Michael's Insight

Hulu releases desktop application for streaming content

Hulu Now Easier To Watch In Bed, On Couch [Silicon Alley Insider]

Is Hulu looking to become a set-top experience? It's a good question in the wake of the popular long-form online video portal's announcement yesterday of Hulu Desktop, a desktop PC and Mac application that provides a set-top like menu environment for streaming Hulu's television shows and movies from a computer desktop. In fact, Hulu Desktop bears a striking resemblance to the open-source Boxee software, which has had a long running dispute with Hulu over the ability of Boxee to stream Hulu content.

Though Hulu isn't promoting the software as an interface for connecting one's computer to a television to stream their content directly to the television screen, it appears they might as well be doing just that. Hulu is promoting the ability of Hulu Desktop to be able to respond to commands from an Apple Remote or Windows Media Center remote control.

Why would one want to use a remote control to control the application on their computer? If they've connected their computer to a television, of course. Due to the sensitive nature of Hulu's ownership relationship with networks, who receive substantial portions of their revenues from cable providers, Hulu is not promoting the use of the application for this purpose. But, it's pretty clear that's the direction they want their tech-savvy users to take it. Hulu maintains the ability to serve up commercials, both streamed and display advertising within the Hulu Desktop application.

It's going to be interesting to see how this move by Hulu plays out with content producers with programming on Hulu and with Boxee. One blogger is already calling Hulu's move to block Boxee anti-competitive. For the record, here's a video describing the Hulu Desktop software.

AT&T may have unfairly influenced American Idol vote

AT&T May Have Swayed ‘Idol’ Results [The New York Times]

Some American Idol fans are upset after learning that AT&T, one of the show's major corporate sponsors, may have given an unfair advantage to the winning contestant in this year's finale. The Times reports that AT&T, which is the only mobile provider that Idol viewers can use to text message votes for their favorite contestant, held two parties in the state of Arkansas the night of the final performance last week. The parties were organized to support the eventual winner, Kris Allen, an Arkansas native.

According to this article, AT&T did not organize any similar parties for the second place contestant, Adam Lambert.

At those parties, AT&T representatives brought demonstration phones with them to pass out to the supporters of Mr. Allen. The AT&T employees then went on to show party goers how to send "power text messages," which are essentially multiple copies of the same text message. The power texts copied the message 10 or more times and sent them to the Idol ballot box. As you can imagine, the ability to vote multiple times with one keystroke can have a dramatic effect on the contestant's chances. In fact, power texts appear to be prohibited by Idol's rules, which prohibit using "technical enhancements" to send multiple text messages.

I wondered about this when I started hearing about the "record breaking" voting that was coming in during the final weeks of the season.  Officials at FOX have announced that, regardless of any advantage that the AT&T parties may have given Allen, the result of the American Idol voting will stand.  But if you ask me, I think FOX needs to assure that, in the coming seasons, voting is fair and free of technical enhancements.  Failure to do so will risk the future of the most important ratings franchise currently on the broadcast network. 

Mark Cuban's talks online video at All Things Digital

Cuban: Google Ruined Online Video for All of Us [NewTeeVee]

NewTeeVee profiled my friend Mark Cuban's appearance at the the All Things Digital conference yesterday, where he talked in depth about the issues impacting online video business models. Mark contends that Google's subsidization of YouTube users' bandwidth isn't helping that company and others in this space to develop a sustainable online video business model.

“When Google bought YouTube, they didn’t get into it with a focus on monetizing it immediately, and so as a result it took off, and the message was ubiquity and volume,” said Cuban, the original Internet video entrepreneur with Broadcast.com and now chairman of HDNet. If Google got taken out, he contends, the industry would disappear, because if people had to pay to upload videos, most of them would stop. “If the model isn’t there where it’s complete subsidy, the whole concept of Internet video gets flipped on its head.”

If you know Mark, you know it's best to hear him directly and unfiltered.  So here are some clips of Mark's discussion at All Things Digital that's worth watching.

Cable operators turning to Broadband Reports to provide customer service

New Comcast Direct Forum Launched [Broadband Reports]

Back in 2006, I discovered a treasure chest of Insight customer comments at Broadband Reports.  I did so out of necessity as we were having a really difficult transition of our Broadband services on to our own backbone network.  It helped us identify the customer problems we were having and get them solved.  Since then, we have developed a regular process where Insight Broadband professionals frequently check the forum to monitor issues that our customers are having.  When identified, we work with other members of the team to make sure that we're resolving those issues.  Today, I continue to check in there myself as well and, if you're a regular to the Inside Insight user forum at Broadband Reports, then you've likely seen one or more of my own comments on the posts there.

I noticed yesterday that Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, is partnering with Broadband Reports to create their own technical support forums, hosted at Broadband Reports. I think this is a great extension of their customer outreach on Twitter, in an attempt to meet customers where they are. The new Comcast Direct forum will allow Comcast users to message members of the Comcast Customer Connect team with issues they are experiencing. The forum has the capability of allowing each customer to provide their private customer information to the Comcast representative in a private message so that information isn't compromised. Though I can't read the contents of the topics on the Comcat Direct forum for this reason, I notice that since this announcement yesterday, there are a number of topics and responses that have already started popping up.

In addition to Insight and Comcast's efforts at Broadband Reports, Charter Communications also provides technical support to their customers in a similar manner.

Comcast recently got some kudos for dramatically improving their score on a national customer service index, with some of the credit going to their Twitter outreach program. I think their BBR plan is another great example of providing pro-active support to customers on a medium that's familiar to them and lends itself well to helping customers.

FCC issues report on rural broadband

FCC: Openness, Video Access, Important To Rural Broadband [Multichannel News]

As part of the 2008 Farm Bill, the Congress had directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to report on broadband in rural America. Yesterday, acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps released the FCC's findings. The report indicated that it would be a building block in the larger national broadband strategy that the FCC is currently working on, and that Congress has directed that the FCC report on next February.

The report details the current state of broadband infrastructure in rural areas of the country and outlines a number of issues that the Commission believes are critical to building out that infrastructure to serve more areas that are currently unserved and to increase the adoption of broadband by customers across rural America.

Chairman Copps' report stresses the need for network openness and the adoption of a fifth "network nondiscrimination principle." He would add this to the four principles announced four years ago.  They were:

(1) consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice;

(2) consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement;

(3) consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network; and

(4) consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

Copps cited the fact that many rural broadband users have the choice of only one provider, thus increasing the need for net neutrality, in his view. The fifth network nondiscrimination principle policy has been a goal of Copps for some time. It would add to the enforcement powers of the FCC when it comes to the existing four net neutrality principles that the Commission has already adopted.

The report also stressed the delivery of video services along with broadband as a key factor in rural broadband deployment and adoption. Providers have an incentive to build out their network further into rural areas when they can provide services in addition to broadband, like video and phone. And customers are more likely to subscribe to broadband if it is packaged with video service.

According to the report, the Commission believes that the $7.2 billion that the Obama administration and Congress allocated toward broadband deployment in the economic stimulus act is a down-payment on the larger Commission goal of universal access to broadband across America. The report indicates that the larger national broadband policy report that the FCC will issue next year will further address this issue.

Research firm predicts 700 million broadband users worldwide in 2013

700 Million Broadband Subscribers By 2013 [GigaOM]

A new research report by Telegeography indicates that we'll all have much more company on the Internet in the next few years. By the end of 2013, the research firm predicts that 700 million customers worldwide will have broadband Internet. That's growth of 72% over the current number of broadband customers.

Most of the growth in broadband is expected to be in the Asia-Pacific region. Telegeography's report also covers the growth explosion that's expected in mobile phones and the contraction in wireline phone. When combining customers of all three services, the firm predicts that half of all customers worldwide in 2013 will be in the Asia-Pacific region up from 28 percent today.

And even though North America is predicted to represent only 7 percent of worldwide broadband, mobile and wireline phone customers by 2013, we disproportionately will account for 23% of global market value.

The world is still experiencing the communications revolution that the Internet has spawned and cable broadband technology accelerated, and this tremendous growth that's expected in broadband customers is testament to that.

Moving toward a tru2way applications store

A Tru2way App Store? [The Bauminator]

Apple has developed a model in iTunes that many other closed and open garden platforms are looking to emulate in the form of an application store portal. With the cable industry's interactive cable platform - tru2way - the possibility of creating a large community of application developers and an easy-to-use portal for cable customers to preview and purchase applications is the "ultimate scenario," as this article puts it.

CableLabs, the cable industry's research and development consortium, is working to release a reference implementation and software development kit (SDK) for tru2way around the middle of next month. The SDK, which will run on a computer, will allow developers to begin writing tru2way applications without a bunch of expensive cable equipment. But, we're still not quite there yet for a tru2way apps store. One of the things that's been holding the industry back is a lack of true cross-compatibility of tru2way code among a variety of tru2way ready cable boxes. That's where the reference implementation comes in.  It solves the critical issue of assuring that writing one copy of an application will run on any tru2way cable box.

As cable operators continue to roll out tru2way ready boxes, its likely that many companies will deploy Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) interactivity first. EBIF is a platform that's more widely supported across currently deployed set-tops. It's not quite as powerful a platform as tru2way, but offers limited interactivity.

Convergence is pushing video into the interactive realm of the Internet. And while we're not quite there yet, it won't be long before cable television makes the move toward true interactivity with tru2way applications.

Obama administration plans a national cybersecurity strategy

Washington Readies Cybersecurity Battle Plan [Reuters]

Protecting our nation's important network infrastructure from attack and preventing the theft of data is surfacing as a high priority of the Obama administration. On Friday, the federal government will release an assessment of the government's current cybersecurity efforts, with an eye toward improving the government's ability to respond to a variety of online threats.

President Obama ordered the cybersecurity report in February of this year. The report was completed last month, but remains under review by various federal agencies responsible for the nation's cybersecurity until the end of this week. The Washington Post reports that the president plans to name a senior official to develop the nation's response to the threats posed by online networks as a result of the cybersecurity report. The official would be responsible for creating policy that would secure the nation's government and private networks from attack, and would become part of the National Security Council.

It should be very interesting reading.  The report President Obama has commissioned outlines the threats and the plan proposed to mitigate and eliminate these threats. With the explosive increase in our dependence on online communications, creating a national strategy aimed at comprehensively addressing cyber threats is an idea whose time has come.

NYT plans to exploit social networking

The New York Times Hires a Social Media Editor; Does It Need One? [Mashable]

In an acknowledgment that much of the news on the Internet has moved beyond even newspaper web sites and blogs, The New York Times has announced the creation of a position that will be responsible for directing the newspaper's social media strategy. The Times has discovered that a substantial portion of traffic to its web site is coming from links shared via Facebook, Twitter and the like.

I know that each time I log on to Facebook, I often see friends sharing a link to an interesting Times article on my stream. Makes sense that someone should be working to maximize this growing traffic, right?  It especially does when one considers the dwindling revenues that are challenging the very existence of newspapers because of their dwindling traditional readership.  But let's not forget how critical to our democracy a healthy free press is.  Finding a business model to help the Times and other mainstream media figure out 21st century communications is important to all of us.

As with any newspaper company's plans to take advantage of the Internet to gather and distribute news, there are cynics who wonder whether the Times will effectively leverage the power of social networks to its advantage. It's a fair question for a member of an industry that is working to adapt to a changing marketplace for news. It'll be interesting to watch how the Times enters the world of social media and whether it can develop a successful model that other newspapers can replicate.

Over one-third of U.S. households have an HDTV

Nielsen stats find 33% of U.S. households with at least one HDTV [EngadgetHD]

According to a recent Nielsen report, the number of American homes with at least one HD television has risen in the past six months, going from 29.2 percent in November of 2008 to 33.3 percent today. Going back to February of 2008, only 19.3 percent of households had HD televisions, showing a substantial increase in the number of U.S. homes with at least one HDTV, despite the hard economic times.

Nielsen's survey also indicates that while just over one-third of homes have a television capable of receiving HD programming, only 28.8 percent of homes actually have HD programming connected to their HDTV. That's nearly five percent of U.S. television viewers, who are really missing out on the great picture that high definition programming offers.  My sense is that those folks simply don't realize that they have to connect the screen to a high definition device through a digital connection.  Of course, their cable company could ensure that they are hooked up properly if they choose to buy their HD services.

Other facts in the report indicate that most HD televisions are located in a common area of the home, unlike the more even distribution of standard definition televisions throughout the home. And, HDTVs have, on average, more television peripherals - like a DVD player, DVR or game console - connected to them than standard definition sets.

As the price tag of HDTVs go down, I expect standard definition TVs will all but disappear from store shelves in very short order.

Facebook addresses spam escalation

Is Facebook the New Spam Heaven? [GigaOM]

In the previous week, it seems that Facebook has been afflicted with a number of spamming events, all phishing for users to click on URLs that take users to sites that load malware onto their systems. I've seen a number of warnings from sites that follow Facebook about individual spam messages, encouraging Facebook users to ignore and delete the messages. The messages are propagating because one Facebook user clicks on the URL in the message, infects their computer and then the malware proceeds to send out spam messages to all the user's friends. According to this article, around one percent of Facebook users are infected, sending out the spam messages to all their friends.  I received one myself from a Facebook friend who, within an hour or so, notified all of his friends of the hoax.

Facebook is working to stem the tide of the messages, filtering out the spam messages and warning users that are compromised. Though statistics of how widespread the problem is are hard to come by, it appears that Facebook is winning the battle against the spammers. It's the equivalent of a "whack-a-mole" competition. When one offending message pops up on their network, the spam filters are quickly adjusted to screen out that message. The spammers then refine their tactics to bypass the filter, and the process begins again.

I'm interested to know if any readers are encountering these messages and whether they're noticing a decrease in the number they've received. It's important to stay vigilant and never click on questionable URLs in a message - including those that come from a trusted friend on Facebook.

Twitter-based television show in the works

Twitter To Make A TV Show [Silicon Alley Insider]

It's the hottest new social media phenomenon, and soon it may be the crux of a new television show. Yes, it's Twitter, the microblogging sensation that hosts a rapidly growing community of users, including a number of well-known celebrities. Variety is reporting that Twitter is teaming with production companies Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to create a TV show that will be "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format."

Though there aren't many details beyond that, this convergence of the web with television appears to taking the form of a reality TV show. Brillstein's Jon Liebman says of the show, "We've found a compelling way to bring the immediacy of Twitter to life on TV."

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that Twitter is having no problems with growth, now having over 32 million users from just 1.6 million a year ago. But the site doesn't yet have any revenue to speak of and the founders of the site don't appear to have any business model in the pipeline -- something I think they should be worrying about.  I guess a television show could add to the already exponential growth factor of the site. Could it also add something to Twitter's starving bottom line?

When more details are announced about the upcoming Twitter show, I'll post about them here.

Is there video competition?

Earlier this week, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association filed its comments on the FCC's 14th annual Video Competition Report.  They cited facts and figures to support their argument that cable faces stiff competition in its core video business and therefore the need to regulate it under the 1992 Cable Act has all but vanished.

Most of us really don't need to study the figures.  We just have to think about our own experiences. 

Here's my latest one.

I was very busy on Monday but I was also looking forward to going home, kicking back and watching how Jack Bower would save the nation from this season's crop of terrorists while saving himself from the deadly virus he contracted while saving Washington, DC from a bio-attack earlier in the day.

Here's the problem.  As I mentioned earlier this week, my wife doesn't like commercials so we wait at least 20 minutes before starting to watch TV programs.  You know the drill -- we record the program on the DVR so we can skip the ads.

We settled back at around 8:20 when I pushed the play button, skipped the "previously on 24" segment and plunged right into the two hour season finale.  At about 9:05, much to my horror, I noticed the record indicator on my Scientific Atlanta set top box was not lit.  I pulled up the record list and confirmed that it stopped recording at 8:49.

Now I know I'm reporting a flaw in a cable device.  That may seem a little odd to hear from the CEO of a cable company.  So let me say that I am well aware that our set top boxes are far from perfect, no matter who manufactures them.  And I'm not happy about that fact.  I hope tru2way devices will come to market quickly so some of the world's leading consumer electronic companies can innovate in that space.

But that's not the point of this post.

When I discovered the fact that I was missing a critical 15 minutes of the episode, I panicked.  What were we going to do?  We decided to stop watching the show and seek an alternative to live TV. 

So, what did I find?  I went online and checked out the FOX website and discovered that "24" would be available shortly after the broadcast.  Hulu?  Yep, there too. FOX additionally decided to release "24" on DVD and Blu-ray the next day, eliminating the traditional broadcast to disc lag time.  I also checked out Amazon on my Roku box and discovered that, for $1.99 per episode, we could watch it commercial free.  I was a little miffed when I discovered they would charge me twice because the finale was a special 2-hour episode but, at least I had the option.  But the point is, yes -- there really is video competition everywhere you look.  And cable broadband is making that happen, even if it doesn't seem to support our video business interests.

We hoped we'd be able to watch the program right after the live broadcast was concluded but that didn't happen.  Apparently, it takes a few hours to post show on these platforms.  But within hours, they're there.  So we decided we'd get a good night's sleep and postpone our viewing of the rest of the finale until the following night.

We chose to fork up the $3.98 for both episodes from Amazon, not so much for the elimination of the ads, but because we'd be able to watch it on our big screen TV without hassle.  By 9:30 pm on Tuesday, we were all caught up, anxiously looking forward to next season.

And luckily, American Idol recorded without incident.

DTV call center volume increases during testing

Early Cut-Off Returns: FCC Receives 27,000-plus Calls [Multichannel News]

Yesterday, I wrote about broadcast television stations' plans to perform simulated tests of the digital television transition in preparation for the June 12th DTV deadline. Those tests showed viewers a number to call if they needed assistance in preparing for the digital transition, the FCC's DTV call center number. Today, we're getting a better picture of the calls that were generated as a result of the DTV testing.

According to this article, at 3pm Eastern time yesterday, the FCC's call center had received just over 27,000 phone calls. That's nearly double the average daily call volume of 15,000, and doesn't count the calls received as a result of the DTV tests conducted during the evening news. Just over half the calls regarded the federal government's DTV converter box coupon program. While it doesn't take as long these days for the government to process these requests, they still take around nine days, so there's only so much time left the coupons can be shipped out prior to the transition.

As I said yesterday, if all of your televisions are connected to cable, then you're already prepared for DTV. If not, give us a call so that we can help you finish your preparations for digital television broadcasts.

Data.gov aims to put raw government data in the hands of citizens

White House Launches Data.gov and Seeks Advice on Transparency [Wired: Threat Level]

In a move that confirms the new President's commitment to an online world, one of the Obama administration's key government transparency initiatives hit the web yesterday. Still in its infancy, Data.gov, is set to serve as a portal to digital copies of government agencies' raw data. Want to download the U.S. Census tables for your hometown or find the location of all the copper smelters across the globe, Data.gov has the data sets for free download.

Right now, there are only around 100 different data sets on the site, but that number is expected to grow rapidly over the next few weeks. Data can be grouped by different variables, including the file type of the data. Data.gov has data in XML, CSV, ESRI geo-spacial files and more. The site contains data mining gadgets that promise to help users ferret out the data that they are seeking.

The Federal Government's agencies spend quite a bit of time and money compiling data on a number of issues. I think it's a great idea that this information is being made available in an easy-to-use portal in a standard format, and I'll be waiting to see the additional data that will be posted on Data.gov over time.

NCTA's McSlarrow weighs in on metered billing experiementation

McSlarrow Defends Cable’s Right to Experiment [CableTechTalk]

Yesterday, ArsTechnica, published an interview with the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) President and CEO, Kyle McSlarrow regarding the issue of metered billing for the Internet. As readers know, this issue was at the forefront in recent weeks with Time Warner Cable's announcement to expand metered billing tests into three additional communities beyond their original test in Beaumont, Texas. Ultimately, Time Warner Cable decided to put those plans on hold.

In the interview, McSlarrow defends cable companies' right to look at different billing models as they look at dramatically increasing demands on their networks. While McSlarrow doesn't favor any particular pricing model, he indicates that cable companies ought to have the flexibility to develop new models that address the needs of continually upgrading their networks to serve up an enjoyable online experience for their customers as their usage patterns change.

McSlarrow says:

“I’ve lived under a flat rate plan,” he said, “but I don’t assume… that’s it’s necessarily impossible to believe that you could have a different model in the future.”

“As demand goes in a certain direction,” he says, “someone’s going to have to build a network” to deal with “not just instantaneous peak but, more importantly, average peak usage. The whole point is to do it in a way, and to serve your customers in a way, that they have a great experience. If you fail on the network side to do that, particularly with our shared network, that’s a real problem.”

To be able to keep up with those increase usage demands, its crucial that cable companies are able to plan new billing models that best address those growing needs fairly. At the same time, it's important that customers are in the loop - sharing their opinions in a transparent process about changes in a company's billing model.

Those customers who are average or low bandwidth consumers - the vast majority of all customers -  subsidize a few heavy bandwidth users in the current flat-rate billing model. Those users are likely to benefit from metered billing either some with a rate reduction and others with less upward pressure on rates. It's an emotion-charged issue for heavy users who screamed foul with Time Warner announced their test in four markets but it's also important that new business models continue to be tested as cable companies plan network upgrades that will benefit all customers - like faster broadband speeds that encourage more and more heavy bandwidth consuming applications.

Nielsen report indicates television usage continues to grow

Nielsen: Almost 99 Percent of Video Watched on a TV Screen [NewTeeVee]

Nielsen has released its Three Screen Report for the first quarter of this year, revealing that television, online and mobile video are more popular than ever. According to the report, in the first three months of 2009, the average American watched over 153 hours of television a month. That's up over two hours from the previous quarter and nearly three hours from the same period a year earlier.

Among Americans that watch online video, an average of 3 hours of per month of online video was consumed. From the first quarter of 2008, the online video watching audience has grown a healthy 13 percent, according to Nielsen. And of those who watch video via their mobile phone, a group that's expanded by 50 percent since 2008's first quarter, they watched over 3 and a half hours of video on their phones monthly.

Finally DVR usage is up as well, with Americans watching just over eight hours of time-shifted content on average per month. The number of Americans using a DVR took a big jump within the last year, going from around 58 million to over 79 million.

Nielsen's report indicates that rather than stealing the audience from regular television viewers, DVR, Internet video and mobile phone video are additive. At the same time new technologies are experiencing rapid adoption and growth in usage, regular television viewing continues to grow at a steady rate. Still, with all the video consumed via the newer technologies, 99 percent of all video consumption in the U.S. occurs via the television screen.

Broadcast stations conducting DTV testing today

Stations Gearing Up For Soft Analog Shut-Off Test: NAB [Multichannel News]

Broadcast television stations that are still broadcasting in analog will be conducting digital transition tests today, simulating what will happen on June 12th when all stations will cease broadcasting in analog forever. Though over 40 percent of all stations, mostly in smaller markets, have already pulled the plug on analog broadcasts, the rest, which serve a very high percentage of American households, are working to prepare their over-the-air viewers that still are not prepared for next month's digital transition.

According to this article, most stations will conduct a simulated digital switch three times today. During the test, viewers shown a video that explains the transition. Those still receiving the broadcast on analog will receive a special message that tells them they're not prepared for the transition, and they need to take steps to prepare before June 12 to continue receiving over-the-air broadcasts.

Of course, cable television viewers are already prepared for the digital transition. If you're still waiting to get your television equipped for the digital transition, give us a call. We'd be pleased to be your solution to the digital broadcast transition.  And remember -- even if you are a cable subscriber, every TV in your household must be hooked up to cable or have some other digital solution in order to keep working after June 12.

Cablevision to unveil remote storage DVR

Summer Debut for Cablevision Network DVR [Light Reading]

Cablevision Systems, the nation's fifth largest cable company, is planning to roll out a remote storage DVR sometime this summer. What is a remote storage DVR? Rather than have a DVR housed within a set-top box containing a hard drive to record your shows, the DVR is part of a centralized storage system that is physically located at the cable company headend. The functionality remains much the same - customers can record their favorite shows, set recording times, playback the recordings, fast forward, pause, etc. One advantage for customers with the remote storage DVR is the ability to record and playback from any television within the home connected to digital cable, rather than the one television connected to the DVR.  Another is a lower price tag on consumer premise equipment, a savings operators would be able to pass along to consumers.

But the road hasn't been simple for Cablevision as programmers have had concerns about the remote storage DVR technology. Content producers filed a suit against Cablevision's plans to deploy remote storage DVR, which may make it all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court.  But, so far, Cablevision has been prevailing in those actions and Cablevision's CEO, Tom Rutledge, indicates in this report that the company is seeking a resolution with content owners to allay their concerns regarding copyright protections. 

One area of possible compromise -- disabling the fast forward function of the DVR during commercials.  That may seem like a steep price to pay for a remote DVR, but if you can have, at your fingertips, a huge storage platform with whole-house functionality and a lower pricetag, would consumers be willing to give up skipping through ads?  Cablevision believes so.  What do you think?

I'm glad to see this great technology moving forward toward deployment.  But I'd also like to better understand consumer reaction to the advantages and disadvantages of all this if content owners get their wish to prevent us from skipping over their commercials.  I know one consumer who would not be happy -- my wife -- who almost always waits about 15 minutes before watching her favorite TV shows, just so she can FF through the commercials.

Insight keeping HDNet channels

Time Warner Dropping HD Net May 31 [John Kiesewetter's page - Television and Media]

Earlier this week, cable operator Time Warner Cable announced that it would not be continuing carrying high definition channels HDNet and HDNet Movies on any of their cable systems. The Time Warner decision will become effective at the end of this month, with the channels to be replaced by other high definition options.

Insight customers in Northern Kentucky might have seen this post on John Kiesewetter's blog on the Northern Kentucky Enquirer about Time Warner's decision. Insight has carried the HDNet and HDNet Movies channels for six years now, and we'll be continuing to carry both channels. HDNet brings viewers 20 hours of original HD programming weekly, including its flagship news programming Dan Rather Reports and HD World Report.

Malware infected Windows 7 RC on the loose on P2P

Pirated Windows 7 RC builds a botnet [Genuine Windows Blog]

Are you among those wanting to test the newest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system before it is released for sale? If so, there's definitely a right way and a wrong way to become one of the testers for the Windows 7 release candidate. Microsoft is allowing folks to download a copy of Windows 7 RC from their official site here. As with any piece of pre-release software, Microsoft has a series of rules that testers must follow and testers should know that the release candidate has a deadline after which it will become non-operative.

But, there is a group of peer-to-peer enthusiasts that are looking to download a copy of Windows 7 RC via BitTorrent. It's not a good idea. There is a pirated version of the Windows 7 RC that is circulating on BitTorrent that has embedded malware which, once installed, will automatically co-opt a user's computer into a botnet. This blog post reports that 25,000 systems have fallen victim to the botnet, just in the past two weeks!

While you may be anxious to upgrade your PC from Windows Vista to the latest operating system, it's important to make sure you're getting your copy from a trusted source - namely Microsoft - and not a compromised third-party. And, as with any pre-release version of software (and especially with a pre-release version of an operating system), unless you're really interested in participating in the test process which undoubtedly  will uncover software bugs and other assorted problems, you can always wait until the final release product shows up later this year.

CableFax Breaking News -- Comcast and NFL Reach Agreement

CableFax just reported that Comcast and The NFL Network reached an agreement.  Here's the text of the announcement.

Comcast and the NFL have reached a long-term deal for NFL Net and settled all outstanding legal disputes. As expected, the net will move to Comcast’s digital classic service from its sports tier. A full launch will occur by Aug 1, reaching nearly 2/3 of the company’s total digital sub base, Comcast said.

Comcast subs also will get access to the NFL’s RedZone Channel when it is created. The channel shows live peeks of Sun games. Financials weren’t released. The WSJ pegged the deal at about 50 cents/sub, down from the 70 cents NFL originally sought.

“We are delighted to have come to an agreement with the NFL,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. “Our goal has always been to provide our digital customers with access to the NFL’s unique content and, working together, we have struck the right balance between value and distribution on a variety of viewing platforms.”

Reports indicate Comcast and NFL Network close to an agreement

NFL Network, Comcast Close To Punting Carriage Dispute [Multichannel News]

The long-running dispute between the nation's largest cable operator and professional football may be coming to an end. Multichannel News reports that talks between Comcast and the NFL regarding the carriage dispute over the NFL Network may be resolved as soon as this week. The dispute centered around Comcast's decision to place the NFL Network on a sports tier, rather than offering it with their digital tier alongside other channels like Versus and the Golf Channel. The NFL had countered that the Comcast was favoring its own sports programming over the NFL Network and was retaliating against the NFL for retaining the rights to a package of NFL games instead of selling them to Comcast for Versus.

Comcast has maintained that the per-subscriber carriage costs of the NFL Network are much higher than channels that the NFL Network would like to accompany on the digital tier, and has indicated a willingness to consider moving the NFL Network off the specialty sports tier if those per-subscriber fees came down.

According to Multichannel News, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is personally participating in the negotiations.

It's no secret that many cable operators have had tumultuous relationships many programmers over carriage disputes.  Sports is especially complex as players demand higher salaries which leads to a reaction all the way through the economic food chain.  Not only do ticket prices rise, but television rights skyrocket. 

Networks compete for league and team broadcast rights and then they need to charge cable and satellite distributors large increases to pay for those rights.  Distributors are typically more willing to pay higher prices for sports rights if they can place those networks on a special tier that allows customers to choose to buy the network along with other similar programming not unlike what what Comcast has been doing with the NFL Network.  Those networks prefer to be on the basic tier which gives them the most distribution.  

I support a distributor's right to design tiers of service that give customers more choice.  But that's not the same as supporting a government-mandated a-la-carte plan which I have argued here is bad for consumers in the long run.

If you love football, you have to love this network.  I do.  I'm looking forward to seeing the deal that Comcast strikes with the NFL, and I'm hopeful we can all move forward towards a relationship that responsibly gives our customers the sports programming they want at a reasonable price.

Secret question password retrieval not very secure

Study Shows "Secret Questions" Are Too Easily Guessed [Slashdot]

I'm sure many of you have signed up for a web service at some point and have been asked to supply the answer to a "secret question" that you'll be asked if you ever forget your password. Those questions might be, "What was the name of your first pet?" or "What street did you live on growing up?" Though fairly common among security backup systems for password retrieval, one study presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in Oakland, California details how insecure the secret question methodology really is.

Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University conducted a study of 130 people's secret questions and found that for people that were known and trusted by the study's participants, they were able to guess the answers to standard "secret questions" a stunning 28 percent of the time. Even more surprising - people unknown to the study participants guessed the answers 17 percent of the time.

Though the study group was fairly small, the results are enlightening about the usefulness of so-called secret questions. For many fact-based questions - like "What was the make and model of your first car?" - it's likely that one's close friends are just as aware of this answer as you are. The next time you're asked to supply the answer to a secret question, here are some tips for making it more secure.

New online retailer service simplifies online shopping for teens

BillMyParents makes it easy for kids to spend parents' money [CNET News]

I have to hand it to online retailers, in the midst of a recessionary economy, they're getting more and more creative about generating new revenue streams. A company called Bill-My-Parents is working to develop partnerships with online retailers to do just what their name implies - give kids the ability to go shopping online with their parents' credit cards.

Bill-My-Parents allows teens to go shopping at a site like Amazon, tagging the items they would like to buy by pressing a special button. The site then emails the shopper's parents to ask for approval to purchase those items. If the parent approves, the items are purchased and shipped from the retailer.

Though the site is still developing agreements with retail partners, it appears to be tapping into a lucrative market. In this article, the site's CEO indicates that he's looking to become a facilitator in the $28 billion of online transactions initiated by adolescents. I'm sure that there's an even larger market in offline sales that could be moved online with a service that simplifies the transaction for both the parents and kids.