Yes, you heard this before. The Death of Cable TV. Yet, it hasn’t happened. But now, so many disruptions are happening in the video space, cable tv is really stepping towards the cliff. Don’t expect the cable industry to just give up.
We’ll get some new insights next week when the largest U.S. cable operator (23 million cable customers), Comcast, reports its Q3 earnings and subscriber count. Comcast cable customers dropped nearly 3% in Q2 compared to last year. In Q2 for the industry overall, a record 711,000 subscribers abandoned cable tv, and six of eight operators suffered their worst quarterly subscriber losses ever.
Just this month, a lot has happened. → Read More
Among companies I loathe, Comcast is right up there. Alongside Expedia and AT&T, they share the common thread of having typically poor service, and even worse customer service. But I’m a forgiving guy. I’m willing to give Comcast a second chance. Well, for 6 months at least.
I’ve been a Comcast customer a few different times at various points of my life. Each time I’ve had an awful experience. My favorite was two years ago when I was continually getting billed for services I didn’t have (nor had I ever had, actually). Each month I was told it was resolved, and each month it was right back on my bill. It took me bitching up a storm on Twitter to get it actually resolved by the higher-ups at the company. And I know my situation wasn’t unique — and sadly, many people have an even bigger nightmare resolving things. → Read More
Good news if you’re a Comcast subscriber and you’ve been looking into their High-Speed 2go product. Comcast just announced that they’ve picked Novatel as the provider for the USB modems used in their mobile broadband service. → Read More
Now why would a cable company that handles pay per view movies and programming team up with a video store? I have no idea. But for whatever reason (perhaps desperation?) Comcast has joined forces with Blockbuster to deliver DVDs by mail. You’d think Comcast would just deliver the content via their high speed internet feeds, or receiver based delivery systems. Perhaps this is just a marketing scheme by Blockbuster to try and prop up their now archaic and failing business model. Only time will tell. [via Zatz Not Funny] → Read More
In May at TechCrunch Disrupt, we got our first look at Tunerfish, a Comcast-owned service that asks users the question, “What are you watching?”. Today, the app is headed to the iPhone — you can download the free application here.
The gist of the application is simple: instead of aimless channel surfing, which often yields lackluster results, Tunerfish lets you see what your friends are watching (think Foursquare for video). Launch the Tunerfish app, and you’ll see a list of the shows your Tunerfish friends have checked into (you can choose to check into content that spans television, movies, and online video) as well as trending shows. → Read More
Everyone is busy talking about Microsoft Kinect (the project formerly known as Natal), but to me, some much bigger news just dropped at E3 from Microsoft: ESPN live sports access. Simply put: this was the only thing holding me back from completely canceling my cable subscription. As soon as this goes live, I’m done with cable forever.
No, this live sporting access won’t be entirely free, but it’s one hell of a deal. You simply have be an Xbox Live Gold member (about $50 a year), and you’ll get access to over 3,500 live events a year. In HD. Did I mention it was $50 a year? My cable bill is currently double that — a month. → Read More
Comcast’s Tunerfish is opening to the public today; and debuting a deal with HBO for their show True Blood. Tunerfish, which was demoed at TechCrunch Disrupt a few weeks ago, was incubated by the Plaxo team (Comcast acquired Plaxo in 2008) and is led by former Plaxo VP of Marketing John McCrea.
Tunerfish allows people to share with a single click what they are watching, on their social network(s) of choice in real time. Much like Twitter does for tweets, Tunerfish also displays which TV shows are trending among your friends (in the last hour, 24 hours, etc.), which gives users a way to discover shows they are not yet familiar with. The site also encourages people to check-in to shows on both its web-based app and iPhone app, much like you would in Foursquare or Gowalla. → Read More
We told you Comcast was introducing something fresh and exciting at TechCrunch Disrupt this year. Say hello to Tunerfish, incubated by the Plaxo team (Comcast acquired Plaxo in 2008) and led by former Plaxo VP of Marketing John McCrea.
Tunerfish is driven by people’s passion for TV shows, and revolves around the ability for people to share what they are watching in real time. Launching in the near future, McCrea billed Tunerfish as a ‘social discovery engine’ for video content. → Read More
I may not always have the nicest things to say about Comcast, but I try to take it case by case. Today, they’re doing a good thing: this iPad app looks nice. Not particularly creative, but creative isn’t what Joe Six-Pack wants when he’s just trying to find Top Chef. → Read More
Comcast, America’s worst company, just announced that it will have indeed have ESPN 3D in time for this year’s World Cup. Comcast is the first cable provider to commit to carrying the network (while DirecTV announced the same thing several weeks ago). → Read More
We always keep the list of launching startups and products at our big events strictly confidential until the day of launch. But we’re finalizing the list of launching companies at TechCrunch Disrupt this week, and we usually give out a single teaser prior to the event. We’re excited that Comcast will be launching a new product called Tunerfish on May 24 in New York at Disrupt.
What’s Tunerfish? We’re not saying, but we think you will be suitably impressed. The Plaxo team (Comcast acquired Plaxo in 2008) is behind the new product, led by former Plaxo VP of Marketing John McCrea (John’s blog is here). Tunerfish may or may not have something to do with Comcast’s ambitious Fancast plans. → Read More
The FCC acknowledged on their official blog today that the court’s decision on the Comcast deal could hamper their national broadband plan. General Counsel of the FCC, Austin Schlick says that the court’s ruling that the FCC does not have the authority to enforce net neutrality was an “important ruling.”
“It undermines the legal approach the FCC adopted in 2005 to fulfill its statutory duty of being the cop-on-the-beat for 21st Century communications networks.”
Schlick says the ruling will have no effect “on most” of the FCC’s national broadband plan, which includes some 200 recommendations— but the decision could impact critical components. → Read More
This morning, the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dealt the FCC a major blow in its drive to impose net neutrality on the nation’s broadband providers. A panel of three judges ruled that the FCC did not have the authority to order Comcast to stop slowing down BitTorrent traffic, and, more, broadly, that the FCC does not have the authority to enforce net neutrality.
The case started as a result of Comcast selectively slowing down certain types of traffic in 2007 — namely, BitTorrent — leading the FCC to order Comcast to stop the practice. Comcast challenged the order, claiming that the FCC didn’t have the authority to mandate net neutrality policy. Today’s ruling affirms Comcast’s stance.
This will strike a blow to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s recently released broadband plan, but it was not entirely unexpected, and the FCC can still fight back. → Read More
Looks like nobody in the TV industry wants the NBCU-Comcast merger to go down. And who could blame them! ABC, CBS, and Fox affiliates are afraid that, if the merger goes down, it’ll cause the clouds to darken and the streets to run red with the blood of something or other. Basically, they’re scared that the merger will put the in a very bad position indeed. → Read More
The pending $30 billion merger of Comcast and NBC-Universal is going to complicate things for Hulu, the second most popular online video site after YouTube. Hulu is a joint venture between NBC, News Corp/Fox, and (since last year) Disney/ABC. It was created by the TV networks as a counterweight to YouTube, a safe place where they could run their full-length TV shows online with their own ads.
Comcast, however, is championing TV Everywhere, which is an entirely different model for professionally-produced Web video. TV Everywhere is going to put TV channels online behind a paywall where only existing cable subscribers can watch them. Once Comcast owns a part of Hulu, there will be more pressure to put parts of Hulu behind a paywall as well. One knowledgeable industry source speculates that “Comcast will push Hulu very hard to become an authenticated destination for TV Everywhere.” → Read More
Amen, Verizon. Amen. Read this bit from Verizon’s statement on 3D. Verizon’s network can easily handle the 3D signal, and we are committed to having a 3D offering later this year, surely in time for the holiday tech buying season, when the penetration of 3D-ready sets increases. Just as we did with HD, we’ll bring the broadest range of 3D possible to the market supported by the best technology and customer service. Until then, you’ll see various grandstanding plays by cable companies who also produce content and can play it on their networks in 3D, hoping to make headlines with their “firsts” while excluding Verizon and other competitors from carrying this material. Is it unrealistic to think integrated operators should share their 3D content with all their viewers, even those served by others? Why I think Verizon’s talking about your 3D Masters stunt, Comcast. → Read More
Kudos to Comcast for embracing the year 2009. The nation’s largest—and quite possibly worst—ISP has finally committed itself to deploying 100 mbps broadband beginning this year. That will make the FCC happy, what with the loft goals it set with its National Broadband Plan. It’s also good news for people who know their way around things like Usenet—taps nose like a spy. Will it be affordable, though? → Read More
A couple weeks ago, we noted the city of Topeka, Kansas’ humorous attempt to get Google’s attention: by rebranding their city “Google, Kansas.” Why would they do such a thing? Because they want in on Google’s fiber action — the search giant’s proposed plan to sell 1 gigabit-per-second broadband to consumers. Now Baltimore, Maryland is getting in on the fun as well.
The city has appointed a “Google Czar” — yes, that’s the actual title — to lobby the company to put Baltimore on the list of cities in the initial trial. Tom Loveland, CEO of a local tech company, Mind Over Machines, has been appointed by Baltimore’s mayor to take this exalted, but volunteer position. → Read More
It’s one thing to hack your cable modem for your own personal edification, but it’s another matter to turn around and sell hacked cable modems to people. I mean, that’s just common sense, right? Smoke all the dope you want, just don’t sell it to kids on the street. (You’ll note I used the word “dope” like a 70-year-old man.) Some guy in Massachusetts found out the hard way, and he now faces up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000. → Read More
