By Brad
Via TechCrunch, a new report from an outfit called Convergence Consulting Group finds that an estimated 800,000 homes in America dropped cable last year in favor of getting their entertainment needs online.
By Brad
With spectrum — specifically, the dwindling supply of it—a hot topic in Washington, GigaOm explores the possibility that the highest court in the land could have a hand in how spectrum is allocated in the future:
Cablevision, the nation’s fifth-largest cable provider, has been fighting the rules that require it to carry certain local broadcast stations in areas it serves, and hopes to get the Supreme Court to hear its lawsuit regarding those rules. These so-called “must-carry” rules ensure that the local access channels are watchable on cable in addition to the larger broadcasters like Fox or NBC. However, if the Supreme Court hears the case and sides with Cablevision, then cable providers could dump those less popular stations, and the rejects, finding it hard to stay alive, could end up relinquishing their valuable broadcasting spectrum.
By IIA
According to Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett, the cable industry is outgrowing the wireless industry. Subscriber growth in the wireless industry over the last 12 months is up 5.3%, but revenue per subscriber is down 1.7%, producing just 3.6% revenue growth. The cable industry, by contrast, grew revenue per sub 4.1% over the same time period and total industry growth was 5.3%.
Eric Savitz, “Cable Vs. Wireless: Guess Which Is Growing Faster?” Barron’s. August 23, 2009.
More facts about broadband.
By Brad
More and more Hollywood content is being distributed online, causing cable companies like Time Warner threatening tiered pricing out of to fear of losing cable customers to online viewing. And now, via the New York Times comes word of on a major new deal:
In another step in its transformation from an online jumble of amateur videos to a destination for mainstream TV programs and movies, YouTube said Thursday that it had signed deals with Hollywood studios to showcase thousands of TV episodes and hundreds of movies on its Web site.
And Google, which owns YouTube, said it might eventually bring another innovation to the site: payment for some premium content.
The agreements with the studios, which include Sony, Lions Gate, MGM and others, are significant because YouTube dominates online video. Nearly two-thirds of all video views in the United States occur on YouTube, according to the measurement firm Nielsen. Last month the site had more than 90 million visitors, 10 times as many as the next biggest site, comScore said.
Meanwhile, Miami New Times has the scoop on another big deal potentially in the works:
CBS, which will broadcast next year’s game, is hoping to persuade the NFL to bring the big game into the Internet age. The network made $30 million off streaming the recent NCAA basketball championship and is eager to apply the model to the Super Bowl.
The NFL has yet to agree to the deal, but given the success of NBC’s experiment streaming games last year, they’d be crazy to turn it down.
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