Cable vs. Telco vs Satellite - who's growing?

Growth is measured inside cable in a number of ways. The first is obviously the number of cable subscribers, but inside that subscriber number is also growth of which subscribers upgrade to the more expensive services - digital cable, digital tiers, premium channels, and the growth of transactional services like movie and event rentals. But the business is more than just television, growth is measured across other businesses like broadband and phone. It can be a very competitive business.

With the emergence of the telephone companies, Verizon and AT&T into the mix, it might be easy to forget that cable's first competition was the satellite companies. Well Primestar and others might be gone, but Direct TV and Dish still remain and they appear to be doing quite well. "DirecTV continued to outpace the competition and analysts' estimates in the second quarter, growing revenue by 9% and adding 224,000 net new subscribers, a 74% increase over the prior year." Cable is seeing growth inside its businesses, but basic may be another story, Direct TV's "cable competition continued to lose basic customers in the period -- Time Warner Cable shed 57,000 customers in the quarter and Comcast lost 214,000 basic subscribers -- DirecTV managed its second straight quarter of growth. The satellite giant gained about 460,000 net new subscribers in the first quarter." And so the fight for customers and the marketing to win back those that have left will most likely start to ramp up even more than before. You can't keep growing by selling more services to your existing customers enough to offset the loss of total customers to your store in the first place. There is real competition in the cable marketplace.

Redbox vs. Netflix vs On Demand

It seems that people are still willing to travel to a store to rent a DVD. Redbox, the vending machines now seen outside grocery stores, is appealing to a number of consumers who would rather rent their movies for the low price of one dollar a day. According to their owner Coinstar, sales have risen at an exceptionally fast pace, 43% from a year ago. At a dollar a day for top films, the price/value proves very enticing. And one retailer, Albertson, is offering a free night's rental with a purchase of more than $25. That can be viewed by the consumer as a great promotional deal. Still it requires the consumer to remember to drop off the video the next door or be faced with additional charges. At such a low price, it also is a blow to DVD sales, as most consumers now feel they can rent with ease at an extremely low cost and don't need to own.

Sony to Sell E-Readers for $199, Challenging Kindle

Electronic Readers could be poised to become the next hottest must have hi tech toy. To stay competitive in this new marketplace, Sony is lowering the price of their E-reader, and with more titles than Kindle, Sony is pushing to have the upper hand.

"Sales of electronic titles in the book publishing industry more than doubled to $25.8 million in the first three months of 2009 from a year earlier, according to the Association of American Publishers in New York. Digital books still make up less than 2 percent of total U.S. book sales, which declined 7 percent in the first quarter, the association said." There is clearly much growth ahead.

And where does Apple stand. With the iPhone and talk of a new tablet device, Apple could quickly overtake both Sony and Amazon. If any company can develop a device that is user friendly, it is Apple.

Flexible Screens for your Print Reader

As "reading screens" become lighter and resilient to everyday bangs and bumps, they become more useful and more preferred. In a world of green behavior, changing reading behavior from printed paper to digital seems on a fast track of user preference. Still, the device has to be user friendly. Well it seems that companies are listening. "A Cambridge-based company is months away from launching the world’s first flexible electronic screen. Designed by scientists at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, to compete with the growing variety of electronic books from the likes of Sony and the US-only Amazon Kindle, the roll up A4-sized 'intelligent plastic' display has taken a decade of development and cost £120 million. From Plastic Logic, It is the first screen to be made from a microchip not of silicon but of cheap plastic."

Most interesting is their learning. Consumers don't actually want screens that can be rolled up like a newspaper for carrying, say in your back pocket. Too flexible is perceived as cheap and breakable. Once proven that such devices could be made to withstand folding and rolling, I wouldn't be surprised for consumers to become more accepting.

So what's next. perhaps, as the article implies, a Hogwart's paper where video images are as possible as static ones. I still wait to hear how battery life improves so that the screen doesn't go dark the moment you most need to read it.

Watch Out Linked In, Plaxo, WSJ WantsTo Create Another Social Network

Linked In, Plaxo, and others have been cheered as great sites for job seekers and business relationship builders. They provide an address book to keep in touch and opportunity to broadcast your latest and greatest news, and the chance to feel connected without actually calling each other constantly. I have found some of these sites to be very useful. Well it seems the Wall Street Journal wants a piece of this action. "They’ve been working on a new social network, to be called WSJ Connect, we’ve confirmed. And instead of building it internally, like they did with WSJ Community, they’ve enlisted the help of another arm of parent company News Corp."

Is there room for another player in the field? Sometimes I feel I am on too many social sites and I need to cut back. Still, if someone builds a better mousetrap, consumers will switch. This continues to prove itself out across every type of business. It is why internet access through Prodigy lost to AOL which has lost to cable broadband. There are tons of examples. So how will the WSJ build a better social network site and will consumers embrace it. Linked In, to me is the leader and they should here the wake up call. Continue to innovate or risk being swept aside by newer, faster, better.

Is Cablevision Finally Ready To Spinoff MSG

From a report on Bloomberg.com, Cablevision is finally pulling the trigger on their spinoff of their sports assets into a separately traded company. "Stockholders would receive one share of the new company, to be called Madison Square Garden, for every share of Cablevision they own, said the person, who declined to be identified because the plan isn’t public." As this isn't the first time rumors have swirled around this split, it is hard to know if it will actually occur. Many times Cablevision has gotten close to the alter but never signed the deal. SHould it happen, their is speculation that it is simply the first step to more changes. "Splitting off Madison Square Garden will let Bethpage, New York-based Cablevision focus on its more profitable cable- television business and may lure potential buyers for the company, such as Time Warner Cable Inc. or Comcast Corp., Rich Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Capital LLC, said earlier this month."

It seems once a year these rumors come up. I say it ain't so till the fat lady sings, so don't hold your breath. We will know when we know.

It's a Fight: Bing vs. Google

There's a fight a brewing in the online search world and the champ (Apollo Creed/Google) may have to worry. The kid out of nowhere (Rocky Balboa/Bing) has a new manager and business partner (Mick/Yahoo) to help train for the big fight. It's gonna be a huge fight. Bing created by Microsoft and Yahoo see more advantages by combining forces. "Through the pact, Bing will become the default search engine on Yahoo, creating a search player with close to 30% market share of search queries, compared with Google's 65%, according to ComScore data." Is Google worried; let's see.

So, do you have a preference for search engines? Do you use whatever is in your toolbar or are you willing to try the other guy and compare? Which one wins out. I may be leaning more toward one than another but I am still open. For many, asking the right question is the key to good results. Some though aren't sure how to ask and hope the search bar understands what they are asking and responds with the best matches first. For most, the process of searching can get long and cumbersome and these folks are ready for a change if it can be proved that the challenger is more adept.

I can tell you one thing, this fight will get more interesting as each site markets itself aggressively. Round One is officially on.

All Digital Means No TV Without A Box

My cable company sent us a letter informing us that even more unscrambled channels are going digital and the only way to view them is with a cable box. And that means the end of my Tivo box, unless I purchase a new one that takes a CableCard. Otherwise I am in need of a cable set-top box, a big, ugly, brick of a box that offers none of the great features that Tivo offers.

So why can't the cable company offer at least a fuller variety of options. Currently, they seem to be either ugly or useless. Nowhere in the mailing is their information on CableCards. Want more information, go to the website. Not in this case. And have you ever tried talking to a rep; it becomes extremely clear to me that they know less than I do about what they offer. Solve a problem; perhaps, but it is evident they are simply accessing a page in a book and reading me the instructions.

And so I have a month remaining before my Tivo becomes useless and I need to make a choice; put a cable DVR in my bedroom or confirm that my cable company has a Cablecard that can go into a Tivo box. Or I can hold my breath till Tivo is part of my cable company's options.

Amazon Apologizes But Still Has A Fight On Its Hands

Amazon may have apologized last week for pulling off of its Kindle versions of 1984 without notice, but it faces new competition and customer reaction. "A growing number of civil libertarians and customer advocates wants Amazon to fundamentally alter its method for selling Kindle books, lest it be forced to one day change or recall books, perhaps by a judge ruling in a defamation case — or by a government deciding a particular work is politically damaging or embarrassing." Will other content providers try the same thing, looking inside our digital devices and deciding whether we can keep something or not, no matter if it is owned legally or illegally. Doesn't the right of privacy matter in a democracy. Amazon may have admitted its stupidity, but it still demonstrates that a bigger problem exists.

The key concept here is D.R.M. or digital rights management, and it ultimately affects all kinds of digital content, print, video, and audio. It sets security measures that can limit how content can be owned, viewed, copied, and shared. "D.R.M. has created a new dynamic between consumers and the vendors of digital media like books and movies. People do not so much own, but rent this media. And the rental agreement can be breached by the manufacturer at any time, sometime with little or no notice." Where in printed form, a book can be handed over to a friend to read after you finished with it; with D.R.M. controls, that same digital book may be limited to the device it was sent to. More profit, no sharing, no illegal reselling.

And now, Amazon faces a new battle from Barnes and Noble and their Plastic Logic E-Book reader. How will this competition be received by current and potential customers and how will B&N address these issues? D.R.M. is a major issue that will affect all digital content; these issues will need to be more fully addressed by other content distributors as well.