Antennas up in TWC-LIN feud Buffalo Business First
You'll remember that I wrote earlier this week about the
retransmission consent dispute between cable operator Time Warner and
LIN TV. A week ago, LIN TV's broadcast station signals were pulled off
the air in several Time Warner markets. In Buffalo, Time Warner has
been handing out rabbit-ear antennas to customers, so they can watch
the broadcast stations over-the-air. Time Warner has handed out over
25,000 rabbit-ear sets in Buffalo in the last week.
But this temporary solution is the perfect example why cable operators have asked the FCC for a quiet period on retransmission consent agreements around the digital transition. While rabbit-ears work for over-the-air television viewing today, next February, viewers will need more than just rabbit-ears to pull in a digital broadcast signal. Confusion and the potential lack of digital converter coupons, as suggested by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, (which I wrote about yesterday) make this short moratorium of pulling signals absolutely critical to a successful transition.
Free Cable! The Bauminator
The Bauminator writes about a Comcast offer that gives customers 12 months of free basic cable when they sign up for phone or broadband Internet service. The Comcast deal is offered as part of a "Get Ready for DTV" campaign - giving over-the-air television viewers an option to switch to cable instead of purchasing digital converter boxes or digital-ready televisions.
Comcast's DTV site allows customers to develop their own DTV solution specific to the number of TVs in their house and whether they're hooked up to cable, satellite or an antenna. Users select the number of televisions in their household and how they're connected. The site then offers advice and pricing for various options to get the customer's TVs ready for the digital transition.
Web traffic jam as people search for financial news [Yahoo News]
As you can imagine, given the current state of the national economy and the stock markets, online financial sites are receiving peak traffic these days. This article has some stats on the web traffic explosion, and also points readers to some interesting sites for personal finance and investing advice.
Here's to the good ol' days when those sites were far less busy!!
iPod dying? It's already dead [CNET News]
Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, was quoted earlier this week on the Apple iPod music player. Wozniak said the iPod was dying, that sales had peaked and would soon decline. One blogger at CNET agrees with Wozniak - not because the iPod has fallen out of favor with consumers but because Apple has moved on and is now focusing it's innovative attention on the iPhone, which has all the features of an iPod built into it.
What more will they need? A digital television? Not exactly a huge requirement and they can receive local channels in high definition. We don't need any protections for the cable industry.
Posted by: Kevin Brown | Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 09:11 AM