for fledgling mobile-TV companies -- well, for those that weren’t fortunate enough to align themselves with A...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
DO NOT POST
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Linda Haugsted |
March 4, 2008
PEG: Find Me The Money Underwriting cutbacks, channel shifts to digital Siberia and the passage of bills that eliminated long-term funding agreements are making these tou...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGUnderwriting cutbacks, channel shifts to digital Siberia and the passage of bills that eliminated long-term funding agreements are making these tough days for public, educational and government producers. They’re having to shift gears from being content creators to fundraising foundation developers, and they’re finding that shift is as slow as bringing around the Titanic. PEG channels were initially touted as the electronic soapbox. In franchise hearings, operators bidding for the local business advocated that cable systems would provide the kind of super-local voice that broadcasters couldn’t offer, the immediacy that local papers couldn’t match. But what was promoted as a benefit is being shuttled aside by the "new, best" localism: video on demand. Those original local voices, funded by but uncontrolled by local cable executives, appear to be an endangered species, scrambling for new dollars to stay on the air. Take the Hillsborough TV, a government station in Hillsborough County, Fla. The operation has 21 employees and projected a budget for this year of $1.9 million, plus $500,000 for a digital upgrade. Instead, the station is looking for ways to raise money in anticipation of budget cuts from the county, according to station manager Tammy Peralta. Property tax reform in the state has left the county with a shortfall and local politicians are looking for new and different ways to continue operation of the station, which televises planning commission, land use and Tampa Port Authority meetings, among other government functions. One scheme under consideration: commercials from "underwriters" of the local government coverage, similar to the spots that accompany Public Broadcasting Service programs. It could be a tricky solution, though. Peralta said if such a funding mechanism is attempted, HTV and county executives would refuse support from any business that might have to do business with the county commissioners in the future. That would definitely shrink the pool of potential underwriters. The times are posing tough questions for those who operate local channels and production centers. "How can you maintain valuable services without charges (for production time and facilities) that are prohibitive?" asked Tony Riddle, executive director of the Alliance for Community Media. "You’d just become a commercial station." Already, many production centers have begun charging for production training that had been free. To conserve resources, production centers, which were once open to anyone in their regions, are having to draw lines, limiting resources to local residents. That means in some places, potential producers who live near by but are county residents are forced to find a way to travel to more remote production centers. "We’re switching from outreach (among community groups) to ‘I gotta raise $200,000,’" said Chad Johnston, executive director of The People’s Channel in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. State law changes there mean the production facility needs to find new, long-term funding for an operation with a $160,000 to $170,000 budget. "It will take years to develop a donor base," he predicted, adding PEG producers will be competing with better-established fundraising machines of public television and radio. It would be a shame for these outlets to collapse. The electronic soapbox is still needed. Community participation should not be limited to those with money and mobility. The homebound senior is as much in need of information from the local city council meeting as the moneyed developer. Local programs need to get out the word of their existence as much as their target audiences need their information. PEG is a local promise that still needs to be kept. |
Dwayne Goldsmith
Dwayne Goldsmith |
March 2, 2007
Ready for Reddy Megabit? Should electric utilities be permitted to enter digital communications without rate-of-return penalties? If you search distant memories -- or...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGMarketing technology is the focus of the column from Dwayne Goldsmith, a partner in the Daventry Group. |
Geraldine Laybourne
Geraldine Laybourne |
April 9, 2007
Cable Needs More Women I am endlessly fascinated by the differences between men and women. I simply can’t read or hear enough about this topic. You’re thinkin...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGIssues impacting women are often the focus of columns from Geraldine Laybourne, the founder and CEO of Oxygen Media. |
Glenn Britt
Glenn Britt |
June 21, 2007
Stretching the Lead Cable is in an enviable position. Few businesses in this country that are 60 years old can boast double-digit bottom and top-line full-year growth ...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Henry S. Schleiff
Henry Schleiff |
January 16, 2007
Bigger Doesn’t Mean Better There is little question that America has evolved into a "Supersized" country. I guess it was McDonald’s that coined the term, but &#...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGTelevision programming and competition in the pay TV business are key topics covered by Henry Schleiff, the president and CEO of Hallmark Channel parent company Crown Media holdings. |
Hits And Misses
Linda Moss |
May 16, 2008
Charlie’s $1,500 Verdict: A Hollow Victory I should have been a lawyer, working for Charlie Ergen and billing by the hour. I’d never have to worry about my credit cards bills or r...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Jason Braff
Jason Braff |
July 27, 2007
Living the Fantasy (Sports) Life At this past week’s CTAM Summit in Washington, D.C., Multichannel News asked first-time attendee and intern Jason Braff, a 20-year ...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Jimmy Schaeffler
Jimmy Schaeffler |
February 20, 2008
Capturing Digital Signage: Giving Consumers Relevance Chaotic change -- involving billions of dollars -- is churning the waters of advertising, retail marketing, cablecasting and broadcasting. Churnin...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG
Analyst Jimmy Schaefler covers a wide variety of topics, including direct broadcast satellite competition. |
John Clark
John Clark |
March 22, 2007
The Key to Cable's Future The pace of change in technology is accelerating. The expectations of customers are escalating. And the local cable technician is being asked to kn...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGIssues impacting cable engineers are the focus of the column from John Clarke, the president of the Society for Cable & Telecommunications Engineers. |
Jumping The Shark
George Vernadakis |
April 11, 2007
Curtain Call for a Soprano The New York Times recently cited Norman Mailer’s description of HBO’s The Sopranos as “the closest thing to the Great American N...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGGeorge Vernadakis writes about pay TV programming and other issues impacting the industry. |
Kyle McSlarrow
Kyle McSlarrow |
June 5, 2007
Make Regulation the Exception Rather than the Rule In the last couple of years, there’s been plenty of talk in Washington about reforming communications policy.Efforts by Congress to re-write ...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGNational Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow writes about the cable industry’s position on legislative and regulatory issues. |
Laureen Ong
Laureen Ong |
February 8, 2007
Strong Brand Is Key to Future What does the future hold for our industry? As technology and consumer behavior continues to force our business to evolve in unprecedented ways, th...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Levi Maaia
Levi Maaia |
May 11, 2007
I'm Your Vehicle, Baby Last month Blair Levin, the former FCC chief of staff to chairman Reed Hundt and current managing director at financial services firm Stifel N...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGLevi Maaia often writes about issues impacting small cable operators. |
MCN Guest Blogger
Jory Cener |
March 19, 2008
FiOS TV Update I was at a trade show, when my cell phone rang. It was my lovely wife who called to ask, “Was I sitting down?” because when she turned ...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Michael Willner
Michael Willner |
January 18, 2007
Lessons Learned at CES I was in awe last week as I walked around at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It’s truly an amazing experience. The sheer size of ...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGInsight Communications president Michael Willner writes about issues impacting cable operators. |
My Turn
Kent Gibbons |
April 16, 2008
Verizon Offers To Pay Tributes -- Just Like Cable Verizon’s being required to seek a franchise to offer fiber-based cable television service in New York City is likened to “legalized br...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGMultichannel News editor Kent Gibbons covers issues impacting pay TV providers, programmers and technology suppliers in his regular column. |
On The Money
Mike Farrell |
January 18, 2008
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...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Picture This
Tom Umstead |
May 12, 2008
Take A Bite Out Of Apple Apple recently took another step toward its goal of total consumer-entertainment dominance when it struck deals to offer major Hollywood studio m...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGTom Umstead focuses on TV programming in his column. |
Point, Click, Fire
Larry Barrett |
May 16, 2008
I'll Buy That For $1,200 All 15,000-plus of you heading to New Orleans this weekend for the 2008 Cable Show have a long list of people to thank for giving y’all somet...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Reynolds' Rap
Mike Reynolds |
May 13, 2008
Are You Experienced? “So are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced? Well I have. Ah, let me prove it to you.” Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experie...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Scan Forward
Tom Steinert-Threlkeld |
May 17, 2008
Putting History Into High-Definition 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...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGEverything from TV programming to technology is covered in Multichannel News editor-in-chief Tom Steinert-Threlkeld’s column. |
Sean Cunningham
Sean Cunningham |
February 27, 2007
A New Era for Political Ads With 2008 presidential candidates already sparring, it became quickly apparent that television would play a larger role in the outcome of this elec...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGCabletelevision Advertising Bureau president Sean Cunningham writes about cable advertising strategies. |
Steve Donohue
Steve Donohue |
January 8, 2008
Can Roberts Finally Deliver on Cable's Promise? 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 ...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Terry Denson
Terry Denson |
July 16, 2007
The Right Messages Innovation in services and applications has proven to be a challenge for all distributors of multichannel programming. Innovations often fail to t...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
The Satellite Dish
Scott Greczkowski |
May 16, 2008
Innovation Shines in Nashville Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee the home of Dish Network’s 2008 Team Summit Retailer conference! The theme for this year’s ev...... More ABOUT THIS BLOG |
Turning The Paige
Tony Paige |
April 29, 2008
It Should Have Been 20 Years For 'The Sports Report’ A little over 20 years ago (I think is was 1985), Black Entertainment Television started a weekly sports talk program called The Budweiser Sports R...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGKiss the Beijing Olympics Goodbye 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.
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TV Crush
Mary McNamara |
May 15, 2008
Holy Matrimony! California Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on Gay Marriage Weddings are always a sure fire way to lasso audiences during sweeps. Hollywood can now add perfectly legal gay California weddings (or sh...... More ABOUT THIS BLOGMay McNamara focuses on TV programming in her column, which is updated at least three times weekly. |
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