Discovery Channel upstaged by murderers, stalkers
If the low ratings at Oprah Winfrey’s OWN weren’t evidence enough of viewer disinterest in programming that inspires, then perhaps the massive ratings growth at Investigation Discovery, a network whose shows are almost exclusively populated by murderers and stalkers, can provide convincing.
Investigation Discovery, the crime-themed cable channel that launched in January 2008, is not just getting better ratings than OWN, it is also doing better than the Discovery Channel itself. Over the last two weeks, ID averaged 275,000 total viewers, or 8,000 more than the 267,000 viewers that Discovery averaged, according to Nielsen. OWN, which launched in January 2011, only averaged 180,000 total daily viewers during the fourth quarter.
Given those ratings, who needs to spend millions on shows like “Planet Earth” when you can just air cheesy non-fiction crime programming like “I (Almost) Got Away With It” and “Who The (Bleep) Did I Marry. Those kind of shows have the fingerprints of ID president Henry Schleiff all over them. After all, Schleiff built Court TV into a cable network powerhouse on the back of similar programming.
According to a report from investment bank Barclays, the momentum behind ID could give parent company Discovery Communications “substantial leverage” when it negotiates new distribution agreements with cable and satellite operators next year. Currently, analysts estimate that ID only earns 8 cent per subscriber in carriage fees while Discovery commands 36 cents per subscriber.
As the flagship network, however, the fact that Discovery Channel is losing steam could spell trouble for its parent company, which is not only seeing poor results from OWN, but also was forced to recently rebrand the struggling environmental focused network “Planet Green” as “Destination America.”
Verizon, Netflix and those darn bloggers aka Reuters
Bear with us a minute while we toot our horn (again) and point to our story on Verizon’s plans to launch an online Netflix competitor next year. Needless to say, we were pleased to get it out there first, but it’s probably unsurprising that Verizon was not ready with a press release as it hammer out deals with programmers.
So it was amusing to hear Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam as he tried to squirm his way around questions about his company’s plans during an interview at the UBS conference.
“I think the jury is out but I do think there is a place for over-the-top here and it will be part of our strategy,” said McAdam.
But here’s our favorite quote and no doubt was a reference to our story yesterday — which was eventually matched by the Wall Street Journal:
“There is lots of speculation about what we are going to do and what we are not going to do.That is all just speculation by people that like to write blogs.”
First of all, we love to write blogs here at Reuters. Secondly, we never report speculation (that’s why it’s called reporting).
McAdam confirmed, as we reported, that Verizon has been thinking about this for a while and looking at other options including Verizon’s recent tie-up with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House.
yes he is horrible I was wrongfully terminated and wrote him a letter and he did nothing about it , I had proof and emails that his Management team was lying about harassing another employee, they are going to let this man perjure himself under oath. He knows this, they blocked my letters to the board of directors i do have an open letter to corporate america ( the letter the board wll never see ) to show how Verizon bullys people and are unethical according to their own code of conduct
Comcast brings TV shows to iPad
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, is unveiling an app for the iPad that will allow its digital TV customers to watch shows and movies wherever they are.
The Xfinitiy TV app is both a TV guide and mobile video player according to Comcast, and will enable customers to use the iPad as a remote control, search for their favorite cable shows to watch on TV, On Demand, online or on the iPad.
Cable companies, grappling with increasing competition from Johnny-come-latelys like Netflix and Sezmi, are very keen to seek new ways to provide better value to customers for ever-rising cable bills. The ability to watch what shows you like, when you want – even when you’re on the move — might be one way to provide that value and avoid the mythical or real threat of ‘cord-cutting’.
Comcast Cable Chief Neil Smit was due to show off the new app at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco as we went to press.
“This Xfinity TV app is part of a much larger effort to reinvent the way consumers interact with their televisions by transforming the way they search, navigate, discover and share entertainment,” said Neil Smit, President of Comcast Cable. “The remote control hasn’t changed in years and this app will enable millions of consumers to instantly search thousands of live TV and On Demand choices and also watch the best content whenever and wherever they want.”
Comcast’s app will be available on the iTunes Store. The company plans to launch several Android apps this year and has plans for the BlackBerry as well as other smartphones, tablets and PCs.
Not bad but not quite there yet. For starters this only works on the iPad in the house using WiFi. So you can not take it outside the house and still watch the shows. The DISH Remote Access app I believe is where it’s at. Watching live TV and recordings as well as managing the DVR schedule from anywhere in the world with an internet connection is where it’s at. As an employee I believe that is a true TV Everywhere option.
Blockbuster gets kicked when it’s down by cable companies
It’s a tough time to be a video rental store owner wherever you are, but it’s especially tough if you’re Blockbuster Inc and have 6,500 stores to manage, thousands of employees, expensive debt repayments and a sinking share price.
Yesterday Blockbuster warned for the first time that it may need to file for bankruptcy protection and its auditors at Pricewaterhouse raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern.
It doesn’t get any worse than that right? No, it does.
According to a story we spotted today from Hollywood Reporter, movie studios and cable companies are joining forces for a $30 million advertising campaign over the coming months to promote awareness of movies available on cable’s video on demand services.
From Hollywood Reporter:
The Movies on Demand initiative comes as on-demand film rentals have hit new highs as viewing habits are changing, and studios are increasingly looking to capitalize on their high margins amid a more mature DVD market.
The TV, print and online ad campaign runs under the theme “The Video Store Just Moved In” and highlights how easy it is for digital cable subscribers to view movies at home with a simple click of their remote. It also includes a dedicated website at CableVideoStore.com and a Movies on Demand logo.
I worked for a locally owned video rental store (6 locations) in 2008. It’s numbers each month were hand over fist higher than 2007. I still stop in occasionally, and my former manager assures me that buisness is still going up.
Perhaps it’s just blockbuster that sucks?
Time Warner Cable ready to fight high program costs
Time Warner Cable, the normally placid No.2 U.S. cable operator, is getting ready for a fight with its programming partners at the cable networks and broadcasters over rising affiliate fees. In truth, TWC has always been ready for a fight with the programmers. This time, it wants to make the first move and get its 14 million subscribers behind it.
The New York cable operator is launching an ad campaign “on behalf of its customers” to target what it sees as unfair price demands by programmers. It argues that these price demands, which usually come around this time of year at the end of programming contracts, can sometimes be as much as 300 percent increases. TWC says programmers make the demands “secure in the knowledge that video distributors are the ones who have to pass those costs along to customers and take the blame.”
So what’s Time Warner Cable going to do about it? They’re going to launch a website — yes, a website with the catchy URL: www.rolloverorgettough.com. News Corp, Sinclair Broadcasting and cable networks must be quaking in their collective fee-hiking boots.
(For the uninitiated: One way for companies to make money from their shows is to charge cable operators for the privilege of distributing them. Programmers like to raise those fees every so often. When cable operators resist, shows you like have a way of being held for ransom and sometimes disappearing for a while.)
Time Warner Cable’s website will allow customers to give their feedback and will be supported by ads in newspapers, TV and the Web.
“We want them to know why we fight so hard on these issues – if we Roll Over, they pay the price. If we Get Tough, they may lose their favorite shows until we reach a reasonable agreement.” said TWC CEO Glenn Britt in the press release.
It’s not the first time Time Warner Cable has tried to be principled about not overpaying for content. You might remember the great “Why is SpongeBob crying?” campaign of Dec 2008 when Viacom and TWC fell out over rising carriage fees.
I’m disturbed by this campaign. I’m a consumer and frankly Time Warner is the premium cable operator in my area. I pay almost 50% more for their service. They need to roll over and provide the channel lineup they commit too, or simply reduce the channels they offer and make their price competitive. Lets face it. Whatever results are garnered from this study could easily be overinflated. This is nothing more than a sob-story play by them and the customer’s concerns left on their “survey” site will likely be screened and only those aligned with their corporate strategy will be passed along to the broadcasters. Time Warner comes across as a sissy crybaby on a playground during recess in this campaign instead of acting like a national corporation. The Fortune 500 company I work for (Finance industry) would never advertise in such a shady and biased way. Shame on Time Warner. Sell commercials during these slots to make up your losses instead of pandering to customers for unjust sympathy.
