Some of the biggest companies backing the Blu-ray format for high-definition movies are hedging their bets by introducing players that can also show Internet video, which is making surprising inroads in the home-entertainment market.
Two seemingly unrelated announcements this week illustrate the intensifying pressure on cable TV’s business model.
Walt Disney Co. is close to unveiling technology that it says will enable entertainment companies to adapt their business models to a new reality in which consumers increasingly rely on computers and cell phones in place of DVD players and TVs.
In the early years of the Internet, the more time people spent online, the more they paid a provider like AOL for their connection. But as customers have shifted to always-on broadband services, many Web surfers have enjoyed all-you-can-eat Internet for a flat rate.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is proposing that the agency apply tougher open-Internet rules broadly, raising concerns of cable and phone companies and some lawmakers that the government could try to control efforts to offer products such as digital cable or premium business services.
Internet-service providers may be worried about the Federal Communications Commission’s net-neutrality guidelines, but the analysts who cover them?
Not so much. In recent days, more than one has referred to the proposed rules as “a solution in search of a problem.”
The traditional TV ad is losing luster as viewers get savvier about skipping commercials and some advertisers shift to the Internet to save money and target specific audiences.
Cable providers have helped undermine the 30-second spot by supplying digital video recorders to their subscribers and offering ad-free video-on-demand services.
3D technology is coming one step closer to home with the development of a new set-top box system that will allow consumers to browse through and access 3D offerings from their cable or satellite TV company.
With journalists being laid off in droves, ideologues have stepped forward to provide the “reporting” that feeds the 24-hour news cycle.
Discovery Communications has filed for a patent on an e-book reader, the Baltimore Sun reported over late last week.
The Sun notes that Discovery, which owns Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and other cable properties, filed a patent for the device in February; but the Sun notes that the patent filing was not made public until last Thursday.
It’s almost impossible to believe, but there it is: the cable industry is actually outgrowing the wireless sector.
This stunning factoid comes courtesy of the latest Weekend Media Blast piece from Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett.
Comcast is now on the iPhone bandwagon. On Thursday, Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S. by subscribers, announced a free application for the Apple device that lets customers check their Comcast email and home voice mail as well as surf their TV schedules.
For people who hope the openness and flexibility of the Internet will come to mainstream television, the deal announced yesterday between Comcast and Time Warner is great news. They just don’t see yet how it blows apart the tight bond between cable content and cable delivery.
Is Motorola planning to hold a fire sale?
Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron observes in a research note that the company continues to plan the spin-off of its crumbling handset business sometime next year. But he says checks suggest the company is in the middle of strategic planning process that could lead to other asset sales as well over the next 12 months.
When a guy like Steve B. Burke likens TV viewers’ stampede online to a “wildfire,” you know the cable industry is feeling the pressure. Burke is the president and chief operating officer of Comcast, America’s largest cable distributor.
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