TREotM: The 1st Decade of the 21st Century Continues

This is a book in progress Go here to read the previous chaptersThe world of change kept spinning faster and fasterBack in 1952 John and Gus Rigas bought a cable system in Coudersport Pennsylvania and founded Adelphiaamp160 Fifty years later with 58 million cable subscribers the surviving Rigas family still controlled the company but financial irregularities akaamp160cooked books caught up with themamp160 Patriarch John and his son Timothy are still in prisonamp160 Adelphia declared bankruptcy and then was broken up and sold to other cable operatorsamp160 Adelphia had also owned the Buffalo Sabres of the NHLamp160 It was sold tooIn 2005 financier Carl Icahn waged a successful proxy fight and joined Blockbuster39s board in order to fight CEO John F Antioco who had been in charge since 1997 and quotearnedquot 516million in compensation for 2004amp160 Netflix which Reed Hastings had started because of exorbitant late fees was using the post office much like original newspapers had in order to service subscribersamp160 The easily identified mailing envelopes were showing up everywhereAntioco dropped late fees boosted the online service and tried to stay independent amp8230 but left over compensation issues taking a severance package of 247 millionamp160 A new guy ex 711 CEO James Keyes reinstated the retail model as quotthe way forwardquot and began buying competitors domestically and internationallyAlso the Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 pretty much finally doomed analog TV transmission as the Act mandated fullpower broadcasting of analog television in the United States to cease after Tuesday February 17 2009 amp160Of course that caused enormous confusionamp160 Wasn39t it already supposed to have happenedamp160 Howamp160 That soonamp160 HelpSo Congress also established a federally sponsored DTV Digital Television Converter Box Coupon Program amp160The era of the flat screen was at handamp160 And of course the original target had been New Year39s Eve 2006Cox Communications went privateIn 2006 Sony launched the ereaderJack Dorsey sent the first Tweet amp8230 on March 21 2006Apple announced the iPhone on January 9 2007 it launched on June 29thamp160 Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the MacWorld Conference quotI have been looking forward to this for two and a half yearsquotamp160 From Wikipedia Jobs introduced the iPhone as a combination of three devices a quotwidescreen iPod with touch controlsquot a quotrevolutionary mobile phonequot and a quotbreakthrough Internet communicatorquot amp160It had an impact still being feltamp160 Bloomberg BusinessWeek made a list of things the smartphone killed CD collections Rolodexes printed day planners batteries for flashlights paper plane tickets stopwatches clocks legal pads and dozens moreIn San Francisco in 2007 roommates Brian Chesky and Gebbia were struggling to pay rent amp8230 they had a loft amp8230 they converted it into a sort of bunk room with air mattresses and offered them on a web site to renters for 80month and a homecooked breakfastamp160 They got three renters two guys and one girlamp160Eurekaamp160 The Democratic Convention was coming next year there will be a shortage of hotel rooms so why not make this a businessamp160 A former roommate and engineer joinedamp160 AirBed and Breakfast launchedamp160 They bought cereal boxes and remade them as campaign posters amp8230 and sold enough to help launch for realamp160 Sort ofamp160 They ate a lot of cerealamp160 They went to Y Combinatoramp160 Then Sequoia Capitalamp160 They get smarter they raise more moneyamp160 Disclaimer we39ve used AirBNB in Croatia Portugal and Portland OregonWhy is this mediaamp160 Well like Craigslist it disrupted regular advertisingamp160 It communicates and brings people togetherBlockbuster struggling tried to acquire the also struggling Circuit Cityamp160 It later disappearedThe transition to DTV was delayedamp160 Seemed more folks needed more time and more had asked for converter boxesamp160 Among the first bills signed by new President Barack Obama was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009AOL Time Warner spun off Time Warner Cable TWC in 2009amp160 TWC is the 2nd biggest cable operatorThe digital transition of overtheair television was accomplished at 1159 pm on June 12 2009NewBay Media acquired Multichannel News TWICE This Week in Consumer Electronics and Broadcasting ampamp Cable from Reed Business InformationBlockbuster39s biggest competitor liquidatedamp160 Blockbuster39s accountants questioned its ability to continue as a viable companyamp160 It filed for bankruptcy in September of 2010As the next decade neared almost 116million households had TVs many new flat screens and lots of old tubesamp160 In those TVHH more devices were proliferating cell phones DVD players Internet access personal computers satellite dishes video game systems VCRs DVRs MP3 players and moreamp160 The media ecosystem continued to change amp8230 faster and fasterNext week Chapter 12amp160amp8211 The 21st CenturyThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers

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TREotM: The 1st Decade of the 21st Century Continues

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