New At rAVe [Publications]: Hello, Analog Sunset: Part 2

rAVe [Publications]: Hello, Analog Sunset: Part 2

Here's the link to Hello, Analog Sunset: Part 1 if you missed it before.

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Sirius XM: Not Just Satellite Anymore

Detractors of Sirius XM are fond of pointing out that its biggest weakness is being satellite based, as opposed to competing music providers that are web based.

Clearly, Sirius XM has figured out that they need to play ball in that court.

TWICE: Sirius XM iPhone App Due In Q2

Sirius XM plans to offer an iPhone/iPod Touch application in the second quarter and outlined today a number of other plans to grow its business now that the headwinds of the merger and refinancing are behind it.
The upcoming iPhone application would stream Sirius XM to iPhones and iPod Touch devices and is now in “rigorous testing,” said chief financial officer David Fear during a conference call with analysts. He added, “This will permit an estimated 7 million iPhone users and iPod Touch users to access Sirius XM content if they are paid subscribers.” And if they become a new subscriber, they won’t have to purchase a new radio, he explained.

Good idea, but is it too little, too late? I guess that we'll find out.

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Blowback Over Shaw Cable And HBO Canada

So Shaw Cable just announced that they'll be offering HBO Canada, but not everybody is happy with the offer of $14-$18/month when bundled with MovieCentral.

Here's the response to Shaw that a regular Lee Distad's Professional Opinion reader from BC cc'ed me on.

Dear Shaw Cable,

Your *^(&^*&^ joking right?

Look let me explain this to you once. In order for you to be competitive you are going to have to stop whacking us (18.95?) for individual channels. I bought the premium package TO GET THE EXTRA CHANNELS.
Either I get ALL the HD channels included in the present package or forget it. Clearly you need direct competition to put this in perspective. This is unbelievably arrogant and outrageous behavior to stick your hand out like this
And is because you believe you are operating from a position of strength. You are not.

PS – Make sure Jim Shaw gets this.

It doesn't help Shaw's case that, as my reader pointed out in a separate email, Cogeco Cable in Eastern Canada is offering it already bundled in with Movie Network for one price.

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Things Just Keep Getting Uglier For Sirius

As if hassles with it's debt load, share price, and dependency upon the depressed auto sector wasn't enough, now Sirius is having distribution woes.

TWICE: Directed Exits Satellite Radio

Directed Electronics said it will exit the satellite radio market, citing softening sales of aftermarket satellite radio products.
Directed will stop acting as Sirius’ exclusive retail distributor on Jan. 31, 2009, the company announced
late yesterday. Citing Sirius XM’s high debt of more than $1 billion, and the unfavorable credit markets, Directed said the relationship with Sirius no longer provides a favorable “risk-reward tradeoff.” It offers “a relatively small contribution [to sales] vs. the potential risk of a catastrophic situation for us if they can’t refinance,” said Jim Minarik, president and CEO of Directed’s parent, DEI Holdings, on a conference call with analysts.

For Sirius, when it rains, it pours, apparently.

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Netflix Roku Selling Like Hotcakes

Mercury News: Netflix boxes sell out

Netflix customers have snapped up all of its set-top boxes that stream movies from the Web to TVs, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said in an interview Monday.
Los Gatos-based Netflix, the largest U.S. mail-order movie service, is pressing supplier Roku to boost production, Hastings said. He wouldn't say how many of the players the company had sold. The $100 system lets customers order movies online and watch them on a television using WiFi technology.

And so it begins. A year from now, you're going to see a lot more VOD devices, and a lot fewer disc players.

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Telcos Getting Crazy For IPTV

I sound like a curmudgeon when I say this, but I can remember when the phone company and the cable company were two different things. Today, the distinctions aren't there anymore. The phone company is selling TV, the TV company is selling phone, and everyone's selling high-speed Internet. Now the next big thing, IPTV is picking up steam.

The Bridge: The Telcos Tilt to IPTV
All Internet Protocol All the Time Gains Favor Among Telco Triple Players

Looking at just the U.S. pay-TV market, the IP-supported U-verse TV service from AT&T is rapidly approaching the 400,000-customer mark and is aiming for 1 million customers by the end of the year. Small telcos are also embracing IPTV, using the technology as an affordable yet scalable solution that gets them into the video business.
But the United States is hardly alone in utilizing IPTV. There are nearly 10 million IPTV subscribers around the world, states one research firm. That number could grow to the tens of millions during the coming years.

Bring it on!

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The Gong Show Returns To Television

In a move that some will call a Sign of the Apocalypse, and others will call a Return to Traditional Cultural Values, Comedy Central has announced that they're bringing back the Gong Show.

Variety: Comedy Central, Attell bang 'Gong'

I've been saying for a couple of years now that the time was right for a Gong Show revival, and in fact semi-secretly hoping for it. Up until now I figured that there was some licencing hangup that had prevented its rebirth.

Hat tip to Dealbreaker's Opening Bell.

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Interesting Facts About Broadband Performance

I'm indebted to The Stalwart for making me aware of the tech policy blog Technology Liberation Front which has now rocketed to the top of my list of favorite tech blogs.

Linked up at The Stalwart was a piece that discussed the evolution of broadband services, and how the actual delivery of service differs from popular opinions about it.

Technology Liberation Front: More Broadband Progress

One of the things that makes it hard to judge is that broadband speeds and prices don’t tend to grow continuously and evenly around the country. Rather, carriers take turns leap-frogging one another, with each upgrade accompanied by a temporary price increase. So it can be tricky to judge the average rate of improvement by looking at just one market, because one market may seem to stagnate for several years at a time. But if one looks at the country as a whole, and focuses on time horizons closer to a decade, I think it’s undeniable that things are improving at a fairly rapid pace.

The facts that Technology Liberation Front present interested me because I've been keenly observing the improvement in broadband speeds primarily because of the advent of HD downloads, a subject that's very important to me. I don't think I'm being overeager when I say that quick and convenient HD downloads on demand are going to be here before a lot of people think.

On a related note, Going Private has an extraordinarily long diatribe (even by her standards) that is both archly caustic and achingly beautiful on several separate levels. There's almost a graduate-level seminar's worth of business acumen in that single post, but what I'm focusing on in particular is her comments about the bogus nature of telecom's service fees for broadband service.

Going Private: The Five ForcesCircles of Hell

Coming full circle, we arrive at the business model for every telecom company on the planet. The amazing part to me is that, almost De Beers like, wireless providers have managed to somehow maintain the fiction that they maintain massive proprietary networks, and price data transmission accordingly.

There's more to her post than that, but she's almost impossible to excerpt into small bites.

Consumers are well aware that they're being jacked by telco's on data rate prices. Note the recent post on Marketnews Gadget Talk about Bell's data shaping plans. Anytime this subject comes up it triggers a flurry of comments from angry readers. As it happens, I was IM'ing on Friday with Christine from Marketnews about the adoption rate of fibre to the home in the US. I glibly commented "If Bell or Telus or Rogers were offering fibre here in Canada, can you imagine how hard they would gouge us on it?"


I'm not 100% sure where I'm going with this post, but mostly I'm just talking out loud, putting the pieces of the puzzle together for myself. Thanks for listening.

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Telus TV even further behind the 8-Ball than I thought

I've quipped more than once that we're living in a crazy age of convergence, where the Cable TV company is offering you phone service, the phone company is offering you broadcast TV, and everyone is offering you highspeed internet.

In the past I've mocked phone company Telus' semi-lame efforts to get into the broadcast TV business. I'll admit that I hadn't been keeping close tabs on what they were up to lately. Until now.

Just got this in my email from one of my regular correspondants:

Hi,
You might be interested, but unsurprised, to learn that an early adopter of Telus TV in our building has returned to Shaw. After what she described as 18 months of promises that a PVR would be forthcoming from Telus, she gave up. She loves the PVR, not least for the pause button.

Telus TV doesn't even have a PVR yet? In the A/V and CE business world, there's a very specific term that deals with this sort of situation. It's called "Are you fucking kidding me?"

See, here's the thing. Virtually nobody watches live TV anymore. We've all been spoiled by saving shows to the hard drive on our PVR, and watching what we want, when we want it. If anybody from Telus is reading, have you got that straight? Good.

Now, if you are a broadcaster, and you don't have a PVR to offer your customers, give your head a shake, and get on it.

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Fox Business News is like CNBC, only weirder

In case any of you thought that Fox might actually bring something worthwhile to the broadcast business news table, your fears are laid to rest:





What the hell was that? Are the writers for MadTV are scabbing for Fox Business Network under assumed names?


It might have been forgiveable if it had been clever or funny, or both.



Hat tip: Dealbreaker.com

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This Week in Marketnews: When PVRs ATTACK!

Marketnews: Custom Corner: Integrating PVRs

It's safe to say that I have a love/hate relationship with HD PVRs. I love how they have totally improved the TV watching experience, but I hate dealing with them when they go wrong.

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BBC set to prove that it can compete with Americans for crap television

This just in from the "let's put something incredibly asinine on TV and see what happens" department:

BBC Three: Fat Men Can't Hunt

If you can't kill it and cook it, you'll be going hungry...
Most of us love our convenient Western lifestyles - supermarket shelves groaning with every possible type of food known to man, takeaway deliveries only a phone call away, and handy fridges to keep everything fresh.
...
Fat Men Can't Hunt is a four-part series that follows a group of eight men and women to see if they can live among the San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia. The men will have to join hunts, spending days at a time foraging for food. Meanwhile the women will have to stay in the camp, living their lives according to the strict social rules that govern local women.

Oh, the irony! A show about fat slobs suffering and starving in the desert being watched by fat slobs sitting on their sofas (or chesterfields, as they say in the U.K.) back home.

What next?

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As it happens, TiVo actually does have a new trick up their sleeve!

The Retail Bridge: TiVo Coming To A Computer Near You

TiVo on Wednesday announced a new partnership with German digital media developer Nero AG to integrate the TiVo user experience into Nero's next generation of PC software."This agreement provides TiVo with an opportunity to deliver its interface and differentiated feature set globally via the PC, enabling TiVo to use all avenues of mass distribution -- from consumer electronics, to cable and satellite boxes and soon, the PC," said TiVo's president and CEO Tom Rogers.

I guess this answers my question from the other day about how well prepared TiVo is to deal with IPTV and other emergent avenues of entertainment. It looks like there's still some signs of innovation there!

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TiVo's Canadian Debut: Good News/Bad News

Off topic, but I just realized it's been exactly a year since the last time I had anything to say about TiVo.

After years of hemming and hawing, TiVo has finally entered the Canadian marketplace, although there's a big "but" attached to the event.

Marketnews: TiVo Comes to Canada

Canadians have long-awaited TiVo’s arrival in Canada, and in early December, that wait will be over. TiVo will offer the Series2 DT DVR at retailers across Canada (excluding Quebec) like Future Shop, Best Buy, and London Drugs, for CDN$199. Subscriptions to the TiVo service will sell
for US$12.95/month, or as low as US$8.31/month by pre-paying for three years.
...
Although the Series2 DVR will not work with high-definition signals, customers will be able to record up to 80-hours of standard definition content; and even record two shows at the same time (one must be basic cable).

While at the same time that it's great that TiVo's cool interactive features and responsive GUI are finally available to Canadian TV watchers (the GUI on Star Choice's HD-PVR is like steering a cow), the lack of HD recording capability seems like an embarrassing misstep in what should have been a spectacular launch. One of the commenters at Marketnews was dead on for calling it "a day late and a dollar short."

Aside from being able to entertain me with interactive content, and make suggestions for programs that it thinks I might like, what is it honestly going to do for me to justify the $8/month I would have to pay for the service, on top of the bill I'm already paying to my broadcast provider, which is somewhere between $50 and $100 a month already?

Additionally, where is TiVo going to fit into the entertainment constellation a year or two from now? Don't kid yourself, IPTV and content-on-demand are just warming up in the batter's circle, prior to stepping up to the plate. When that happens, can TiVo manage all of my entertainment choices? Hard to say right now, but it doesn't look good.

I'm not sold just yet.

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Broadband instead of broadcast?

I don't think you have to be Nostradamus to see this coming.

The Retail Bridge: Is Broadband The Future Of TV?

According to a report released last week by market research firm In-Stat, more than 16 million U.S. TV households may be using their broadband service more than their TV sets within the next three years.
...
The In-Stat survey found that as many as 30 percent of respondents would consider dropping their pay TV subscription and use the internet for their entertainment needs if they knew how to do it. Why? Because, even with hundreds of available channels, 42 percent of respondents said they are not getting enough of the content they want (especially international news and information) from their TV service.

What I really want to see is HD content available in a truly a la carte fashion: individual channel streams, hell, even individual programs selectable one at a time, like a Dim Sum menu. However, I'm a little uncertain that the content providers would ever go for it.

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Do Americans fear having their televisions shut off?

Apparently not. Despite concerns amongst government and industry leaders, the few Americans who have not bought into HDTV don't seem concerned about having their analog signals switched off.

The Bridge: A Big Panic ... Or A Big Yawn?

Committee, said last week that the nation's eventual transition to digital TV could be a video revolution, or "we may find ourselves with a digital disaster."Could it really be that challenging for the estimated 111 million TV households (a figure that includes cable, DBS, telco video and over-the-air viewers) out there?As of Nov. 1, there will be 474 days left for the nation’s broadcasters to turn off analog television signals and convert to digital. The shift, set to take place Feb. 17, 2009, will have profound implications not only for local TV stations and national broadcast networks. It will impact cable, satellite TV, telco video platforms, programmers and electronics retailers.

Granted in the aftermath of a major event, there will always be a vocal group who will cry "Why didn't anyone tell us about this?" But looking at the retail performance of HDTV's, it's hard to believe that Feb 17* will be an End Of The World As We Know It scenario for all but the most clueless of consumers.

Then again, maybe the disenfranchised TV owners will riot and loot in the streets? Maybe in years hence the U.S. will have it's own broadcast television-version of Bastille Day to commemorate the uprising of poor, downtrodden people who had their analog broadcasts of Judge Judy taken from them.

*which is a Sunday, by the way. Too bad that SUPER SUNDAY is already taken.

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DIRECTV raising HD fees in US

This news is coincidental in its timing: I had just conducted an informal poll of American friends and acquaintances regarding their broadcast provider. Of thirty odd people, all but two were on DIRECTV.

SkyREPORT.com:DIRECTV Raising HD Fees?

While it's true DIRECTV is expanding its high-definition offering at an impressive pace, the company also seems ready to expand how much subscribers are going to pay for it. An email sent to the company's customers this week said that unless they pay $4.99 more each month, three popular high-def channels will be pulled from their channel lineups.

I haven't seen the original announcement, but SkyREPORT's spin sure makes it sound like a good old fashioned shakedown, doesn't it?

"The first one is free" is a time honored business model in both schoolyard drug dealing and broadcast/Internet services. Certain broadcasters up here in the Great White North are famous for that too.

While some DIRECTV subscribers may squawk at the rate hike, they should put it in perspective. An additional five bucks a month is only like three dollars in Canadian money, about what you'd pay for a venti latte at Starbucks. And HDTV has zero calories.

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US DirectTV reaches 70 HD channels

The Retail Bridge: DIRECTV Claims 70 HD Channel Milestone

On Monday the satcaster announced that it had added six national HD channels to its growing high-def lineup, taking its nationwide total to 72 and reaching its promised goal of 70 HD channels by the end of October.
...
But does it really add up to 72 channels of HD programming? Only if you get a little creative with the count.
While DIRECTV does now offer 47 unique national high definition channels, getting to 72 requires adding in some of the local broadcast networks (like NBC HD in both Los Angeles and New York), select regional sports nets (like NESN HD and YES HD) and even its high-def pay-per-view channels (6 of which launched yesterday, by the way).It's getting there, though, and DIRECTV execs are confident that the company will reach the promised 100 national HD channels by the end of the year.

That's the trick, as always. Here in Canada, Bell claims to have the most HD channels, but that's because they count the East and West network feeds for NBC, CBS, CTV etc as one each.

Still, we're getting there. I was just reminiscing last week on the Marketnews blog about how far we've come with HD so far.

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Shaw Cable goes activist

Corporations lobbying government directly is one thing, but attempts at stiring up grass roots activism always strikes me as odd. In some cases, it can end up going horribly, horribly wrong.

Thus, I was semi-surprised to see Cable/Phone/Internet provider Shaw posting a call to arms on their website:

Shaw.ca: WHAT DOES SPENDING 2.5 BILLION OF YOUR MONEY TO FUND ORIGINAL CANADIAN TV PROGRAMS GET YOU? [NOT MUCH. WE WERE HOPING YOU KNEW.]

The Canadian Television Fund was created to help promote and develop quality TV programming in Canada.Butsomewhere along the line, they lost their way. Firstly, they give the CBC a backdoor to $120 million each year. Secondly, instead of promoting the creation of
better children’s programming or developing a series based on the icons and elements of our country that make Canada great, they pumped 2.5 billion dollars into shows about the dysfunctional residents of a mobile home park, shape-shifting aliens with a grudge against the government and educational programming that offers instruction on the right and wrong way to host an S&M Bondage party.

At Shaw, we believe television should entertain, inform, inspire and make you think. We support the development of original Canadian programming that reflects this great country of ours. However, this programming should be a lot more reflective of the audience that will ultimately watch it. We need a better way to create Canadian programming that has a broader appeal to our customers, and satisfies you as a Canadian taxpayer and cable customer.

They then go on to ask you to sign an online petition, and suggest other venues where you can vent your spleen, such as the CRTC and the Heritage Minister.

Pumping tax dollars into broadcasting is no way to improve the quality of Canadian programming. It's amazing how federal programs never quite achieve the desired effect. The only way to make shows that people want to watch is for production companies to pitch concepts that the networks think they can sell advertising for. Sadly, this is a double-edged sword, as what's popular and what's good aren't always the same thing, but that's a free market for you.

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Is Kid Nation the bottom of the barrel for Reality Television?

I hope so, but I doubt it.

Yahoo!: Kids reality TV series filming draws complaint from participant's mom, kudos from others

CBS reality series in which youngsters run their own town
has prompted complaints from one of the children's parents, and may have skirted
New Mexico's child-protection laws.

Seven years ago, when Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? aired on Fox TV, I thought that I was watching Rock Bottom. I retrospect, I could not have been more wrong.

I still can not believe that there are so many people willing to humiliate themselves in order to be on TV.

Blogger Tracy Coenen at Sequence Inc has some excellent commentary on this:

Sequence Inc: “Kid Nation” controversy

It sounded interesting, but my mind immediately went to
safety issues. I wondered what parent in their right mind would send their young
child or teenager off to live with almost no supervision. There was supervision,
wasn’t there? Or were the cameras rolling while the adults weren’t allowed to
interfere? It’s not clear, and I suppose that’s part of the mystique that CBS is
hoping will draw in viewers.

As I commented on her blog, this is a breathtakingly obnoxious way to monetize "Lord of the Flies"

I really don't know what else to add to this, aside from figuratively shaking my head in disgust.

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