We Made It Thru to 2021! Can We Shake Off 2020?

We can all use some relief from the horrors of the pandamndemic Asamp160the promise of spring beckons hereamp8217s an only somewhat tongueincheek prognostication for what lies ahead in 2021 as we battle toward some much needed sanity and strive to make it to 2022Tomorrow January 5 at 306 am President Trump will tweet that Perdue and Loeffler has thatamp8217s singular on purpose as they have run as a quotteamquot already resoundingly won amp8230 and any mailin ballots should just be burned to make sureThat of course hasnamp8217t happened yet Gird yourselves for a long battle folks One major source in Congress has warned me not to expect a resolution to that dual election until maybe July 4 2021 In the meantime Georgia wonamp8217t have had any sitting Senators and the 98 seated Senators still wonamp8217t get much doneAs we all know 2020 ended with pardons flowing like sewage from the White House the last ones I expect will be issued at 1158 PM ET on January 19 2021 to of course Donald J Trump in perpetuity Donald J Trump Jr ditto Eric Trump Tiffany Trump Melania Trump Ivana Marie quotIvankaquot Trump and Jared Kushner a fatherson thingOf course the outgoing Presidentamp8217s new outgoing Attorney General will have signed off on it all amp8230 with a few Monopoly set quotGet Out of Jail Freequot cards tossed inOn Wednesday January 20 the PresidentElect will show up on the notverycrowded Inaugural stage to be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice John Roberts A very thin socially distanced quotcrowdquot will loudly cheer amp8230 many carrying newly amplified Apple 12 PRO phonesAt the same time the former President No 45 forever is likely to eschew the transfer of power instead choosing to show up in Las Vegas as a generously compensated pitchman at the quotvirtualquot Consumer Electronics ShowIn my vision other major CES breakthroughs will include simulated traffic jams long simulated lines of taxis overbooked hotelsamp160and other nostalgic incidences as Las Vegas will want everyone to feel virtually included as the new 224quot TVs are debuted But the aisles will be empty The best new TV will double as a full mancave TV wall both inside and outside the demo house amp8230 both streaming all the timeFrom Las Vegas No 45 will also make Zoomenabled guest appearances on OAN and Newsmax insisting he is still president And the National Association of Music Merchants will virtually stream from January 2124After a quiet February interlude the Ides of March will bring more vaccinations and more sunshine and that will mean back to real work for media with two major shows with real people fingers crossed The Indian National Gaming Show will deal blackjack and throw dice in San Diego beginning April 12 while MIPTV will convene in warm sunny Cannes as international travel begins to seriously loosenApril showers will wash away the pandamndemic with a reopened New York City More air travel will bring record inperson attendance to the Cable Hall of Fame on April 29 at the Zeigfeld Theater honoring Bridget Baker Jim Buckley Cathy Hughes Alfred Liggins III Jeff Marcus David Watson and Jeff Zuckeramp160It sure will be nice to walk the crowded sidewalks again and see so many cable cohorts in one safe place at one safe timeJune 1416 will bring even more air traffic and the Stream TV show to suburban Denver I39ll make it back to Colorado for the first time in almost two years to a busy Old Cable TVTimers party dinner at the Cable Center There will beamp160a lot of catching up to do as the last vestiges of the pandemic recedeAt the same time Los Angeles will bustle with the E3 show as record crowds convene to try the latest games amp8230 and as per usual the internet infrastructure discussions will dominateSan Diego in July 2225 will make for a nice change of pace in a favorite Southern California venue with ComicCon serving as an excuse to see some old friends and visit cable folks in La La Land tooOctober will bring a remarkably busy National Association of Broadcasters show back to Las Vegas along with real crowds real taxi jams and the sense that broadcasting that oncefreeovertheair video distributor has channeled the 5G socalled NextGen signals into a repurposed streaming worldMeanwhile dozens of oncelinear cable channels will have shuttered their linear networks in favor of themed content on their oncekin streaming services FYI It wasn39t just consolidation that finished reshaping the business of getting video signals into household TVs Instead it was the complete shift to anytime availability for anything but live feedsamp160The shift from linear delivery of anythingbutlive content will be completed as the Cable TecExpo convenes in Atlanta on October 11 It will wrapup as a coda on the 14th Sports politics and the rare live game shows will have taken over the linear worlds amp8230 not necessarily on a 247 basis anymore either Just imagine those signoff logos from the 3950s running whenever only streaming is availableFour mostly live feeds ABC CBS NBC and PBS coupled with one sometimeslive feed CSPAN and accompanied by streaming behemoths Disney Paramount Peacock discovery and will rule not only the airwaves but over wires cables and fiber2020 changed everything And 2021 will usher it all into the history booksRandom Notes Good riddance to 2020 Until the vaccinations saturate please stay safe amp8230 and look forward to a broader media resurgence While I wonamp8217t be returning to an office in some downtown location I do intend to get out more 2020 has proven the office doesnamp8217t need to be a prison nor does a homeamp160A lot of what weamp8217ve been through in 2020 will continue into 2021 amp8230 soamp160stay safe and stay as amazingly productive as the changing media ecosystem thrivesamp160in the face of everchanging and accelerating obstaclesAs the Federal Government prepares to challenge FAANG the underlying infrastructure will emerge even more important and critical to all forms of mediaClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160amp160amp160

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We Made It Thru to 2021! Can We Shake Off 2020?

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Paul S. Maxwell

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We Made It Thru to 2021! Can We Shake Off 2020?

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