Those NAB Over-the-Airheads! An Internet of Things Power Outage?

My new book “The Revolutionary Evolution of the Media” continues! Read the latest chapter here.

Comment : The National Association of Broadcasters is meeting in Las Vegas this week. Good luck on finding a cab or an Uber. The over-the-airheads who once provided news and entertainment for free are now looking to move retransmission consent onto every conceivable device, presumably including smart watches. Local and national retrans revenues keep growing faster than weeds in flower beds so all the airheads in Las Vegas are already counting on the dollars that will flow via TV everywhere and the Internet to laptops, desktops, smart phones, smart pads and smart wrists. What’s your guess at how much each device might generate? $0.25? $0.50? $1.00? Now, think of the multiplier. All of that and they use your and our spectrum (AKA public spectrum). Anyway, nice gig when you can get away with it. Nothing like Congress picking a winner, is there?

Comcast is partnering with Kwikset for remote lock/unlocking functions. A real smart home advance … but I can’t wait for the first big power failure after the Internet of Things hits ubiquity.

Speaking of Comcast, some of all that money they’re spending to get a merger might be put to a better use simply making some of their Philadelphia customers happy … recent reports say 26% of local subs are unhappy. Of course, 74% favorable ratings would look good for any politician today.

Ah, Comcast. Poor Brian Roberts only made about $33m … NBCU head Steve Burke made more! Burke got a 9% raise and booked not quite $34m. The raise, of course, was for how Burke managed NBC News.

From one side of its face, CBS has gone local choice OTT; but from the other side of its face, CBS is against local choice via cable. Figures, doesn’t it?

In Other Items of Interest :

Politics … Dan Primack (Fortune’s Term Sheet) interviewed VC Marc Andreessen last week, and noting that Andreessen backed Mitt Romney last election, asked whom he would support this year for President. Andreessen said he’s "trying to decide between the anti-science party and the anti-economics party."

Cool. Jim Dolan’s band, JD & the Straight Shot, opening for a real favorite band of mine … the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band … now, if only they had Jimmie Ibbotson back. My favorite concert: The band’s 25^th anniversary concert in Denver. They lived around Evergreen and other mountain towns in the ‘70s when I lived in Kittredge. I saw them in Aspen when I lived there along with Martin and his arrow. Martin’s manager also managed NGDB and his brother played the banjo. Fun band. Fun times. Wish I could’ve followed Jim Dolan around this time.

Decker Anstrom: He’s already in the Cable Center Hall of Fame, a director at Discovery Communications, former head of the NCTA, former head of The Weather Channel, Landmark and much, much more. Now, he’s the 5^th recipient of the Bresnan Ethics in Business Award. The award “is not only a wonderful honor, but also a very humbling one," said Anstrom. "I loved and respected Bill so much -- and the previous recipients have all been true giants of our industry." The award will be presented at this year’s 18^th Annual Cable Center Hall of Fame dinner, set for Tuesday, May 5^th at the Navy Pier (600 East Grand Avenue in Chicago) during the INTX (nee: The Cable Show) that week.

In response to more than a few inquiries about why I’ve kept promoting the event, it is because I’m on the board of the Cable Center and am among those 108 folks who will be joined by six more next month.

In an almost 50-year career writing and reporting on media, Paul S. Maxwell started and/or ran some 45-plus publications ranging from CATV Newsweekly to Colorado Magazine to CableVision to Multichannel News to CableFAX and The BRIDGE Suite of daily newsletters and research publications. In between publishing stints, Maxwell served as an advisor and/or consultant to a number of major media companies and media start-ups including running a unit of MCI and managing a partnership of TCI and McGraw-Hill.

Send any and all criticisms, suggestions, rants, threats, corrections, etc. to him at cablemax@mac.com. He has a new Web site coming soon!

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