Remember When Cable Networks Were Niche Programmers

Once upon a time, the premise of cable networks was that each one individually would showcase niched programming, skimming away at the broadcast channels who showed very general shows. Cable would compete with broadcast because the aggregate of these individual channels would enable advertisers to reach effective interest groups at a more efficient CPM. The sum of the parts being greater than the whole.

In the beginning, cable networks brand name told you what they were: Arts & Entertainment (now A&E), American Movie Classics (now AMC), Music Television (MTV), and Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN), to name a few. As cable nets broadened their programming, their names became initials.

This recent review of a brand new TV show on TV Land struck a chord. TV Land was once the place to find the classic black and white TV shows. Over time, new colorized shows appeared. But now, it is the place for movies and original series. It certainly is not your grandfathers TV Land.

But TV Land is not alone in this shift from niche network to "broad" cable network. Bravo was once the cultural arts channel; now it is reality and "pop" culture. AMC was classic black and white movies; today it is the home to original series Mad Men and Breaking Bad. And I am sure you can say the same thing for most other cable networks. The mighty ad dollar has led them down a slippery slope to broaden its niche to grow the ratings. And where does that lead the consumer. Ultimately to new distribution sites including IP TV and the web.

So while I am not making a judgement call about any network, I personally miss when they each were truer to their niche and I could tell what channel I was looking at by watching its show. Now I can't tell the difference unless I see the bug constantly appearing on the corner of the picture. Don't get me started on that!

Boston's Local NBC Affiliate WHDH Will Air Leno At 10 p.m.

NBC was quick to put its foot down and the Boston affiliate acquiesced. And just like that, Boston will get the Jay Leno show this Fall at 10 pm. While this must be a huge sigh of relief to NBC, it also quickly signals to its other affiliates not to follow Boston's lead. And while the threats worked, one must wonder what was agreed to. Was there incentive money involved? Additional local commercial time given? Or perhaps a short term truce to wait and see and give the show 30, 60, or perhaps 90 days to prove that it will deliver a high enough rating and be a profit performer.

And don't be surprised if every other NBC affiliate is reading over each line in their contract to see just what their options are. This fight may be over, but there may still be a bigger war brewing.

N.Y. Congressman Plans Bill Banning Internet-Usage Billing

Ahhh government! Always there to interrupt free market. Not that I think internet usage billing is a great idea; rather, that I think it provides competitive differentiation to let market forces impact its success. Through technological innovation, change will occur. Usage issues can also lead to a whole new type of internet, more efficiently run. Bad ideas lead to failure and business losses, good ideas to innovation and new leaders.

"A New York Congressman wants to make it illegal for Internet service providers to charge subscribers based on the amount of data they download." While politics should be in play to maintain that people play by the rules, they shouldn't force companies, especially those that have competition, to operate a certain way. Cable companies,unlike water and electricity companies, are not utilities. They should have the freedom to set their prices and let the consumer decide who they want to do business with.

I may not agree with usage pricing, but government intervention is not the answer, competition is. Let in more competitors into each community and let the consumer decide which broadband provider they want.

Time Warner Cable Tweaks Bandwidth-Billing Plans

We pay for our usage of electricity, water, even cell phone minutes, why not broadband usage. That is certainly what Time Warner believes; especially as broadband pipelines get clogged up with heavy graphics and video. More users, more usage slows down the pipe, a traffic jam that can slow down speeds and aggravate users at the same time. Usage pricing puts the higher cost to the heavier user, but under the Time Warner plan, grants them faster speeds.

So what is a consumer to do. Well, if you just use your broadband for email and web surfing, probably nothing. Time Warner contends "that about 30% of customers use less than 1 Gigabyte per month", and would be charged a lower rate for service. The MSO will show customers what the usage has been to let them know what package may best serve them. "The MSO also will offer a 'gas gauge' tool to show subscribers how much bandwidth they've used up in a given monthly period."

As for the heavier user, Time Warner's plan is probably more costly. Unless Time Warner can demonstrate that their is more to gain with faster speeds for a higher price, the other option is to switch vendors. And that could prove better news for competitors like Verizon and AT&T. Unless of course they follow a "me too" strategy and move to a usage model, too.

Time Warner says that other countries follow a broadband usage model. But the all you can eat model has been around here for a while so may prove difficult to gain acceptance. Most may find it a convenient reason to switch. The question to Time Warner might be are heavy users highly correlated with being triple tier customers; that is, are you risking losing your best customers, who are already paying you top dollar, with even higher cable bills. If this research proves true, then perhaps it is not worth the risk of losing this best consumers to your telco competitors.

Magna: DVR Use Will Grow 70% By 2014, VOD By 60%

Just because the web is hot for content doesn't mean that other types of distribution is declining. Television continues to be an important device to the home. The rise of HD, bigger screen TVs, and content when you want it, all makes TV a good business to be in. But with that being said, linear viewing, scheduled at their time, not ours, is not what matters. Magna research shows that on demand viewing, whether through the DVR or VOD channels, will continue to grow at extraordinary rates.

"Magna forecasts that in five years, DVR usage will grow more than 70%, to 51.1 million U.S. TV homes Magna estimates this will reach 43% of all U.S. TV homes in 2014, up from 27% as of the end of 2008...Video on demand, a more mature digital TV product than DVRs, will grow by 61% in five years to 67.2 million households -- about 56% of U.S. TV homes. Currently, at the end of 2008, there were 41.7 million VOD households, or 37% of U.S."

That increase in on demand viewing will absolutely lead to declines in live linear viewing of TV. Still, TV should invest in good content, knowing that the viewer will consume it in different forms, at the scheduled time, DVR at a later date, or picked off the VOD menu. That the advertising continues to get viewed and the eyeballs recorded, will mean that the programmer will continue to get paid.

The DVR device is friendly to the local affiliate because it retains their local ads; the VOD and internet are the enemy of the local affiliate because their local ad does not run. Ultimately, both the DVR and VOD rely on strong content to satisfy viewer interest. For their usage to grow as predicted, the content must remain interesting to the viewer. Why set the DVR if the show has no appeal.

And for VOD, consumers don't have to rely on setting up a recording in advance; they can catch up on their favorite shows on demand. And content doesn't need to be on a linear broadcast or cable channel to be available on VOD. VOD offers the consumer libraries of content not accessible elsewhere. Smaller programmers can distribute their libraries of content without building a 24/7 linear TV schedule. These offerings may range from a few hours to many, but are typically refreshed either weekly or monthly with newer content to enjoy. More choices to satisfy different interests.

As viewers continue to get comfortable with their DVR and VOD boxes, they will start watching on their schedule, not the programmers. And except for news or sports, on demand viewing lets you watch what you want, when you want, fast forwarding, pausing, and rewinding to catch all the dialogue and all the action. To me, it is the ideal way to watch TV!

Front of Los Angeles Times Has an NBC ‘Article’

News or newsworthy, the front page of the LA Times has an ad. So does the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and other publications. The difference is that the ad gave the appearance of being an article. In fact, the ad was designed to subtly confuse despite the fact that it was in a different font, had a typical style ad directly below it, and the NBC logo on top. Clearly it was not a hard news article.

So did it work. It certainly created pr buzz, generating discussion, blogs, and attention; but did it go over the line and harm the editorial side of the newspaper. In the long run, probably not, but it does push them further down a slippery slope. Profit over content; the LA Times might argue, without profit, there is no newspaper and thus no content.

Selling ads on the front page is certainly acceptable; the ad should be more clearly differentiated from what was done. Clearly labeled advertisement at the top of the column and not in font too small to read. Making ads more effective is not unusual, but not to fool the reader. Newspapers need more dollars to stay around. But it still doesn't solve newspapers biggest problem, the loss of readers to the internet. No front page ad/column will solve that problem.

Actors and studios said to be close to new contract

Could it be true. Could SAG and AMPTP be close to a new agreement. Nothing public yet, but the talk is that informal talks have been going on and collaboration is occurring. Good news for all!

NBC Threatens Over Affiliate's Plans To Lose Leno

Legal action is being threatened by corporate parent NBC to the Boston station, WHDH, and its owner Sunbeam Television Corp. Quick and to the point, you will carry Leno at 10 pm or else. And the Boston station response is that their agreement gives them the right.

Why such a public fight; because NBC doesn't want any other of it's affiliates to get the same idea. Nip it in the butt early, publicly and privately, too. "Industry experts said NBC's swift and very public crackdown suggests the network wants to ward off any dissent that may be brewing at its other affiliates, some of which are nervous about how Leno will perform as a lead-in to their late-night newscasts." NBC has not been doing to well in the ratings lately and the local nets fear that cheap and ill conceived programming, especially in the slot right before their news, will ultimately affect local ratings too. The general perception is that most viewers are lazy and don't change the channel from their 10p show to the news. Keep them entertained and they stay for the news that follows. Disappoint and they turn the channel.

"WHDH's Ansin (Ed Ansin, owner of WHDH parent Sunbeam Television Corp.) said a local newscast will draw better ratings than Leno and that airing five nights a week in that time slot would be a financial disaster for his station. The new Leno show will compete against popular scripted shows, such as CBS's 'CSI: Miami.'" How can NBC assure Ansin and their other affiliates that Leno at 10P will perform? And how soon till another affiliate follows suit and copies WHDH? I wouldn't be surprised if every affiliate is also reviewing their legal agreements. High drama indeed...hey, this could be a TV show!

Is This the Future of the Digital Book?

Are digital books more than just electronic ink on a screen? It seems that everything is multimedia, and books fall into that category too. More than just a good story, add music and video and stir together into an even fuller experience. Add to that an online book club and twitter to share your thoughts on a book, magazine, or article, and the written experience is now interactive, too. This is exciting stuff.

New startups, like Vook.tv, WEbook, Fourth Story Media, and others are emerging to enhance the move from written page to digital experience. That means that the Kindle and Sony e-reader are just the first baby steps to a brand new experience. "Ms. Nelson (Sara Nelson, former editor of Publishers Weekly) has seen the Vook prototype and says it is intriguing, but the challenge is to avoid feeling gimmicky. 'If you are going to put video in a book, it has to flow so naturally into the story that readers don’t even realize they are switching mediums,' she said."

Perhaps that is what Facebook and other social networks need to tie into next. Expanding the interactive experience with other types of content, but centralize the experience on your main social page. That partnership could quicken the acceptance of these new products.