Is Yahoo Gaga Over Hulu?

It seems there is some interest in purchasing Hulu, and the unofficial reports say that it is Yahoo. As a competitor to Google and You Tube, this acquisition might make sense, but is there enough reward to justify the cost? "The unsolicited offer has prompted Hulu’s board to consider its options, and the company is speaking to potential advisers, these people said. It may contact potential buyers, including other media companies and private equity firms that have wanted the chance to buy the service." For Hulu's owners, NBC, Fox, Disney and others, separating themselves from a platform company may enable them to better determine how best to distribute their content. It may also help their negotiations with cable partners and to assure themselves that they are getting the best license deals.

A sale seems to make sense as well as these content partners don't easily get along. As they compete for ratings and ad dollars, it is tougher to then turn around and cooperate for Hulu business. It also restricts opportunities for each content company to design their own unique leverage opportunities to marry online content with linear. And for NBC, who is also owned by Comcast, a sale would get NBC out of this very complicated relationship.

And perhaps Hulu needs a different owner, one that is more committed to it's success. "Hulu has lost two of its most vocal backers: Peter Chernin, formerly the News Corp.’s president, and Jeff Zucker, who left NBC Universal last fall. James Murdoch, who became News Corp.’s deputy chief operating officer in March, is among those who is much more skeptical about Hulu’s business prospects." A Hulu-Yahoo combination might yield more favorable results although the cost for content will undoubtedly rise. It's one thing to sell content to your own company, another when you have no restrictions.

So let's see how real this rumor of a sale really is. I for one would like to see it happen.

Dot Anything

Remember the good ole days when a 212 area code meant NYC, 215 meant Philly, and .com meant business web address. Well the proliferation of smart phones and websites means that there is a shortage and the we must continue to grow the numbers. "The new rules affect what the industry calls top-level domain names, the familiar dot-coms and dot-nets that end every Web address. Now, instead of having to use one of those existing forms, users will be able to end their addresses with the name of their company, such as dot-Ford, or their city, like dot-Berlin."

But with this growth comes the need for zoning and now it seems it is harder than ever to know where a phone number is generated from or where a website originates. Exciting , yet problematic. "The shift, however, could also cause anxiety and disputes among governments, companies and other entities in safeguarding their brands and identities in cyberspace. Those seeking religious or political names, for example, could lead to sensitive situations."

Nothing can stop the proliferation of addresses, but certainly governance can help to better manage it. It certainly may hurt squatters to websites who hope to force brands to pay for rights to their name. Yet I am confident that new opportunities will present themselves. And in cases when companies with the same name in different industries each want access to their domain name, challenges will arise as well. It is the start of a whole new internet and let the battles begin.

Another Hack Job

First Sony was hacked and now it's Sega's turn. "Almost all data for 1.29 million users was accessed -- usernames, real names, birth dates, passwords, and email addresses. But curiously, credit card and debit card information remains untouched, says Sega." It seems that hackers are going after all types of companies that are digitally storing users' personal information. Where once you had to be careful that your wallet wasn't stolen, now there seems little we can do to protect ourselves from identity theft, stolen bank and credit card info, and other personal information.

And yet, we seem to be calm about this, until of course we are personally affected and fighting to keep our hard earned monies and good name. Every security effort seems to only raise the stakes and interest higher by hackers intent to prove that they are the best. Whether for sport or for criminal gain, it seems unlikely that hacking will ever end. As long as we are "on the grid", we remain at risk.

Cable Networks For Sale?

Rainbow Networks, a Cablevision company, plans to spin off at the end of the month and rebrand itself as AMC Networks. E.W. Scripps successfully spun off its cable programming arm, Scripps Interactive (SNI) with HGTV and Food Network, a few years ago. And the talk now centers on SNI potentially selling itself to another programmer. "SNI has long been eyed by a slew of big media conglomerates eager to bulk up their cable holdings. Disney Co., Time Warner, Viacom and even pure play Discovery Communications have been suggested as possible partners." As the cable industry matures, consolidation is necessary on both sides of the arena, for operator and programmer alike.

The merging of programming companies enables better economies of scale, cost and productivity efficiencies, and of course, more leverage in negotiation carriage and programming agreements. Certainly Rainbow saw that when they acquired Sundance Channel a couple years ago. And NBC has been picking up channels in its long run, including USA, Oxygen, and Bravo. With cable operators merging and consolidating operations, so too must programming networks in order to compete effectively in a changing marketplace. Will Scripps sell to a bigger programming company, will Rainbow? The long term bet is very likely.

New Settop Box, New Modem For Comcast Xfinity

From this week's Cable Show, Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast introduces the audience to it's next generation converter box and modem.



Utilizing a Rovi guide and data stored in the cloud, the set top is designed to provide a graphically richer and faster user experience. Roberts "...used the time for a demo of one technology the company hadn’t yet decided how to deploy—1 Gbps downloads over a cable modem, which we were first to report. But most of the demo went to Xfinity TV features already used in Comcast’s Augusta, Ga. system, including nimble and robust search, apps and DVR management." I have to admit, I had seen this guide demonstration last year inside Comcast Corp as well as other projects including 3D. It will be a very impressive undertaking to switchout boxes and move subscribers to this new experience. With so much legacy set top boxes in the field and the capital costs associated with conversion, I wonder the time frame to bring this rich new experience into the home. And I worry that by the time Comcast gets even to scale, that consumers may have already ditched the set top and cut the cord to cable.

As this rich data is coming from the clouds, so should the content. The boxes seem to continue to rely on an EBIF approach while CE manufacturers are gaining ground with web connections for online content. It is this threat that should most concern the cable industry. Can Comcast deploy these new boxes fast enough to keep subscribers from downgrading and dropping video service? And can Comcast get it's programming partners on board to enable live streaming of channels to authenticated mobile devices outside the home. Certainly Comcast has the deep pockets but it needs to happen sooner rather than later.

QR Codes Invading Retailers

QR codes, those 2 dimensional, squiggly line boxes, are appearing in ads and on products. Go down the aisle of your favorite store and you may just start seeing them on the packaging of products. "The square patterns found in the corner of print ads, in store aisles and elsewhere can be scanned by consumers' smartphones and tablet computers to open a Web page, play a video or even place a call."

And while few consumers are using them, interest seems to be growing. Unsure how a product works, get a quick demonstration; download a coupon for just taking a snapshot. I also see great opportunity to capture information about a product and perhaps add your own notes. I'd love to see wine bottles add QR codes so I could remember which ones I may have tasted and to record my desire to buy again or not.

Applications for such use of QR codes abound. Whether in grocery or home improvement stores, real estate or restaurants, department stores or movie theaters, many companies could benefit from the addition of a QR code. And with their appearance on more and more print ads, awareness by the public will only grow.

Cable Competition Causing Cord Cutting

Great article in the LA Times this week that notes that the internet is not the cause of cable cord cutting. It is competition among cable, satellite, and telco providers that is hurting cable company's subscription growth, noting that "both satellite and telco video distribution services saw growth, while cable fell by almost 2%." Whether the cause of this migration is lower pricing, better service, unique content, or something else should all be considered, yet with the economy in turmoil, lower pricing is most likely the underlying motivation.

The article warns that this migration may still lead to true cord cutting. "The Nielsen study warns that younger Americans are spending an increasing amount of time watching content online." It is why cable operators are pushing to extend the reach and availability of their channel line-up online for mobile enjoyment. As consumers like having content follow them, this accessibility generates both new acquisition as well as retention benefits. Still, TV today remains the dominate means to view long form video content. And with better and bigger HDTV screens and the rise of 3D, a video subscription, whether from cable, telco, or satellite, it is the best means to enjoy it.

Networking DVRs Finding More Opportunity

Cablevision's early push for a cloud based DVR service for its subscribers showed that they clearly saw the future. And yet they were also forced to go it alone against content companies concerned with remote digital copies. It has taken Cablevision some time to settle lawsuits and move forward. And only recently has Cablevision "...started providing a remote-storage recording service in the city and that it had stopped buying physical digital video recorders." Well another cable operator may have also seen the light.

"Comcast will test the so-called cloud-based recording service in some markets late this year or early next year," according to Tony Werner, their CTO. With the legitimacy of the cloud pushed by Cablevision, Apple, and others, the time to remove the set top box from the TV seems to have arrived. And a cloud based or Network DVR (N-DVR) should also help cable operators to offer DVR content to other non TV devices, providing more benefits to a cable subscription package.

Certainly, this should be a concern to TV manufacturers, like Tivo. Hopefully, their software may be of value to cable operators in a N-DVR world; otherwise, there may be little reason for cable operators to want to negotiate with Tivo, simply because cable operators stop buying set top boxes.

But there are concerns with a N-DVR approach. For customers, a concern might be that a network version might have limited trick features attached to it. It is likely that a N-DVR will limit the commercial skipping fast forward feature that has been so widely applauded by DVR users. Another concern is that some content providers may force operators to not allow N-DVR of their content. For example, live sporting events like MLB or NFL games that viewers might N-DVR at home and then would watch on a mobile device. It limits for the sport content the chance to sell a second subscription web package to that cable customer. And customers might get annoyed that some content cannot be saved for later.

Regardless, the cloud is pushing ahead and will no doubt create some initial unsettling conditions. Over time, it will be the ideal choice for the sharing and watching of content, whenever, wherever, and whatever you choose.

Has Facebook Lost It's Luster?

Are we done with sharing? Tired of posting? Annoyed with too much information? Has Facebook become less valuable and thus we are starting to turn it off? "News hit the other day that Facebook may have lost about six million users in the U.S. in one month, according to Inside Facebook, a site that analyzes the social network for developers and marketers." With a US base at about 150 million, that is about a 4% decline in one month. But is it a fluke or a trend?

It doesn't seem too easy to delete an account and far easy to simply stop using it. And one month does not a trend make. More interesting would be to get deeper analytics from users to see if they are using it more or less. A US decline in usage may back up the assumption that Facebook is waning. The article suggests a few reasons, from seasonal adjustments to privacy controls, though I doubt either really matter to most.

For me, Facebook still remains relevant as the place to go to catch up on friends and family activities through posts and pictures. In fact, I prefer posting kid pictures on Facebook as opposed to e-mailing them; yet I still do both. But Twitter has become more relevant in comparison simply to get quick gossip and news on the fly. Is Facebook in trouble? Today I don't believe it is replaceable by Twitter nor is there anything on the horizon that offers something better. But I have no doubt that this news may be the impetus for another entrepreneur to find a better mousetrap to take over the social networking landscape.