Sirius At The Super Bowl

The Who are appearing at the halftime show of the Super Bowl. The Who are also getting their own channel on Sirius. The channel is only scheduled to run for a week."Starting at 3 p.m. ET on February 4, Sirius XM Radio will offer a limited time, five-day programming block dedicated to rock legends The Who. Running through 11:59 p.m. on February 8, channel 16 on XM Radio and channel 40 on Sirius Radio will be strictly devoted to commercial-free content chronicling the group's 40 plus years on the musical scene, featuring such singles as "My Generation," "The Kids Are Alright," "Pinball Wizard," "I Can See for Miles," "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Who Are You" and many more. Recent album releases by the group will also be thrown into the mix, including content from the compilation "The Who Greatest Hits," and "The Who Greatest Hits Live," a collection of previously unreleased and newly mixed concert recordings from throughout the band's career."

Lots of stock speculation around Sirius. Analysts are betting the stock should hit a buck and investors have been buying and selling options to take advantage of the rumors. Even Liberty, who owns a large percentage of Sirius debt is seeing its shares bump up due to the positive news coming out of Sirius. It certainly is fun to watch!

Comcast Rebrands To Xfinity

Following in the steps of Cablevision who successfully rebranded its triple play services as Optimum a number of years ago, Comcast is stealing a page from their playbook. It's new name for its triple play of services is Xfinity. The new name seems an attempt to move people away from Comcast as a cable company and toward a more robust technological distributor. "Starting next week, Comcast will begin rolling out the new Xfinity brand -- Xfinity TV, Xfinity Internet and Xfinity Voice -- to customers in 11 markets: Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Portland Ore., Seattle, Hartford, Conn., Augusta, Ga., Chattanooga, Tenn. and parts of the San Francisco Bay area."

For Cablevision, the Optimum brand change was deemed successful. Some consumers actually thought they were a different cable company. And the new brand name could push new benefits and new value. For Comcast, the Xfinity name is attempting to do the same thing. Coming up with a new brand name is an arduous and difficult process. Many scoff at any name change and ask why change. When NYNEX became Verizon many years ago, many wondered what exactly a Verizon was. They successfully turned Verizon into a very powerful positive brand experience.

Comcast, and now Xfinity, face a similar challenge. Is Xfinity a great name. Who can say. What Comcast does to back up its new name with better technological products, better service, and better value is what matters most. If nothing changes, then Xfinity will simply be seen as a repainted pig and not a new brand. So change the name but also change the service. A better set top experience, a better on-demand and DVR experience. Yes put Tivo in every box. A better mobile experience. Yes, put Slingbox in every box. Back up the new claims and a new brand name can be very successful.

What's Up With Sirius?

It seems the stock price. Sirius is on a roll and shareholders are paying attention. Back in August, Sirius was trading under fifty cents and in the last couple of months, it's price is hitting near a dollar. That is quite a 100% jump in only 6 months. "Everything seems to be going the company's way these days, after capping off a roller coaster of a year in 2009, with the resumption of subscriber growth, free cash flow generation, and credit rating upgrades."

Can Sirius continue to grow or do they need to be acquired in order to capitalize on all the technological change occurring around them. Will it be necessary for Sirius to reduce it's number of shares through a reverse stock split in order to remain listed on NASDAQ? Will Howard Stern stay on and re-sign his contract? Lots of questions. But it sure is nice for shareholders to finally see a rise in the stock price.

Facebook Becoming Third Most Popular Website

Facebook usage continues to explode, while My Space appears to be a no show. According to Comscore, it is besting Yahoo and third to Google and Microsoft. "In December, 2009, Facebook attracted 469 million unique visitors, up an incredible 31 million visitors from the month before. To put that in perspective, in a single month Facebook gained as many new visitors as Yahoo did all year. That one-month gain was also the equivalent of adding as many people as all of Digg or half of Twitter.com." That is an amazing growth story.

But Facebook needs to adapt and change. While it is nice to read about friends' activities, it is too easy to lose site of best friends and relatives from simple acquaintances. There needs to be a better way to sift through the blather to more important friend comments. Also, it would be nice for Facebook to be an aggregator of current news, where friend's comment of those news stories could also be featured. Facebook is like the gathering tree, a virtual place to share real news as well as personal tidbits and gossip; to stay connected, despite living many miles away. That (and its silly games) make Facebook a must visit site every day.

iPad AND Verizon

Apple's iPad announcement had one big miss, no new wireless platform partners. Well the rumors abound that this situation should change. Verizon is still in the mix and an agreement could be announced by mid year. "Wall Street analysts who initially reported a Verizon-Apple deal -- which hasn't been announced yet -- made similar predictions today. They didn't know if Apple's hitch with Verizon was technical or business-related, but at least two analysts were confident that Apple would announce a Verizon deal sometime this year." Let us hope that news is true.

Will Apple iPad Be a Revenue Winner?

Does the iPad have what it takes to be a must-have product and revenue winner? It seems that the news is mixed; some like the low initial price point, others are critical with its limited abilities. And from announcement to availability is at least 5 weeks. Does that work in favor or against Apple? I hoped to see it at the Apple Store, even if I couldn't purchase, but found nothing available yet.

One interesting idea that I read was that a home would have multiple iPads around the house, each sharing data for the home, calendar, music, notes, etc. It would be kinda cool to have one upstairs and one downstairs, and able to refer to it for everything from kids' school calendar to supermarket shopping list; plus interact with the web, getting stats while watching a game, or playing music that was from my home computer itune's account. if the iPad can act like that, a convergence tool that connects to the home computer and other iPad's in the same home, that would be the ultimate advantage. Sign me up, I might just buy one now.

Bloomberg thinks the price point is still high. "Apple will start selling three models in the U.S. in March, priced from $499 to $699, that let users connect to the Internet over Wi-Fi networks. Three models that work with AT&T Inc.’s 3G wireless-phone network will go on sale in April for $629 to $829, with an additional $14.99 or $29.99 a month for a service plan." Given how the iPod grew, I would suspect that the next iteration of iPad would see a lower price point. As that price point approaches $300, multiple iPads in a home might just be a reality.

Netflix Should Concern Cable Operators

Netflix had a good quarter. A double digit rise in revenue, a 10% increase in subscribers, and riding the way of new TV sets launching internet enabled TVs. "The new subscribers added since the third quarter marked a record for the online rental company, which offers DVDs through the mail and streaming content for 12.3 million customers. Netflix also lost fewer customers in the fourth quarter, as the churn rate, or the number of people who don't renew their monthly subscription, dropped to 3.9 percent from 4.4 percent in the third quarter and from 4.2 percent in 2008's final quarter. The company added nearly 3 million new subscribers over the full year."

So where are those customers coming from? I suspect that cable might have to add Netflix to the list of other competitors, telco and satellite, stealing customers. Netflix is a cheaper alternative to premium services, like HBO, Showtime, and others. And it now offers customers both a mail service and online component. As consumers, especially in a difficult economy, Netflix has emerged as a better positioned entertainment value. Cable needs to wake up and pay more attention to the value and service they provide; Otherwise, customers will pick the lowest price alternative.

Happy With The iPad

First the good news. The iPad has finally arrived and consumers can finally see what Apple's tablet can do. Its price tag is extremely reasonable, starting at under $500 and it meets the basic expectations for e-book reading, music listening, and video watching. The bad news is that it looks like an oversized iPod and still requires connection through the AT&T platform. So how will consumers react?

I understand it lacks a camera; not sure that is a big deal. It has carved out another e-book niche that could allow them to sell books through their itune platform. And that may give Kindle a reason to worry. "Mr. Jobs said Apple so far had relationships with five major publishers — Hachette, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan — and was eager to make deals with others. Publishers will be able to charge $12.99 to $14.99 for most general fiction and nonfiction books." That according to today's New York Times.

For me, I am not an early adopter. I always expect that the first generation has too many limitations and future editions come too quickly. Apple is a perfect example of this with their iPod, iPhone, and other devices. I expect by end of year, iPad 2.0 will be at least 2x better. Second, the name lacks appeal; I guess all the other i(name) were taken. Damn you IHOP! Still, couldn't they find a jazzier name: iTab, iLet, or iHmm, to name a few. And lastly, what happened to the Verizon deal? I'm guessing that Apple still had to wait for it's AT&T exclusive to expire. For me, I think I will wait, too.

Some Web Subscription Doesn't Work

The WSJ created a successful model to keep its print subscription alive by putting its web content behind a wall. The NYT is planning the same thing. But will it work? It clearly hasn't worked for Long Island's Newsday. "Only 35 users have signed up to access Newday's web site since they put up their $5 a week paywall three months ago." If that number seems disturbingly low, it is. But is it a surprise? Is Newsday delivering unique information that a web surfer can't find elsewhere? I doubt it. Hence, the low number. For the NYT and others that build a pay wall, the content must be unique, exclusive, and demonstrated to be of perceived value for the user. WSJ has done it with unique business news content, exclusive interviews, branded columnists, and valuable knowledge. Aligned with its print, it became the best combination of print and web.

And while that number is low, it could be argued that Newsday is primarily used as a retention tool by Cablevision within its market. It's cable customers enjoy free web access while its competitor, Verizon Fios, and their customers must pay. Has that improved Cablevision's leadership in the market? It certainly can be positioned that way and help to explain why the number of paid subscribers is so low. More important for Newsday is to announce the number of unique and page visits to their web site, as well as gross ad revenue. That would certainly help to clarify its value.

Still there should be many more Fios customers that also read Newsday and would enjoy web access. Perhaps a better job of marketing the Newsday web subscription is required. Let's hope there is a brighter web future for Newsday.