A la Carte TV

Peter Kafka has a new article where he argues that it is most likely that Apple TV will go along with the current content arrangements to get along. He mentions two scenarios that would create a more a la carte  environment but he misses the most likely - Congressional action.

A la carte TV may come to Canada and will be through legislative action. Of course the content producers would spend millions lobbying against such action in the US but can you imagine how popular it would be? Everyone - Democrats and Republicans - have to pay for channels they don't like.

Verizon and Comcast Deal

There seems to be two pieces of business common sense that are somehow mystifying to some people. First most business people would rather not do a deal than enter into a deal where they know they will lose money. Second - once a home has a high speed connection there is very little incentive for a competitor to pour the money into the infrastructure to put in a competitive connection. Its not brain surgery but some people just can't seem to get their arms around these two simple ideas. And as I explain below - these two simple ideas are the crux of the proposed Verizon Wireless and Comcast deal.

Google to Slash 4,000 Jobs at Motorola

Google to slash 4,000 jobs at Motorola. That's 20% of the company. It is expected that a third of those cuts will be in the US. My mind works differently from most so when I read the article two things came to mind:

1. I'm amazed that just 10-years ago Google was a company whose browser was just catching on with the public while Motorola was one of the best known brand names in communications technology. Now Google not only owns Motorola but is streamlining them as if the new kid is teaching the old professional how business is supposed to be done. Who is the new kid lurking around who in 10-years will be teaching Cisco or some other big name how to do business?

2.  If you are on LinkedIn - watch for many from Motorola to suddenly find a new enthusiasm for networking.

DISH Network Q2 Profits Drop

DISH Networks Q2 profits dropped from $335 million last year to $226 million this year.

I would expect this trend to continue as costs of programming do not seem to be going down any time in the near future. At what point does DISH need to raise its rates? If they do raise their rates will that cause a stampede of customers? What sort of churn can DISH withstand if they do raise rates?

Cord Cutting?

Another article talking about cable companies losing 400,000 subscribers last quarter. Of course I would expect those numbers to be made up in later quarters and the overall comparison to last year to be a wash.

Two thoughts keep popping up every time I see one of these articles:

1. Say an older couple who had cable moves out of an apartment and younger tenants take over who never bother to add cable but who sign up for a better broadband service than the older couple had - do these new tenants count in the statistics as cord cutters? Technically they never had a cord to cut. Also the revenue from the broadband service may be greater than what the older couple was paying for cable (and with a greater gross margin). How is this a bad thing?

2. Articles like this always seem to bring up Netflix and Hulu like these services don't also contribute to the content providers bottom lines. In the example above the new young tenants are probably consuming more content then the older couple who may have just watched local news and sports.

Pay-TV Share Shift

Peter Kafka makes an interesting argument that the pay-TV market isn't shrinking - the market shares are just shifting around.

And it should be pointed out that the numbers Peter writes about don't include any of the small telcos or FTTH companies that have gotten into IPTV and taken subscribers away local MSO's.

Is Aereo a Winner?

Does the Aereo service and pricing model make sense? To be honest - I don't think so.

Here's why.