September 2012

Many cable TV operators still argue that cord cutting doesn’t exist, but Verizon’s FIOS TV director Maitreyi Krishnaswamy thinks it’s real, and growing.

But that’s not all: Krishnaswamy is also arguing that it might change the industry by putting pressure on studios. Cord cutting isn’t just about some people not paying for TV anymore, but also about enabling new and innovative business models, including unbundled subscriptions to individual channels. And Verizon is apparently ready to take the plunge as soon as the wave is big enough.

Nielsen says this summer and fall, TV networks will spend roughly the equivalent of $4.5 billion in TV promos -- with the majority of that messaging coming from its own network airwaves.

Just over 88% of broadcast TV networks marketing efforts -- or $4 billion -- comes from its running new season TV promos on its own network airwaves. Roughly 9.3% comes from cross-channel promotion via broadcast networks' sister cable channels. That comes to around $300 million. In addition, 2.4% comes from pay-TV efforts on other networks -- around $100 million. Looking at total gross ratings points: 336,600 goes on their broadcast networks, 35,600 goes to cross-channel promotion on networks' own cable networks, and 9,300 goes into pay TV media efforts.

(Gross ratings points are the collective sum of all ratings for TV promos.)

If Uncle Sam wins a recent court argument, every law-enforcement agency in the country will be able to track your every move.

More importantly, access to location data as comprehensive as that available to cell-phone carriers could allow law enforcement to determine everything from your complete social network and your health status to how likely it is that you'll repay a loan. The case at hand does not suggest that the Obama administration is attempting to gain this level of insight into the lives of every American citizen, but it's telling that the prosecutors seem ignorant of the power of the data they're requesting. To understand how important location data is, especially of the variety gathered by smartphones, it's important to understand what academics have already accomplished with this data.

Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), announced the appointment of Christopher Boone, Director of Outpatient Quality and Health IT for the American Heart Association, to fill a vacancy on the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee. Boone will fill one of three committee positions held by advocates for patients or consumers.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 established the HIT Policy Committee and gave the Comptroller General responsibility for appointing 13 of its 20 members. The HIT Policy Committee makes recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health IT on the development and adoption of a nationwide health information infrastructure, including standards for the exchange of patient medical information.

Christopher Boone is Director, Outpatient Quality and Health IT for the American Heart Association, based in Dallas, Texas. Boone is responsible for planning and implementing outpatient quality and health IT initiatives, including oversight of The Guideline Advantage, an outpatient quality improvement program and clinical registry program formed as a national tri-agency partnership with the American Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Association. Mr. Boone previously worked at a number of health care institutions and consulting firms, including Cook Children’s Healthcare System, Texas Health Resources, UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Deloitte Consulting. Boone serves as co-chair of the National Council on Heart Technology, a special committee for the e-Health Initiative that was formed to examine the use of health IT in caring for patients with heart disease.