TV ownership is on the downswing, but cable companies don’t need a pity party just yet. When it came to choosing a broadband provider in the first quarter of 2011, two out of three people chose a cable company, and one out of three chose Comcast. Read more »
Comcast is committed to improving its NBC Universal programming, especially its broadcast network, and will spend big to do so. Comcast COO Steve Burke said it would invest $300 million in NBCU over the next year, including $200 million to turn around its broadcast network. Read more »
Time Warner Cable revealed that its iPad app was downloaded 360,000 times during its first month. Cablevision revealed that it saw 50,000 downloads in the first five days of app availability and Comcast’s Xfinity TV app has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times since launch. Read more »
After a year in which over-the-top video services grabbed most of the media’s attention, some of the online video headlines shifted back to traditional pay-TV providers in the first quarter of 2011. Device manufacturers rolled out new offerings, while cable-TV providers moved to expand their in-home footprint beyond the TV itself. But over-the-top continued to encroach, with Roku adding its first linear channels to the Roku store and Netflix acquiring exclusive rights to high-profile original series House of Cards. Finally, traditional web powers like Google, Yahoo and Apple made moves to reassert their presence in the living room after their early stumbles. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Comcast, Cablevision, Viacom and VUDU. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The real challenge facing pay TV providers might not be retaining existing cable subscribers with jobs and families, but convincing college students and young adults living with their parents to become cable subscribers when they get their first jobs and move in to their first homes. Read more »
If, like me, you eagerly comb the App Store for new apps that support AirPlay, an update to Elgato EyeTV should have you excited. It brings AirPlay to the streaming video app, which lets you watch live or recorded TV from your cable or satellite box. Read more »
IPTV has become a growing force in the pay TV business, capturing more than 45 million subscribers worldwide. The accelerating growth in the IPTV market, while bad news for cable and satellite providers, shows the power of competition as new services enter the market. Read more »
The number of TV blackouts due to retransmission disputes has risen to its highest level in a decade, and more could be on the way, as broadcasters seek higher fees to carry their content. But those blackouts could have unintended consequences as consumers find entertainment elsewhere. Read more »
Comcast today announced the availability of more than 2,000 free wireless internet hotspots for Xfinity customers in New Jersey, Delaware and the greater Philadelphia area, where the company is based. Thanks to a collaborative agreement, customers can “roam” on hotspots from Cablevision and Time Warner Cable. Read more »
Make no mistake, Apple is in the process of staging a coup. That’s what a very close look at the new Apple TV reveals. Despite its somewhat innocuous appearance and diminutive stature, it’s a weapon of war. The opponent? The entrenched cable and satellite service providers. Read more »
Apple could be facing another round of tough negotiations with content producers like it faced when it introduced the world to digital music and movie downloads. If it is successful though, Apple could revolutionize the marketplace of how we consume television content. Read more »
Cable and telephone companies added a scant 336,000 net broadband subscriptions during the second quarter, according to the Leichtman Research Group: the lowest amount in the nine years that the analyst firm has tracked such additions. Telcos were the big losers as cable tromped DSL. Read more »
When Microsoft announced that ESPN would make live and on-demand video available through its Xbox Live service, the news had strong implications for mass adoption of cable services being delivered ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
TV programmers are too invested in the economics of bundling to let a la carte access become an effective substitute for bundled service, unless compelled to by ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
According to recent Nielsen research, cord-cutting may be a “myth” — but are NewTeeVee readers myth-busters? And if they’re not cable-free, to what degree do they watch online content anyways? Those are the questions we’re hoping to answer with this weekend’s poll. Read more »
Widevine, Verimatrix Settle Patent Dispute; Under the settlement, Widevine granted Verimatrix a license to the two asserted Widevine patents and their foreign counterparts. (Multichannel News) Qik Comes Built-In to the HTC EVO 4G Android Phone; not only will Qik work on the new HTC EVO 4G, […] Read more »
The threat of cord-cutting is real, but not as big as one might expect, according to new research from Parks Associates. The Dallas-based market research company is estimating in its new “All Eyes on Video” report that less than 8 percent of U.S. households are thinking […] Read more »
Big change in TV distribution is in the wind, if the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Apple’s “all you can eat” iTunes television plan is true. According to the WSJ, CBS and Disney are considering allowing their entire television lineup to be sold on a single-fee, […] Read more »
The National Broadband Plan update today that focuses on how policy needs to adapt to deliver nationwide access picked a big fight with cable and didn’t really attack the lack of competition in most U.S. markets at all. Read more »
Over the past three years, the Internet has become a major secondary distribution platform for free-to-air broadcast programming. Whether through network programmers’ own sites, such as ABC.com, or through aggregators like Hulu and TV.com, ad-supported broadcast programming today is generally available online shortly after its initial airing at no cost to the user. However, programming such as ESPN, TNT and the Discovery Channel, which originates on pay-TV platforms (i.e. cable, satellite and telco TV services) has been a different story.
Cable system operators and other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) are loathe to see the programming for which they are charging subscribers hefty monthly fees made available “over-the-top” without a subscription. Over time, they fear, consumers would be tempted to drop their expensive cable service if they could access their favorite programs online.
Cable networks, for their part, collect hefty fees from MVPDs for the right to retransmit their programming, from a few cents per subscriber per month, to as much as $3.75 per subscriber per month, for the most popular channels like Disney’s ESPN. In aggregate, cable networks collect about $25 billion per year in “affiliate fees” from MVPDs, about the same amount as they generate collectively from advertising sales.
As a result, much of the original programming on pay-TV networks is not currently available online, and that which is often doesn’t appear until well after its original air date. The popularity of portals like Hulu (not to mention illegal sources of TV content), however, has accustomed consumers to expect access to their favorite shows online, putting pressure on the industry to respond. Network programmers and marketers, meanwhile, are also anxious to extend their programming franchises by tapping the broad, online audience.
TV Everywhere, which aims to make subscription programming available online exclusively to current pay-TV subscribers, represents an effort to square that circle. In this report, we look at the players, potential costs, and emerging opportunities of these efforts. Read more »
