Round-Up

Round-Up.  As you can probably tell, I'm busy with home, holidays, and family, but here are a couple of interesting links from the current Lost Remote.

  • THE GROWING OUCH IN YOUR CABLE BILL
    Yes cable penetration is up –but only slightly– but the bill for that service is up and not just slightly. The latest from the FCC indicates that cable operators are increasing cost-to-user at a rate almost six times the current rate of inflation.
     
  • ONLINE NEWS DIET GROWS
    A new Pew Internet study shows about 25% of the online population (and 43% of broadband users) go online for news on a DAILY basis. Interestingly, when online news users can't find a story they want, 34% head to cable TV and 30% pick up the newspaper. Here's the full study:
    http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=80
     
  • SATELLITE TV COMING TO CARS
    KVH Industries early next year plans to introduce a kit to bring satellite TV to cars much the same way XM and Sirius have brought satellite radio to moving vehicles.  Bonus: Broadband Internet comes with it. And you thought mobile phones and DVD players were distracting!
    http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?1461
     
  • HBO BEATS NBC IN EARNINGS
    The revitalized pay network will take home earnings somewhere “north of $800 million” this year, compared to NBC's take of around $500 million. Now Chairman Chris Albrecht says he's planning to aggressively expand the brand off HBO.

Sorry I don't have time for more commentary at the moment:

  1. Yeah, I've watched both my cable and internet service bills go up this year, so why do I have to watch commercials?
  2. RSS news aggregators will be a big next step in the evolution of online news;
  3. I can't wait for the arrival of an affordable version of satellite television for cars. The kids don't understand why we don't have it already.
  4. Hey, Kellner – HBO doesn't even show commercials!

[The Shifted Librarian]

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