I have no idea what the 11th-hour agreement between ABC and Cablevision was last night to bring the ABC singal back online to 3.1 million folks in NYC... But I do know that this stunt by ABC has majorly pissed off a lot (millions) of their customers. The 'bad light' is squarely on ABC, not Cablevision, from where I sit.

Here's a quick backgrounder on the situation.

It's amazing to me that ABC thought that turning off the lights to 3.1 million consumers would be putting more hurt on Cablevision than on themselves. Really?? Someone in Disney (ABC) PR should lose a job over this. Or perhaps the entire team. What a brand disaster.

Folks, don't hold your customers hostage to gain leverage with a partner! It is on the Business 101 "Don't Do" list. It is also brand suicide.

Amazing.

ABC, of course, will survive.  Generally speaking, the companies further upstream, closer to content (the TV networks in this case), hold the cards.  However, ABC's misguided stunt could now shift some of the power over to the cable companies.

http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/cablevision-preps-rs-dvr-pc-tv-offerings/2010...

Cablevision is running fast on the innovation front. They are prepping to launch the industry's first DVR-In-The-Cloud service. This is a technology that will open many doors to great user experiences (access "your" saved shows anywhere), but it has and will face many legal challenges from  content rights holders.

It will be very interesting to watch how this plays out over next few years.

http://newteevee.com/2010/03/02/abc-threatens-to-pull-the-plug-on-cablevision/

Yet another example of TV programmers flexing muscles, asking for more $$ from cable operators. In this case, it is regarding broadcast ABC channel, which of course is FREE over-the-air, and free on Hulu and ABC.com (with delay), which weakens their position.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/water-cooler-talk-about-the-water-cooler-effect

The Internet didn't kill TV, it may have saved it.

TV ratings are rising, viewership at all time highs. Nielsen is hinting and the NYT is suggesting that it may be a result of more people broadcasting their TV activities on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The "second screen" (socializing on a laptop while watching TV) is a powerful social marketing force for TV programmers and distributors.

Veoh has filed for Chapter 7.

In the online video aggregation game, if you don't have YouTube-like reach or Hulu-like exclusive content, you don't have anything.
Rest in peace, Veoh and the $70 million from investors.

Sent via BlackBerry

There is a big power-play afoot between TV providers and distributors. Content is flexing its muscles, asking for mas dinero from the MSOs. Fox won this battle with Time Warner Cable last month, threatening to remove its channels / stations if it didn't get an increase in retrans fees. Disney is now following on the heals of Fox's victory.

If there ever was any doubt, Content Is King.

TV distribution is an increasingly challenging business. More and more new distribution channels are opening up: look at all the new telco TV services, plus OTT and online. At the same time, the costs of moving bits is falling. It is no secret why Comcast is buying NBCU.

Read this from Bob Iger, Disney CEO:

We're pretty resolute. We know the value of these stations and the importance of these stations in their local markets. We know that there are stations - in some cases our affiliates - that have been compensated for retransmission consent and we feel should be compensated as well," Iger said. "It clearly would not be our preference to see our signal taken down, and we will do whatever we possibly can through negotiation to avoid that, we also believe we have an obligation to derive value from great investment we've made in these programs, whether they are local in nature or national in nature. We have every intention to do just that.

Read story (multichannel.com):  http://bit.ly/cq9Ai0

More Foursquare media partnerships have been signed: http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/08/foursquare-mainstream-deals/

Foursquare is creating "augmented media experiences", blurring the lines between what's on screen and what's in real-life. Watch a movie or show, then go "experience it" in real life. For example:

"The new HBO show, How To Make It In America, has four special badges that you can unlock: Culture, Living, Cocktails, and Nightlife. Each of these is obtained by visiting venues from the show."

This is huge, me thinks.  People really crave this blurring of lines between movies and real life.  Almost drug-like.  Don't you ever want to continue "living" in a great movie after it's over?  I remember so badly wanting this when I was a kid.

Yes, Foursquare's approach to this is still very superficial and doesn't at all provide that "living in the movie" type of experience.  But it is a first step. Exciting to see where this will go over the next decade.

http://mobile.multichannel.com/article/447702-Less_Than_8_Of_Consumers_Would_Cancel_Pay_TV_Survey.php?rssid=20059

See article above. Recent survey says only 8% of pay-TV subscribers (cable & sat) would consider canceling their subscription in favor of online video, over-the-air TV, and/or DVD services. Only 10-20% of those who consider it will actually end up doing it.  So the numbers are still rounding errors. 

That said, I'm not sure I'd give any one survey too much weight. This should not be viewed as comforting for the MSO's - they still need to compete much better at the product and pricing levels to keep their subscribers over the long term.

Comcast Center is the tallest building in Philly. 56 floors. It sways in the wind, which is very poor UX, I'd say. :-)

http://mobile.multichannel.com/article/445901-FiOS_Hits_Brakes_At_End_Of_2009.php?rssid=20059

New Verizon FiOS TV and broadband subscriptions were way down in Q4 of last year (153K total).

I wonder if the market for FiOS is those people "in the cracks", in no man's land between the larger MSO offerings. Seriously, do you think many people actually canceled their cable for switch to Verizon FiOS? Doubt it. Way too much hassle simply to move from one giant MSO to another. Yes, FiOS may have a better TV product than Comcast and Time Warner Cable. But I don't think that putting a Facebook and Twitter app on a TV screen will be enough to move the dial in a serious way.

FiOS has a challenging, highly fragmented market it's going after. Tough business, me thinks. We'll see.