With the rollout of its massive Xbox Live update, Microsoft has made a strong bid for the pole position in the digital living room. And with dozens of new programming partners also included with the update, the company now offers perhaps the most comprehensive, versatile and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Many cable operators are considering new pricing for broadband services that would link the amount of data their subscribers consume with the amount they pay. But Comcast isn’t one of them, as it doesn’t want to “nickel-and-dime” customers of its highest-growth service. Read more »
Cox Communications is making live TV available on the iPad, with the release of a new app that lets subscribers watch shows in their homes. The Cox TV Connect app makes it the latest pay TV operator to extend its service to new devices. Read more »
The spectrum deal that Verizon signed to buy the unused airwaves from the nation’s top cable providers signals the moment that the consumer benefits of the convergence of voice, video and data hit the wall. It’s a deal that’s great for Verizon and bad for consumers. Read more »
Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks are selling off the spectrum remnants of their stillborn wireless venture, SpectrumCo, to Verizon Wireless for $3.6 billion. The deal allows Verizon to double up on its LTE network, while creating a new alliance between Verizon and cable. Read more »
Eighteen of the largest cable and telecom companies added about 635,000 net new subscribers during the third quarter of 2011, with a majority of the subscribers – 83 percent or 525,000 – coming from cable companies. This brings the total for the US to about 77.8 million subscribers. Read more »
Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are attracting more eyeballs every month, stealing attention away from traditional TV. But cable providers could soon fight back, by basing their pricing on how much a given user streams every month. That would effectively raise prices for streaming services. Read more »
A weak economy is putting pressure on the pay TV industry, but a bigger issue is the number of young people opting for online services instead. That’s an issue faced by Dish Network, which is trying to figure out how to win over those possible subscribers. Read more »
Time Warner Cable continued to lose video subscribers, but it’s trying to make that up by betting heavily on broadband as its core service. It’s winning over both existing customers who buy DSL, as well as those who don’t currently pay for its video services. Read more »
Cord cutting will continue to grow in the next five years, but pay TV providers will also be squeezed by households who never subscribe to begin with. Altogether, nine million households won’t have cable in five years time. DVR growth is also slowing as a result. Read more »
Pay TV operators are increasingly enabling viewers to browse, navigate and watch their programming on third-party devices like connected TVs and game consoles. But when they do that, are they ceding control to CE manufacturers? And who ends up really owning the consumer relationship? Read more »
The cable industry is pulling an about-face on the issue of a la carte programming, due to expensive content rights and a weakening economy making bundles of network programming unaffordable. As a result, they’re trying to create smaller and more affordable bundles of programming. Read more »
Comcast has long promised subscribers it would introduce an iPad application allowing them to stream live TV feeds in the home. It looks like it might finally be ready to introduce the capability through a new service called AnyPlay, according to promotional materials posted by MacRumors. Read more »
The fight for the TV audience is quickly moving online and to a growing number of mobile applications, with Apple’s iPad as the latest battleground. Over the last 18 months, a number of broadcasters and pay-TV operators have launched iPad apps that provide access to streaming ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Much of the discussion about ISPs centers around the nation’s largest players in the telecommunications and cable fields, but there are a number of smaller ISPs that can also share how competition is faring in the U.S. and what might happen if more flourished. Read more »
The impact of digital technology has shattered long-established monopolies and ways of making money in the newspaper publishing industry. Today, publishers must find ways to subsidize content-creation costs directly, and this report examines a few different approaches, from more flexible paywalls to charging users directly for access and mimicking the business models of other industries, such as online gaming. Companies mentioned in this report include Ford, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Video services still make up the bulk of cable operator revenues, and pushing broadband has been shunned by many who are afraid that such a move would relegate the cable to being a dumb pipe. But the future of cable might actually be selling Internet access. Read more »
There’s nothing flashy about broadband services, but that won’t stop many operators from making those services a core focus as time goes on. Due to growing consumer adoption and better profit margins than traditional video services’, high-speed Internet is likely to be the future of the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
DSL is on the ropes, and cable companies are seeing their broadband subs rise, according to data from the second quarter. Leichtman Research Group also found that net broadband additions in the quarter were the second fewest of any quarter in the last ten years. Read more »
Time Warner Cable will soon offer a promotion that will give rebates for Slingboxes to its Wideband Internet customers. That provides an incentive for users to sign up, but also gives Time Warner Cable a way to offer its TV “everywhere” without signing agreements with networks. Read more »
If the cable companies gain control of Clearwire the ISPs that control the wireline infrastructure in the country could be the same companies that control the wireless access, and their business models of delivering services, as opposed to access, will stay in place. Read more »
Google rocked the mobile world on Monday, August 15, with the news that it will buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, marking a 63-percent premium for the handset manufacturer. It’s a move that ushers Google into the exclusive club of companies that control both the hardware and software elements of their smartphone offerings, and it will enable Google to design handsets that are more closely integrated with Android. However, the deal doesn’t come without its risks, and it remains to be seen just how it will affect other handset makers, competition from Microsoft and the crucial patent issues currently surrounding Google. Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Research In Motion and Samsung. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google’s planned buy of Motorola Mobility is about the patents and the war of mutual destruction in the mobile space. We get that, but it’s also about TV and carriers and the convergence of broadband, data and action in ways that change our lives. Read more »
The majority of Time Warner Cable’s subscribers and most of its revenue still come from traditional pay TV services, but that’s changing — and fast. The company is betting on broadband for its future, due to wider adoption of Internet services while traditional TV subscriptions decline. Read more »
Time Warner Cable plans to buy Insight Communications, the nation’s ninth-largest cable company, in a deal worth $3 billion as the industry realizes it needs to streamline. The deal offers TWC greater scale as well as about $100 million in annual cost efficiencies. Read more »
Cablevision subscribers can now watch cable TV on their iPhone or iPod touch, thanks to the company extending the functionality of its iPad app to all iOS devices. However, viewing is restricted to a subscriber’s home, and some cable channels still don’t like the functionality. Read more »
Viacom called a truce in its legal fight over Time Warner Cable’s iPad app, but now it’s going after Cablevision for streaming its channels to the device. Cablevision has shown it’s not afraid of these types of fights, which could mean a long legal battle ahead. Read more »
Viacom and Time Warner Cable have called a truce in their fight over streams of live TV on the iPad. With a standstill agreement approved by a New York federal court, they will be able to negotiate without having to worry about court deadlines or proceedings. Read more »
In a phone interview with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, we chatted about how he hopes to narrow the broadband adoption gap, why broadcasters and distributors should play nice in their retransmission negotiations and why AllVid is still important for the future of TV applications. Read more »
Despite worries over competition from over-the-top video services and the possibility of cord cutting, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said the cable industry was doing better than ever. That said, the industry still needs to work together to meet consumer demand for new services. Read more »
Some operators are already introducing apps for the iPad that allow subscribers to watch live TV in the home. Motorola wants to make it even easier to do so, with a media streaming device that transcodes live TV into IP streams in the home. Read more »
The cable business isn’t going to cede its share of the broadband market by waiting around for coaxial cable to become obsolete, and now cable providers won’t have to make an expensive transition to a fiber-to-the-home infrastructure to achieve gigabit networks. Read more »
Verizon is unbundling its data plans from its video offering, providing a more flexible offering to its customers. By doing so, the telco enables its customers to pick and choose the data plans they want without them being tied to a certain number of video channels. Read more »
Less than two months after it first made live video streams of its cable channels available on mobile devices, the WatchESPN app is now optimized for iPad viewing. The release brings a bigger-screen resolution to sports fans that happen to be subscribers of select cable systems. Read more »
Comcast could soon make its video services over IP, EVP of Strategy & Development Sam Schwartz wrote in a blog post. The Xcalibur initiative, as it’s called, could revolutionize the way that Comcast customers browse, search and discover content. Read more »
Verizon could soon make its Flex View VOD service available on connected devices like Roku and the Boxee Box. In a press briefing, it showed off some new features, including a channel that could allow Verizon FiOS customers to access the VOD service on Roku devices. Read more »
Pay TV subscribers have been frustrated for years by set-top boxes that are difficult to navigate and discover new content on. But that could soon change, with set-top boxes disappearing altogether and being replaced by connected TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other CE devices. Read more »
With the WatchESPN app, Android users can now watch live streams of ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3 on their mobile devices. There’s just one catch: to do so, they’ll have to be Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Verizon FiOS subscribers. Read more »
Al-Jazeera English has rolled out apps for devices running the Google Android and BlackBerry operating systems. That means viewers will be able to tune in to live coverage on the go, even while the news network is still negotiating for carriage on major cable systems. Read more »
TV ownership has fallen for the first time in 20 years, according to Nielsen. But is that decline due to poorer, rural consumers who couldn’t afford to keep up with the digital transition? Or due to young, hip urbanites who are watching video on different screens? Read more »
