Networks Could Ditch Free TV

… screams the headline in the “ink on paper” version of the story in today’s Newsday. (Page A34)

AP Business Writer Andrew Vanacore quotes Rupert Murdoch saying “(programming) can no longer be supported solely by advertising revenues.”

The article touches on how the networks are attempting to boost their revenues from retransmission fees and possibly by ditching their OTA affiliates and becoming dual revenue stream cable nets.

(Newsday’s on-line version carries the wire version headline. And the on-line versions are longer than the print version.)

Remain Calm

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (C.A.L.M.) Act (H.R. 1084) was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Dec. 16th, 2009. The Act requires the FCC to adopt specific broadcast loudness standards within a year of enacting it.

No vote appears to be scheduled in the Commerce Committee on the Senate version of the bill. (S.2847) UPDATE: The Senate passed the bill on September 29, 2010. The House will need to re-vote on the revised bill when in reconvenes after the November 2010 elections.

The ATSC has already approved a Recommended Practice on loudness, but just like with health care legislation, just because one house of congress passes something, doesn’t mean it’s a done deal.

Across The Pond: End of Beeb’s Teletext Service

The grandmother to the internet, the UK’s Teletext service was mostly shut down this week due to lack of advert revenue. (Only the racing & bookmaking, chat and dating services will remain open – can you guess why ?)

Teletext never caught on here, but across the pond it was quite popular in the 1980s and 1990′s and it had some success in France (Antiope) and in the Netherlands (Prestel). It worked in a similar fashion to the US Closed Captioning system, but I guess us Yanks wanted two-way communication, so we got MCI Mail, then Delphi, Prodigy, Compuserve, GEnie and finally AOL.

How Many Homes Actually Get HD?

According to a study by Frank N. Magid Associates, about 28% of US households have HDTVs and receive some sort of HD program service. (With thanks to Broadcast Engineering.)

The Four Screens

UPDATED: Watch the 3 Minute Ad Age clip here.

What comes after television, the internet and mobile is what has been commonly referred to as the fourth screen. But what is the deal with all these screens? What are they, why are they important and what do we as producers, designers, technologists and marketers need to know?

The panel was: Steve Ronson, EVP, AETN; Lance Podell, CEO, NextNewNetworks; Dana Spiegel, VP of Application Strategy and Development, Cathedral Partners; Michael Kogon, Founder and CEO, Definition 6. Denise Oliver, Co-Founder, ShortFormTV was the moderator.

It’s not that SobelMedia needed the extra publicity, it’s just that I like the promo that creativebubble did.

Related:

2010: The Year of TV Everywhere

Disney Touts a Way to Ditch the DVD – About “Keychest” and “DECE”. (Sorry, Rupert wants to charge you for this article.)

Lala Could Help Apple Redefine ‘Ownership’ of Content

What Does the J-School of the Future Look Like ?

Dave Winer in a blogpost in Rebooting the News suggests that a semester of journalism in college (or high school) should be a requirement, just like history, math and science.

Some necessary training for all those future “i-Reporters”. (And thanks to Michi Valeriano.)

So Where is AdSense for Newspapers ?

… asks Mark Cuban refering to a guest opinion piece by Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt in the Wall Street Journal.

And where is AdSense for cable?
I think it has a chance to catch on – as soon as cablers refine the
technology to deliver targeted advertising at the set-top level.

Related:
Congress to Hold Hearing on Cable Advertising (4/22/09)
CableLabs: tru2way
Canoe Ventures: In Forbes (6/18/09); Canoe Ventues Home Page

Master Of The (Communication) Universe

And a shout-out to Steve Mendelsohn, the frequency coordinator for the New York City Marathon and game day coordinator for the New Jersey Jets.
Steve is a veteran of two networks. When the com signal leaves, you need to call Steve. (And he’s got the tales to prove it.)

(Photo from the TV Technology feature "NFL Finds the Right Frequency".)

Thimbleful Of Knowledge

Pretty As A Peacock; The Almost Broadcasting Company

In an unusual alignment of the moon (currently full) and the rest of the univers(al), it looks like GE and Vivendi have agreed on how much ($5.8 billion) NBCU is worth, paving the way for the media giant’s sale to Comcastic.

Over at the Meatball network, the move backward toward it’s first incarnation, the Almost Broadcasting Company, continues with the confirmation that Mike Shaw, the President of Sales and Marketing will be stepping down from his current role at the end of the year.

As both these events occurred on the same day, I should be saying that media divergence continues, but the first instance is a big fish eating a little fish and the second instance is just what happens when you have a “mature” business. (Just read that as “past it’s prime.”)