Off the Grid a Couple Weeks and the Media/Digital Worlds Go Wild!

Cablevision announced Altice would buy itamp160 And Chuck agreedamp160 Is this the end of cable as we know itamp160 Will Cox be nextamp160 When does Jim Kennedy get boredMeanwhile donamp8217t fret for CVC CEO James Dolan amp8230 heamp8217s still got the Knicks and the Gardenamp160 Not to mention opening for the Eagles and hosting them at MSGamp160 Or the 128million payoutamp160 Or AMC Networks which might get StarzESPN is laying off folks or how big a Disney margin is really bigNetflix says it will do more original programmingamp160 And just because it can itamp8217ll produce movies do a limited release and put it online in a not quite stealth effort to destroy theaters not to mention cable netsamp160 Decision also has a little to do with no more really cool licensing deals like the initial one with Starz Amazon said amp8221dittoamp8221amp160 Roku and Hulu tooComcast announced it would go overthetop for business services and partner where it could with other ISPsamp160 Note not really a shock theyamp8217d looked at consumer OTT across the US for years just decided it would be a political messMobile broadband passed a billion global usersamp160 And the content conduit and devices got a new acronym ICT Information and Communication Technologiesamp160 Think thatamp8217ll stickamp160 Not that we all donamp8217t need a whole new vocabularyBeing good doesnamp8217t mean better dealsamp160 The ATampampTDirectTVamp160services made No 1 and No 2 in JD Powersamp8217 rankings and promptly ran into retrans problemsTeasing a amp8220for saleamp8221 sign worked for Dolan now Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure says he wouldnamp8217t mind teaming up with a cable company Now amp8220quadplayamp8221 no one dare say fourplay has to be taken somewhat seriouslyamp160 Even TMobileamp8217s John Legere thinks thatamp8217s in the futureamp160 Meanwhile Verizon says it doesnamp8217t want DISH amp8230 just maybe a lot of that loose spectrumOn Forbes blogs MediaLinkamp8217s Howard Homonoff wonders if HBO is the only amp8220networkamp8221 left standing as the brands of other nets seem to be waningamp160 He cites Discoveryamp8217s David Zazlav lamenting the identity of the curator or in print the editor as a place to find what youamp8217ll likeamp160 The search shift from programmer to program could be even more wrenching than the partial shift currently underwayamp160 For example what is Netflix as a brandamp160 It is streaming video amp8230 but what sort of videoamp160 An interesting question for all random aggregatorsLots more folks are defending the Federal Confusion Commissionamp8217s Title II move than I expected like the brother of the dude who amp8220kept us safeamp8221 never mind the repeated warnings Anyway Tom Wheeler is happyThe Cable Card indeed the very idea behind it still doesnamp8217t make any senseBoingo is streaming a minibundle to soldiers on military basesamp160 Good ideaamp160 The full cable system approach hasnamp8217t been very successfulamp160 This time the customer is truly the individual not the physical addressThe Donald versus Fox News is a hootamp160 But does it mean anything permanentRetrans is hard to solve but shouldnamp8217t beamp160 I like the American Cable idea of taking away must carry from the basic tierWhy does the National Association of Broadcasters applaud more overtheair only homes who donamp8217t pay retransEbook sales are slowing and independent bookstores are popping up Media Spire changed its name to Digital Spire The White House says broadband is a amp8220core utilityamp8221 What does all of this mean Media old and new digital and analog is in chaos Which means opportunityBut it also means beware of what you trust as definitions relationships and even realities seem to be in flux causing mass confusion amongst the media For example from the news cable seems to be unraveling amp160But then which amp8220cableamp8221amp160 Headline writers and journalists seem to be making some interesting mistakes 1 about tense Altice hasnamp8217t amp8211 yet amp8211 bought Cablevision though youamp8217d think so from headlines charts and stories 2 cable this or cable that fails to be explicit about which part of the cable is being talked about amp8230 is it the infrastructure or the socalled cable networks really amp8220nonbroadcast networksamp8221amp160 For that matter what is amp8220broadcastamp8221 nowamp160 Does SVOD streaming of broadcast programming countamp160 A major station group Sinclair is eyeing the nonbroadcast Tennis ChannelTime for some new definitions among many other thingsamp160amp160amp160amp160Random NotesGood for Jerryamp160 Levin and his wife have formed The Levin Center for Parkinsonamp8217s Transformational HealthIt is amp8220Diversity Weekamp8221 in New York Lotamp8217s of meetingsamp160WICT NAMIC a reception for retiring Cable Center CEO Larry Satkowiak the 32nd Annual Walter Kaitz Foundation Dinner and The Cable Center board meeting amp8230 along with 11913 other meetingsamp160 Iamp8217ll see some of you thereThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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Off the Grid a Couple Weeks and the Media/Digital Worlds Go Wild!

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Paul S. Maxwell

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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